Heart-Bound ✅

Chapter Four

"What is WRONG with you?!" Tomie shrieked, waving her arms furiously. "You slept with the stripper that we paid for! My friends hate you now! Do you realize that, Tyler?!"

Tyler rubbed a hand over his eyes irritably before glaring at his sister. It was the following morning and Tomie had waited until their parents left to do grocery shopping to confront him in his bedroom. Obviously neither were eager for their parents to know exactly what had happened the night before. "So it's perfectly okay for your engaged friend to fuck him, but I—who is not in a relationship mind you—can't do it?" he demanded sharply.

"We paid for him!" Tomie snapped, swatting his shoulder. "He was OUR entertainment! You had no right to do this, Tyler!"

The fallout of Tomie, the bride-to-be, and all of their friends finding Tyler and Malcolm together in a...compromising position had been massive. Most of the harpies had shrieked in anger and outrage, Tomie screamed at him, some of the women actually looked pleased at what they were witnessing, and Stacey threw herself onto the floor and started having a drunken temper tantrum as though she were a toddler. All the while Tyler was yelling at them to get out so they could get changed. Neither man had been able to finish before the women had burst in, so Tyler had been in less than a good mood dealing with them. Malcolm left shortly thereafter, while shooting Tyler a sympathetic look as the women screamed at him.

"And you had no right to enable your friend's cheating!" Tyler shot back, standing up from his bed.

"Tyler, it was fine!" Tomie insisted. "It was just a bachelorette party! Stuff like this happens at bachelor and bachelorette parties all the time! Don't you think Donald was having his own fun with strippers last night?! So Stacey's not allowed to have the same fun?! Is it because she's a woman?!"

"What does gender have to do with this?! It was cheating! I wasn't going to stand by and watch someone cheat on their significant other!"

"So you went after him instead," Tomie seethed. She almost looked to be on the verge of tears. "You ruined everyone's night, Tyler!"

"I'm not in a relationship anymore!" Tyler snapped. "And I don't give a damn what was going on at the bachelor party!"

"Oh, typical," Tomie scoffed, shaking her head.

"I wasn't there! If I was there and witnessed the groom and his friends try to cheat, I would have stopped it! No different than I stopped the cheating from occurring at the bachelorette party!"

"Oh you're so noble, fucking a hot stripper to prevent cheating," Tomie spat sarcastically. "What a sacrifice on your part, Tyler!"

"He wasn't going to sleep with any of you anyway!" Tyler snapped. "Malcolm said he doesn't sleep with paying clients! Your friend wouldn't have gotten with him even if I wasn't there!"

"Malcolm? His name is Malcolm? His boss said his name was Alejandro!"

"Does it matter?"

Tomie shook her head and folded her arms over her chest. She glared at Tyler. "I just can't believe you," she said in a calmer tone.

"And I can't believe you, Tomie," Tyler retorted.

"What have I done?"

Tyler rounded upon his sister. "You wanted your friend to cheat on her fiancé, Tomie."

"Tyler—"

"Why would you be okay with that?!" Tyler interjected. "Your friend is about to get married! And you just stood back and fully supported her sleeping with a stripper! What is wrong with you, Tomie?! I thought you had standards! I thought you were a good person!"