“Say you’re going,” Luke grunts as Eli tries unsuccessfully to fight him off.
“No! Fuck you!” he shouts as Brooke walks in with the food.
All is forgotten when the tantalizing smell of Chinese food wafts into the conference room. Luke and Eli jump off the table to grab some brown paper bags from my overloaded little sister.
“Another productive meeting at Cline Corp I see,” Brooke says with a grin as we all rip into the bags and dump one carton after another onto the table.
“As usual,” I say while I search for the Kung Pao Chicken.
“You guys are doing something right,” Brooke says as she plops into a chair and watches as her big brothers rip through the bags and paper cartons like a bunch of hyenas descending on an animal carcass. We’re all looking professional in fancy suits, but throw some food on the table in front of us and we morph back into savage teenagers fighting over the last bowl of Lucky Charms once again. “My quarterly bonus was astronomical. I won’t need to audition for roles if you guys keep this up. Next year, I’ll be able to buy the production company and put myself in any starring role I choose.”
Westin gets some plates from the kitchenette and starts handing them out. “That’s a good industry,” he says as he hands me a plate. “Very good margins. You might be on to something.”
“Lots of hot girls too,” Eli says with a raised eyebrow as he digs into the sweet and sour chicken.
“Knowing you guys,” Brooke says with a laugh, “you’d just bark at them to get back to work.”
She does have a point there. The four of us boys have always put work before our personal lives. Which is why the business makes a ton of money, but also why we’re all still single and go home to an empty bed every night.
“Do any of you have anything going on in the woman department?” she asks. We all keep our eyes down on the food as we load our plates up. No one says a word.
“You guys are unbelievable,” she says with a shake of her head. “Four good looking, rich, successful bachelors and you all refuse to date!”
“I don’t refuse to date,” Luke says as he bites a spring roll in half. “I just haven’t found anyone I’m interested in.”
“Because you never leave this office!” Brooke snaps. “You guys have to get out. Date. Get laid.”
“Whoa!” Westin says as he shoots her a look. “Little sister alert.”
“I’m twenty-three,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “I’m not so little anymore and neither are any of you. You need to settle down. It can’t all be about work.”
“It’s not,” I tell her. “It’s about making money too.”
My brothers laugh and Luke high-fives me. We do like to make cash in this family and we’re unapologetic about it.
Dating on the other hand… I would like to meet a girl, but I just haven’t found anyone that gets my heart pumping. I’ve never had that spark with a woman, so I just dive into work instead.
“Actually, one of us is going on a date,” Westin says as he sits down with his overflowing plate. “We just don’t know which one yet.”
“What do you mean?” Brooke asks with a curious laugh.
We tell her all about Mr. Brown’s charity gala and how one of us needs to go with a date to the party.
“It’s a formal party,” Westin explains. “Mr. Brown is a very old fashioned client.”
“He’s been married for a hundred and sixteen years and expects everyone else to have done the same,” I add with a shake of my head. “It’s ridiculous.”
“But he’s a huge client,” Westin quickly adds. “And there will be other potential clients there, so one of us has to go.”
Brooke pulls back her black hair and grins as she watches us. “Who’s it going to be?”
“We haven’t decided that yet,” Eli says. “Although, I don’t think it should be me since I went to that golfing event last month.”
“We’ve all been to work events,” I remind him with a hard stare. “I had to go to the Philippines in April.”
“Let me help,” Brooke says as she jumps up from her chair. She grabs the three remaining spring rolls from the box and then grabs one off of Luke’s plate. Brooke is the only person in the world who can grab food off of Luke’s plate and live to tell the story about it. She still gets a dirty look from her older brother, although she shakes it off with a sweet innocent smile.
“We’re going to draw spring rolls,” she says with a grin. I’m already nervous as she bites the end off of one of them and chews it. She shows us her back and when she turns around again, the four spring rolls are in her hand all lined up at the same height. “Short spring roll gets to go on the date and potentially find the love of their life.”