Page 130 of Stepbrothers with Benefits
“Eli,” he whined behind me, and I shook my head, walking toward the bar. There was still a crowd, and a glance over my shoulder told me Milo was apprehensively eyeballing them. I didn’t blame him; the people most likely to recognize us from online were...well, filling the lobby. We’d pretty much stayed holed up in our apartment since I’d finally got him to leave the fleabag motel he’d been holed up in...well, after another shower when we got back, and ignoring the temptation to burn his clothes anyway.
“I’ll get the drinks,” I muttered, gesturing toward the service door nearby. He looked between the door and me, taking a deep breath and shaking his head, pushing me in the small of my back in a clear indication that he wouldn’t leave me to face the crowd on my own. I wouldn’t have been bothered if he’d taken the out I’d given him; it wasn’t like he was going to slip into the staff area, find another exit, and disappear into the city again.
Probably, he probably wouldn’t do that.
Okay, maybe it was better if he stuck close now we were in public. It doubled the risk of being recognized, especially because his face was the most well-known, but it did make me feel better. I wished it was because having him near was a source of comfort—as I should feel having my boyfriend, who I loved dearly, nearby—but it wasn’t just that. I didn’t know how long it would take to trust him again, but it would obviously take more than a couple of days and a few conversations.
I caught the eye of the staff behind the bar, motioning to Milo and me, holding up two fingers, and then giving a wince of apology when I tapped my wrist to show we wanted them quickly. An understanding smile was all I got back, and I feltbad. Sure, there were benefits to being part of the family that owned the hotel, but I tried not to take advantage, especially when it was as hectic as it was. Still, desperate times and all that, I really hoped they made them quick… and strong.
Thankfully, no one seemed to be paying attention to us, and Milo had busied himself looking at his phone. It had the added bonus of hiding his face without looking conspicuous. I couldn’t quite bring myself to do the same; the nagging feeling of eyes on the back of my head made me want to glance around wildly to see if it was true, but I knew that would just draw attention.
One of the servers appeared through the crowd, moving fluidly without a single bump into another living soul. She smiled, handing me the two glasses with a wink before melting back into the crowd like she’d never been there. It was the sort of grace and expertise that came from natural talent and a lot of practice, and I wondered if she might have been able to make it on stage if she wanted to.
“C’mon,” I muttered as I headed for the staff entrance, leading us away from the crowd.
“Yeah,” he said, taking a drink and wincing, which told me the thing was damn strong if he reacted to it. He let out a sigh of relief when he got through the door. “Thank God, I was ready to piss myself the whole time we were out there.”
“We’re fine,” I told him with a relieved chuckle. I didn’t want to mention that I thought a group of girls near the door had stared at Milo a little too long. It might have been a case of them finding him attractive, which I wouldn’t blame them for, because he was extremely attractive as far as I was concerned. On the other hand, we might need to be careful leaving the hotel later if they decided to stick around.
Shit, I hadn’t even considered what it would mean for the hotel with our ‘secret’ out in the open so suddenly and without our being involved to mitigate the potential damage. We hadtaken Eva and Raf’s advice and stayed off social media, to the point that when we posted a message that we would address what was going on in a few days, we had let Eva use my phone to post it before closing out of the apps. We needed to figure out a way to deal with the shit storm before we faced the internet, but that was still somewhere down the line on the list of things we had to deal with.
“What?” Milo asked, reading the look on my face. “What did you just think about?”
“Just how bad this could go.”
“See? And you keep ignoring me when I start to panic.”
“No, I...” For a moment, I almost held back or chose something else for him to worry about rather than the big concern. Then I had to stop myself from doing that because I couldn’t be mad at Milo for locking me out and leaving me to deal with stuff on my own if I turned around and did the same to him. “The hotel. We don’t broadcast our last names, but you know how persistent people can be when they’ve got a bug up their ass. It probably wouldn’t take much sleuthing for people to connect us to the hotel.”
Milo paused, his eyes going wide. “I...fuck. I hadn’t...I hadn’t thought about that at all. Oh my God, what if we hurt the hotel?”
“I guess we can add that to the list of things to bring up tonight,” I said, stomach squirming as I knew the appointed hour to face our family was growing closer and closer.
I had, of course, made sure to let everyone know that, as I kept telling them, Milo was alive and not maimed. I couldn’t exactly say he was unhurt, considering he still had the bruises from some bar brawl, but I could say he was physically fine. There had been questions, but I’d told everyone we would see them on Saturday for the dinner and that I had to yell at Milo for scaring the shit out of all of us. Which I had done, but I knew thatwas a way for us to get some peace without too much hassle from the family.
I knew it was a short-term fix because Marty had been asking after him, and I knew she would accept what I said for a little while, but we wouldn’t be so lucky tonight. Moira had also been quiet, which was strange because she could be just as persistent as Marty when it came to getting information. Mason and Arlo had been notably quiet the whole time, but that wasn’t surprising; both were the type to go off on their own and not be too concerned if others did the same thing. While Dom...Dom had also responded in the group chat, but all he had replied with when I’d given the excuse to leave us be was a smirking emoji and a ‘yeah, I bet that’ll be an interesting dinner’ before leaving it at that.
While that didn’t prove Dom knew what was happening, it strongly inferred it. I was also sure Mason knew, since he followed us on Instagram and TikTok, and while I didn’t think Moira followed us, the twins were usually in constant contact and shared a lot. Plus, she liked to know what was going on in our lives, so there was a good chance she knew. That left Arlo and my dad, and...well, I was sure they didn’t know, but they knewsomethingwas going on to make Milo disappear like that and for me to shut down any questions.
So we were potentially walking into a situation where some of the people we were ‘revealing’ our relationship to were already in the know. No one had said anything yet, but?—
“I can’t tell if that’s your panicking or your planning face,” Milo said as we walked toward the event room we used for our family dinners.
“Kind of both,” I admitted with a snort. “Been trying to figure out who knows and who’s going to find out tonight.”
“How’s that going?”
“So far, I can’t decide if everyone knows and is just waiting for us to bring it up, or if no one knows and we’re about to bring a bomb to family dinner...or if some of them know and are again, waiting for us to bring it up.”
“I honestly can’t decide which of those three options is the worst.”
“I don’t care about the worst; I just wish I could anticipate what we’re going to be dealing with.”
“I guess that would be nice. Don’t know what good it would do us because we don’t know how anyone will react.”
“We can take a few guesses.”
“My brain is using all its power right now not to turn into porridge, so you’re going to have to be the one to break it down.”
