The next morning, Oliver received a phone call much earlier than he liked.
"Who was it?" Mai asked once he had finished the call.
"Lin. They want to head down today, so I will have to leave much earlier than expected." Oliver pursed his lips for a moment. "What days do you work this week?"
"Monday through Wednesday, then Saturday and Sunday."
He thought for a moment.
"You could visit me, we're only working the other side of Reading. I could have someone pick you up and you could come for dinner."
"I can drive to Reading, Oliver, it's not that far."
"I was trying to save you the cost of the fuel, but—"
Mai laughed.
"How poor do you think I am? Or how out of touch are you that you don't know how much petrol costs?"
"I filled up your car when I went grocery shopping, I am fully aware of how much petrol costs."
Mai scowled.
"What did you do that for?"
"It was almost empty."
"I can look after myself, you know."
"I do know. But you were ill and now you have one less thing to worry about."
Mai huffed, but relented in her argument.
"Would you like to come for dinner? You can stay in our hotel apartment after. There's enough room. You would have to meet my brother though…"
"You make that sound as if it's a terrible thing. I thought you liked your brother."
"I do. But he's going to be revolting about you."
"How so?"
"Because you're my first non-work friend in… Well, a long time."
"Right, and because I'm female he's going to insinuate even more? I get it," Mai said. "It'll be fine. Does he not have someone you can tease him about?"
Oliver appeared taken aback by this suggestion.
"I… Perhaps. I will have to see…" He bit his lip. "Perhaps he does…"
"Well let me know."
"Yes, I will do. I'll let you know about Wednesday too."
Mai smiled.
"Okay."
And Oliver left.
"Alright," Yasuhara concluded, shuffling the papers into one pile, "I think that's everything for now." He looked from Gene to Oliver and smiled. "It's been nice to meet you, Oliver. I've heard a lot about you from your brother."
Oliver nodded.
"I appreciate what you are doing for us. Honestly, what do you expect our chances to be?"
"I'm confident we can sort this contract issue out."
"Would you like to have lunch with us?" Gene asked, beaming.
"Oh I—"
"Wait, we're paying you by the hour, you have to and you can just charge us for your time," Gene went on. "I want you to have lunch with us."
"I can't argue with that."
"I'll leave then," Oliver said, making to stand up.
But Gene dragged his brother back down into his seat.
"Oh no, you're staying."
"I do not want to sit here and third wheel—"
Gene scowled.
"You're staying. Because I want you to. I'm going to get the menu."
He jumped up and moved through the penthouse apartment. Both Yasuhara and Oliver watched him go. Once he was out of earshot, Yasuhara turned to Oliver.
"You're dating Mai, aren't you?"
"What? How did you—"
"It's not that common a name. You're dating her," Yasuhara accused in a low hiss.
"I am not dating anyone."
Yasuhara rolled his eyes.
"Look, however you want to define what's going on between you two, there is something going on. And she doesn't know who you really are. I get it, you like that, but you can't lie to her forever. If it gets found out, she could get hurt. And you will have trouble from me if she gets hurt."
Oliver opened his mouth to reply to Yasuhara's unprompted tirade, but Gene returned before he could speak.
"Right," he handed out menus, "decide what you want and I'll phone down to the restaurant. We'll get it brought up," he added to Yasuhara. "Save's the problem of disturbing other guests in the restaurant."
The three young men chose their meals, Gene ordered and they were about to start a new conversation — Gene was interested in some local issue — when the door to the penthouse suite opened.
Lin entered, but neither Gene nor Oliver's shoulders relaxed.
Because Lin was not the only person to enter the apartment.
"Who's that?" Jeffery demanded.
Yasuhara stood up and held his hand out.
"Hi, I'm Ichigoya, I'm from the PR department for Disgrace and Deception. We heard some rumours through the press that there might be some trouble at one of the later shoots so I came here to personally reassure our budding young lead actors that their security is our first priority."
Jeffery sneered.
"I should help so," he muttered. "If either of these two end up with so much as a bruise on their body, I will sue you for everything you're worth."
"It's gratifying to know that you care so much for your sons," Yasuhara said.
"We were about to have lunch," Gene said quickly. "Do you want to join us?"
"No," Jeffery dismissed. "I have a massage booked in with the spa."
His lip curled up in a way that made the rest of the room uncomfortable.
"I'm going to change."
He left for his own bedroom.
"Good save," Lin muttered. "Might I join you?"
"Sure," Gene said, passing Lin the menu as he sat down. "Order what you want."
"Thanks."
Jeffery leaves his bedroom a minute later, as Lin is ordering his own food, he smiles at the young men and leaves.
Oliver looked to Yasuhara, expecting him to continue his earlier — for want of a better word — threat. But he did not. Instead, Gene started a conversation regarding travellers camping in a local park.
Their food turned up.
Oliver did not pay much attention to the conversation. He nodded and hummed in appropriate places, but his mind was elsewhere.
He was thinking about Mai.
He liked her. He knew that. He liked her more than as just a friend too. He understood that.
He knew his brother would tease him, but secretly be happy about it.
But he also knew that if Mai found out he was a model — and a high paid, famous one at that — that she would treat him differently.
He did not want her to treat him differently.
However, if he did not tell her soon, she would feel deceived. It might already be too late for that…
And there was also a small part of him that worried that she would go to the press. She could make a lot of money off of her story. A lot of press outlets would pay good money for a story on him.
He and Eugene were relatively clean when it came to scandals. The closest they had was that time when Gene had drunk a little too much and received a noise complaint for shouting about how he loved everyone in the middle of the night.
Even that had only earnt his brother a 'lovable scamp' label.
But as with everything good, people wanted to ruin it. And Oliver felt like lying to a hardworking young woman to get into her apartment would count as a stain on his reputation.
"Noll? Are you okay?"
Oliver broke out of his thoughts and looked up at his brother.
"Huh?"
"Are you okay? You look pensive?"
Oliver looked from Gene to Yasuhara and back again.
"I'm fine."
He forced a smile and returned his attention to his lukewarm food.
If Gene was concerned, he did not say anything further on the subject. Or at least, he didn't until Yasuhara left half an hour later.
"Are you okay?" he asked his twin.
"I told you, I'm fine."
"Yeah, you said that because Yasuhara was here."
"It's hard to share your feelings when your brother is busy flirting."
Gene pouted at him.
"Look, if you were into men, you would be flirting with him too. I bet you're just as disgusting with Mai."
"I am not disgusting in the slightest, but I'm glad you recognise you are."
Gene scowled.
"Seriously Noll, are you okay? Something's bothering you, I can tell."
"I have invited Mai over for the evening on Wednesday," Oliver said in a hesitant voice.
"That's great!" Gene beamed. "What are you worried about? You think I'm going to embarrass you?"
"I know you're going to embarrass me," Oliver deadpanned. "That is not what concerns me."
"Then what is it?"
Oliver paused before answering, considering his words.
"Mai does not know what we do. I fear that when she finds out, she will have negative feelings."
"Oh."
"And she is also a fan of Disgrace and Deception."
"Oh…"
"Yes."
"I see the problem now. What do you want to do about it?"
"I want to live in this moment where she is oblivious and still likes me and for nothing to change."
Gene snorted and gave his brother a pitying look.
"If I could give you that, I would. I think you should tell her. I mean, if she doesn't take it weirdly and stuff, and—"
"She doesn't treat me differently."
"Yeah and that, then you could win major brownie points with her by introducing her to the cast and writers and stuff."
Oliver did not look pleased with this.
"I do not want to buy her affection."
"From what you told me, you don't need to. Also, didn't you basically do that by buying her food and stuff already."
"That's different. I ate the food too. I imposed by staying at her apartment and—"
"Did way more than you needed to," Gene interrupted. "I wouldn't stress it. Would she do the same for you, if she could?"
"She offered to buy me McDonald's? Otherwise, she has not been given the opportunity." Oliver sighed. "She treats me like a normal person. Even before all this," he gestured to the hotel suite, "I was rarely treated like a normal person…"
Gene grimaced.
"Well let's focus on having a good evening on Wednesday. I'll have a think about your problem. Maybe once I've met her, I'll be able to help you work out the best way to tell her stuff."
"Thanks."
"That's what big brothers are for," Gene said.
Oliver groaned; they both knew full well he was the oldest.
"Mai, take a break," Sarah insisted. "You're all over the place."
"But—"
"Take this cup of tea to John."
Sarah thrust the cup into Mai's hands and practically shoved her out from behind the cafe counter. Mai did not bother to argue, but instead started walking towards the information desk where she knew John would be.
She spotted John's golden hair first, followed by his bright smile as he drew on a paper map for the tourist in front of him. She smiled at the sight. She knew too many people ruined by customer service, but John was ever cheerful and almost annoyingly optimistic.
She let herself in through the back door of the information desk booth and waited for him to finish.
"Hello Mai," he said, once the tourist had left.
"I brought you tea, Sarah insisted."
"That's very kind of her, how much do I owe you?" John asked.
"Nothing, Sarah wanted rid of me because I've been all over the place. She thought the walk would do me good," Mai replied with an embarrassed smile. "How are you?"
"Busy as always," John said. He drank a little of the tea and smiled. "I have taken up gardening in my spare time and it's really gratifying seeing things grow. I've made a lot of friends at the allotment, including this lovely old lady who only grows roses. She keeps flirting with me despite being at least three times my age, bless her."
Mai laughed.
"Well if you weren't such a lovely young man, old ladies wouldn't flirt with you."
"Oh no, she only likes me for my exotic Australian accent!"
Mai laughed again.
"Perhaps," she agreed, "but I bet you've been helping them all."
"Oh, only a little. Her hip is bad and she was trying to move all this fertiliser and—"
"And you wonder why people like you."
John blushed.
"What's been getting to you then?" he asked. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Mai sighed. She had known John would ask, and something about the earnest look in his eyes made her want to share.
"I'm going on a sort of date but not really tonight."
"That's exciting!"
"I'm going to be meeting his brother and stuff," Mai plowed on. "So there is the pressure of wanting to make a good impression on him. And then they're like stupid rich, right? So if it was anyone else, I would take a bottle of wine or chocolates or something, right? But nothing I buy in a supermarket on the way there is going to compete with anything they're used to having. So I wondered if it was worth bothering at all! But then if I don't it looks rude! And I'm heading straight from work and I've got my dress in the car because I want to look nice but this guy looks like a damn model and dresses really well and I'm wearing a discounted dress from TKMaxx and I forgot my makeup so I'm just going to go like this and—"
"Mai, breathe."
"Sorry."
"Don't be sorry."
"I just really like this guy. He's interesting and nice and stuff."
"And this is the guy who looked after you while you were sick right?"
Mai frowned.
"How do you know that?"
"Sarah told me."
She scowled.
"You two have been gossiping about me!" Mai accused.
"We were mutually enjoying the fact that you'd found a decent guy," John defended. "But my point is that he's already seen you when you're a mess, and he invited you for dinner. He likes you the way you are. So don't stress about what you're wearing. I'm sure he'll appreciate that you've made an effort, regardless of what you actually look like. As for bringing a dinner gift, yes, I agree you should, but he's got any manners, then he won't make a comment that it's cheap wine or whatever. But you're driving there right? You won't drink too much if you're driving back, right?"
"They offered for me to stay over. They have enough room apparently."
"Who's looking after Luna?"
"I offered the teenager from the flat below me unlimited access to my Netflix if he'd pop in and feed Luna for me this evening…"
"He doesn't have it?"
"His mum can't afford it, she lost her job and has been struggling to get another one," Mai said with a grimace. "I left a twenty on the side as well with a note attached to it, so if he actually does feed Luna, he gets some pocket money. It's hard being that age and not being able to afford to go out with his mates and stuff."
John smiled.
"You're a good person."
Mai shrugged.
"He's a cat person by the sounds of it, so it'll be fine." Mai sighed. "Like all the things you've said are perfectly logical and valid, but I keep worrying. And what if his brother doesn't like me?"
"Then his brother doesn't like you. These things happen."
"I want him to like me though."
"Then just be yourself. I don't know anyone reasonable that doesn't like you."
"Thanks, John."
"Right, it looks like I have customers, thanks for the tea. What time are you finishing today?"
"Six."
"Great, I'll see you after work then."
"Okay, later."
Mai took a deep breath, and headed back to the cafe.
When Mai stepped out of the toilets closest to the cafe at the airport, she was greeted by John. He was holding a fancy looking paper bag.
"Hey?" she greeted him with a frown.
"I told you I would see you later," he replied, beaming. "I asked around and found you some things to take."
"What?"
He passed her the fancy paper bag. She could not read the super curly calligraphy on the outside, but she opened it nevertheless. Inside was a bottle of red wine and two boxes of chocolates.
"I don't recognise the names…" Mai mumbled. "What—"
"I have a friend who works in duty free," John explained. "These are the brands where if you ask the price tag, you can't afford them."
"John, I can't take these!"
"She owed me a favour. Besides, the chocolates are almost at their best before date. They need to be eaten Mai, otherwise you'll be contributing to food waste and destroying the planet."
"John, we work in an airport."
"All the more reason to do your part, and eat these chocolates."
"I hate you sometimes."
"No, you don't."
"No, I don't." Mai sighed. "Okay, but you and your friend are getting free drinks from me for a while, okay?"
John beamed.
"Sounds perfect."
Mai left the airport with her gift from John in tow. She joined the late commuter traffic on the M4 and made her way through the never ending roadworks at 50mph.
She arrived at the address Oliver had given her with ten minutes to spare. The location was a large historic house that had been converted into a hotel. The grounds looked like something from a period romance movie.
Mai's old banger of a car looked very out of place.
She gritted her teeth and pulled up. A young man walked up to her car as she climbed out. She'd see this happen in movies.
"May I have your keys, Madam?"
"Of course, thank you."
It was only as she walked into the hotel that she realised she ought to have tipped and left her luggage, rather than bring it in herself. Sighing, she continued towards the front desk.
"Good evening, Madam, how might I help you?"
"My name is Mai Taniyama, I'm here to see—"
"Right this way, Madam. We're expecting you."
"Oh, right, of course."
"Would you like me to take your luggage?" the receptionist offered.
"Oh, no, I'm okay thank you."
The receptionist led Mai to a lift, where they entered. The receptionist pulled out a keycard and inserted it into the panel on the wall of the lift. He selected a button and the doors closed.
The lift rose. Mai opened her mouth a few times, wanting to fill the awkward silence.
The lift came to a stop and the doors opened.
"Excuse me sirs, you have a guest."
Mai exited the lift, the receptionist remained inside. Oliver was waiting in the open plan living room.
He half smiled upon seeing her.
The lift doors closed once again, and they were alone.
"Hi," she said.
"Hi," he echoed. "How are you?"
"Feeling very out of place," she admitted. "I dressed up and everything and I still feel like I shouldn't be here."
"Did any of the staff—"
"Oh no, they were all polite and lovely. But that doesn't make me feel any more comfortable."
"I'm sorry," Oliver said. "I do not want you to feel uncomfortable."
"I brought you a dinner gift," Mai said, thrusting the bag into Oliver's arms.
Oliver peeked into the bag and then raised an eyebrow at Mai.
"A friend of a friend works in duty free, they helped me out. I was worried about bringing a ten pound bottle of wine and a five quid box of chocolates."
"You needn't have worried. I did not expect anything."
"My mother would turn in her grave if I had not brought something," Mai said. "But if you don't want them, I'll take them home and drown my sorrows in them when I inevitably embarrass myself in front of your brother."
Oliver chuckled.
"I am not concerned about that in the slightest. I think you'll get on rather well."
"You do?"
"Yes, he likes to embarrass me. So if you are concerned, ask for stories, I'm sure he'll oblige."
Mai laughed nervously.
"Where is he?" she asked.
"In the gym," Oliver replied. "He'll be done soon. We have a little time alone. You can put your overnight back in that room."
He gestured to a door.
"Thanks."
"Do you want a drink?"
"Please, I've been stuck in traffic on the M4 for a while. I thought I would be late."
"Tea?"
"That would be great," Mai said. She picked up her overnight back and deposited it in the guest room, before joining Oliver in the kitchenette.
He poured their drinks and they took a seat on one of the sofas.
"How was work?" he asked.
Mai groaned.
"I was a mess all day," she admitted. "Worried about messing up with this evening. What about you?"
"I've been preparing for our next client," Oliver replied slowly. "Lots of learning."
"You sound distasteful."
"I would rather spend my time on my Masters…"
Mai smiled.
"Is there anything I can do to ease your concerns?" Oliver asked.
"It'll be fine," she insisted. "I know I've just built it up in my head and that I am overthinking it. Once I meet your brother and everything, it'll be fine and I'll feel silly about worry about it."
"I reserve the right to tease you about it."
Mai scowled.
"It's only because I actually like you that I'm worried."
Oliver raised an eyebrow.
"I never would have guessed that you liked me," Oliver said in a low voice. "What was it you called me?" He paused for effect. "Ah yes, 'smoking hot'..."
Mai cradled her head in her hands.
"I was ill!" she whined. "You can't hold that against me!"
"And what would you like me to hold against you?" Oliver enquired.
"Stop it!" Mai pouted. "You're teasing me!"
Oliver smirked.
"Maybe I am."
Before Mai could reply, the lift door opened.
Author's note: Another long one because I'm late! I blame Ben because he's disrupted my life. But he now has a job! Which is great! I'm exhausted... I'll try and get another chapter out soon! But life is hectic at the moment so... Please review :)
