Love is Like A For*bid*den Fruit

Chapter 6

Thomas’ Point of View 

I reached the pub and entered it with my influence. I went towards the bar and saw Alex sitting and chilling there. I sat next to him and shook him gently. He turned and I looked into his eyes. It was when I realized that he is already drunk and it's time for him to go to his hotel.

“Oh lookie here, who is this? My dearest friend Thomas. I love you man. I really do. I really really do. I loovveeee yyooouuuuuuu soooooooo muuuccchhhhhh”, he started slurping his words, as he was already drunk very much. I took his left hand and draped it around my shoulders and held his torso from the side in my right hand, his right side of the waist and slowly dragged him towards the exit.

"You know Thomas. I have always liked you like a brother, envied you like a business rival and have loved you like a friend. I would gladly lay down my life, if you ask me to do so. Give a try and see. I won't hesitate to lay down my life for you." Alex went on blabbering and I just replied with a "Hmm", as I knew that Alex would return to his normal cool and composed self, once the alcohol leaves his system tomorrow morning.

I guided the valet to get my car and waited till my car was here. Alex kept on blabbering something about how much he loves me and cherishes my friendship and all. I waited and finally my koenigsegg was here. I slowly placed Alex inside the car and fastened his seat belt to make sure that he doesn't fall off the seat, till we reach his mansion, which was almost 30 mins drive from there. I then went around my car and got inside the driving seat. 

I got the window down and gestured to the valet thank you and left towards my way. I looked to my side and saw Alex finding it hard to sit in one position, and it looked like he thought he was on his bed and was trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in. I laughed and towered over him and lowered the seat so that he could sleep peacefully for sometime, till we reached the house. I was thinking about the turn of events today, as I wanted a night out from all the business deals and meetings and discussions and everything related to office work.

Firstly, I asked Mr. Smith to get that girl here somehow, as I wanted to keep her near me. I don't know what had happened to me when I suggested the idea. I then called him again, reminding him about my proposal. I then came towards the pub, only to meet the drunken Alex and now I'm taking him home. How fruitful my day turned out to be. Oh God. I slapped myself in my mind.

I then shifted my thoughts towards Alex. We are actually friends from the time we were in our diapers. Our fathers were in the same field of business, which made them friends more and rivals less. Normally, when two people come up with the same idea, they automatically become the rivals in the field, as both the businessmen work on improvising their products, and also to bring our new ideas to the market. This was not the case with the Coopers and the Strausses. These two were supposed to be the biggest business rivals, but turned out to be very good friends.

Leon Strauss and John Cooper always supported one another and so did their wives Rose Strauss and Jeena Cooper. They became very close friends and would spend almost all holidays such as Thanksgiving,  the 4th of July, each other's birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and Christmas eve, and every other such special event together. These two couples even planned their pregnancy together and that is how me and Alex came into being within a few months gap between us.

So it was obvious that we became friends from the time we were in our diapers. Most of the time, our parents would leave us behind with our nannies, when there was a business trip to take care of and we both friends would love to spend our life playing, teasing one another, sharing our toys, fighting with one another and so on.

My childhood days are filled with memories of me and Alex more than with my parents. We grew up together as we were in the same school, college and even the same school of pharmacy also. Alex loved flirting around and making friends and girlfriends, whereas I preferred studying and taking care of my father's business. Alex's turquoise blue eyes became a prominent character which would make girls weak, every time he smiled. He would love it when he got attention from the girls and would parade women in front of me all the time.

My main goal was to study hard and I was kind of a bookworm. Alex was very happy with this character of mine, as he always thought that I was his rival in his love life. Many girls would go with him only because of the reason that they knew that I was not available to date at that time.

Years passed and I took over my dad's business, when I lost my dad to alcohol and women. He started losing interest in the business that my mom and him had built from the scratch. It was very much difficult in the beginning, but Alex and Mr. Cooper supported me a lot. I started using women as a distraction from my daily stress and my habit of having one-night stands became a kind of stress reliever for me. I never made women believe that I'm into a relationship and would always make it clear that they cannot expect anything serious from me, than a good fu*ck.

Alex was, as usual, in his normal way of life of enjoying sleeping around and would never stress out on anything. His parents were his strongest support in life, which I normally envied in him, but never told him about, as he would consider me an emotional fool.

I was lost in my train of thoughts and that was when I saw that I was almost near his house. His parents were on a business trip and he was staying alone, with his house caretakers and maids. He had many security guards taking care of him, as his parents were kind of strict about the security of their only son.

The security guard opened the gate when he saw my car and I waved him thank you, as I entered the perimeter belonging to the Coopers. I drove my way for about 5 more minutes till I reached the parking space near the house. I parked the car and that was when I saw the door to the house open and out came a security guard.

"Hello, Mr. Strauss sir. How are you doing today? How is our young master doing? Looks like he is quite wasted.  Thank you for driving him till here. Let me help you with taking him inside the house" and with that he took hold of Alex, making my work of putting Alex in his bed a little easier. 

"He won't remember that I dropped him back to the house. Just prepare an aspirin and a glass of water when he wakes up tomorrow" I suggested the guard and we took him upstairs to his room. I was very much tired to drive all the way back home, and so I suggested the maid in the house to prepare the guest room for me. She nodded and did as I suggested.

I took Alex to his room and the guard went to take care of some matter. I guess he went to call the Coopers and to tell them about today's events. I dropped Alex on the bed and I removed his shoes and jacket. I then covered him with a blanket and set the AC in the room to adjust with the chilly weather outside. 

I went to his cabinet and took a pair of track pants and loose shirt and went towards the guest room to change and rest. I then took my mobile and saw the most disturbing news of all the times. It was all over in the social media sites and the headlines read,

"Billionaire widower Mr. Leon Strauss is all set to tie the knot second time in his life with a Wedding Planner this Friday, in St. John's Chapel in New York ''.

I was really taken aback with the news. I mean, how could he do this? How could he replace my mom with someone else in his life. I knew about his ways of sleeping around with women and I really didn't pay much attention to him, but marrying someone and bringing them into our life? What is he thinking? Has he gone mad or become love sick that he can't see the way women use him for his money?

Did he forget my mom so easily? Has he forgotten about the love they had? Has he not considered how me and Susan, my sister, would feel? I was really angry and felt like looking for my dad and killing him then and there. How could he even think that a woman would love him for him and not for his money?