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⌞C H E S T E R⌝
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⌞♠⌝     The aroma of freshly brewed beans mingled with the tantalizing scent of sizzling meats on the grill. Those were the symphony of smells that danced around me as I cradled my cup of black coffee while watching the beautiful buzz of the city from the third floor. Another sip of the beverage, a puff of a breeze, and I was zen. It was a much-deserved break from everything that had happened within the past three days.

My meeting ended earlier than I thought it would. So, I decided after grabbing some coffee in a nearby café to head to Johan's and my usual eating place — a hibachi restaurant in our building. However, despite his free time slot, Johan was nowhere to be found, so I spent it in solitude, and that bothered me.

It wasn't the first time I had to eat a meal on my own. However, it was the first time Mr. Pretorius failed to inform me of his whereabouts and dismissed himself.

Am I so much of a burden that I wasn't good enough to receive a single text from him?

I shook my head, figured I was overthinking, and he probably had another meeting.

Throwing some edamame in my mouth, I chomped on it a little, then hissed aloud, "Hmph, whatever. At least my food is reliable."

Moping wasn't part of my program. As a busy man myself, I hurried up and finished my grilled prawns and chicken combo. I paid my bill and showed my gratitude to the chef before heading into a nearby glass elevator.

It stopped at my desired floor, and I stepped out. As I made my way through the long passage, I spotted two suited Caucasian men talking among themselves in a connecting passageway. On most days, I wouldn't pay much attention to such things, but when I saw his famous copper hair and heard his obnoxiously loud Michigan accent echo down the hallway, I came to an immediate halt.

Shit. I've got to get out of this place before it gets bad.

Without a second thought, I spun on my heels and began my speedy power walk back to the elevator. I had just about made it and was about to press the button when I heard my name being called. My whole body froze as I cursed the world under my breath. I took a few deep breaths before forcing myself to turn to the redhead with a feigned smile.

Two meters away from me, in a snug navy suit, stood the last man I wanted to breathe the same air with. Accompanied with hair as orange as the raging fires of hell and freckled, milky-white skin, the guy's amused emerald eyes locked with my annoyed grey ones as he spoke, "Look who decided to grace us with his notoriety. Why, if it isn't Chess the Hot Mess? How's it going, cuz?"

"Malfeasant Matthew," I said through gritted teeth. "Why are you here? You are supposed to be in San Francisco for a conference this week."

"Aww. My baby cousin keeps up with my schedule. My father decided to go instead; there were people he had to see there," said Matthew as he placed his hand over his heart in mock affection. "But seriously, I must be on your mind a lot. I'm touched."

"No, it's quite the contrary. I just keep tabs on all the vermin in my life," I jeered, killing his smug smile and provoking one on my amused lips.

Chess: one point. Meathead: zero.

His short temper didn't waste a second to snarl back, "That's rich coming from the company's black sheep."

"Black sheep, huh?" I clicked my tongue. "I would take that title any day rather than be known as the family's ill-famed sex offender."

Chess: twenty points. Lucifer: negative ten points. This is too easy.

An eerie darkness filled the redhead's eyes. His voice carried a villainous menace as he growled, "How many times do I have to remind you that I was proven innocent about that crap, you little shit?"

Unruffled by his aggressiveness, I merely shrugged and then retorted, "Depends on how many times I have to remind you that we all know you paid your way out of the sex offender registry."

Checkmate. Level cleared. A new level has been unlocked: seething cousin.

"You don't want to play this game, Chess. I'll ruin you." His threat was venomous and inordinately hateful. However, I was far from intimidated. More so, I was vexed. Every second I squandered on him aroused more of my hostility.

I was about to clap back when his companion came into focus and interrupted me with a disinterested, "Don't waste your oxygen, Matt. He's still just a little boy playing around in a big man's pants."

A new player has joined, and a hidden level was unlocked: 'Bullshit Day'. Just fucken great.

Following close behind him was another white guy in a charcoal suit with gelled-back chestnut hair and unimpressed sky-blue eyes. The change in his natural platinum blonde hair color threw me off at first. However, when his notable scowl and the small beauty mark on his cleft chin became evident as he closed in, I quickly recognized the fellow Afrikaner from Cape Town, and my whole body tensed.

"Great. Saint Simon is here too, along with his infamous superiority complex," I remarked, giving my eyes a roll and then folding my arms across my chest. "Let me remind you both that being three years older than me and Johan equates to having saggier balls. Nothing more, nothing less."

Both Simon Pretorius and Matthew Nel sent hateful glares my way, but my care-meter was too busy chilling in the negatives for me to give an actual damn. Cutting a space between them, I walked through, gave their shoulders a good pat, and then began my way to my office.

However, my loudmouth cousin couldn't bear to not have the last say. So, when I was a few yards past him, he announced to the whole world, "Since we are already on the topic of fucking around, how does it feel like being part of the biggest sex scandal in South African modern history, cuz?"

His words paralyzed me on the spot. A few passersby started whispering among themselves. If there was a single thing that irked my soul, it was someone who fed or induced gossip.

Don't, Chess. I know you want to beat the living shit out of him, but people can see you. There are cameras! Don't do it! You've already had enough drama this morning with Jaq. Just wait it out...

Probably red in the face with rage, I stood there, clenching and unclenching my hands, when the words of my grandmother came to mind.

"Count to ten, my little button," she would say to me in my teen days. "Don't let rage consume you. It will only bring bad things and leave your soul rotten."

After some seriously convincing internal dialogue, recalling my Ouma's wise words, and counting ten seconds, I managed to cool down and not pounce on the devils behind me. As cool as I could be, I turned around to face their amused faces.

Simon stuffed his hands in his pants pockets and commented, "As evidently risible as it is, your sexual promiscuity is honestly impressive. However, I presumed after the last couple of times you made headlines, you would at least learn to stop or know how to cover your tracks."

"However, Sim, that shouldn't surprise us. My dearest cousin has always been quite the entertainer," Matthew snarked as a smirk took its place on his face. "Seriously, I loved your feature on ZaGossip Magazine, by the way, and here I thought only garbage collectors knew how to keep their hands dirty. You should consider coming over to the USA more often when I become the CEO of our American branch. Seeing your face on TMZ once in a while would be fun among all the work I have."

A small chuckle left my mouth before I sneered, "Let's stop acting like I am the only one who has made it to a news channel. Then again, a crime and investigation channel is a little different. Isn't that right, Mattie?"

Matthew's eyes shut for a brief second before opening, filled with nothing but fury. He stormed toward me, snapping, "How many times have I told you not to call me that, you little twerp?!"

Simon pulled him back and reminded him, "Keep your calm. Don't let him get to your head. We have witnesses." And then he gestured to the gathered crowd by the nearby glass staircase.

Matthew took some breaths, then glowered at me as Simon spoke: "Chess, there's a significant difference between you and Matt. So, I wouldn't smile too much if I were you."

"Oh really?" I said it with a tilted head. "Let me guess, is it that I know what the difference between consent and non-consent is? Or is it that I can get laid without drugging or taking advantage of women?"

Matt had a look that screamed bloody murder as Simon patted his buddy's chest to calm him down.

"No. Chester Nel, that's not it." Simon calmly responded with a tight grip on a fuming Matt's fist.

"Then please do tell me — and it better be good," I said with a raised finger. I didn't like having my time wasted.

Simon heaved out a long sigh, then proceeded with a very solemn tone, "Matthew learned his lesson and never got involved with such a crime again. You, on the other hand, are a habitual offender, and it's tarnished your image along with the company's. No matter how good of a business prodigy he is, no one wants to work with a businessman who can't keep his work life and private life separate. Matthew, Johan, and I have learned the art of staying out of trouble or keeping our social mishaps under wraps, unlike you. This disparity demonstrates your lack of professionalism and demonstrates why you are likely the least capable among us to, currently, run a branch."

Is this about that damn thing with Lerato again? Ugh! People, give me a break!

This scandalous sexual impropriety was getting on my last nerve. Everyone was painting me as the duplicitous villain in this story and completely chucking my viewpoint aside. Last time I checked, a sexual scandal took two or more parties to commit. The whole universe was making it seem as though I murdered someone in cold blood and left them butchered on a stake for the public to see when it was just casual adulterous sex between two consenting humans who happened to get caught.

Then everyone is solely blaming me. Seriously, people? Are we this backward as a society?

In reality, it was her fault just as much as it was mine. She knew if we got caught, it would destroy her career and plummet her social status, but she still took the risk. Hence, I was a firm believer that she deserved to be held accountable just as much as me. It wasn't like I held the damn licentious whore at gunpoint!

I rushed over to the two men until we were within whispering distance, and then, with throbbing veins in my neck, I snarled, "Oh, for fuck's sake! I don't get why so many people are obsessed with my sexual life! You all act like saints when you've done similar or worse things! Fine, I admit it was an incautious move to fool around with the Deputy President's son's fiancée, but she has been chasing me for years and came onto me first while still engaged to him. Why is everyone disregarding that blatant fact?"

"Jesus, is he that dense?" Wide-eyed Matthew snorted at Simon before bringing the conversation back to me and saying, "No one cares about Jaqueline's whore of a friend that you fucked, because you broke a hidden company rule, moron."

Me? Broke a rule? Impossible.

Serenity, our family company, was my child. I knew the company like the back of my hand. There's no way I could have overlooked anything. I could even recite all our policies in fine print. "Oh, please, what rule are you even talking about? I am familiar with all of the company's statutes."

"Clearly not everything! You messed with politics, you imbecile!" Matthew exclaimed before marching up to me and stabbing me in the chest with his finger.

I slapped his hand away and threatened, "Don't you ever lay a finger on me unless you are willing to end up six feet under."

Brushing his fiery red trusses of hair back with both muscular hands, he retreated to Simon, shaking his head. While pinching the bridge of his nose, Mr. Pretorius elaborated, "Look, Chess, Serenity is a private company that never overtly gets involved with governmental affairs beyond taxes. If we do, it jeopardizes our world-renowned image of neutrality and limits our contractual offers and territorial expansion. Not everything is found in a damn rule book. Some of it is common sense, which you indubitably lack. Furthermore, anything you do is automatically tied to the company's roots, as our values are expressed in what you do."

I listened to his argument like a decent person. However, after processing his defense, disappointment and an incoming headache made me squint my eyes and fold my arms, while I broke out into a sigh. "Wow. That's such a delusory stretch. Only overthinking idiots like yourselves reach such conclusions."

"Excuse me?" "What did you say?" The two idiots said it at the same time, with frowns on their faces.

I gave them a rundown of why their worries were frivolous. "Our company is celebrating its centennial this year, and we have held a strong footing in the highly respected medical world for all that time, hence our exponential expansion over the years. Don't forget that we survived apartheid when political and racial tensions in the nation were at their peak. So, all I'm saying is that it would take more than a political nudge to bring Serenity's reputable operation to a halt."

The red in Matthew's face ripened with growing anger. "Did you not hear anything? You're the most well-known among us, so whatever you do has the company connected to it. And the company executives and the chairmen hate political affiliations in any shape or form, and you brought that upon them!"

"Eh." I shrugged once again. "I still think it's silly to get worked up about it, and that you guys are just a bunch of undeniably doltish brats that feel threatened by my stupendous influence on our families' business."

"Did you just call me stupid? Why, I am going to remodel that pretty boy face of yours!" yelled Matthew as he strode toward me. I was about ready to beat him to death when he came within range, but, luckily for him, Simon beat me to it and stood between us, blocking either one of us from disfiguring the other.

"We are businessmen and the future leaders of this company, not a bunch of hotheaded barbarians." Simon brushed his collar and cleared his voice, then reminded us of our situation in a harsh whisper, "There are people always watching you when you're in these passages, so please behave and keep your hands to yourself."

Our positions didn't surprise me; the Pretorius family had always been the peacekeepers and the self-conscious ones, while we, the Nels, kind of had a reputation for our impetuous temper and no-nonsense attitude. Together, we were an unstoppable force that ran the world's number-one hospital chain.

I attempted to say something else, but Simon lifted his hand to my face to silence me, then commented, "For the love of God, you are such an insufferable man-child. I didn't do this for you. Your egotistical, infantile mindset holds you back, and to believe the executives think you are even competent competition for any of us serious contenders for the CEO positions is an insult to my existence. It's a real shame you're a waste of raw talent."

I couldn't believe this judgmental prick was my biggest competitor. It was days like this that I was sure God had placed him, Matthew, and Jacqueline in my life to put my potentially murderous nature to the ultimate test.

"And it's a shame you preoccupy yourself with such farcical ideologies," I retorted, before turning my back on them and saying, "Now if you don't mind, I have wasted a good portion of my time polluting my life with the two of you, and, before my brain rots from being overexposed to your stupidity, I need to use it for more important things."

Strutting past them, Simon clicked his tongue while Matthew said something along the lines of him planning my death when he becomes CEO. Two sliding doors to another room opened, and I walked through. It was all the same kind of bullshit we went through every time we met each other. Thankfully, that was the last I saw of them that day as I made my way to my office.

From picking (and securing) a branch to run and keeping up the current momentum of the company to the incessant public shaming and dealing with psychotic relatives, I had more important issues to get to that would also rot my sanity. One of them involved a mysterious woman whom I was being dragged to hell and back to please while Cupid pulled out quests from his ass like the master game-maker he was.   ⌞♠⌝