The Game

"He is the most annoying, arrogant, aggravating-

Vanessa paused,

"Are you running out of negative words that start with letter A to describe your boss?" Tori laughed ruefully, after listening to Nessa's story.

"- asshole I have ever met" Nessa complete. She used her hand to fanned herself, she let out a long breath.

"Well, he can't be that bad, could he?

"Oh, he's that bad, believe me Tori, he's worse" Nessa snapped.

Tori couldn't help but smile, wondering how bad Roarke Stone might be to make Nessa feel frustrated.

An evil glint showed in Nessa's eyes and her lips curled up, "and I know how best to handle him"

"What are you gonna do?" Seeing that look on her friend's face, she knew she was up to no good.

Nessa dramatically crawled like a cat from the couch to join Tori on the rug, where she sat in front of her laptop, "no, Tori. The question should be, what are we gonna do?"

"Awwnn, this is why I love you Nessa, you know just when to include me in your evil and naughty but fun revenge even though I have tons of work to do" Tori sarcastically replied.

Vanessa shrugged, "what are friend for, if not for inconvenience?".

Tori pulled her hair in a burn, getting ready for 'business', "you're just in luck, while working I took a detour and did a little research about the Stone Brothers"

"Tell me about it" like a student whose life depended on a particular score to pass, Nessa concentrated, eager to hear what her friend found out because she needed as much information as she can get about Roarke.

"Firstly, their parents must have saved a continent in their previous lives because the brothers are devilishly handsome and the brothers must have done the same because their parents are loaded. I never thought having a cleft chin could be sexy until now"

Lucky bastards!

Nessa thought about Roarke's features and nodded. Agreeing with Tori, she admitted that Roarke was handsome.

Tori continued, "aside from their looks and pockets, what they also have in common is their names"

Nessa rolled her eyes, "of course, every body knows that the five brothers all have the same first letter for their first name, which is the letter R, the only issue I have is that Roarke' should have been named 'Rascal' or better still, Rancid, he pollutes the air on earth with his rotten personality!"

Tori threw her head back and laughed uncontrollably, "Nessa, you're insane!"

"Tori, could you give me a better info like what I can do to annoy the living daylight out of him?" Pleading, she rested her head on Tori's shoulder.

"Calm your tits down, my friend. I'm getting to it" she patted Vanessa's head like she would a baby.

"Okay,  I heard that one of the brothers owns a club - De'Rock Club - downtown. He's a jovial and a party boy who obviously will know more about his brothers than outsiders. Besides, Roarke is a private person who hardly socialise, only when necessary, getting info won't be easy except from those who are close to him"

"Uhhmmm" Nessa, agreeing to the logical thought, she also remembered that she wanted to be friendly with his P.A to know more about what ticks him off. That might not be necessary after all.

"So when are we going clubbing?"

"Any night, but not tonight! Tori declared, "my editor is on my ass, I need to submit some chapters ASAP"

"and how are they coming along?" Vannesa stood up, rubbing her ass which had gone numb and itchy for sitting on the rug for some minutes. She wondered how Tori felt comfortable, sitting on the rug for that long.

"I'm thinking of an interesting way to kill one of the evil characters" she sighed

"If you promised to name the character Roarke, I could suggest some ways", she moved sideways in time to dodge the pillow Tori threw at her.

"Nessa, could it be that Roarke reacted that way to you probably as a result of transfer of aggression. Maybe something else was bothering him and you were just unlucky to be the one to bear the brunt?"

"I thought of that too but I could sense that there was more to it. Especially when he said something about knowing people like me. I hate generalisation and I won't back down until I teach him a lesson. Why hate another human and conclude badly about them just because of your encounter with few of them?"

Tori shrugged, "the man has a kid and I don't think he would be that bad, though the mom is out of the picture, nobody knew what went down between them but from the few facts I read about him, he's a wonderful father to his kid."

"I'm glad to hear that. At least, he's not a grumpy father"

"I heard that the man even attends all school events that has to do with parents participation"

"Good for him"

**********

One of the ways the brothers blow off steam is by playing on the basketball court.  After tucking Ari to bed, Roarke went to join his brothers downstairs where his mini court is. The team is uneven because of the absence of Ryan, his elder brother. The new dad is still spending some quality time with his daughter and wife which left him with Reese and Ronald, and Rick the traveler is abroad.

"Since Ryan's not here, we will take turns" Roarke announced.

"Whoever gets the ball into the basket first wins" Ronald spoke while bouncing the ball.

"Let's make it more interesting" Reese turned Roarke.

Everybody knows that Reese is the naughty one, the last born who refuses to grow up. He loves making the best of everything and fancies making mischiefs. How he was the best graduating student in his set is still a mystery to his brothers.

The boy has a whisky glass of seriousness and an ocean of playfulness in him, he is in charge of anything technology, ICT related in all the Stone Companies. He's the Zuckerberg of the family, in other words, he's a nerd.

The mischievous glint in Reese's eyes brighten, "if I win, you'd tell us about what happened between you and a particular new and attractive engineer in your office today"

"What!" A look of astonishment appeared on Ronald and Roarke's face and they both exclaimed in unison. The former was surprised that he hadn't gotten a whiff that something beyond finalising a contract occurred while the later's was because he didn't expect Reese to know about Vanessa, not to talk of detecting that something happened.

"You don't think I don't have my eyes and ears everywhere, do you" Reese smirked.

Ronald, still looking lost and confused, "I thought you said everything was fine when I asked about how things went between you and her?" But Roarke's attention was on Reese.

"Did you bug my office?" Roarke's raised his voice, approaching Reese like a prey.

"Calm your balls down, bro. I didn't, we're not shooting a Spy Kids movie" he joked, "hacking your computer to assess the camera would have been a better option than a bug"

Roarke's brows furrowed in anger, "how did you then know that something happened?"

" I guess you'll never know, except if that is what you want to wager" he smiled, knowing how annoyed Roarke gets by his silly smiles.

"You're on!"

"Okay!" Throwing his fist up in the air.

Both brothers looked determined to win in order to satisfy their curiousity. Ronald automatically became the coach.

*******

Who do you think will win?

Headstrong Roark?

Or

Mischievous Reese?

Hahahahah! *Evil laughter*

*Vote*comment*follow*