Page 143 of Theirs to Take

Eli got back to the hospital a little later than he promised his brother he would. He was sure that Evan’s coffee was going to be cold by the time he got it up to him, but he just couldn’t seem to bring himself to hurry knowing that Mina and her new boyfriend were possibly still up there.

His brother was pacing the floor with Jack when he got back up to their room and Evan shot him a look. “Took you long enough,” Evan grumbled. Carrie told her husband to calm down and Eli wanted to laugh at just how domestic the two already seemed.

“He’s just grumpy because he needs caffeine. Everything all right?” Carrie asked.

“Yes,” Eli lied. “It just took a bit longer than I planned.”

“I see,” Carrie said. “You just missed Mina and Ben.”

“No, I talked to them in the hallway,” Eli grumbled. He didn’t want to talk about Mina or her new boy toy, not that he’d admit that to Carrie or his brother.

“Everything okay with Mina?” Carrie asked.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?” he asked.

“Because you seem grumpier than usual,” Carrie accused. He was grumpier than usual and that had everything to do with the woman who sat outside of his office, making him crazy every day.

“What do you know about this Ben guy she’s seeing?” he asked. He tried to sound casual, but instead, he sounded more like a kid in middle school asking about the cute girl in class.

“What do you mean by seeing?” Evan asked.

“I mean, they’re dating,” Eli said. Evan and Carrie both broke out into fits of laughter, and he was left feeling as though he had missed the joke.

“I’m afraid that you have the wrong idea about the two of them,” Carrie said. “Ben is one of Mina’s best friends. They aren’t dating.”

“Well, friends do fall in love,” Eli said. “She hasn’t told you that they’re dating? He was just talking about spending the night with her last night.”

Evan slapped his shoulder and smiled. “I think you’re being lied to brother. I’ve known Ben for a while now and I don’t know if you’ve picked up on it, but Ben is gay. He and Mina are definitely not dating.”

“Wait—he’s gay?” Eli asked. He was sure that his brother was wrong.

“He’s gay,” Carrie agreed with her husband, “but, I’m betting that my friend, Mina, told you that they are dating, didn’t she?”

Eli sighed, “She did,” he admitted. “I just don’t understand why she’d do that.”

Carrie snickered and shook her head at him. “You really are clueless,” she said. “When Mina started working at McTavish, she asked me if you were seeing anyone.”

“Wait, you didn’t tell me that,” Evan said to his wife.

“Well, I had a lot going on and I didn’t think that it was my secret to tell,” Carrie admitted.

“If I’m being honest, Eli called to ask me about Mina on her first day at the company too,” Evan said. “And I told him to be careful not to fuck things up with her.”

“Language,” Carrie chided.

“Sorry, dear,” Evan whispered, patting Jack’s little butt. “I’ll try to cut back.”

“See that you do,” Carrie said to her husband. “As for you,” she said, pointing at Eli, “I think that you and Mina need to sit down and have an honest conversation. If you really like her, then you won’t fuck things up with her.” Evan cleared his throat, and she smiled up at him. “I’m also a work in progress.”

“Um-hm,” Evan hummed.

“My point is, Mina, likes you, Eli,” Carrie said. “So, why not put both of you out of your misery and ask her out? Don’t make her keep pretending to date her gay friend.”

“I didn’t make her do anything of the sort. She was the one who chose to lie to me. If she had just been honest with me, things might be different,” he insisted. That wasn’t exactly the truth. Mina did admit to having feelings for him when they had dinner together, after the gym, and he shot her down. He told her that he just couldn’t date an employee. It wasn’t a McTavish Industry’s rule, but he worried that if he didn’t put up barriers around himself, he’d fuck up their relationship and he didn’t want that. Honestly, he cared too much about her to let that happen.

Carrie shot him a look and he knew that she was about to call him out for his lie. “You do know that Mina tells me everything, right? She told me about your ‘Just friends’ dinner,” Carrie said, using her fingers to make air quotes. He hated when she did that.

“Fine, I fucked everything up, if that’s what you need to hear from me,” he grumbled.

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