Two- Dibs

The atmosphere was different that particular day, it was not so hard for Nathaniel to notice. He was the calm, calculating one after all. He did his things with precision and made sure his environment moved according to his pace to any extent possible. 

So , yes. Something was different. 

“Are we done here?” an impatient Amir asked, his hand running through his head which did not carry much but just a layer of hair that was glued to his skin in all its oiliness, without stress. 

” Are we going to talk about the fact there is no house help in this house anymore?” Gabriel returned, his child-like face molded into a sneer at Amir. 

“What happened to the one we have?” 

“Well,” Gabriel sat back properly as he answered Nathaniel. “, why don't you ask Mr. Pervert here?”

On hearing the p-word, Nathaniel's interest was ultimately roused that he turned in his seat to fully face the culprit in question. "What did you do Amir?" 

"I didn't do anything nasty, I promise." He swore, his hand grazing his lips after it had made contact with his chest. “I only fired her, that's all.” 

“And you fired her, because..?” 

“Uh…” 

“I am listening.” 

“See man, don 't be making me feel all pressured all of a sudden." 

"Then just tell us why you fired the help! Dude, my library hasn't been dusted in the last three days and housekeeping doesn't come until next week." Amir eyed Gabriel with the side of his eyes, the latter throwing him another sneer.

“No one cares about your stupid library anyway. Nate, as I was trying to say before some dickhead interrupted, I fired her because I caught her doing something else when she was meant to be working.” 

“Did he just…?” 

Nathaniel waved Gabriel to shut up and he did, he was used to it anyway. No one ever listened to what he had to say. So he did what he did best, ran his hand through his hair to make sure it was set properly, sat back, and proceeded to zone out. “What was that something else?” 

“Well, uh… I caught her pleasuring herself when she was supposed to be cleaning my room.”

His eyebrows couldn't help but cock, he just had to chuckle unbelievably. Nathaniel got off the stool he was sitting on. walked to the center of the room, his flops slapping the tiles furiously, and went to take a seat on one of the couches that adorned the almost empty room. “So, you found out that your room hadn't been cleaned. You then proceeded to look for the maid and when you found her, she was pleasuring herself.” 

“Who said anything about finding her anywhere? I caught her on the security camera. Do I look like someone who would stress himself all because he wants his room cleaned?” 

“Gabe, are you listening to this dude?”

“Dude, I stopped listening to him ever since he stole my prom date,” Gabriel replied with his eyes closed, even though a bit reluctant. He had dived into a world of imagination that was delighting him. 

“You need to seriously get over that bro. Anyway,” Amir got up and faced his brothers. “, I wouldn't have fired her if she did not take so long just to pleasure herself.” 

“You watched her while she did it?” 

His hands recklessly in the air, a little shrug from his shoulders, “I was kind of hoping she would stop at some point.” 

“You watched her pleasure herself,” Nathaniel repeated with disbelief. 

“It's not as if it is something new.” 

“Do you know how annoying you sound right now?"

“Wait, come, “ Amir gestured to the man that was staring at him like he was a stranger who had just walked up to him and said; Hey, let's fly to the moon right now. 

“Why do you always act like you are never attracted to women?” 

Even Gabriel had to frown at the bizarre digression. “How does that relate to what you guys have been talking about?” 

“I did not talk to you Gabe, so just sit down and look pretty. Nate, ” Amir threw a forced grin at him, ignoring the finger Gabriel had thrown towards him. “, just answer the question. Tell me why.” 

“I seriously don't understand your question.” 

Shaking his head slightly, Amir resumed an akimbo position “Ever since I have known you, I have never seen you with a woman. Are you…” 

“No, I am not.”

“I am just concerned for a brother, that's all. I mean, look at you, ladies swoon over you than they do at me and the fact that you don't even look their way offends me a lot.” 

“We are not the same Amir. Just let me be with my weirdness.” Nathaniel punctuated his statement with his signature don't even push this any further look which doubled as his why on earth is my hair this rough? look. 

“I thought we were trying to discuss getting a new help,” Gabriel had come back from his trip to the depths of his imagination. 

“Yes, Amir, you should contact Rosco.” 

“Oh, I already did. The new help should be coming in today or tomorrow. . .” 

“Alright.” And for some minutes, silence stayed in the room, allowing each of them to clearly think.

As Nathaniel wondered if Amir would ever stop romancing numerous girls every blessed day, all that was on Amir's mind was the party that was going to hold in his secret room at one of their clubs. Gabriel on the other hand just wanted to sleep, but then, he couldn't help but hope that the new help would take care of his library. 

"Whose idea was it to have a huge house again?" 

"Yours!" Nathaniel and Gabriel screamed. 

"Hey! Don't bite me . Why didn't you guys stop me from having such an idea? Look at us now, we have been living in this huge place with dust for the past few days.” 

“Is this dude kidding me?” Gabriel asked Nathaniel who shrugged in response. Gabriel faced Amir. “Dude, you forced us to agree with you about which house to live in.”

"Well," it seemed like the cat had got Amir's tongue, he had immediately gone from wide-mouthed to timid. "We can always move to the smaller one." 

"Now you are just being silly, you know this place serves us in a lot of ways. We can't leave here.” Amir, for the first time that day agreed with Gabriel. 

“I guess we are stuck here for a while,” Nathaniel concluded and they all agreeably. 

“Eh-hem, ” Chloe who had witnessed the whole agreement thing cleared her throat drawing the attention of the men toward her. She had taken the liberty of dressing in the worst way possible- she had on a t-shirt and sweatpants. She wanted to wear her favourite crocs, but she decided to look a bit presentable with her least favourite Converse. She was not even wearing make-up.

But the way their eyes lit up, you would think she had dressed elaborately like Cinderella going to the ball. 

“Well, hello there.” Amir slowly danced towards her. “How may I help you?” 

Chloe really wished the scowl pictured in her head was on her face at that moment. “Hello sir, my name is Chloe Ashley Steve. I have been sent here by Rosco as your new housemaid.” She also hoped her smile was top-notch. 

“Well, you are at the right place. But before I continue, we have two rules for you." Chloe's brows quirked. "Oh yes. Number one, don't refer to us as sirs. We are not that old. Number two, you can never say no to…” 

“To?” 

“… to anything we ask you to do. We don't like it.” Amir stopped taking short walks around her and his eyes narrowed at her. “I don't like it."

“What if I can't do what is asked of me?” 

“Hmm, I guess we will have to find another way then.” 

Chloe took a few seconds to pretend like she was thinking. “Do I have this job then? " 

A large, quite victorious smile got plastered on Amir's lips. "Yes, yes you do." 

"Great. I guess I will resume tomorrow then." Chloe directed her statement to the other two who had just been sitting silently. They did not even move an inch of their body let alone say something in response. 

“You can always resume next week.” 

She flashed Amir another fake grin, “See you tomorrow sir.” And she walked out of the room, her hand making sure to have contact with the edge of the polished door.

“Guys,” Amir turned dramatically to face the two men. “, I am totally hitting that ass. Damn! That girl is fine! And she is going to be living with us again? Bro, I am hitting that ass.” 

“ No, you are not,” came Nathaniel’s gruff reply that killed Amir’s excitement. 

“Come on dude. You are still confused about your sexuality.” 

Nathaniel readjusted in his seat. “If at all I was confused before, I certainly am not anymore .” Even Gabriel's face lit in surprise. As the image of the confident woman he had just seen in their conversation room flashed through his mind, he smirked and said, “I call dibs.”