That Forbidden Love

*****

Zack

The three, short, raspy knocks on the door of his office pulled Zack Whittaker’s attention from the fourteen pages long business contract he’d been poring over for the past hour without as much as a break.

“Come on in,” he instructed crisply, without taking his eyes off the document. His personal assistant, Maggie Wilson knew whatever it was, had to be really important enough to warrant an interruption at crucial moments like this.

“Hello, son of my father.”

Zack felt a sigh coming on as he dropped the file on the mahogany burnished desk and looked up to see his younger brother, Justin saunter into the room and settle comfortably on one of the high-backed seats facing him.

Dressed immaculately as usual in a pristine white shirt tucked into close-fitting black trousers and a maroon blue tie with his tawny brown hair combed to perfection, his face held traces of amusement as he took a long look around the office before returning to him.

“Your office looks amazing, man. I didn’t know you were redecorating so soon.”

“Justin. You didn’t call to say you’d be coming around,” Zack sat up straight and dropped his pen, feeling a stabbing pain at the base of his spine. It was hard to know if it had developed from sitting too long in one position or was the effects of seeing his annoying, but endearing brother once more.

“I knew it was a moot point to call your cellphone. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were avoiding me.”

Zack rolled his eyes. “If only that had a one percent possibility of ever happening.”

“You don’t sound like a grateful dude, brother,” Justin grinned and swept a hand through his hair in a typical fashion. “Without me, you’d have turned into the world’s biggest grouch and worked yourself to the bones. I believe you should place me on a lifelong retainer.”

“I should place you on a restraining order, that’s what,” Zack said and shook his head, unable to believe how and why they were related. They were both different like light and day but possessed a similar sense of humor; a trait inherited from their late father, the one and only August Whittaker.

“Mum would like to have a say in that,” Justin grinned. “She’s been complaining you haven’t been returning all her calls.”

“Did she send you here?” Zack’s sharp instinct reared its head as he got up to fetch a glass of water from the dispenser.

“Not really but she might have asked that I let you know you aren’t acting like the son she raised. She wants you to come for brunch this Sunday, no excuses.”

Zack downed the glass of water in one fell swoop and sighed, assuming his seat. He wished his mother and brother understood just how much he needed and loved his work, perhaps they’d cut him some slack.

After his father’s death ten years ago, it had taken sheer hard work and persistency to convert the family’s failing shopping mall, HubMart into a thriving chain of malls that was sweeping through the entirety of USA and was in the process of branching out to Canada as well.

He’d singlehandedly turned the family fortune around by burying himself in the depth of retail commerce and with every closed deal and new opening, he found himself falling deeper in love with work and the satisfaction that came with success.

These past three years had been the hardest and most defining moment of his life and there hadn’t been much choice but to relegate everything else like family, friends and anything that wasn’t related to work to the background.

His social life was practically non-existent now, and he’d lost a few friends along the way, but the tremendous success HubMart had made was enough consolation.

He expected his mother to understand more than anyone else, after all, she’d built the initial business with his father and had singlehandedly managed it to the best of her ability until he got his Master’s Degree in business administration and took over.

Now she lived out a society matriarch life in style and was on the board of a number of charity organizations across the Midwest. His brother, Justin on the other hand sat on the board of directors and came in during core decision making but reveled in his job as a basketball talent agent with a number of well-known athletes as clients.

Zack was literally the only one in charge of the family business and it wasn’t a walk in the park handling more than forty shopping malls across the country, with almost a hundred people under his employ.

Feeling the stabbing pain in his spine growing intense by the second, Zack pulled open a drawer and retrieved a box of painkillers. “Tell Mom I’d try my best and if I can’t make it for brunch, I’d visit the house next week.”

“Don’t you think you should take a break?” Justin pointed at the pillbox with skeptical eyes. “We could grab lunch down the street and a drink as we used to do before you became this stranger.”

Zack downed the painkillers and smirked at the accusatory tone in his brother’s voice. Guilt-tripping was something Justin did with suave and dexterity, and it wasn’t a new occurrence.

Yet, Zack knew he was right this time. Justin was the closest person to him and even though he could be a pain in the ass sometimes, there was no one else he trusted and relied on more than anything.

The past few days had been somewhat intense, especially with the new Toronto-Ontario project he was currently stuck on. Shuffling from New Orleans to Canada at the drop of a hat and long-ass meetings that lasted well into midnight were taking their toll no doubt.

He could use a break, even it wasn’t more than thirty minutes. He owed himself that much.

Putting the document aside and grabbing his keys, he got to his feet. “Okay, Justin, you win. I think that drink sounds about right.”

Justin’s grin looked huge enough to swallow the entire room as he got up and ran a hand through his tawny blonde hair. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

Zack followed after his brother, listening with half-attention as he rambled on about a new basketball prospect he’d just signed as they headed off to Logan’s; an upscale bar located smack dab in the middle of business district, four blocks away from the office.

They hadn’t settled fully in the polished chrome barstools when Justin gave him a look riddled with mischief. “I have something in store for you this weekend and there is no room for refusal.”

Zack felt his suspicion radar go off immediately and was glad the bartender set down their whisky shots just then. He downed his in one fell swoop and faced his scapegrace brother. “I have no interest in whatever foolhardy plan you have concocted for this weekend, Justin. Thanks for the offer.”

“Come on, man. You don’t just reject something outright. You will love it, I promise.”

It was a moot point hearing him out, Zack knew it. Justin’s plans were usually the craziest, unpredictable and unimaginable scenarios one could think of, and he’d learnt from experience to avoid and shun them.

The memory of the last vacation he’d let his brother plan was still freshly engraved in his head. it had been an utter wild disaster with angry strippers fighting, an accidental crash into the open glass bar which sent three people to the E.R and he’d almost ended up drowning with a surf instructor who was just three days on the job.