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After the waiter left to get their order, Emily glanced at Lexi, "Where is Elijah?" she asked her, "He texted me on the way and said he was here already. Was he messing with me?"

"Now why the hell would I do that?" a voice said behind them.

Elena didn't need to look behind her to know who owned that voice….

Elijah.

—-------

Elijah Kendrick was a handsome young man. It was one of the reasons why Elena had had such a huge crush on him in their university days.

Elena and Emily were identical, and sometimes students and teachers would confuse them for each other if they didn't know them well. Elena and Emily met Elijah at the same time. But there was something about Emily, some energy buzzing at an undetectable level, that drew Elijah's attention and made him feel comfortable.

Elijah and Emily had been best friends ever since, and Elena hated that she looked like Emily—exactly like her—and was still different enough that the sweet, shy guy, the one with a cute smile and long legs, didn't look twice at her.

Elijah was quiet and observant when he was in public, a knife-sharp sense of humor and playful personality when he was with people who knew him the best. He was the reason Elena hated being a twin for the first time in her life. She didn't think about that day much anymore, and her crush on him lessened to a low-lying simmer. Barely detectable unless you held your hand directly over the heat. But then one day, she opened stupid Instagram and saw that he'd followed her. Of course, she'd followed him right back, and saw a picture of him in his stupid “don't I look good in blue” scrubs, and felt her heart die all the deaths from how cute he looked. So now she couldn't stop thinking about him.

Which was why she'd avoided her sister by locking herself in her room to study. Scared that locking up the butterflies that wanted to flutter through her veins at the sight of him, her sister would take one look at her and know.

Picturing her twin sister's best friend was one thing that made her head and heart war mightily. And every single time, her head won.

Leave him alone.

It would be too weird.

He doesn't even look at you that way.

Those were all the things Elena told herself when her crush on Elijah flared out of control. And it had worked too. Worked until they graduated, and everyone went on and focused on their lives and careers.

Four years ago, Elijah had been the man of Elena's dreams. The guy she couldn't stop thinking about and couldn't stop staring at, but right now, he was standing right in front of their table, but her attention was not on him. Another man was standing on Elijah's left and that was where her gaze was.

The man was taller than Elijah, broad shoulders encased in midnight black, hands tucked into the pants pockets.

Elena's eyes narrowed. His hand came out of the pants pockets, and she caught a flash of ink along the back of his big, rough-looking hand. Her mouth was hanging open when she realized that Elijah was speaking to her.

She took her gaze off Mr strange and stared at Elijah's smiling face and clean-shaven jaw, then spread out her hands to receive his warm hug. She smiled back at him. "Elijah," she said, "It's really good to see you again. How have you been?"

"Very fine, thank you," replied Elijah, "Emily has been talking non stop about your arrival. I'm glad you are here. Trust me, you'll enjoy the city,"

Elena grinned at him, "Well, time will tell," Her gaze fell on the other man again, and Elijah's voice seemed to come from a distance when he introduced the other man to her,

"This is my elder brother, Chandler Kendrick,"

"Hello..." Elena whispered. Her head was nodding before she could even attempt to mask her reaction.

There was no smiling from Chandler. No, his facial expression could be categorized as a smirk if she'd ever seen one. His mouth was firm and wide, a hard, smirking slash in his face.

Which was also not clean-shaven. There was a jaw, all right, but the similarities ended there. He was darker, bigger, and taller than Elijah in all categories. But the eyes, she noted immediately; he had the same color eyes as his brother.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you, Elena," he muttered, eyes glancing down the front of her body. Is it okay if I sit here…Beside you?"

Oh, it was very okay, Elena thought, but she couldn't say that out loud, so she simply nodded, and tried not to sniff loudly when he squeezed into the space beside her. He was a big man and he seemed to occupy not just the seat but the air around her too. Spicy and clean and male, and Elena like that… She liked that a lot.

Emily sat with Daniel, and although they joined in the conversations, they seemed to be in their own world too. Holding hands, smiling at each other at intervals, and sneaking in kisses at some point. Elena thought that her sister was lucky. Emily seemed to have everything and have life figured out. She had her career figured out, her friendship and marriage figured out, and Elena couldn't relate to that.

The waiter returned with their drinks, took Elijah and Chandler's order and left again. He returned with a bottle of Hennessy and Elena watched through the corner of her eyes as Chandler poured himself a shot and drank it in one gulp.

Elena learnt that Lexi was actually Elijah's girlfriend, and that Chandler was a businessman and owned his own company. She also observed that Charlotte couldn't seem to keep her eyes off Chandler. She batted her eyes at him numerous times, flirted subtlety with him and laughed at almost every comment he made. It was funny and a little cringey, but Elena didn't blame her. The man was very attractive.

Chandler on the other hand didn’t seem to care about Charlotte's advances. He didn't seem to be interested in her —or anyone else for that matter. He seemed reserved, and spoke only when someone spoke to him or asked a question. Which was why Elena was surprised when he suddenly took another shot, dropped the glass, turned to her and said, "There's a lot going on over there," he nodded in the direction of the dance floor, "Wanna dance?"