I step inside the kitchen to find Sabrina. Apparently, in only less than a minute, Sabrina is already gone by my side. I've only hugged my mother for a second and when I turned around, my best friend was nowhere to be found. Luckily, I had a great reason to check the kitchen first to find her. That reason is because my brother Derek is in the kitchen cleaning the dirty dishes. And once I entered the kitchen, unsurprisingly, I was shocked to see Sabrina giving Derek a helping hand with the dirty dishes. I thought Derek and Dad were supposed to be the one cleaning, but perhaps my Dad saw Sabrina entering the kitchen and decided to leave these two together.
"What did my little sister tell you to convince you to come home with her?" I heard my brother ask Sabrina. Suddenly I want to keep quiet and hear this entire conversation through. I did a giggle mentally since I never felt this sneaky since I was a little girl. So, quietly as I can, I lean on the side of the arch and casually listen to the conversation between my best friend and my brother.
Sabrina snorts and hands Derek a wet dish for him to wipe it dry, "She didn't convince me to come. I just decided that I'll go with her." I kept my eyes on Sabrina, she's so busy washing the dishes and being in a casual with Derek that she couldn't feel my eyes on her. This is fun! I should try to eavesdrop more often, but next time I'll have some popcorn while eavesdropping. "What even made you think that your little sister convinced me to go with her? I'm capable of making my decision, with or without her convincing me." I mentally punch the air, feeling pride how my best friend is standing on her ground.
Derek raises both his hands up, alongside the wet towel he's been using to wipe the dishes dry. "I didn't mean it that way. I completely respect that you're a smart and brave woman to make your own decision." I watch as something shines in my brother's brown pupils. Whatever that was shining in my brother's eyes immediately disappeared in a matter of seconds. I wonder what that was, I thought to myself as I kept on listening to their conversation. "But if you allow me, maybe I can convince you to grab some coffee with me sometimes."
Wow, my brother really won't hold back. He seems not to care that he's flirting with his little sister's best friend. Ignoring the cliché of it all, that's genuinely kind of cute. I always wanted to have a sister, but maybe Derek can make that happen. As long as these two tread together to the horizon.
For a moment, Sabrina just stood there, her eyes glued tight to Derek's brown eyes. The only noise that came between them was the sound of running water hitting the bottom of the sink. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Sabrina spoke up. "That's a nice offer. Unfortunately, I have to decline it. Coffee and a secret male stripper doesn't sound like a great pair anyway."
I have to swallow down the urge to laugh, but that is deemed to be difficult, especially seeing Derek's cheeks turn crimson red. "You're not going to let that one go, aren't you?"
Sabrina shakes her head and a smile filled with pride covers her entire face. "Nope. It wasn't my fault that you made me assume that 'Mr. Grind' could potentially be a nightclub with male strippers."
Seeing her smile had made Derek flash his own wide grin, "Okay then. But just to inform you, I think most ladies appreciate the combination of coffee and strippers in the morning."
A series of tsk tsk tsk got out of Sabrina's lips and I suddenly realized what she was about today. Little does my brother know that Sabrina is a bit of a caffeine addict. "Most ladies, but not this lady," She pauses to point fingers at her, and I hear the genuine pride in her voice. "I'm a grumpy lady if I can't have my morning coffee. Male strippers or not, coffee would always be my first priority."
I watch as my brother leans an elbow on the counter top. My brother doesn't know when to give up, and it appears that he's making himself comfortable around Sabrina. "Okay, scratch the coffee. How about alcohol and a secret male stripper? Does that pair sound good to you?" I see my brother flash Sabrina a grin. The same grin I see him flash when he wants to sleep with someone. I've seen it a million times when I was hanging around in his restobar in the past. But now that only makes me wonder if Sabrina would take the bait.
"I actually do think that sounds like a perfect pair. Drinking alcohol, getting drunk enough to receive a memory loss the next day, while a stripper is dancing, sounds like a fantastic night." She contemplates, and the next words that came out of her lips would forever make me respect her. "Unfortunately, I still have to decline the offer. I'm here for my best friend. I went with her to support her and help her have some fun." She flashed my brother a small smile, "I'm not here to have fun on my own. Thanks for the offer anyway."
With a pat on my brother's shoulder, I let out the laugh that was building inside of me. Not caring anymore if both of them heard me. I didn't care, since I just watched my brother get shut down by my best friend, and Derek's dumbstruck expression was priceless. Both of them glance towards me as I try to pull myself down from laughing far too hard.
Derek's cheeks had reddened again, and I assume it has something to do with me listening to their conversation. "How long have you been standing there?" The shock in his voice is far too obvious to not point it out.
I stare at him with my set of brown eyes and flash a mischievous grin. "Long enough for me to witness my best friend shut you down," I quickly gazed at Sabrina and gave her a wink. That made Sabrina fall into the vast ocean of laughter, while Derek's cheeks continued to spread the crimson red around his face. I watch as Sabrina saunters away from the sink, since it looks like she's done washing the dirty dishes. That only left Derek with wet dishes that needed to be dried up. Once Sabrina stood next to me, I flashed another smile at my poor brother. "Thanks for the lovely dinner, Derek. Sabrina and I will just pick up our stuff from the car."
With my brother still looking dumbstruck, we left him all alone in the kitchen with those wet dishes. I heard Sabrina still giggling at what had happened, and I had to join in with her laughing. "I never ever seen you trying to eavesdrop on a conversation before. Who are you and what did you do to my kind friend Kiera?" She grinned at me and I had to playfully slap her smile away.
"Shut up! I sometimes eavesdrop," I hug myself once the evening breeze struck us right after stepping foot out of the door. We both walked towards the car and each of us picked our belongings.
"Damn, the evening wind in this town hits differently." I glance at Sabrina, who's hugging herself, trying to keep herself warm. "Remind me to always wear a jacket whenever I decide to do a nightly walk around the town." She let go of herself and hauled the luggage into the house.
We gathered our stuff just by the door and made sure if we missed something in the car. Once each of our luggage was already out of the car, we both walked back to the front door. We were expecting our luggage, but we didn't expect Derek standing at the door with his arms crossed. "Do you guys need help with your stuff?" I'm guessing he's only crossing his arms just to flex his biceps at us.
But it seems I'm not the only one who realized that, since Sabrina is also crossing her arms with her brows raised in question. "Aren't you supposed to be drying the dishes?"
That made the corners of Derek's lips lift in a wide grin. "I'm already done drying the dishes. And once I saw the luggage you guys have been hauling in the front door. So, I decided to help out." He shrugs his shoulders as if it's not a big deal for him to be helping us out. But it's funny since he's the one who's volunteering to help out. He didn't need to act like it's not a big deal to him.
Sabrina turned her head at me and gave me a silent question. A question that I'm fairly sure it's the same as the voices in my head are asking me. Also, I think those voices are from Sabrina. I shrugged both my shoulders and glanced at my brother. "Fine, if you don't have anything else to do. Then it wouldn't hurt that you're going to help us carry our luggage to our room."
