Hi everybody. I am sorry to keep my readers waiting for so long.

Vendetta-Rose, Destiny Kitty, Amanita Virosa-Amranthus and Parasitic eve: Thank you for your reviews and kind words.

Chapter 21

Aki, the local reporter for his news channel, has been hanging around waiting for some kind of news to take back today. It had been five days in a row when he had to download clips from the net to fill up the time. Today, for a change, he was to cover some restaurants and make a feature about eateries most visited by wealthy celebrities.

Bryan had finally located them as Enrique was leaving the lounge and about to sit in a taxi, with Garnet tagging along. He had missed them twice and had to follow them at different locations and for some reason, Lee wouldn't leave him alone either. He wanted it to finish this time.

It was apparent that Garnet's has had a little too much of wine. Bryan hurried there hoping to catch them before they were past his reach again with Lee right behind him. Around the same instance, Aki spotted Enrique with the Peterson Girl. Whatever happened next was later on telecasted on in a slow motion by the news channel.

Bryan lunged forward and tried to take away Garnet's hand away from Enrique without any warning. Lee acting promptly jumped upon Bryan and tried to pull him back catching his legs. Bryan's balance went off and he fell over Garnet. Garnet in turn landed upon Enrique. The scene was better than Aki had anticipated and the he kept the camera rolling.

Garnet opened her eyes with a surprised cry and found Brian's face a little too close to hers. She caught his face as he was trying to detangle himself but, it was not easy as Lee was holding his legs.

"Ouch!"

"Oaf"

"Aaa.."

"What the ..l!"

"My arm!"

"Get off me!"

Half dazed Girl was probably just gaping and trying to understand the whole scenario when Enrique tried to push all the weight on him, from far below. Bryan trying to wiggle out from the situation tried to kick away Lee. The resultant was that Garnet's lips had matched with Bryan. The unintentional kiss would be on front page on many news papers tomorrow.

"Eww.. How dare you?"

"Me! What did I do?" Enrique answered from below.

"I didn't mean to." Bryan tried to balance himself on his arm and get up. It was not easy though as Lee was still clutching him from behind and hadn't made any attempt to remove himself.

"Let me get up, you idiot."

"What do you think you were doing?"

"What do you think you were doing?"

"Why are you here?" Garnet asked Bryan, adding "Let me up."

"Hey! What are you doing?" Enrique's muffled voice came out. "I said, 'let me get up'; off you fools!"

All the four got up finally red faced (with different emotions) got apart slowly among flashing cameras and laughs and snickering all around. Garnet's partly angry and partly ashamed of the scene just played; Bryan's was red with anger and Lee's red was with shame as he slowly realized what his haste has resulted in and Enrique's with all the weight, he just had to endure.

"Will someone tell me what's this all about?" Enrique asked with obvious anger.

"I think we should go some place else where we can find some privacy." Lee suggested meekly looking at the crowd. He was beginning to realize what had happnned just now.

"You are thinking NOW?" Bryan said chewing each word between his teeth.

"It looked like you were attacking them." Lee replied defensively.

"Attacking! Keep you hands away from me in future or you won't see daylight."

Garnet caught the moment and sat inside the taxi in haste with Enrique swiftly following her. That cab was gone before Bryan could do anything else. He gave up. Only thing he was trying to avoid was another scandal with Hiwatari name attached to it and now he had gotten himself entangled between all this. It's been a long period since he had had been on vacation. It was time to visit home.

Bryan made his way back to his car stoically ignoring the stares. He was well aware that Lee was slowly following him. He sat in his car and after a moment's pause pushed open the other door. Lee hesitated a bit but, silently made a round and sat on the other side. It was a quite drive back to the home.

Everyone waited patiently for an explanation from Bryan as they stared at his photograph of last night's accident in the news paper on the table. Apparently, Enrique was almost invisible and all they could see of Lee were his hands and back of his head on Bryan's thighs. It seemed Bryan was kissing Garnet and someone was in turn holding onto him.

"Julia and her mother left early in the morning, you say?" Voltaire asked.

"Yes sir." Kai Replied. Tala shifted uncomfortably under pointed look from the old man. If only he hadn't dumped Julia the way he did...

"Did they know about this" Voltaire indicated at the news paper. He had read the story twice it didn't make any sense to him.

"I don't know,' Kai replied looking at Bryan.

Bryan had no heart to read what was written in the news. "That was an accident," he replied without any details. It was clear that others wanted it, but he was not in the mood.

A knock made all eyes turn towards the door. It was Lee. He flinched a little as people in the room eyed him with acute irritation but, entered the room defiantly despite them.

"It was my fault, Sir. I'm sorry Bryan, Kai, everyone " he added with a bow, "I thought he was trying to harm Miss Garnet or Enrique. I misunderstood the whole thing. I shouldn't have jumped in" Nobody replied. Voltaire gave a little nod in acknowledgement. Lee made a bow again and left the room.

"I request a month's leave, sir," Bryan said to Voltaire breaking the silence.

Voltaire sighed and shook his head. "I expect you to return at the end of the month."

"I'll, Mr. Voltaire." Bryan answered. The tensed atmosphere eased a little in the room.

"Let me know when Mr. Peterson arrives, Tala."

"Yes sir."

Aki would never find out but, he made the next morning's session for Hiwataris easier.

When Peterson entered the office building, along with his attorney, he looked aged. His footsteps were determined but his expression had lost the ever ready smile. Clearly he had found out about Julia's stunt being known to Kai as well as read the morning paper and the blow was enormous.

It didn't take much convincing him to the terms of Kai's new proposal under circumstances even if he tried to blame Kai and his lies for the whole fiasco. Voltaire watched his grandson with well hidden admiration he felt as Kai shot off every argument by Peterson.

Two third part of the day was gone when Kai returned to the mansion finalizing the deal with Peterson. He found his friends eagerly waiting for him to know the details and congratulated Kai on his success of his first official take over. He flashed a rare smile along with a victory sign.

Next day in the morning Kai found Tyson walking in the front lawn by himself apparently in deep thought. He joined his friend in the walk.

"We will be leaving today", Tyson said after some time.

"I know." Another pause. Both friends walking silently thinking over the incidents of the past week.

"Did Garnet really leave with Enrique?"

"Well, she went on that cruise ship with him," Kai replied, "I'm not sure if there was something between them or she was only on a vacation."

"It will do her good either way. By the time she returns, it will be an old news and save her a lot of trouble."

"Hmm." They were nearing the pond.

"About us... I have my classes starting next month and you are going to be busy as well with your business.""

"You are not rethinking about our relationship already, are you?" Kai commented. Tyson gave a gentle push to Kai as reprimand, only to get it back in return. "No, but I hope you will steal sometime from your busy schedule for me."

"You don't have to ask that." Kai replied, "I always kept a tab on you and be assured that it's not going to change. Rather, I warn you if you try to have any other girl or boy friend for that matter I will know."

"Possessive, are we?" Tyson grinned.

"Whatever…"

Voltaire looked out of his office window. His grandson was again standing right next to the tree, along with his boy friend. Oh well, they were still young and that boy, Tyson, would be going away for his MBA. So many things could happen in the mean time. Tyson may find someone else or one day for sure his grandson would understand his folly and marry a nice girl. No, Voltaire would not be seeking out one for him –not any time soon.

A/N: Thank you for reading. Don't forget to review.