16 Not a problem

Summer who had finally made her way back to her place was mildly disturbed as she parked her Mini Cooper near her apartment, she made sure to steer clear of the tree that received the impact in the morning and wished that the driver was doing okay.

She closed her door and placed her purse on her shoulder, half contemplating taking her uncomfortable heels off while she walked to her home just like those women in the movies do, but she was too afraid of stepping on something sharp along the way.

'A trip to the ER right now is the last thing I'm looking for,'

When her eyes snapped up at the figure that was standing by the main door to her building, the ER trip became the second to last thing she was looking for.

"P-Patrick!" she spat his name out with all the acid that accumulated in her system throughout the day, then she made a small fist and raised it slightly up, this man was different from Andrew or any other man for that matter. This man had seen her going through the horrid teenage stage and went through the fluctuation of her hormones alongside her.

This man has seen her going nuts before.

Patrick was much like her brothers; someone she shared ugly history with, someone who she can physically attack first and then mind the consequences later on.

"Why do you look like a kitten that's about to scratch?"

Summer jumped up and down then turned around and hit Gabe's shoulder as hard as she could with her little fist that was already up and running.

"Haha! Your hand has always been freakishly small for a tall woma- Ouch!"

What he said earned him three hits on the same spot that he was now covering.

"Stop! It tickles!" He lied, his shoulder actually throbbed and would probably bruise.

"What are you doing here!" She glared at her brothers with eyes that said: 'What is he doing here!'

"...I came with Patrick to have dinner at your place," he raised her spare keys for demonstration purposes, but his mouth and his eyes were saying something completely different.

'Patrick must've told him about the second date,' She groaned inwardly as she narrowed her eyes at her brother. She wondered what had possessed her into giving him the spare keys to this apartment in the first place.

Summer started walking and her brother quickly followed her.

"You still have leftovers of the world's most delicious pizza? Right?"

The siblings had just reached Patrick whose hazel eyes shone with mirth, "Did I hear the word pizza?"

"It's all that he eats now, and he calls himself a med student," Summer grumbled at Patrick while skipping the greeting part altogether since they already greeted each other once today.

"Nonsense! What other pizza in the universe can dream of being compared to Summer's four seasons?"

Patrick's mouth watered, "That same one?" He asked with sparkling eyes.

Summer grinned in spite of everything, "The very same one that won the bet, yes, and it's not leftovers, it's the whole thing that I kept in the freezer,"

She did that for when Gabe showed up the next time when she didn't have something already cooked and ready to be presented.

"What bet are we talking about here exactly?" Gabe asked with an upbeat tone, secretly ecstatic that his sister's date sucked enough for her to be back this early. He had prepared himself to mentally wait for her no matter how long it took and then secretly prepared for the worst-case scenario too.

"Haha, I lost a hundred bucks for your sister that night, you were probably too young to remember it,"

"I'm sure I'll remember once you tell me, doctors have an impeccable memory after all," he both sounded and looked smug.

"Show off," Summer murmured under her breath as she subtly snatched away the key from her brother's hand instead of using hers, Gabe who was always one step ahead of his sister snatched the key back as soon as the three of them got inside of her apartment.

"Who knew eggplants tasted good over pizza!" Patrick threw his arms in the air.

Gabe mimicked the hand gesture and threw his arms in the air too, "Chicken too! Not even roasted but boiled!"

Summer took off her shoes while she enjoyed listening to the cruel compliments both men kept throwing around her, it reminded her of having her older brother around too, she frowned at the thought while she made her way to the kitchen and washed her hands in the sink over there, then she quickly headed to the fridge and took out the pizza.

'Glad you're a fast machine,' she thought as she placed the frozen pizza inside of her oven.

"I told her back then that somebody in Italy would commit suicide if they saw her putting those toppings over it, and we ended up betting on how good it would taste," Patrick had a warm smile on while he explained it to Gabe.

"Haha!" Gabe broke into laughter. "She won that bet with a flair, didn't she?

"What can I say, I was young and ignorant,"

Summer shook her head; she couldn't believe that her young self was able to be so bold when it comes to cooking. But then her mom always encouraged her to be creative. And the results at their worst were always edible.

"And…and… it shouldn't even be called four seasons since there are only two kinds of toppings over it!" Gabe slapped his knees and laughed some more as he sat down on the couch and waited for the magic to happen in the kitchen.

"Excuse me guys," Summer headed to her room without the need to pause, she didn't feel compelled to entertain the men who were about to break into her apartment and wait for her until she got back from her date, and she was comfortable enough to wear her PJs while Patrick was there.

Her body ached for the release, she closed the door behind her and immediately tested if she could pull the zipper down herself, glad that Gabe was out there to save the day if she needed his intervention.

The zipper came down with mocking ease. 'Are you kidding me?' She thought to herself.

She was about to reach for the PJs folded neatly on the side of the bed, but she found herself hesitating. 'I do have cuter ones than those, don't I?' She thought with a start.

She didn't have to think twice about why she wanted to look cute all of a sudden. And that made her want to question her entire life from the day she was born until this very same day. She slumped down on the ground in the middle of her room and ruffled her curls with a vindictive force as if she was taking her frustration out on her hair.

'It's all that vicious woman's fault, I'll never forgive her for delivering such a confusing prophecy!'

Summer tried hard to convince herself that she never harbored any kind of affection towards Patrick while she searched between her PJs. She finally found the cute ones that were on her mind when she ditched the ones that she only wore the night before.

She took a moment to hug herself and rub her arms soothingly, 'Even if somewhere deep inside I did have something extra towards him, it was too minor to manifest before all of this, and… it's not a problem if it ended up manifesting now...He's a good guy...'

With that line of thoughts rolling on the track of her mind, Summer went inside to take a quick shower before she got into her cute PJs.