Resisting Sin (Gold Diggers #1)

Episode 3 - Trying Not to Judge

"Hey losers."

Emmanuelle Sin sat gracefully in an empty chair at the table between Gabriel and Reinheart, dropping a fluffy, furry pink handbag next to Reinheart's wine glass.

At the sound of her voice he had paused in the act of cutting his steak. He now put down his knife and fork and picked up his wine, as though its proximity to her outrageous purse worried him. "You invited her?" he asked Gabriel who sat across him at their table in their favorite post-hangover restaurant, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his tone.

"Nice to see you too, Reinheart." Emmanuelle flashed him her best fake smile for two seconds before turning to her brother.

As much as Gabriel loved his baby sister, with his hangover, he wasn't really in the right state of mind to handle her boisterous presence. "Em, I don't really have time -"

"Mama has been trying to reach you," she said, cutting him off.

He frowned. "Is she all right?"

Her expression turned gleeful. "Gege, she is pissed."

"What did you do this time, Em?" Reinheart said. His mouth twisted in a barely held back grin.

She ignored him. "She's angry with you, of course." After an exasperated sigh, she added, "Honestly, of all the stupid things you could have done, you just had to go and break up with Tallah."

Gabriel groaned. Reinheart, who was dabbing a napkin on the corner of his mouth, chuckled behind it.

"She was practically already picking out lucky dates for your wedding, you know," Emmanuelle continued.

"And here I thought Auntie Celeste wanted a Chinese daughter-in-law," Reinheart remarked, amused.

"A Waldorf salad for me, please," she said, with a brief glance up at the wait staff who just appeared. "She did," she said to Reinheart, shrugging. "But a wife who had graduated with distinction from Stanford was beyond anything she'd hoped for Gabriel."

"How did you even know I was here?" Gabriel said, trying not to make his irritation show. He'd barely gotten two bites of his steak before his sister showed up. Not just to tell him their mother was upset with him, but to bring up the topic of Tallah and their breakup. All while he was still suffering the after-effects of the consumption of alcohol that breakup caused.

"Someone posted a photo of Rhino here on Instagram. Captioned with a disgusting number of heart emojis." Her lips pursed in disgust. "You were in the shot, too. What the hell have you been doing all this time that you couldn't be bothered to check your messages?"

Reinheart had gotten too used to her derogatory nickname for him to even react. He had resumed tucking in his steak.

"I was busy," Gabriel said. He wasn't about to admit to his twenty-year-old sister he'd been drowning himself in alcohol to try not to think about his ex. "I'll call Ma tomorrow."

"Can't you do it tonight?" Emmanuelle frowned. "Oh gege, you're not going to drink yourself silly tonight are you?"

She didn't have to say the words, but they lay in the fraught moment of silence between them :

Because that didn't turn out well that one time.

It must have been the alcohol still sloshing around his system, because for a moment he thought he was going to heave. His hands felt clammy and he dropped his fork and knife. Grabbing his water glass like it was a lifeline, he tried to lift it to his lips without shaking.

What the hell was he thinking, getting drunk like that? There was a reason he'd sworn to never overindulge in drink. And sex. Now he'd done the first, it wouldn't be long before he was well on his way to doing the second.