Upon reaching the round table, Benjamin was taken aback when Tegan immediately got up to hug him tightly instead of greeting him verbally. Tegan was still beaming widely as he embraced Lucas, Emery, and Carson one right after the other. Apparently, Tegan was the affectionate type, and he wasn’t afraid to show it. After that, Benjamin and Lucas chose to sit on the chairs on either side of Tegan while Emery and Carson plopped onto the remaining ones.

“Your online pictures don’t do you any justice,” Tegan said while darting his eyes back and forth between Lucas, Carson, and Emery. After that, he glanced at Benjamin. “You too, Ben.”

Benjamin snickered. “Thanks. Glad to know that you at least like my face.”

“And your body,” Tegan shot back without missing a beat while grinning at Benjamin. “You’re hairy everywhere.”

Benjamin grew a little bit alarmed. “Is that going to be an issue?”

“Not at all,” Tegan answered. “I prefer hairy men.”

Benjamin was relieved. “You will definitely like all four of us then.”

Tegan nodded. “I checked out all of your social media accounts after leaving the park this morning, and I read many articles on you. I couldn’t finish everything because I had found too many of them, but I felt much more reassured afterward about going on the trip with you to Singapore.”

“Did you have a chat with Jacob and Leslie afterward?” Emery asked.

“I only got to talk to Jacob because Leslie was busy,” Tegan replied, sounding quite astonished. “Leslie is a prosecutor. A damn good one. He has an important court hearing coming up soon so he has been really busy lately. Did you know about Jacob and Leslie from Ben?”

“Yeah. What did Jacob say to you?”

Tegan seemed embarrassed and rather annoyed all of a sudden. Benjamin wondered if something had gone wrong during the young man’s conversation with Jacob.

“Jacob can be too much of a worrywart sometimes.”

“Jacob is worried about you because he cares,” Carson interjected.

“I know, but --” Tegan didn’t get to finish his sentence because his phone started ringing. At the same time, a server approached the table and inquired about what they wanted to eat. “I’d placed my order earlier. Excuse me for a moment. I have to go outside and pick up this call. It’s Jacob.”

Benjamin nodded. “Go ahead.”

After that, he, Lucas, Emery, and Carson had a brief conversation with the server while waiting for Tegan to return to the table. However, Tegan didn’t make it back to the table after about ten minutes, and Benjamin was worried that something might have happened to the young man. Furthermore, he couldn’t help but think that Tegan might have decided to go back home. There was a possibility that Tegan might have changed his mind about flying to Singapore with Benjamin, Carson, Lucas, and Emery. Benjamin quickly went out to look for Tegan, and he was relieved to see that the young man was standing about six feet away from the entrance of the restaurant. He couldn’t hear Jacob’s end of the conversation, but Tegan sounded really annoyed.

“For the millionth time, Ben, Lucas, Emery, and Carson seem like really good men,” Tegan said in a heated tone of voice. Then he was quiet for a moment. “What? No! I’ll just go on a trip with them and snap some pictures. They’re absolutely my type of men, but I won’t fall in love with them that easily.”

Benjamin was amused, and he thought he should make his presence known. He cleared his throat loudly. Tegan swiveled around in the next instant, and when he noticed Benjamin, he had an apologetic look on his face. Benjamin made his way to Tegan before pointing at the phone.

“Will Jacob feel much more reassured if he gets to have a chat with me?”

“I don’t know, but it’s worth a try,” Tegan answered before passing the smartphone over to Benjamin.

“Those men may be psychotic creeps who prey on an idiot like you!” Jacob shouted, and Benjamin winced because he had made the mistake of pressing the phone firmly against his left ear.

“Good evening, Jacob. This is Benjamin speaking.”