While a part of the Page 3 was obsessed with the love life of Ronda Jenkins, the other section of it was possessed by the idea of her best friends, Matthew and Tony Dillingham. Matthew and Tony had rightfully earned the sobriquet of being the “Beguiling Brothers Grimm of the New Age”. Ronda, Tony and Matthew had been to the same school and lived in close neighborhoods. They had been good friends for as long as they had known each other. The twins, Tony and Matthew, had always been geeks. They were bullied by the class jock regularly till Ronda had put a stop to it. She had used her charms on Daniel to convince him to leave the twins alone.
“Now, now Daniel. That’s no way to hold a lady’s attention. Bullying those kids won’t get you any brownie points for this Saturday.” A wink from Ronda was enough to discourage the jock to pursue his tormenting regime.
Since then, they had often spent wonderful times in each other’s company. The twins enjoyed the privileged position of being Ronda’s special friends. Nobody disturbed them, rather they were treated with utmost courtesy by any boy who was infatuated by Ronda and wanted to be close to her. The friends had quite a few laughs at the expense of these poor and unsuspecting romantics.
“Hey Ronda, Kenneth, this senior bloke, promised to give me his bike if I can convince you to go out with him.”
“Tell him to give you the bike first. And if I like it, I’ll think about going out with him.”
Tony, Matthew and Ronda were forced to part ways after high school to start their degree program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They had been in touch through social networking sites and video conferencing software. During the holidays they had always made it a point to meet each other and catch up on everything that had been going on in their respective lives. The trio was inseparable and their friendship was well known in every circle.
While in Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the brothers had come up with the idea of new software that would collate a person’s search history from the Internet and their information from social networking sites to predict their consumer behavior. The software, made as a play thing, during one of their semesters, soon unveiled its true potential and the brothers realized they had invented the next most revolutionary application for the capitalist consumer. Very soon, they had patented the software and built Dillingham Innovations, a multi- billion dollar enterprise that not only profited from their initial software but had gone forward to contribute significantly to the software industry. Inspired by Ronda, they used their company to fund upcoming talents, thereby turning the lives of young innovators into fairy tales. Very soon, they had shifted their headquarters to New York and the trio was regular guests at every happening party in the town.
The innovators turned business honchos, Tony and Matthew were no longer the reflection of their high school images physically. They had grown up to handsome young men who were desired by every woman. They regularly made it to the list of the most eligible bachelors in New York Times. Being identical twins, it was very difficult to tell the brothers apart. They both had silky dark brown hair and green eyes. Their chiseled bodies made them popular heartthrobs among all age groups of women. A rumor was circulated during the early days of their public life that the brothers were perhaps bisexual and therefore, it was not surprising that they had a dedicated male fan base that was not necessarily interested in their intellectual exploits. The brothers enjoyed the attention. Ronda, Tony and Matthew formed the Triumvirate of Desire in New York.
Chapter 2
The three friends were united in their ideals of philanthropy. Ronda was an ardent supporter of child rights and LGBTIQ issues. On being asked about her involvement with the queer group, she had replied in the words of one of her favorite musicians, Eminem, “I do not care what they are in their private lives. They are human beings and deserve recognition despite their personal choices. And it’s very simple for me really. If you are nice to me, I’ll be nice to me. What you are in your personal life isn’t my concern as long as you aren’t harming anyone.”
She had used her influence to generate a lot of funds for the campaigns related to these issues. She often spent a part of her weekends visiting children’s hospitals and distributing books and other stationary items among underprivileged kids. Tony and Matthew, despite being businessmen, were staunch supporters of education programs that encouraged innovative thinking. As a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility, they had provided scholarships to many brilliant, yet needy students. The brothers had famously replied to a reporter’s cynical question about investing in non profitable students’ innovation by saying, “Profit, my dear man isn’t always monetary. We invest in talents. We invest in perfection. And that isn’t easy to come by.”