Kyle popped his head out the bedroom door near Aaron with a surprised look. Delia and her two friends stood at the far side of the room deep in conversation. The girls were debating the usual meaningless drivel of he said/she said. They hadn’t noticed Aaron yet, but Kyle was quick on the draw.

“Whoa dude, where the hell have you been? I called your cell like thirty times. I was beginning to think you were dead!” Kyle was all over him with a suspicious look on his face. Aaron read his thoughts, which were even more suspicious than his face revealed: “Where has he been? What the fuck was he thinking? How are we gonna pay the rent if he lost his job? Why didn’t he answer any of my calls? Oh shit, who is this magnificent piece of ass wrapped around him? OH. My. God! She’s a fuckin’ knockout!”

Michelle most definitely fit the description of a fuckin’ knock out. She was dressed in a tight-fitted pink top with dark blue jeans that molded to every delicious curve of her body. Painted on.

Aaron had to check himself. He almost answered questions Kyle hadn’t spoken aloud.

He caught himself at the last second. “This is my … friend … Michelle. Michelle, this is my roommate Kyle.” He hadn’t known what word to use to describe her. Friend was the only thing that came to mind that would make any sense to Kyle. Referring to her as his Vampire Master probably wouldn’t work out so well.

As he spoke, Aaron looked at Michelle several times. Her demeanor had magically transformed into the sexy-girl-next-door. She clung to his arm as if they’d known each other all their lives. Nothing short of miraculous. She could be quite the actress when she needed to. She held his eyes for a moment. He caught a mischievous twinkle in her eye. The real Michelle was still lurking in there waiting to pounce.

“Bonjour, everyone, is nice to meet you. And you too, Kyle. Aaron has told me so much about you. I feel as though I already know you.” He followed Kyle’s mind as he spun off in speculation of what Aaron might have said about him.

He had to placate Kyle’s unanswered questions quietly before the rest of the room got involved in the conversation. Delia and crew stared in their direction.

“Listen man, I’ve been staying with Michelle the past week. I’m really sorry I didn’t call you.” Aaron leaned into Kyle, speaking quietly in a conspiracy of two men appreciating the obvious good fortune of spending a week in Michelle’s bed.

“Really, I’m sorry. I lost my cell phone, and then I met Michelle, and it’s been totally crazy. But it’s all good, you know.” Reading his mind, Kyle tried to envision Aaron on a bender, partying it up with Michelle. Didn’t make sense to Kyle, Aaron’s personality didn’t allow for such behavior.

Delia and company closed in from across the room. He tried to be fast and discrete. “Seriously, Michelle is so awesome. She has this fantastic apartment and I got a new job that pays way better than Bemichis. I’m moving in with Michelle.”

Kyle popped at this last statement. Aaron realized from the course of Kyle’s thoughts that he’d neglected to address the primary concern, the rent.

Kyle started in on him. “Hey, man, you’re moving pretty fast here. I mean we have rent coming due in a couple of days and … um … you two barely met!” Kyle had begun to panic. He could see from his thoughts that Kyle actually didn’t have enough to pay the rent on his own.

Delia and gang surrounded Aaron. They had gathered the basic concept that he was moving out of Kyle’s apartment and in with the blonde goddess caressing his arm. Aaron glanced at Delia briefly. She looked different now. He didn’t see all those adorable little details that had once fascinated him, holding him in a constant state of frustrated arousal. Delia’s shoulder-length, dirty blonde hair didn’t shine like it used to. Her cute, little sassy look now appeared spiteful and catty. Seeing her now was like looking at an old photograph, remembering something long forgotten. Delia seemed diminished, less than. She couldn’t begin to measure up to Michelle.

As Delia and her two friends moved into flanking positions, blocking off avenues of retreat, Michelle intervened. She addressed Kyle as though he’d been speaking to her with his protests. “Oui, is true, we just met a few days ago. But what can I say? Is très magnifique! We are together all the time. Is like I don’t want to let him escape!”

He snickered. If only they knew how very true those words are.

With this, Michelle reached around and squeezed his ass, planting a loud smooch on his cheek. He was now marked territory with a big sign hanging from his rear that said, Property of Michelle––NO TRESPASSING.

Delia looked both Aaron and Michelle up and down with a scowl painted on her face. He read how Delia puzzled over what qualities he had that could attract Michelle and keep her occupied for an entire week. Delia wondered if she’d missed out on something. Maybe she should’ve let Aaron have his way with her. Was he really all that in bed? She thought perhaps he was like that guy from the movie Fight Club––an unremarkable, scrawny weasel who suddenly transforms into a badass alter-ego, a screw-your-brains-out-all-night-long Brad Pitt.

Aaron became overwhelmed at the girls’ thoughts in response to Michelle’s boldness. All three girls and Kyle hit his mind in a tumbled mess of irritated confusion. “What is she saying? Are they sleeping together? Is he living with her now? God, I wish I had her hair. What a slut! I bet she has him totally pussy-whipped. That’s so typical of Aaron to fall in love with the first girl who grabs his ass. Look at her eyes. That color is freakish, that’s gotta be contacts. Those are seven hundred dollar Gucci shoes! I bet he paid her to do this. She can’t be for real. What could she possibly see in him? Delia must be dying with jealousy by now!”

Dazed and confused, Michelle tugged on his arm, bringing him out of his internal mess.

“Is only fair to Kyle we pay this month’s rent. Is so sudden.” Michelle had entranced Kyle. He was putty in her hands as she maintained her wicked soul-snatching eye contact. The woman could charm the skin off a king cobra. Her distraction provided Aaron the stimulus he needed to hastily erect a mental block to ward off the tangled assault of thoughts aimed in his direction.

After enjoying a couple seconds of mental silence, he got with the program. “Yeah, um … I guess you’re right.” He turned to Kyle and offered a wad of bills that Michelle had given him the night before. “Here’s six hundred. That should cover you through the next month.”

Kyle nodded in agreement with a dreamy, idiotic expression. He barely managed a one word answer, “Okay.”

As Kyle shoved the cash into his pants pocket in a crumpled ball, Michelle finalized the transaction with one of her adorable French asides. “Viola!”

This foreign sound from Michelle elicited frowns from all three girls. Kyle remained bewitched with his idiot smile pasted on. Amber, the girl to the right of Delia, leaned in, looking back and forth at Aaron and Michelle. “Wow, that’s really cool. So like … you guys are moving in together?”

As she spoke, Amber nudged Delia with her elbow. Delia barely noticed. She stared unwaveringly at Aaron.

He made the mistake of staring back, catching Delia directly in the eyes with the full force of his gaze. He forgot how powerful his eye contact could be. He broke away from her stare after a few seconds, but the damage was done. He followed her thoughts as Delia picked up on the subtle but distinct differences in her ex-boyfriend. She felt a near irresistible attraction to him, far stronger than ever before. She wanted to run her hands all over him, under his shirt, down his pants. There was something disturbing about him, something strange, almost unnatural. She regretted having dumped him two weeks ago. This situation wasn’t right at all. Aaron had always been hers, wrapped around her little finger.

Delia began to realize she might have been wrong. Aaron was a real catch after all. What had she been thinking when she broke up with him? Aaron wasn’t supposed to go off dating European models. He was supposed to be jealous, begging her to take him back.

He frowned as he recalled doing just that. She had him groveling, calling her several times a day, leaving syrupy voicemails and text messages on her cell for an entire week. Right up to the moment he met Michelle.

Listening to Delia’s thoughts gave him inspiration. “Michelle, this is Delia. She’s a friend of mine. Delia, meet my girlfriend, Michelle.” Delia flinched as though physically stung by the intensity of Michelle’s scrutiny as she looked her up and down.

Michelle gave him the opening he needed. “Why don’t you get your things while I gossip about you with your friends?”

What goes around comes around, Delia. Off the hook, he headed for his bedroom mumbling, “Good idea”.

Delia moved toward Aaron to follow him. She was halted in her tracks by Michelle’s firm grasp on her arm. She turned to Michelle with a blatant sneer, and was immediately captured by those vivid green eyes in an intense staring contest.

“I know you were with him before, but I hope we can be friends. These things can sometimes be a problème, non?” She still had an iron grip on Delia’s arm, staring directly into her eyes without blinking.

The spell finally broke. Delia shook her head and stammered, “No … um … I mean … no problem. I … we broke it off weeks ago. It’s cool. He’s … we’re just friends now. Are you guys, like … dating?”

Delia hadn’t fooled anyone. Her tension was obvious despite her attempts to appear calm. She displayed her nervous tick, pulling a stray hair behind her ear, avoiding further eye contact with Michelle. Delia looked to her friends for support. Amber jumped to her aid.

“Oh yeah, it’s alright. They broke up, like, two weeks ago. It’s all good.”

Delia bobbed her head. Amber joined in, both nodding emphatically, a united front declaring Aaron to be a free man. They wouldn’t dare think of laying their hands on him. Michelle could have him all to herself, no problem at all. No one who knew Delia was fooled, and neither was Michelle.