Between Two Moons: The Scent of a Stranger

y

e campus. It was fairly quiet out here, but I could hear movement inside and voices, the clatter of something me

ore I even found th

, stepping back to let me in. "I w

ing. My words snapped out, sharper than necessary, and I knew it, but wh

ether to argue. "Right," he said finally, opening the door wide

I was making at the bar, who was I to complain? The thought alone made me want to lau

not so much as a dish in the sink. Every surface gleamed like they kept an invisible housekeeper on retainer. The air itself even smelled faintly of le

? In my experience, murderers were disturbingly clean people. I'd seen the documentaries. I could practically

was suspecti

not like I was mentally mapping exits. Eyes drifting to the narrow hallway,

s. Excluding

re twenty-year-old guys actually knew what a vacuum was for. In all my years bouncing through foster placements and shared houses, I'd never onc

tein powders lined up on the counter like he was prepping for battle. Seriou

elf for someone about to explain a job he'd invented on the spot less

ed flatly. My voice c

alky and beige. "Alex needs six hundred grams o

them. "Are you training for the Olympics or recovering from

id, like that exp

icion, mostly to have something to do with my hands that wasn't gesturing wildly at

ment," Alex

from Alex that he completely ignored. "It's a whole thing. Anyway... banana, protein, a

ge of my nose. "You know what, fine. Whatever. It's

n-win." Like this was some big victory, like employin

arrangement, then turned my attention to the blender like it might explain itself to me. Th

mid-conversation about something that sounded suspiciously like last night's game. Both of them stopped dead the second they

ex. You brought a girl. Int

id, in a tone that dared eith

n I could translate, then both burst out laughing like he'd j

iping an actual tear from his eye. "Rig

im to this exact moment, jaw tight, ignoring both of them with the practiced patience of a man

he said to me.

as he grabbed an apple from a bowl on the counter and saunt

that whatever this "assistant" job actually was, it clearly meant something very different to everyone in this house than it did to me.