Chapter one
ONE
The apartment door to Cameron’s shared two-bedroom apartment opened. Cameron heard the familiar rattle of his roommate’s keys in the lock, then Zach’s familiar voice.
“You want a drink or something?” Cameron heard Zach’s voice, and then the door to the apartment closed. “I’m just going to get changed real quick.”
“I’m good, thanks.” Cameron heard an unfamiliar man’s voice. He glanced up from his laptop and craned his neck to see who it was.
An athletic-looking man Cameron hadn’t seen before stood next to Zach in the entryway while Zach toed off his shoes.
Zach was still dressed in the work clothes he had worn that morning.
The man looked roughly Zach and Cameron’s age, mid-twenties, and he was wearing jeans and a hoodie.
His dark hair was long enough to be messy, and Cameron wasn’t sure if it was intentional or just slept-on.
He was looking around the apartment, and when he made eye contact with Cameron, he smiled and lifted his hand in a wave.
Cameron lifted a hand from his laptop in an awkward half-wave.
“Let me see if my roommate’s here,” Zach said. He moved his shoes out of the way with his foot and looked into the living room. “Oh, hey. Yeah, this is my roommate, Cameron. Cameron, this is Jake. We’re going to his place, I’m just going to change.”
“Hey,” Cameron said.
“Hey,” Jake said back. The atmosphere felt awkward. Jake chuckled a little at the awkwardness and looked down. He seemed to realize in that moment that Zach had taken off his shoes. Jake rushed to follow suit.
“Want to see my room?” Cameron asked. He waited for Jake to finish with his shoes.
“Yeah, I do,” Jake said. There was an undercurrent of suggestion in his response. Zach smiled and gestured for Jake to follow him. The bedrooms were next to each other down a short hall. Cameron listened to them pad down the hall, then the bedroom door close.
The hell was that? Cameron thought.
Fifteen minutes later, the men emerged from Zach’s room.
Zach had changed into a pair of athletic pants and a sleeveless top.
He grabbed a zippered jacket that was discarded on one of the two living room sofas.
Jake made eye contact with Cameron again while he waited.
Jake was giving Cameron some kind of knowing look, but what Cameron was supposed to know was eluding him.
“Have a good night!” Zach called. The men put their shoes back on.
“Yeah, uh, you too,” Cameron called back. Zach locked the door behind them. Cameron couldn’t put his finger on it, but something had been different about that interaction. He turned back to the game on his laptop.