Chapter 5a: Devin's Nice Friends

It was a cold in late fall on a Wednesday, the kind of day where the air is dry and breaths become visible. Devin had gone for a run, but was now curled up on Phil’s couch with a book and some hot coco, waiting for him to get home. She smiled to herself imagining this as their home. Imagining him coming home to her where she’d have a nice dinner prepared, and he’d tell her how perfect she is. In the warmth of one of his sweaters surrounded by the scent of him, it was easy to fantasize about the perfect life. Her heart swelled when she heard his key in the front door lock.

“I don’t keep it on a remote server, give me a sec and I’ll bring the source.” Phil walked in the door and headed upstairs without even seeing her. He was followed by another man.

“Yeah, just put it on a jump drive. ‘preciate it,” the dark skinned stranger looked over and noticed her, “I’ll be down here. Hello there.”

The man approached with an easy friendly smile. He was an interesting sight, that Devin didn’t know what to make of him. He had perfect teeth, bright playful eyes, and perfectly quaffed hair with a feminine about of product in it to keep it perfectly masculine. He wore a skin tight black muscle shirt that clung to a well developed chest and abs, tight designer jeans, a wide white leather belt, and alligator shoes. He wore a watch on his wrist that was shiny even in the dim living room, and would certainly qualify as bling.

“I’m Anil, and who might you be?”

His smile was disarming, and very congenial. Devin decided he seemed okay. “Hi, I’m Devin.”

“You went to Cal Tech too? No, couldn’t be.”

She looked down at the sweater she was wearing. It was one of Phil’s old ones, “Oh no, it’s Phil’s.”

“Of course, you know how I know?”

“How?”

“I would have remembered you,” he gave her a playful wink. She blushed. He sat down on a seat across from her and continued, “I remember faces, I love people. But I guess that’s my job now.”

“Oh?”

“I throw parties for a living. It’s fun work.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, you know how people say, partying for a living is no fun? They say it’s all a bunch of work and you don’t really enjoy it?”

“Oh?”

“That’s bullshit,” he cracked into an even wider smile, “That’s what they tell people so no one else gets in on the fun.”

“Wait, so how is remembering people your job then?”

“Ooh, yeah, totally. See when you run into someone at a party and they remember your name, and they remember what drink you liked, it feels great, see you smile and you look them in the eye and you make them feel like family. That’s my job, I make people happy and make sure they’re having a fun time. And I love people. It’s what I always wanted to do you know, just make people happy.”

“Wow, that sounds, really nice.”

“Isn’t though? But I’m going on too long and I don’t know a thing about you, Devin.”

“You know my name...”

“Hah, cute, true, but tell me, what’s your thing, your passion, the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning.”

“Oh, uhm.” Devin looked around. She suddenly felt silly for not knowing what to say. What is a good answer for this? Did she even really have a thing? “Running I guess.”

“You’re a runner, you got good legs then, alright.”

Over Anil’s should she spotted Phil coming down the steps, “Okay, I put it on the jump drive, just try it out and - oh.”

Anil looked back, “You know it’s funny, Phil you didn’t mention you had a new girl already.”

“Woah, no, it’s not like that.”

“Really? Just ‘friends’?” Anil looked back to Devin questioning with an arched brow.

“Oh, yeah, just friends, been friends for years.”

“Well, I’ll be, same with Phil and me, funny how we never crossed paths.”

Devin smiled and lamely replied, “Yeah...”

Phil handed him the jump drive prompting him, “So like I said, there’s everything you need.”

Anil’s look didn’t waiver from the young ingenue, “You know I didn’t ask about your job but I’ll tell you what, if you ever want to make a little extra money on the side, we could use a model for one of our promo shoots.”

Devin’s eyes gaped, “Me? Model?”

“Yeah sure, we make flyers for our parties all the time, it’s fun it’s flirty, you’d be a natural.”

Phil interrupted again, “Yeah, I don’t think that a good idea.”

“Sure it would be, you’d be game for that, right Devin?”

She bit her lip, the thought did have its appeal, “I don’t know...”

“Yeah, she’s into it, here, it’s my card, look me up on Facebook, and we’ll get it set up.” The card was embossed in gold foil with a silhouette of a crowd of partiers naming Anil Ahriman as CEO.

“They’re not too racy, right?” she questioned.

Phil’s eyes widened in horror, but Anil cut in, “Of course not, I am not a porn guy, this is about parties, all wholesome fun. Trust me you’ll have a blast.”

Rapidly losing control, Phil’s voice took on a serious edge, “Anil, dude.”

“What bro? I’m giving your friend an opportunity. We’re all friends here right?”

“Yeah, it’s just, -”

“Right?” he insisted again, keeping his easy smile. But Phil saw the edge in his eyes. Also the way he emphasized the word friend. It was subtle, but it was definitely there. The edge of a threat and it chilled Phil to his core.

“Maybe she isn’t - I mean maybe she doesn’t want to,” he began to complain. But he was already backing off.

“Uhm, maybe, I’ll think about it,” Devin offered with a smile. She wanted to go along, and if it meant a little extra money, that’d be cool too. Plus, it was really flattering to be offered a modelling job.

“Awesome, bro, thanks for this introduction, I love meeting new people. Devin, you’re a gem, if you come around, we can set it up as early as Saturday. And don’t get cold feet on me,” he winked. He looked back to Phil and added quietly, “I’ll let you and your ‘friend’ hang out.”

Phil escorted him out the door with his flash drive, then walked back into the living room and dropped his hands on his hips. She looked at him curiously for a moment, and got the feeling they were about to have their first fight.

“Devin,” he opened up, “I- I, are you sure you want to do this, I mean you don’t have to.”

“Yeah sure, why not, I can do it.”

“Oh I’m sure you can it’s just. Well Anil’s parties definitely lean more ... adult, I’m just worried, you might be uncomfortable.”