Alex hurriedly jumped out of the shower when he heard his cell phone ringing in the other room. Clumsily trying to wrap a towel around his dripping body, he stumbled over casually strewn clothing in his attempt to get to the buzzing phone. Nearly falling over a pair of shoes, he grabbed the phone off of the dresser.

"Hello?" he answered, rather breathily. "Hello?" he repeated, after taking a breath.

"Alex?" a female voice asked on the other end. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me. Who's this?" Alex pulled the phone away from his ear to glance at the caller ID, but didn't recognize the number. He quickly placed the phone back to his ear when he heard the voice continue.

"Hey, it's me, Ashley. How are you?"

Alex looked around the room in surprise. He hadn't heard from Ashley in quite a while! "Hey, Ashley, what's up?" He walked around the piled clothing on the floor on his way back to the bathroom.

"Oh, nothing, I was just in town and was talking to my sister over dinner at her place and your name came up. Since I hadn't heard from you in a while, I got your number from her and called you as soon as I got back to my hotel room," she explained. "What are you up to?"

"I was just in the shower, actually, my roommate is throwing a party tonight and I was cleaning up from work." Alex was curious to know why his name had come up in conversation with Ashley's older sister, especially since their relationship had ended in a less-than-amicable fashion. "How did my name come up?" In for a penny, in for a pound, he figured.

"Well, we were talking about old boyfriends and acquaintances from high school, and she said that she felt bad for the way she treated you when you two broke up." Ashley paused for a moment. "The way she said it, she made it sound like she meant it, too."

"Really?" Alex was mildly surprised to hear that - the breakup had been very public and very verbal. He remembered being asked that whole day at school what he had done, when, in fact, he had done nothing at all. "Anyways, what are you doing tonight?"

"I was planning on staying here and watching some HBO and getting some much needed sleep. Why do you ask?" Ashley was lying on her bed, looking at the ceiling.

"Well, I was kind of hoping you would like to come over here to this party. All of Lenny's friends are lame and, to be completely honest, none of the girls he knows are good looking. I need eye candy," he finished with a smile.

"I don't know... If Serena finds out I was at a party with you, she might not be too happy about it." Ashley thought for a minute. "You know what? I don't care. Do you still live at that complex off of Second Avenue?"

"Yeah, I do. How soon will you be here?" Alex took the towel off of his waist and started to dry his hair, standing naked in front of the bathroom mirror.

"I'm leaving the hotel right now, so in about five minutes." Ashley turned the key in the lock of her hotel room and walked out to her car. "See you soon!"

Alex heard the phone click off in his ear and dropped in on the counter. Five minutes! Shit, he wasn't even wearing clothing! He ran to his room, still dripping water off of his body, passing Lenny's girlfriend in the hallway.

"Ewww! Alex, put some clothes on!" Rebecca yelled after the young man, trying to be mad, secretly wishing that Lenny had an ass like Alex did.

In his room, Alex threw the top drawer of his dresser open, trying to find some clean boxers to wear. In his haste to get dressed, he failed to close the door behind him, and he didn't notice Rebecca peeking through the doorway, watching him running around his room naked. She saw him grab a pair of dark blue silk boxers and then gasped as he turned around to put them on. She had wrestled with Alex before, in the complex's pool and in their apartment, and had on occasion thought she had felt his cock through his jeans and swim trunks, but seeing the real thing was much better! Though soft, Alex's prick dangled a good four inches from the crinkled mass of hair at the root of it.

Quickly, Rebecca hurried into her and Lenny's room, her pussy dampening at the thought of what Alex's cock would feel like.

Alex heard the door to Lenny's room close, and realized he had left his bedroom door ajar. He closed it, glancing down the hallway to see if anyone had noticed. He opened his closet door and yanked a pair of jeans off of a hanger, practically jumping into them. He hopped around his room for a minute to keep his balance, finally falling on the bed. He laid there for a minute, then, with a smile, he opened the drawer to his nightstand, withdrawing a package of condoms. He slipped one into his pocket, and stood, grabbing a t-shirt from the open dresser drawer. He was halfway down the stairs, still pulling the shirt over his broad shoulders, when his doorbell rang.

Alex jumped down past the last two steps of the stairs, and threw the door open.

"Hey, Alex! Expecting me?" Lenny's friend Beth was on the doorstep, with a slightly shocked look on her face, as if she hadn't really expected to have the door opened so fast.

"Sorry. I was expecting someone else." Alex brushed past her, looking down the parking lot to see if he saw Ashley's car. When he didn't, he turned back to Beth. "Sorry, I didn't know you were coming."

"Yeah, well, it's not as if Lenny makes guest lists or anything. He just invites people at work to come to his little shindigs, and if we show up, we show up! I think it is more of a way for him to get into his girlfriends pants anyways. You know how they are when they get to drinking." Beth looked at Alex curiously, as a thought dawned on her. "Who are you expecting, anyways? You don't usually attend these things. You are usually just up in your room reading a book or studying."

"I don't always stay in my room! I come down every now and then!" Alex protested, reaching out and taking one of Beth's packages.

Beth laughed, shifting her now-lighter load. "But never to visit! The last time you came out of your room at one of these parties, you grabbed a Gatorade and jumped into your car."

"I was late for a workout with one of the guys from work. He works late shift, and didn't get out until your party had already started." Alex gestured towards the open doorway and followed Beth inside. "You all know how seriously I take my workouts!"

"Yeah, I do, and all of us girls thank you for it!" Beth playfully squeezed one of his biceps, without much success. It was pretty well-developed, even without being flexed.

Alex placed Beth's package down on the counter just inside the kitchen and curled his arms up, flexing the muscles in both his arms and his shoulders. His t-shirt strained at the seams of his shoulders, small veins popping up on his skin. Beth was more than a little impressed.

"Okay, um, it was nice chatting with you, but I got to go tell Becca I am here. See you in a bit?" Beth smiled flirtatiously at him.

"You bet." Just then, Alex heard his cell phone ringing upstairs in the bathroom where he had left it. "Be right back!" He slid past Beth and bolted up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He burst into the bathroom, and grabbed his phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's me." Ashley was on the other end.

"Hey, where are you? I was starting to get a little worried; it's been almost half an hour!" Alex checked his teeth in the mirror to make sure he didn't have anything in them. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and saw Beth walking past the open door, laughing at him. He threw a wet towel at her, making her squeal as she dodged it.

"I hate to do this to you, but I'm not going to be able to make it tonight." Ashley sighed into the phone.

"Why not?" Alex asked, more than a little disappointed. He tried to keep it out of his voice.

"I got a phone call from my mom, and while I was on the phone with you, Serena had a car accident down in Orlando."

"Jesus, is she okay?" Alex was shocked at the news. He sat down on the closed toilet seat.

"Yeah, she's okay, but she's in the hospital, and I want to go see her myself. I'm already on the Interstate, so I guess we'll have to make our date for another time." Ashley sighed again.

"Oh, man, I hope she really is alright! Car accidents suck," Alex sympathized on the other end. "Well, drive safe!" Alex hung up the phone and left the bathroom, tossing the phone on the dresser and plopping down on the bed. He closed his eyes, frustrated. He must have fallen asleep, because he was suddenly jolted awake to loud music blaring downstairs. He sat up and ran his hands sleepily through his hair, getting up off the bed and jogging lightly down the stairs.

The music got louder as he walked down the hallway to the rather large apartment's den. He slid past a couple he recognized as Lenny's boss and his wife as they were making out in the middle of the hallway. He walked into the den, and said a few hellos as he made his way to the cooler on the other side of the room. Pulling a beer out, he shook off the ice clinging to it and nodded at Lenny, who was staring at him like he was from the far side of the moon. Alex smiled to himself. Apparently he was as much of a recluse as Beth had made him out to be! He opened his beer and made his way back through the crowd on his way back to the stairway and the safety of his bedroom.

He was halfway up the stairs before he realized there was someone at the top waiting for him. "Hey, Beth, enjoying yourself?"

"Yeah, actually, I am! Doesn't look like you are having much fun, though." Beth tilted her head at her friend. "Didn't you have a date coming or something?"

"Yeah, I did, but she had to cancel on me. Family emergency," he explained as he took a deep swig of his beer.

"Wow, she must have been some date if you are drinking beer! You never drink!" Beth observed.

"Actually, she was the sister of a girl I had dated in high school." He took another swig of his beer.

Beth had only heard about one girl Alex had dated in high school, and she raised her eyebrows in slight alarm. Alex saw the expression. "Yeah, that one," he replied to her unasked question.

Beth whistled lowly. She didn't go to the same high school that Alex did, but she had friends who had, and their breakup had become somewhat infamous. She knew what had happened. It also explained the beer in Alex's hand. "Well, since you are now dateless, I guess I will be your date for the evening!" Beth put her hand on her hip and posed, like she was offering herself to Alex.

Alex froze in mid-swallow, looking over his bottle of beer in a puzzled state. Alex had never seriously thought of Beth as more than a friend, but as she stood there, smiling and posed, he really took inventory of what she had to offer.

Usually, Beth wore regular jeans and t-shirts, the sort of nondescript thing a college girl wears in her time away from class. Tonight, however, she was wearing a spaghetti strap tank top and a tight black knee-length skirt, complete with heels. Her dirty blonde hair was pulled up on her head in a purposely mussed, but elegantly knotted bun, a few stray strands trailing down the side of her delicate jawline, highlighting a sparkling pair of diamond studs. Alex allowed himself to look past her clothing and take in her gently curved form. She wasn't heavily endowed, but her medium-sized chest more than adequately filled out the loose tank top she wore, and wonderfully complemented her slim build. Her lightly tanned skin disappeared beneath the top and, save for a small gap between the top and her skirt, continued unseen down over the gentle swell of her hips, then reappeared at the hem of her skirt. It continued down her legs, defining the light muscles of her legs, and exaggerating the fragile ankle bones of her feet. Alex looked back up at Beth's face, to discover a dazzling smile. She knew he was evaluating her and she enjoyed it. Alex drank the last swallow of his beer and set the empty bottle down on the stair he was still on.

Beth was fucking hot!!!!!!!

As Alex was still analyzing this discovery, Beth stepped down a few steps from the top of the stairs and gently took him by the hand, pulling him up the stairs and into his room. She had always thought he was cute, but she had never had her own courage to act on it. Tonight, she had borrowed it from a couple of beers, but she didn't think it would matter now - with the way Alex had looked her up and down, she knew that he found her equally attractive.

Alex suddenly realized what Beth's intentions were, and he stopped short. She turned, slightly puzzled by his action.

"Beth, are you sure this is what you want?" Alex asked his friend. "I mean, this will change everything between us, and..." he trailed off as Beth closed the distance between them and put her finger over his lips.

"I know." She smiled shyly. She rose up on her toes so she was at eye level with him and looked him in the eye. "That's what I was aiming for." With that declaration, Beth gently kissed him, her soft lips teasing his for a brief second, then breaking off as suddenly as she had started.

Still leading him by his hand, Beth pulled Alex the rest of the way into his bedroom. He stopped just inside the door and looked around in surprise. His room had been straightened up, and there were small red candles burning on the headboard of his bed and on the windowsill, the dresser, the bookshelves - the only illumination in the room was from the candles, and it set a very romantic atmosphere. Alex, still being tugged into the room opened his mouth.

"It seems that you have given this a little thought."