V. Come Through and Chill.

"You have a lovely home, Miss James." Baek strolled aimlessly around my living room as I prepared our meal in the open kitchen. I covertly studied his movements: a sip from his champagne flute, how he parted the sea green curtains in the bar window with his middle finger, how he would fiddle with the various knickknacks strewn across my condo. He stopped at the built-in bookshelves, lightly touching the spines of the thick black medical journals. "Are you in medical school?"

I turned the burner off and left the last grilled cheese brown for a minute. "I was pre-law, those are my roommate's. He's not around much since he's usually at the hospital, he only comes home to do laundry and brag about the latest nurse he's banging."

"That...seems a rather lonely living situation."

"Mmm, I don't mind. Come eat." He sat on the opposite side of the island while I stood watching him carefully take a bite, and when he nodded his approval I picked up my own sandwich and dug in. In the few silenced minutes we ate I watched him devour two grilled cheeses eagerly and he wiped his mouth with his cloth napkin when he was done. He refilled my glass with the last of the first bottle before asking "Is he your lover?"

My eyes shifted from side to side while I processed his question. "Is this...are you serious?"

"I thought, since you mentioned living with a man..." Baek put his hand to his forehead and shut his eyes tightly as if he were mentally berating himself. "I don't know, putting pieces of the puzzle together, I suppose. I apologize."

I shrugged my shoulders and started busying my