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"Mum's eyes had been all over me, you know. Not curious, not suspicious. I don't really know why."

I sat on Becca's king size bed. She was fixing her wardrobe, assembling all the work uniforms she had, since she was never home.

"I don't really think I've noticed any change, but I think she does. You're turning 20, anyway. You're in the most dangerous teen age. The devil uses everyone's 19th year to distract them, since it's their last teen age."

I looked at her in dismay.

"No, No." She chuckled. "That's not what I meant. What I meant was Mum should be thinking about it too. And trying to examine you."

I folded my hands under my head, and rested my back on her bed.

After a moment, she spoke again.

"You have something you wanna talk about?"

"No?"

"What about the intelligent guy you once spoke of?"

"Ah. Ethan. He's cool."

I wasn't ready yet. I couldn't tell them about Ethan. Either way, it wasn't like we were dating or something. Nothing happened between us.

"Tell me about Max."
I sat up. I wanted to stop thinking too much.

She began smiling.

I scrubbed harder. Why was I avoiding Ethan so much? He was just trying to maintain our friendship, yet I was acting like a child.

"Duh."

I forgot to clean the shower. The thinking was too much. What was I even thinking about? A boy. Nah. I smiled to myself. I'm not as weak as that.

Is it wrong to think about a boy?

But it was distracting me a little.

Just as I was cleaning the sink in my shower, there was a knock at my door.

I rinsed my hands under the bathroom tap that offered water now with a lot of pressure.

Did the plumber not fix this last Friday? I remember Mrs. Yanny asked him to fix hers, and I complained about mine too. What was wrong?

As if reading my thoughts, the knock persisted. Ethan was never impatient.

I walked downstairs, opened the door and closed it gently behind me, when I was sure I was in complete view of the stranger.

He waved four fingers at me and sent them back into his overall. He was standing on the sidewalk, dressed in a brown overall and a black hat.

What human being wore a black hat and an overall during summer? Who?

He didn't look like someone who attended my college. More of the working age.
I leaned on my door.

"Hello there."

I flashed my best smile, but my jaws refused to work. I didn't like strangers. And this other was definitely strange.

"Um, hey. Can I help you?"
Maybe he was just lost and needed direction.

"Emilia Harte, is that?"

"Yeah."

"I'm Paulo, but you're a Christian, so you can just call me Paul."

I rolled my eyes slightly. "Okay."

He gave me a knowing smirk.

"Well, see you." He turned his back to leave.