Something New (A Chris Evans Story)

Chapter Two

And then the bearded Adonis took a deep breath and a good look at me. A small smile formed on his face as he said, "Oh, it's you. You're... Her. You're Shanna's old friend from college. I've heard... A lot about you." He chuckled to himself after he said this, as if there was some inside joke that I was missing out on.

OK, so now I was confused. Apparently this guy had heard a shit-ton about me; therefore, this tall drink of water had the advantage over me. Isn't it always awkward when one person in the conversation know a lot more about the other person? He looked at me with an expectation of recognition, like he was waiting for me to figure out who the hell he was. My mind had turned to mush after that unexpected scare, and I was completely at a loss for words.

Before I could say anything or even try to wrack my brain for who he might be, I heard the key turn in the foyer area. We both turn to see Lisa, Shanna, and Ananth walk through the door. Leaving Lumbersexual (seriously, his gorgeous dark beard fulfilled all my latent sexual desires in that department) in the kitchen, I made a beeline towards Shanna, ready to give her a piece of my mind about leaving me alone with a rando (albeit attractive) man without at least introducing me. Scratch that, she didn't even bother to inform me that there was someone else in the house.

Plus, she knew of my weird, irrational fear of getting murdered in strange ways by attractive randos like Lumbersexual. I know, it's stupid, but it sprouted from all those stupid horror movies that Shanna was obsessed with in college, and that I was forced to watch.

Ananth immediately left the foyer when he saw me coming, probably realizing, from my gait and all of his encounters with my subtle, murderous looks that he has been on the receiving end of many a time, that shit was about to go down.

Then I remembered that I was super-pissed at her, as I am actually quite terrible at holding grudges, and punched her in her arm, causing her to yelp and turn to me.

"God, Shanna, why the hell did you not tell me there was someone upstairs? Do you know how frightened I was when I heard some random noises coming from there?!"

"Oh, shit, I completely forgot that Chris was upstairs!" Shanna exclaimed as she dumped some grocery bags into my hands while Lisa was fluttering around trying to do some last minute clean-up of the house.

Ohhh... so Lumbersexual was the mysterious older brother named Chris whom I had heard about yet never managed to meet. Shanna talked about him very briefly during our college years, saying that he was an actor in LA, struggling and trying to earn a living in a cutthroat industry. But I had never met him in person, even on the breaks that I spent in the Evans residence.

Come to think of it, I don't think I'd seen anything that he was in when we were in college. Maybe he'd been in some small movies that I had missed when I was in medical school and basically had no life outside working and studying? Or maybe he'd come back to Boston to live a normal life after the glitz and glamourous life didn't end up working out the way he expected.

I was pulled out of my internal musings when Shanna and Lisa were salivating over my curry, and talking about how excited they were to try it.

Shanna said, "Oh, Naina, this looks so, so good! You know, this is one of Chris's favorite-"

"What's my favorite, Ma?" a voice came from the kitchen entrance, where Chris was leaning against the door. I turned to look at him again, entranced by the small smirk that graced his face. He looked at me, and we made eye contact- intense on his part, uncomfortable on mine- and it made me shiver. Nobody had ever looked at me like that, not even-

"Ah, speak of the devil!" Shanna walked around me to greet Chris. She beckons me over with excitement, I'm assuming, to officially introduce us after our little unofficial scare earlier.