Falling For The Playboy

Cool, artificial air welcomed me as I took my first step inside and, oh, how good it felt to be free from the suffocating afternoon sun. I heard the faint sound of the door closing behind me as my eyes took in the living room in one long sweep. Humongous TV, plain white walls, black leather couches with throw pillows discarded carelessly on them, a tiny table at the centre that looked too small to have any use asides decoration really, and a beautiful spiral staircase.

I saw the beginnings of something just behind the staircase, although I couldn’t see clearly what it was. From my angle just behind the staircase, I’d never be able to tell, but if I moved to the left just a little….

“That’s the dining area. ”

The velvety voice drew me out of my thoughts, reminding me that I wasn’t alone. The voice belonged to the friendly twin and apparently, I’d been caught staring. I might even have taken an actual step in that direction, who knew?

“You can go see it if you want to. ” she added and I shook my head. I didn’t want to take up too much of their time unnecessarily and after all, that was where they had their meals. So I would be seeing it sooner or later.

She shrugged, climbing up the stairs as we resumed the ‘tour’. The other twin followed closely behind me and her soundless feet hitting the tiled floors made me hyper aware that she was there, even if she didn’t say a word. Was she scrutinizing me right now? Did she mean what she’d said earlier? What did she think of me?

I could keep asking myself these questions but I wouldn’t get the answers because I was asking the wrong person.

Rows and rows of brown mahogany doors occupied the walls of the wide hallway on the second floor.

“All the rooms are on this floor. ” the friendly twin explained, leaning on the railing, “The only rooms on the next floor are dad’s home office and the library. ”

“Just two? ” I asked too quickly, almost cutting her short.

She nodded. “Well, yeah. The library’s pretty big so it takes up a lot of space. ”

She continued up the stairs, heading to the first floor, but she paused when I spoke up.

“Please can you tell me which one of you is Abi and which is Zoe? ” I asked because, hell, I was getting tired of referring to them as the friendly twin and the goddess.

She pursed her lips as though she hadn’t expected such a question. Well, they hadn’t expected me to figure that out myself, had they? I mean, it’s not like they had stamps on their foreheads with their names written on. In my opinion, that was a pretty valid question I’d asked.

“I’m Abi. ” she answered eventually, tilting her chin to the person standing behind me, “She’s Zoe. ”

I was going to ask who’s older but then I decided against it. Pushing one’s luck was never a good idea. Also, let’s not forget first impressions.

The two doors on the top floor were locked with no keys in sight.

“The room on the right is the library and on the left is dad’s office, ” she started, “We all have keys to the library but no one ever really uses it other than Zoe and, well, dad. ” my eyes flickered to the former, who had her shoulder against the wall, with her hands tucked into the pockets of her shorts, before returning to Abi.

I was an inch taller than the twins, and while I was sure I could pull of sharing clothes with Zoe, Abi, on the other hand, not so much. My shorts would rip at the seams if she forced them on, that I was certain of.

They weren’t very identical if you asked me. The only features they shared were their skin colour, nose and eyes, and even the eyes were debatable. Abi’s were easier to meet, but Zoe had overly intense eyes that made the browns somehow black. That was why maintaining eye contact with her was such a chore.

“So, you’ve seen it all. Let’s go back down so I can show you your room. ”

As I turned to leave, my eyes fell on a bend to the right at the extreme of the hallway. It was so far off that one wouldn’t see it easily which was why I hadn’t seen it when I came on. That bend definitely had to be leading somewhere. Hadn’t she said there were just two rooms up here?

“I thought you said there are only two rooms up here. ”

“I did. ” she answered smoothly, one leg already in front of the other, prepared to go back down.

“Then what’s down there? ” I pointed with my one free hand.

She glanced in the direction and her mouth formed a small O, and just as quickly, she recovered, giving a small humourless laugh. “That’s not a room. ”

What did she mean?

And with that, she made her way down the stairs and seeing as I had no choice, I followed, and of course, the silent Zoe followed behind me.

We stopped when we reached the fourth room in the hallway. Abi twisted the set of keys that hung from the keyhole and pushed the door slightly open, but she didn’t make any move to go in.

“This room is yours. That room, ” she pointed at a room which had to be the biggest since it took up the whole span of the wall facing us, “is dad and mum’s room. Those two, ” she pointed at two door facing each other, “are mine and Zoe’s. ”Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

“Who has the one opposite mine? ” I wondered out loud.

“It’s a guest room. ”

“Oh. ”

She took a step back, going to stand beside Zoe, who had been watching the both of us with absent eyes. She would have been a whole lot scarier if she weren’t wearing colours that had life.

“So, I’ll leave you to pack. ” Abi sent a questioning glance at my bag, and I knew she was just being polite because the contents of this bag wouldn’t take twenty minutes to sort through. “You can meet me and Zoe if you need anything. ”

“But you wouldn’t need to because you’d have everything. ” Zoe added, finally gracing us with her voice, a low, soft, raspy thing.

Was it just me or had there been a note of aggression in there?