On Sunday, Mateo looked at the clock as the doorbell rang. 

Emilio was early. 

Two hours early.

Well, that was assuming that the person ringing the bell was in fact him and not Ms. Sheryl from the third floor who'd forgotten her key again. 

Mateo took the last bite of his sandwich and downed his juice as he walked over to his answering machine.

Pressing the button he said, "hello?"

"Hey, Mateo! It's me, Emilio. I have your clothes." A beautiful deep voice answered.

So it was him. 

Mateo’s heart raced a little faster.

"Oh, Mr. Everhart, hi! Um, sorry, I must have gotten the hours mixed up. I thought you said you were coming at 2?"

"Yeah. But I was in the area and figured, hey why not? Have you had lunch yet? Come down and I'll drive us someplace to eat, my treat." The voice dripped like honey through the machine, echoing in Mateo's tiny apartment.

Emilio in the area? Mateo thought, Yeah right, for what? 

Maybe he had more important things to do later and figured he'd just get this over and done with. Yeah, that was probably it. 

Mateo figured he probably should have insisted harder that it was okay for Emilio to keep his clothes, but unlike Emilio, he did not "have many." 

And besides, Mateo had told himself, Emilio was probably insisting so hard that he come drop them off because he wanted to forget that night ever happened, wanted to erase every trace, every piece of evidence. 

Though then again, another part of Mateo had countered, Emilio could’ve just burned the clothes or thrown them away if he didn't want to remember… but whatever, details.

"Um, Mateo? Is that a yes? Or have you already eaten?" Emilio's voice once again filled the apartment. 

Mateo glanced towards his kitchen, his plate still resting on the table, empty. Then he looked down at the glass he was still holding, empty.

He pushed the talk button. "Nope, haven't eaten yet!" 

He hid the glass behind his back, as though Emilio might somehow be able to magically see it.

"Okay, then get dressed and come down." Emilio chimed into the box, Mateo could hear the smirk.

"Okay. I'll be down in five minutes!" Mateo replied.

He looked down at his clothes... he was already dressed.

He’d pushed away his thoughts from that night’s shower fiasco for later examination. 

But that didn’t keep him from spending about an hour trying to decide what to wear for when the great Emilio Everhart arrived to drop off his clothes. 

For now, he'd convinced himself that he was doing this of course because as a journalist he wanted to look professional among such a great businessman and innovator. That was totally the only reason why he cared so much about how he looked.  

But what was he supposed to wear for going out for lunch with Emilio? 

For appearances, of course. No other reason, other than PR and, well you know, not wanting to make a fool of himself in front of Emilio Everhart.

He quickly ran back to his room and opened his tiny closet. 

His brain simply yelled "AHHHHHH" as he looked at his options, was it going to be casual or formal? 

Mateo, you are overthinking this, he yelled at himself as he looked at his nightstand clock. 

What the-How had TWO whole minutes already passed by?!? 

He grabbed a pair of dark blue jeans and a white v-neck. He added a dark blue blazer to make him look a little more formal, but not too much so as to scare Emilio away, make him think he was desperately trying too hard.

He raced down the stairs, stopping just before reaching the front door to check his reflection on one of his neighbor's glass doors. 

Okay, not too bad, he shrugged as he pushed his fingers through his slick hair dark hair. 

He slowly walked down the remaining steps, trying to catch his breath. 

Can't let Emilio think he raced down the stairs like some crazy fan right?

"Hi," He said with a huge grin as he opened the door to see Emilio waiting for him. 

It took him a second to regain his thoughts as he took in Emilio.

As always, the man looked perfect, even that Friday morning when Emilio had been sitting at his kitchen island wearing oversized pjs, he’d looked gorgeous.  

Emilio was wearing a dark green dress shirt, barely visible behind his dark grey blazer, and black dress pants. 

As Mateo looked Emilio up and down, he had a strange feeling Emilio was doing the same to him.

They both swallowed hard, too busy trying to hide the looks on their faces to notice the others.

"So uhh, is it just me, or are you starving too?" Emilio said, something flickering in his eyes.

Lust? 

No, Mateo quickly discarded the thought, laughing at himself for even thinking that. 

He looked back at Emilio to try and read his eyes but they were soon covered by the dark film of sunglasses.