Kal walked Diamond and Bek back to his actual front door in the lobby of the building before returning back up to the penthouse. He sighed deeply as he walked in, raking his hands back through his hair and resting his hands between his shoulder blades to stretch out his arms, the motion untucked his shirt again and let me see the bottom of some…very, very honed washboard abs.

“Sorry about them, I know they can…be a bit of a handful.” He said, quite sheepish and apologetic about his friends.

“Its fine, Kal…they’re your friends for quite some time, I am new so…they may have just been a little protective over you, I don’t mind.”

“Thank you, Anthony. You want me to take you home…as I said, you can crash here if you wish.”

“How drunk are you?”

“I’ve had a bottle of wine and a half by myself along with two glasses of scotch, so I’m pretty buzzed, luckily my age makes my buzzed state still quite myself. And yourself?”

“I’ve…probably had a little more than I’m used to.”

“Do you not trust me to drive when I’ve had a few drinks?”

“More along the lines of I don’t want you getting in trouble.”

“Are you saying you’d wish to crash here?”

“If you really…really don’t mind.”

“Not at all” he said before nodding, “Alright, Devon’s in the first guest room down the hall to the left of my room, you can sleep in the one cattycorner to it, if the other two had crashed here too, one would be in there and the other would be on the murphy bed in my office…so you’d either have to share a bed with one of them, they’d either have to pair up or someone would have to share a bed with me…those couches are not the most comfortable to sleep on.”

“Thank you…I’ve…I’ve had a nice night.” I said looking towards my hands, I flinched softly as I felt Kal’s hand rest on my head, I hadn’t really realized how big his hands were before, I had a hint of that when he grabbed me around my waist or chest when he saved me from being hit by both a car and bike messenger today.

“Least I could do, Anthony…you’re my friend, I thought you could have used a night like this.”

“If it wouldn’t trouble you…more so…” I said twiddling my fingers, but he just rose his hand.

“You can borrow something of mine to sleep in, no problem.”

“Extra toiletries?”

“Bathroom cabinets are stocked with everything from shampoo, conditioner, soaps, face soaps, various skin care, travel toothbrushes and tiny toothpastes…anything you could need are in the bathrooms.”

“You have guests over often?”

“No, I have three friends consisting of a sappy lightweight chaotic dumbass vampire, a level-headed, but temperamental and stubborn lesbian fairy…and a boundary-less, pushy, brash and crude siren.” He said resting a hand on his hip. “They’re often crashing here when everyone gets drunk.”

“I see.”

“Come with me for a second, I’ll go get you one of my shirts to sleep in.” he said before walking off down the hall. I breathed out deeply as I watched him walk a few steps before following him down the hall. He pushed both of the double doors open before him as I walked in behind him: the room had the same black marble flooring and sleek white walls adorned with more contemporary and modern art, there was a slatted open door to my right showing a large stack of blankets, extra sheets and things, all black and a huge archway a bit further ahead to my left leading into giant bathroom.

“Is…is that a coffee bar?” I asked at the recessed area to the left of the linen closet that had a coffee machine, an assortment of mugs and similar things on it.

“Yes.” He said as he walked through the archway to the left of the coffee bar. Just curious, I took a few more steps forward to look into his room. His bedroom was probably larger than my entire apartment: directly ahead of me and far to the right were massive floor to ceiling windows leading out into the gardens, centered on the back wall was a bed that looked far…far larger than a king-size with a slightly floating black slatted headboard that went to the ceiling, built in nightstands, two sets of slowly shrinking stacked frosted glass orbs hung from the ceiling above the nightstands for lamps, a large dark gray ottoman was along the foot of the bed with a massive white fur rug below it. The bed was covered in pristinely made black, white and gold bedding with a few throw pillows and things about it. In the far back left corner was a small end table flaked by a black chase lounge and a white arm chair, along the wall opposite of the bed was a white modern fireplace, TV mounted above it, various artwork around it and along the wall to that corner was an overstuffed black armchair, matching ottoman and end table with a reading lamp built into the wall beside it where a bookshelf was raised and sunken into the wall. Directly to my left on a slightly angled portion of wall was a very large floor to ceiling mirror edged in strips of lights and a massive vanity with one of those three section mirrors, all sorts of storage for makeup and hair things on it and a stool pushed under it. In the back right corner was a massive white dog bed where Gellert was currently walking in circles upon before flopping down and instantly started snoring. There were these gold serpent like pieces bolted into the wall flanking his headboard that spanned the distance between the windows, right behind the actual headboard was a built in like planter area where ivy and wisteria grew coiling up the slats making the headboard where it rose up the wall and continued onto the ceiling a little. The ceiling in here was a bit lower than the other rooms, but still huge and was softly curved from the inner edge out, barely enough to notice, directly in the middle of the room was a matching, but larger version of the hanging lamps as the main light fixture with a much shorter distance between it and the ceiling. The black slats that made his headboard completely spanned the ceiling going all the way to where the ceiling met the inner wall as the ivy and wisteria grew making a soft canopy of white and green overhead. Other plants like orchids, bamboo and other flowers studded and spotted the room where able and candles coated the mantle. Guy likes his candles.

“Is…is that a harp?” I asked, it was set at a diagonal beside the armchair and reading lamp.

“Yes, it is.”

“You play piano…harp and violin?”

“Along with guitar, drums and I dabble a little at flute.” He added as he walked out of the giant closet holding a few things.

“God, what can’t you do?”

“I actually cannot ride a bike.”

“Really?”

“Never got around to it” he added as he held the few things out to me, “Alright, here is one of my TV shirts and a pair of my shorts, if you need any extra blankets or pillows, in the closet of the bedroom along the top there should be some.”

“Thank you again, Kal.”

“Anytime, Anthony.” He said softly nudging my jaw with the back of his hand before walking past me then turned on his feet going into his bathroom. I found myself smiling a bit as he vanished into the bathroom as I walked out of his room, I…I didn’t know why I found myself smiling, but I did.

I walked down the hall where he said the other room was, my socked feet quiet on the marble as I walked down the gallery hall, flanked by huge paintings, sculptures and other artwork that probably cost him more than my yearly rent is: huge paintings of just black and white portraits of people in profile, there was one of Marilyn Monroe with just her lips painted in red and another golden serpent that was bolted to the wall where it met the ceiling with hanging crystal tubes below it that softly pulsed with rings of light raining down them like those dripping lights they put on trees at Christmas. Centered in the hall was a long gray bench flanked by two huge plants and a small table with a bowl on top probably for Kal just to toss his keys and things into when he gets home from a long day’s work. There was a door open on my right that I could hear loud snoring coming from and walked past it, there were three doors at the end of the hall, one had a small hanging sign on it labeled Laundry and the other was labeled as a utility closet, so I went through the forward door.

“Shit…his guest rooms are bigger than my apartment.” I said quietly as I walked in. The bedroom area was nearly twenty by fifteen feet based on how many steps it took me to cross it from the door to the other wall. Along the outside wall were three narrow, but still floor to ceiling windows, a chair and table placed in the front corner, a fireplace central on the left wall when you walk in with a queen sized bed centered on the opposite wall to the fireplace, covered in all white and green bedding, the same white walls, but the room had thick dark, deep gray carpet underfoot. There was an ottoman and rug at the foot of the bed, flanked by nightstands with lamps and a few plants about the room with a hall going back to the right of the bed. I set the shirt and shorts he let me borrow on the bed as I walked down the hall, the first archway I passed led to a large walk in closet and just past that was a doorway leading into a more modest sized full ball: separate shower and bathtub, single basin and the usual white walls and black marble floor, vintage claw foot tub and the shower had marble and mirrored tiles, white marble sink top with a big mirror. A stack of rolled up hand towels to the right of the basin and hung up larger towels on the wall. Every…inch of this place is spotless and no inch is undecorated in a way that made anyone feel inferior walking in.

“I am…so a fish out of water.” I said looking at myself in the mirror in this…lavish environment.