"Lauren! Someone's at the door for you!"

I reluctantly forced myself away from my book (Kay's Phantom-again) and went downstairs to my sister. "Hey. Who's here?"

"Your friend Nadir."

"Oh. ... Hi."

This was real. This had really happened. I'd said yes to the clothes and the music, but I already had instruments and pets. I'd ditched the Punjab and the morphine/DJT-DIDN'T need that craziness. I'd constantly been checking my computer for anything sketchy and cleaned it out like crazy. I'd even gotten paranoid at my phone a little for no reason. And now, there was a dude at our front door.

"Hello. You must be Lauren. I am Nadir Kahn, and this is Erik."

Two dudes at my front door. Nadir was taller than me, and his voice and hands were pleasant. But I wasn't focused on him.

Erik was really tall. His hands were thin indeed; and long fingers. Piano fingers. LarouxChristine was right-cold and skelital ... but surprisingly not too terrifying. At least, I think that part's just me afraid of the unknown ...

"Hello, Lauren," says Erik. Oh, jeez. That voice is sort of supersexy.

"Hi."

"There are still some things we must go over," Nadir said. "And, if at any point, you wish to back out, Erik and I will return home with no hard feelings. Since you did not specify an amount of time, you will not be held to an amount of time."

"Okay ..." I led them over to the couches. "I have a piano there, and a violin-but I'm not sure how good the condition is. I also have an electronic keyboard already. My room has cardboard in the window so no light comes in-most of the house is lit by daylight in the day."

"That's all fine," Nadir said gently.

"What-what else?"

"Erik?" prompted Nadir.

"I'm looking forward to getting to know you, Lauren. I was the one who chose you to visit."

Of course Erik made the choice. But then I heard our back door close, and our two dogs came rushing to the newcomers. The little white terrier barked nonstop until Emmy (my sister) came and litterally chased her away. I called the black lab over to me and had her sit down (although she herself was far from calm.)

"Good girl," I told her.

"Who is this?" Nadir asked as my pup licked his hand happily.

"This is Tandoori. She's my guide dog. But she's only a model citizen with her harness on." I blew a rasberry in Dory's face, and she herumphed happily-and broke away from my hold to stick her nose in Nadir's and Eriks faces. "The little white thing is Valentine."

"So you're dog people?"

"Both dog and cat people. We have three cats too. Two grey ones that like to sleep-only one likes to be petted, but not held. And the third one is a big, fluffy, orange and white-"

"Meow!"

"Dicky! No, Dory. Down. Stay. Dicky-dork! Hi, Dick!" The big Dick had jumped onto our couch and was trying to stretch over all three of us. I played with his active tail, and when I felt for his head, I discovered that Erik's hand was making him purr. Between us, Nadir had tensed up.

"I'm not a cat person," he said uncomfortably.

"Okay. You can take him, Erik, if you want ... he usually doesn't like guys that much, but I think he likes you." Not surprising. Erik gathered up the bundle of fur as I kept Dory from lunging at him. She always wants to play with him and he acts like he hates it, even though he secretly enjoys it.

"Why is his name Dick?" Erik asked.

(A/N true story) "When we found him in a bush and brought him home, my sister was fostering kittens at the time; and so my dad comes home, sees another cat in the house just lounging on the couch in adition to our other two house kitties and the four or five foster kittens locked safely in my sister's room upstairs, and we say, 'Dad, we got a new cat. His name is Sir Richard, because he walks like he's royalty.' And my dad goes, 'Hello, Dick.' He sure doesn't like to use his brain, though. When he's in trouble' you just hear 'Dick! No!' Or when he's being mean, 'Dick, stop being such a dick!' or something like that. You keep our lives exciting, don't you, little Dicky? No, Dory! He doesn't want to play right now."

Erik and Nadir are laughing. "Well," said Erik. "I'd love to see the rest of your house. Nadir, you may stay, or you may leave; your choice. I think I'll at least not be bored by this whole thing."

"I'll hover, I suppose," said Nadir. "Lauren, I will e-mail you with any additional information you might need."

"Thanks, Nadir."

I'd showed Erik my house, and he said he'd happily see about tuning the violin, and even said he could buy it a new bow. He made me play him something on my piano, and offered to tune both my voice and the piano. He was content with my dark room where my keyboard was already living; I was unsure about him sharing my big bed, but he said he "supposed he would have to live with that." Hopefully that will get better with time.

"If I may ask, Lauren, and I mean no offense ... why does Dory not assist you around the house?"

"Ah. I know my house. I go a lot by memmory, and I also use sound and touch. If something is moved a tiny bit out of place, and I run into it or can't find it exactly where I left it, it throws me off a lot. I'll let you know if you're being too cautious or not cautious enough. It's all good."

"Good. I was told that you were a braille reader, but I still wasn't sure of the proper ... etiquette." Aw, shy and polite Erik. Yay.

"No problemo, my friend."

I let Erik stay in my room the rest of that day, and just surfed the web in the open loft we have. After dinner, I did a little more surfing before Emmy told me to go to bed. "You're dog's waiting for you," she said.

There was indeed a happy Dory on my bed. But there was also an Erik. A very quiet, content Erik.

"I apoligize if Dory's a bed hog," I said.

"She's all right," Erik replied.

I hoped very hard that this would go well.