Ajay suspected he might have made a mistake by going to the Grunts' that Sunday, but considering he had basically just arrived in the neighborhood, he didn't want to decline the very first invite to a barbecue party he received and seem rude or stuck-up. Still, the sight of General Grunt at the door, looking at him angry and confused, almost as if he didn't expect or want him to be there made Ajay fear for his life for a moment, and he considered running back home; until the General went inside shouting "ANOTHER ONE, RIPP?" as laughter followed. The man left, clearing the entrance, and for some reason Ajay decided to go in.
He reached the backyard, where he found all his neighbors gathered: a couple of them he already knew well, like the tan, sporty woman who was currently talking to the oldest of the Grunt kids, comparing their workout routines. Others, he only saw a couple of times around town, like the jolly alien man who was grilling up hotdogs and chatting excitedly with an elderly black woman, and to be fair he wasn't even that interested to get to know them more than that. He looked apprehensively at the hotdogs that were being cooked, wondering what kind of meat was in them, and thanked his vegetarian upbringing that would have saved him from finding out.
Ajay kept looking around as he reached a big plastic table in the middle of the yard, going to grab a cup of soda: passing by, he saw another one of the girls living next to him, an alien redhead who was chatting animatedly with a dark haired man who nodded at her enthusiastically, his green sunglasses slowly sliding down his nose a little more every time. The girl, Chloe, told Ajay he was a relative of hers… her cousin maybe? She tried to tell him about her family once, but he didn't understand much in the end, considering that the man didn't look like her at all. When Chloe noticed him she waved quickly, and Ajay awkwardly reciprocated, then kept walking around and see if there was someone else he could speak to.
That's when he noticed her.
He remembered seeing her only once in passing, as he was going back home from the grocery store, but he recalled how on that occasion too he simply couldn't move his gaze from her: he fixated on the way the sunlight lit her red hair and her dark skin; on the way she stood, straight and composed; on the way she moved, elegant and precise. He felt truly hypnotized, and almost didn't realize she was looking back at him.
Suddenly, her dark eyes stared at him through orange-tinted glasses, and she made a face that he couldn't really decipher: the only thing he knew was that he suddenly felt as if he did something wrong, and wanted to avert her gaze, but couldn't bring himself to do so.
The woman stopped looking at him, and for a moment Ajay felt relief. That was until he saw her walk in his direction, surely to kill him. He wanted to run away, but his legs couldn't move, and it was too late as she was already in front of him. Unexpectedly, she just kept walking, but she leaned into him for a moment and whispered in his ear "Call me", as she pushed a piece of paper in his free hand, then she disappeared in the house. For a moment he stood there, still looking ahead, his breathing quick and panicked; then, when he finally calmed down, Ajay looked at the small paper the woman gave him: in small, cursive letters, she had scribbled a phone number on it, and under that a name.
Circe.