"I'm going to warn you, before you come in." Magnus said, sounding very serious. He was holding the door so I could only see him through a small gap. None of the apartment was visible. "So that you don't freak out."

"Warn me of what?" I asked carefully. Judging by my boyfriend's face I wouldn't like the answer. When somebody tells you not to freak, it's all you want to do.

"I'm in the middle of a fitting." Magnus said in a voice that implied he felt like a lamb to the slaughter.

"A fitting?" I asked, confused.

Magnus put on a very patient face. "As in, there are people in here in varying states of undress."

I blinked.

"Do not freak out." Magnus repeated.

I was about to say something - mind you, I didn't know what that something was - when I heard the ring of a very familiar voice. That instantly recognisable foreign lilt. Then the door was pulled wide open and I was greeted with the sight of Camille Belcourt in nothing but white lace underwear.

I had no idea where to look.

I didn't need to spend long trying to figure it out before she hugged me. This is as much contact as I have ever had, or ever want to have, with a semi-naked woman.

"Alexander, it has been too long!" She exclaimed.

Camille's arms were currently wrapped around my neck. She was small and petit, and basically hung in the air dangling from me. I hadn't a clue what to do with my hands and looked at Magnus helplessly.

Then I saw the rest of his company.

"This is Alec?" Asked an excited woman with hair which was pure white. She was wearing a lace dress which I thought was one-sleeved at first. Then I realised that one of her arms was covered in intricate blue tattoos in pretty lattice shapes which seemed to match the fabric. She leaned forward, trying to get a better look at me, but was being held in place from behind. A man I quickly recognised as Woolsey Scott – anybody who didn't live in a cave would have recognised him – was holding the dress together from the back and seemed annoyed that she was moving around so much.

"Caterina, I will drop this." He threatened. The woman - 'Caterina' - let out a little shriek and held the bosom of the dress in place so that it wouldn't fall down.

"Oh, don't fuss." Camille chided. I only realised then that she'd let me go. I straightened up. "Alexander doesn't care a bit what's under there."

"He isn't the only one." Woolsey Scott declared, letting go of the dress and coming towards us. He was more dressed than the girls but his shirt was completely unbuttoned. Scratch that - the shirt had no buttons yet.

Magnus shot me a 'sorry' look before darting off to make whatever adjustment he had been making to Caterina's outfit. I had to look away while he was sticking pins in. Magnus was a professional, I knew that he wasn't being as careless as he looked, but I still worried he might poke her with one like she was a voodoo doll.

Camille was flouncing off back to the living space where, thankfully, she seemed to have something to put on. Magnus had been right to block my view of the apartment. If I'd seen any of this before he explained the situation, I would have drawn an upsetting conclusion. As it was, the atmosphere in the room wasn't even remotely sexual.

For the most part.

Woolsey Scott circled behind me and paused there.

"Very nice." He said. I whirled around to face him, slightly mortified, and he slammed the door shut. The man was completely, unapologetically checking me out. When I spun so he couldn't see my rear, he still focused down south.

"Do you mind?" I quipped. You never expect to tell a celebrity to back off until you have to.

Woolsey Scott just looked amused.

"I like this one, Bane!" He called as he headed in to re-join the others.

"Hands off, Scott!" Magnus replied in a mimicking tone. He sent me another apology glance and softened his voice when he spoke to me. "Is he bothering you, Sweetpea?"

"Wait until he meets Ragnor." Caterina giggled. Of course, I didn't know who she was talking about, but Magnus did.

"Ragnor won't try to sexually harass him." Magnus pointed out.

Then Magnus gave his friend permission to step out of the dress. To my immense relief, she put on a robe before doing so.

"Caterina Loss." She introduced herself and held out a hand for me to shake – the one with the tattoos.

"Cat sings for a band." Camille filled me in. Horrifyingly enough, she'd only replaced her jeans and her chest and bra were still very much displayed. She didn't appear to notice. In fact nobody seemed to notice; though Woolsey Scott looked so profoundly disinterested that he must have. You couldn't so obviously ignore something you hadn't seen.

"Don't feel bad for not knowing who she is. Nobody does." Woolsey Scott grinned when he caught me looking his way. He had perfect rows of sharp-looking white teeth. When he turned towards me I noticed the trail of hair from his bellybutton downwards which suggested he was a natural blonde.

Caterina only looked mildly ticked off.

"We haven't cracked the US yet." She told me somewhat sullenly. So I assumed that her band did well in elsewhere. Europe, maybe? I wondered if Magnus had any friends at all who weren't European, in spite of living in the US for so long.

Magnus smiled. An encouraging, friendly smile assuring Caterina that she'd make it soon enough. The kind of tolerant look my group would give to Simon every time one of his gigs bombed.

It dawned on me then that I was in a room for the first time with Magnus' friends. Obviously I'd known that from the moment I walked in, but the thought had taken a while to settle.

I wanted to ask them all about how they came to know each other. There were bound to be some good stories there. However, I didn't want to pry right away. Usually when Magnus told me about his history I learned more than I bargained for.

Considering I knew for a fact Magnus and Woolsey Scott had slept together, I may not have been up for that story. The actor gave me the impression he'd want to go into all the gory details of it. I was far more secure pretending that it never happened.

Magnus dressed one of his mannequins in the blue dress Caterina had been wearing. Beside that was a red dress worthy of a Vampire Queen - which was probably going to be Camille's costume this year - and next to that was a male model clad in a very well-tailored suit. Minus the shirt.

"Woolsey, I told you to take that off." Magnus complained, exasperated. "Sometimes I think you were sent to test me."

"I did test you." His friend smirked back as he allowed the button-less shirt to fall down from his shoulders. He dropped a wink my way. "Grade A stuff, there, am I right?"

Okay. That was uncomfortable. So much for pretending it never happened. Magnus looked embarrassed to the nth degree.

Lucky for him, I was friends with Jace. I was used to people trying to set me up with sticky situations and knew that Woolsey Scott was using similar tactics.

"I can't say I have anything to compare to... Are you demonstrating Grade B?" I asked. Of course, the guy was stunning, and I would never have said such a thing under less-weird circumstances. It seemed appropriate at the time, though.

Magnus looked glad and pat me on the back. "That was impressive, for you."

"Well played." Woolsey (I figured mock-insulting him had put us on first name terms) admitted. He hung his shirt up over the edge of a seat and threw Camille's top at her.

My original plan for that evening had been to talk to Magnus about the night at Pandemonium. I'd spent the morning talking to Isabelle and wanted to confer with Magnus about where we stood with her now.

However, it was rude to just walk in and pretend Magnus didn't have any guests, so I settled down for an… interesting… evening of getting to know the people in his life.

I hope you liked the chapter, there's lots going on at the moment and I wanted to put in something light so there you go. The next chapter "Desert Dry"* won't be long.

*I always worry I've typed 'Dessert' by accident there!

Thank you for reading and for your reviews.