Colleen and Alex

Alex didn't expect Emmett's sister to respond so quickly. Maybe Americans don't like to keep unread messages in their email. Or maybe it was her lucky day.

Colleen replied an hour after sending her message.

"Hi, this is Alex."

But how stupid! Emmett didn't seem sure if Colleen knew him, in fact, he wasn't convincing at all. "But of course she knows you. I told her about you of course." There you go. Nothing very convincing from Emmett. But he takes his chances anyway, not wanting to doubt the one person who can save him from the stupid situation he's in.

Running for his girlfriend. Pathetic, isn't it? But hey, it's the only way to escape the family pressure he's under about it. It's so unlike him that he's already called Emmett twice to tell him he won't be going with him anymore. But knowing his friend, the pediatrician didn't care

too much about the remorse that's engulfing his friend, the orthopedist.

Colleen: Hi Alex. I'm Colleen, Emmett's sister.

Alex: Nice to talk to you. Your brother gave me your number for the request in question.

Asking for help was never Alexander's forte. But leaving so quickly required such quick preparations. Emmett is staying with his brother, and knowing the lonely situation their sister is in, the Smith brothers decide to suggest that Alex be his roommate until he finds an apartment or a long-booking hotel room.

Colleen: Not to lie to you, he caught me off guard because I didn't know we would need my guest room. But tell me,you don’t mind staying in a stranger’s home?

Alex: Well, you are my friend’s sister. What could go wrong?

Colleen: Don’t you know the US has the highest number of serial killers in the world?

Alex: Rather tempting information if you ask me. Also, I needed somewhere quick to settle in. I didn’t plan to travel like Emmett. So I won’t have time to look for new apartments and check with the landlords, etc etc.

Colleen: I see. I hope we will be friends!

Alex:I’m sure we will!

Colleen: Is there anything in particular you'd like in your room, by any chance? I have to be a good host so Emmett doesn't kill me! Allergies, preferences?

Alex: No, thank you. Nothing in particular. I don't have any allergies that I know of.

Colleen: You'll see, you'll have a weather allergy here in Seattle. No big deal: flu year round if you're weak and even if you're strong, the cold is waiting for you!!!

Alex: Nothing much different. Didn't Emmett tell you that we don't sunbathe in London?

Colleen: Ew. Hey, isn't it late there?

Alex: Yeah pretty much. Why?

Colleen: I didn't want to write and bother you this early! or late...

Alex: No, no. I was already awake when I first wrote to you. I usually get up early to go to the

gym, go home and go to the hospital! So I don't mind talking to you at this hour. Besides, you answered an hour later, so I had time to work out.

Colleen: Ah that's great. So, nice to meet you Alex.

Alex: Likewise. It must be getting late in Seattle. I'll leave you to it. I'm going back home to work. Good night!

Colleen: Thank you! Have a great day!

Alex puts down his phone and closes his eyes. He was the only one in this part of the gym. Two other men and a woman were working out on the treadmill and thank God only the sound of the machines echoed in the large room.

He sticks his head to the camera behind him and looks at himself in the wall mirror opposite. When he started medical school, no one, not even him, would have predicted that his physique would have changed in this way.

Long nights of studying and the same half-meals took their toll on the fat that rested on his muscles. Emmett arrived as a freshman in the same dorm as him. The two young men had nothing in common at the time and before classes began, didn't even speak to each other except for basic cordialities.

It was only after their first partially failed exams that they decided to help each other.

Emmett was struggling in chemistry and biochemistry and he was a bit lost in the pathology and microbiology courses. The two discovered that they were complementary and became friends and then best friends. When it was time to split up and go to their respective fields, they moved out of the university's communal dormitory and rented an apartment nearby so they could stay together.

Soon after, he meets Melissa and, from what he remembers, it was total love at first sight. Or maybe it was just her awkwardness and kindness that led to her dating him. Come to think of it, maybe it was the latter.

Melissa was not what you would call a compassionate, caring or delicate young woman. Her sternness and endless cold-bloodedness played a big part in her acceptance into one of the city's top law firms. Although her parents could have easily gotten her into the London Bar, she didn't need anyone to see how exceptionally good she was at what she did.

Maybe that's why he stayed with her even after those years when their passion as a couple was trapped under a thick layer of ice. One had seminars on the other side of the world or trials all week long in the next town, the other had a schedule so impossible that sleeping in bed next to his girlfriend was a luxury he couldn't afford at the beginning of his career.

Maybe she saw the potential in him, twenty-five years old, almost two hundred pounds, six feet tall. He didn't look like much. Still attractive but nothing more. Now he's proud to say that women turn around in his path. You'd think he'd always been like this. A copy of Captain

America or Henry Cavill's brother as his cousin once told him.

But now that he looks in the mirror, he sees what no one sees. The stretch marks on his upper shoulders, some on his hips, and white, almost transparent marks, on his wrists, reminders of a time he wishes he could never remember; long before Melissa and long before Emmett.

He finally gets up and goes to the shower to remove the sweat that was starting to stick to his body.

Eventually, he'll have to cut his hair, he says in the shower. Brown strands fall in his face when he puts his head down too much, and now when his hair is wet, a lot of it obscures his view. At one time, Melissa cut his hair herself. He liked it and she did a good job. When the little romantic actions started to get scarce, he would go to the barber. Maybe he was going to let it grow out... like a hippie.

A hippie orthopedist... The thought made him laugh, remembering the time he and Emmett ate an entire box of brownies baked with weed. They had a weekend full of blackouts and laughter. Good thing they were on vacation.

Emmett is the brother he never had and the best friend he wished he had in his early elementary school years. He has always been the biggest and the smallest. In high school he was only the bigger one, as he grew a lot over the vacations.

But when he and Emmett became friends, Alexander discovered a new definition for the word friend: brother. He had only met his best friend's family once, a year or two ago, but had only seen Colleen through photos and videos.

She seemed pretty. Very pretty indeed. She must have been up to her chin or a little lower. When he asked Emmett why she wasn't really there, he said that after she got together with her boyfriend, she kind of cut ties with everyone. He didn't like the man his little sister spent all her time with. A guy named Aidan, maybe. He couldn't remember.

He saw a picture of the two. Long, thin, Asian. Probably of Korean origin but he could be wrong. From a distance, the man didn't seem like a problem. But since men Emmett doesn't dislike are rare, Alex guesses that it's only because Aidan is a little too close to his sister that Emmett's hostility has been aroused.

Finishing his rinse, Alexander replayed the rest of the week's procedures and the human resources paperwork from St. Helen's Hospital, where he plans to work in Seattle.

Hoping to have a good last week in his beloved country, he exits the gym, heading to the parking lot to make a quick hop home.