Theories of Attraction

Part 2

Nadia would never admit it aloud, but it bothered her more than it should whenever she inadvertently discovered Callen's perusal of his girl toys. Connie never allowed her to live in an ignorant bubble, whether it is by a casual comment on the matter, or one of her stronger opinions that Nadia would really rather have not be present for.

This time, however, she realized it on her own.

To be fair, it was her own fault. Nadia was naturally curious, and sometimes that coincided with being a snoop. She'd reprimanded Callen about his invasion of privacy, and times like these made her feel like a hypocrite. (Okay, so she was a hypocrite… A fault she'd remedy as soon as possible.)

No matter how many times she would groan about Callen dropping in their apartment, she was sane enough to admit to herself that there was a little part of her that enjoyed seeing his face (but when he opened his mouth was another thing altogether). Certainly she'd be fairly concerned when there was no sign of him for the better part of the whole month. And, let's be real, Nadia would sooner play with a snake than admit that to her roommate.

But of course she knew it was a mistake to drop by unannounced once she saw the pictures on the table. Granted it was partially hidden under tablemats, but still visible enough for her to claim that she just happened to see it from the corner of her eye. Not that she planned to stay that long for anyone to know she was even there to begin with.

When she was back in the safety of her apartment, she put Callen's spare key back in its rightful place and made a beeline for her room. She tossed the book she'd been gripping tightly to the corner and, for a moment, stood motionless in the center of her room.

A minute passed, and then two. Nadia slid her laptop into her bag and left the apartment.

X

"Thanks," Nadia murmured absently as she accepted the hot beverage from over the counter.

"No problem," the male voice called, and then with more familiarity, "Nadia? Hey. Been a while."

Nadia glanced at Callen smiling as he leaned against the counter. The part of her that coerced her to come by felt relieved at the sight of his face, but the larger (more rational) part that protested burned in shame at his face. A face that represented all that she wished to shed about the human condition.

"How are you?" she said perfunctorily.

"Can't complain. What about you? It's been, what, a month? a month and a half? We live in the same apartment. Though I think I saw you leave the apartment through my window one day…" He had to start preparing the next drink order but he didn't stop talking. "I've been by your place a few times last week. Connie always said you were busy."

He seemed to talk a lot more after weeks of silence between them, Nadia noticed. But logically that made sense. You had more to say to someone in such a circumstance. But these silences were enforced by Nadia herself, and after such silences, it took a while to return to the familiarity between them.

Not that he noticed. Nadia felt stupid for fighting a one-sided battle, and she was already over it anyway. Kind of.

"Work," Nadia confirmed. "I got a new job."

"Seriously?" He paused to grin over his shoulder. "Congratulations. No wonder you're busy."

Nadia nodded, trying in vain to keep herself from fidgeting. "So, what about you?" she heard herself blurt. Immediately she wanted to take the words back, but since they were out, she figured it would do well for her peace of mind to set everything straight. "Connie told me you have a new girlfriend."

Callen stilled for a moment, but then his fluid motions continued. "Not a girlfriend, no."

"So you're just dating. That's still good news," Nadia said.

"Thanks," he said quickly and glanced at her from the corner of his eye. Nadia pretended to take a large gulp from her coffee—but choked on the hot liquid. As if anticipating that, Callen passed over a handful of napkins as she gurgled in pain.

"Thanks," she said in a strained voice. "Burned tongue," she grimaced.

"I would say be more careful next time," Callen said as he handed her a glass of cold water. "But I never know with you."

Nadia grumbled a vague sarcastic thanks and sidled away as the customers around her began to glare at the pair. She found a seat near the window and sighed to herself. That could have gone a lot worse. She could have walked in on a visit from his not-girlfriend.

It was what she'd hoped for.

It wasn't a long wait. Nadia should be thankful because she was beginning to fidget and was on the verge of aborting the mission all together… but one look at her made her wonder why she wanted to go through with this at all. To be honest, she'd managed to put it off for a whole month, but she was dying to meet this new (not) girlfriend in order to satisfy her unhealthy curiosity about them.

The woman was wearing a white V-neck tee with denim shorts and a pair of ankle boots. It was simple, yet stylish. The bold red lipstick tied the casual look together, Nadia noted. She saw several men subtly glance her way more than once, and Nadia's eyes shot to Callen. He wasn't at the counter so he probably went to grab his stuff… which meant this was her only chance.

"Hi," Nadia said just as the brunette passed her. Nadia tried to look nonchalant at the face of surprise, but as a recipient of such an intense gaze, she found it difficult to think coherently. No surprise that Callen's girlfriend also had the ability to turn her brain into mush. Brilliant. "You know Callen, don't you? I'm his cousin's roommate. He told me about you."

"Oh," the stranger's lips pulled into a smile. "Hi. May I…?" she pointed to the seat across from Nadia, and at her nod, sat down. "My name is Emery."

"My name is Nadia," she smiled sunnily. "I've wanted to meet you for a while. Connie said she met you a few weeks ago, and she hardly likes Callen's girlfrie—girls who are friends, I mean—so when she told me how nice you were, naturally I was really curious." Nadia heard herself speaking, but she was unable to stop the flow of words. There was no filter. No filter. Oh, God. "Callen told me your favourite order was a green tea latte." Oh, God.

Emery looked stunned before red began to tinge her cheeks. "It is. That's weird, he told you that?"

"Oh, yeah, it was before you two started dating—when you would just come in to order. He said you were gorgeous." Nadia looked at her closely. "You really are. I love your nose!"

I love your nose? Nadia wanted to punch herself.

"The structure complements your cheekbones—but your whole face is aesthetically pleasing, so…" she stopped just as she sensed more than saw his presence. A moment later she saw his dark-washed jeans from the corner of her eye as she drilled holes into the table. "Perfect timing, as usual," she muttered just loud enough for him to hear.

"Did I just hear you say you loved her nose?"

"I would've said her butt, but that's hardly appropriate," she protested, and then clamped her mouth shut.

"We're calling it open mouth-insert foot syndrome," Callen told Emery.

Nadia muffled a groan.

"Thanks, though," Emery said with a little laugh.

"You're welcome," Nadia said, perking up only slightly. Unfortunately Callen was here so that immediately put a damper on her mood, but she was prepared to overlook his presence at the opportunity of acquainting with this stranger.

After all, how else was she supposed to learn how to pole dance?

X

The only reason she found out about Emery was because Connie had a big fat mouth, and Nadia just happened to be in the vicinity during another one of her rants. To be honest, it would be a difficult subject to breach, because even thinking about doing it felt invasive to Nadia.

Nadia and Connie got along well, mostly because they were both open-minded individuals who had a plethora to talk about with each other knowing they wouldn't be judged by the other. But of course Connie's usually open mind narrowed slightly whenever people she cared about were concerned (Nadia had always thought of addressing this hypocritical part of both their lives, but kept putting it off), so in the midst of her angry rant, Connie let it slip that Emery was a professional sex worker.

Overall Connie was fine with it because she believed that as long as no body was hurt, then why would she care? But there were negative connotations attached to the name, and from Callen's history with females, Nadia knew it wouldn't bode well for the cousins—at least at first.

Anyway, that was their problem and Nadia wanted to stay away from it. Her main concern was that Connie let information slip that, she assumes, only few trusted people would be privy to. But knowing her—as Callen eloquently put it—open mouth-insert foot syndrome, then she was bound to get herself in trouble and insult her somehow. But she was only curious, and had a thousand questions she wanted to ask her about a life that wasn't readily available to read about on Wikipedia. What was the work culture like? Do clubs care about the employee morale at all, or was there a high turnover at the end of the day? Were they paid, or did the strippers have to pay the club itself to work in their business to begin with? Were they trained at all or simply thrown into the waters?

But more importantly, where did she learn how to pole dance? It was a form of art and exercise. It was sensuality and acrobatics. The complete control of your body with fluid grace and purposeful movement all rolled into one performance. You, alone on stage, with only your body and the ability to ensnare the complete attention of those you deem worthy enough to look… or, in the case of strip clubs, those who pay to be there. It was all subjective, Nadia always thought (another question she could ask!), but she always flushed thinking about giving her own performance to a particular person…

"What's wrong with you?" Callen looked closely with a frown. "You're making a weird face."

Nadia immediately rearranged her expression. "No I'm not."

Callen gazed at her and gave a pointed look at the black television screen. Off. "You looked really disturbed. Enough for me to notice."

Nadia wanted to remove herself from the situation but she had to meet him head on. "Well, you could look away from me," she suggested. "And knock next time."

"I have a key."

"That's our spare key for emergencies, thank you." Nadia glanced at him just in time to see him drape himself over the loveseat languidly. His jawline was dusted with stubble and he looked tired. "Um, Connie won't be home tonight. She's at her boyfriend's place."

"I know," he said from behind the arm he'd slung over his eyes.

"Oh." She looked at him suspiciously. "She didn't leave out food."

"I know."

"…Did you want me to call her?"

Callen peered from beneath his arm. "Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"No," she denied quickly. "I'm just… wondering…" she trailed off when she realized it was useless. Shrugging, Nadia returned to her book, but hypersensitive to the male only several feet away from her, just knowing that he was listening to her every breath and probably looking at her at this moment…! She was rigid in her seat.

"Hey, is that The Kite Runner?" he said suddenly, eyes alert.

"What? Oh, yeah." She glanced down at the book on her lap. She wanted to regret having it out, but since he was the one who infiltrated her space, she merely wished she had the forethought to chuck the book to the corner as soon as she heard his voice.

"I've actually been meaning to buy a copy but I could never find the time," he said.

And yet he had time to lounge in here, she thought skeptically. "Actually, I—" She cleared her throat, averted her eyes. "I bought it for you. I was in the bookstore downtown and remembered what you said a few weeks ago." Silence in reply. She tried again, "You read it in high school, didn't you?"

She tensed when she saw his unreadable gaze. Was he so moved by her thoughtful gesture that he was holding back his words in fear of hearing them tremble? Did he want to fall at her feet and apologize for all those times he purposefully put her on the spot, knowing how she'd react? Nadia began to smile.

"Do you often use the things before you give them as presents?"

"What?"

He reached over and plucked the book from her lap. "Look, there's no crease. I noticed how careful you are with your things." And then he flipped to the first page and settled back.

She was torn between hurling loud words at him and storming off in a huff. In the end she settled for throwing a pillow at his face and snatched the book back the moment he was distracted.

"I haven't given it to you yet," she said snippily.

Callen grinned, not in the least affected by her brief dip into violence. "Okay, I'll let you read it first."

"So kind," she muttered, but instead of returning to the task, she braced herself for the impending conversation. Well, impending only because she decided (she used that term loosely) it so, and the undeniable curiosity was already clawing its way from its home in her brain, down her nerves and— "So I heard Emery was a stripper."

Silence, and then, "Let me guess, Connie told you."

Nadia was too mortified by her lack of sensitivity to reply right away. "Yes. I mean, it was an accident—I won't tell Emery I know though, I swear." She gathered enough strength to look at his face. "But is it a secret? Actually, don't tell me. The less I know, the better."

Interest brightened his eyes even more. "You can't keep a secret?"

"Not really," she said reluctantly. She relaxed when she detected no anger on his face. "If I stay away from her I won't be tempted to ask her…" Her gaze slid over his form, and she already felt the anticipation on her face. Her thirst for answers overrode the embarrassment churning in her chest at her own uncontrollable nosiness. "But since you two are dating, you probably know a lot. Is that too presumptuous? Can I ask you questions? You can say no."

It was a testament to Callen's familiarity with her that he didn't reel back in alarm at her bout of enthusiasm. Instead he wore a look of speculation as he appraised her. Upon closer inspection she thought she saw satisfaction on his face, but it quickly disappeared when his eyes narrowed.

"What's in it for me?"

"Isn't that—I don't know—a bit juvenile? You could say no."

"I don't see it that way," he said breezily. "What is this country built on? Commodity," he said, overriding her pointed answer of "Uh, freedom?" "I have answers you need, but at a price."

"You don't see me complaining when you steal my food," Nadia said for pity's sake. She could tell he was enjoying this by the light in his eyes, and inwardly she was already shaking her head at her delight in his delight… at her expense. By extension that could be seen as some form of masochism... "What do you want?"

He looked amused. "I thought I had to drag it out of you."

Nadia merely felt disgruntled. For all she knew Callen could have a dark, sinister streak within him that answered to positions of power. If so, he would relish in her debt to him, and who knew what kind of outlandish things he would ask of her?

"I'll answer anything you want," she said with exaggerated patience.

Callen's dimple appeared for a brief moment in his smirk, but disappeared too quickly for Nadia to appreciate it. Besides, she was also distracted by the glint of triumph in his eyes. "What I have in mind has more to do than words."

Nadia was mystified, but really, how bad could it be? She'd been through all sorts of uncomfortable situations with Callen, she couldn't imagine a scenario that went beyond their experiences together… A memory of their first encounter went through her mind and she twitched. "Sure, okay."

Callen stood and walked toward her. Looking up at his expression sent a slither of apprehension down her back. She felt the unusual urge to back away when he stopped right in front of her, his stare never once wavering. In that moment she realized he was looming over her!

"Shake on it," he said, putting a stop into her rant before it even started. He'd thrust his hand in front of her face, and she realized that she allowed his pretty face to interfere with her judgment again. He probably didn't know his affect on her, she assured herself. She shouldn't blame him for her innate collective impression of men (using his size to intimidate her, for example, and the fact of how she was grossly aware of the inequality between the sexes…).

"That's cheating," she grumbled, but reached forward to shake his hand anyway. "What do you want me to do anyway?"

"You'll find out," he said nonchalantly and made his way back to his seat.

Nadia eyed him suspiciously. Somehow, it felt like she just sealed her fate… But she was probably imagining it.

X

Author's Note: Hello! I am still alive – "real life" has just been tiring (working fulltime is honestly TIRING I have no energy to do anything after the whole 9-5 work week). I don't know if my muse has permanently abandoned me, but I am really forcing myself to write because I've missed it so. I hate to become another boring adult who loses her creative side because of life.

Anyway, thank you for the reviews as always. I will try not to wait until two years before updating, haha.