Page 2 of Bro Amazing

He still hasn't introduced himself, but he points to the flyer still in my hand. He's lanky, young, probably early twenties, about my age. He can't be the one from the flyer though, because someone his age, and dressed the way he is, probably can't afford to cover room and board for himself, let alone a live-in girlfriend.

"Uh, yes?" This is a bad idea. I should walk away right now. "Is the guy who's hiring the, uh, the girlfriend here?"

It's super embarrassing to say those words out loud and have someone else hear them. I can't believe it's come to this. Admitting that not only am I single, but I'm desperate enough that I'll live with someone even more desperate. Desperate enough to put up flyers. Who does that?

"Yeah, come on in." The guy gives me a weird look before heading down the hall, expecting me to follow. "Hel! I owe you twenty bucks. The flyer worked."

I glance around the street behind me in case anyone is around to see me go into this house alive so they can testify to the police later at my murder trial. But the street is empty. Not my lucky day.

Reluctantly, I step inside and close the front door behind me. The entire place has a slightly forgotten feel about it, as if no one has really noticed that it's here for a long while. Do I take off my shoes? This is someone else's house, and I can't remember if I saw the guy who answered the door wearing shoes or not.

He sticks his head out of a doorway up ahead. "Come on, we need to interview you."

"We?" I decide to leave my shoes on in case I need a quick getaway.

Stopping in the doorway where the guy disappeared, I come face to face with the little detail they left out on the flyer.

Chapter Two

Five guys, all of a similar age and style of dress, stare back at me from an array of computer chairs. The room is completely dark—if there are windows, they're covered in blackout curtains. The only light is from the monitors of their computers. Multiple ones in front of each chair. The only thing on the screens are screensavers of different animated characters who I also don't recognize.

I can't say anything. I'm completely stunned, more nervous than ever, and absolutely confused. I don't even know where to start with all the questions I have now.

"Hi, I'm Helix," says one of them, a lanky guy with a man-bun and shaved sides, getting up and reaching his hand out to shake. I take it automatically. "I'm the one who put up the flyer. This is Miles"—he points at the one who answered the door—"Quintin, Lionel, and Ethan."

"Oh. Okay. I'm … " I glance around the room again. There's a weird vibe in here and I don't want them to have any identifying information about me, like that my name is Clarissa. Everyone is staring at me. Maybe my lipstick is a little smeared? I don't normally wear makeup since I sit at a computer all day and don’t see anyone else, but I figured for an interview, especially one fora live-in girlfriend, I should make the effort. "So you're the one looking for a live-in girlfriend?"

"No, well, yes." Helix looks briefly over his shoulder at the other guys. "We're all looking for one."

"You're going to hire five girlfriends to live here with all of you?" It's a good-sized house from the front, but ten people living anywhere together is going to be crowded, especially because I work from home. Maybe it's a lot bigger on the inside though, or the others don't actually live here and are just hanging out here for the day.

"No," Helix draws out the word. Slowly, as if judging my facial expression, he says, "We're hiring just one girlfriend, to share, among all five of us."

"All five of you?" I sound stupid repeating Helix's word back to him, but it's taking my brain longer than it should to compute the implication of his words.

"Yeah, doesn't it say that on the flyer?" Helix takes the paper out of my hand and looks it over. "Oh, it doesn't. Looks like I forgot to include that part on there. Oops. Oh well."

Oops?That's a pretty big detail to have left out. Dealing with one boyfriend who is paying you to be their girlfriend is awkward enough because what if you actually can't stand each other or you don't like him? Butfive? Five is just too many.

"She looks like she's about to pass out, Hel, get her a chair," says Quintin, the rich deep tones of his skin highlighting the tendons in his arm as he gestures.

Helix grabs the empty computer chair and swings it around so the seat hits the back of my knees, forcing me to collapse onto the seat.

"Are you okay?" Helix leans down so we're face to face, but he doesn't touch me. "Do you need water?"

"I'm fine." I should leave. I should go back to my apartment and look for normal jobs.

"Why don't we go over some of the aspects of the job then?" says Miles, leaning forward in his chair, watching me.

I must have heard Helix wrong. Or misconstrued his words. He couldn't possibly mean being the live-in girlfriend of five guys at once.

"Good idea," says Helix. "So like the flyer says, room and board is included."

See, he's talking about practical things that are on the flyer, and there was nothing about all five of them being the boyfriend on the flyer. My imagination must be overreacting again.

Helix is cut off by Quintin, who says, "Does it really say that, or did you forget to put that on there too?"

"Zero out of ten," says Lionel. He has dark, wavy hair down to his shoulders which should not work on anyone, but pulls it off. He's good-looking, thin and kind of lanky like the rest of them as if they're not used to doing physical labor. They're probably stronger than they appear though.

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