"You can do it. Just knock," I whisper to myself as I stand in front of Collin's door the next morning. I turn around a few times then sigh a little and finally knock on it. A few seconds later, the door opens, and Collin appears in a towel while drying his hair. We both look at each other with wide eyes. "Oh, sorry. I didn't know you were taking a shower." I quickly turn around.

"No, I'm sorry. Let me go get dressed," he remarks and closes the door. As I wait outside, I think about how the towel lay right below his slightly visible adonis belt and how his body glistened with specs of water droplets on his also slightly visible abs; the way his muscles flexed when he dried his hair with the towel. Just thinking about all those has me blushing, making my face hot. Chills are running up my spine, and goosebumps are forming on my arms. God Julia! What are you thinking?! You must never think of that ever again! I slap myself a few times to clear my head.

"Julia?" he calls me from behind. Without knowing it, he had finished dressing and opened the door. Oh my God! He must have seen me slapping myself just now. Ugh, how humiliating! I turn around to face him, and my face feels hot again.

"Uh, hey, Collin," I say with a nervous smile.

He looks at me with vaguely raised eyebrows and moderately widened eyes then clears his throat. "So, do you need something?" he asks, combing through his hair with his fingers. Oh God, that looks so hot. Wait! Stop it, Julia! I look away and bite my lip with furrowed brows.

I breathe and replied, "Look, um, I'm also an author. Well, of course not as famous as you. I'm working my way up there. I just want to see if you can give me some advice and help me with this story I'm working on right now."

"Jules..." he starts. Did he just call me Jules? "An author never spills their secrets to another aspiring author," he finishes.

"Oh, I see. Well, sorry for bothering you." I start walking away, disappointed.

"Wait." He grabs my hand, stopping me in my tracks. "I was just kidding. Of course, I'll help you," he states with a goofy smile on his face. Butterflies start to form in my stomach. That's it. This is the end of me. I'm going to die from the sexual hormones that this beautiful Homosapien has stirred up inside of me with just a smile. Dang it, Julia. You have to be stronger than this. He probably has hundreds of gorgeous women lining up to date him. He wouldn't think of me as anything other than a resident at his place.

"Can you come down to my room?" I ask. Realizing how that sounds, I quickly stutter to clear it up, "I-I mean I already asked you for your help s-so I don't want to bother you in your own room. W-We'll do the work in my room instead." I smile nervously.

"Haha. You're adorable, Jules." He chuckles.

"Oh, thanks..." I mutter and blush. "W-Wait, uh, n-no. Uh, I-I, um, I'll m-meet you downstairs," I stutter and quickly leave.

. . .

I take my silver-colored laptop that's decorated with stickers made by my sister, Marlene, out of its case, and I exhume my creased and tainted manuscripts in an old folder from the bookshelf. "Julia?" Collin calls as he knocks on my door.

"Come on in, the door's unlocked," I say. I look around my room to make sure nothing's out of place. As he opens the door, I notice my black lace bra on my bed. I rush to my bed, leap onto it, and push the bra off the bed onto the other side that's facing a wall. There's no way he can see it. Right? I hope not.

"Uh, Jules?" he says with furrowed brows. I quickly turn, lean on my side, and prop my head up with one hand while the other is on my hip.

"C-Collin, uh, hey! What's up?" I smile nervously. I can see that he's trying to suppress a laugh. Realizing how I must've looked, I quickly get off the bed and fix my clothes. "My work desk is over there." I point to a white wooden desk with my stuff on it. Just as he starts walking towards it, I notice my matching black lace underwear next to the desk leg. I slide over, nearly falling, and stand in front of him, stopping him in his tracks.

"Ju-" he starts with a startled expression.

"Look! A rat!" I say aloud, interrupting him and pointing towards the hallway.

"Where?" When he turns around, I swiftly pick up the underwear and throw it under my bed. Luckily, I threw it hard enough to go through the bedding sheet that drapes over the whole bed way more than it should. "I don't see it," he says, turning around.

"It must've scurried away," I remark with a slight smile.

"Guess I'll have to call pest control to check it out," he responds. "You're hot."

"I'm what? Sorry?" I ask, confused and suddenly a bit flustered.

"You're sweating." He points at his own forehead.

"Oh, really? It's not hot in here." I laugh nervously and wipe my forehead. For a second there, I thought he meant something else.

. . .

"So in order to bring out the character's emotions, you need more figurative speeches. For example, yes, you can say 'Ellie can feel that's she's in love', but that's not very interesting. In order to further show that she's head over heels for Adam, you can say 'Ellie's heart feels like it's been punctured by Eros', a.k.a Cupid, arrow," Collin advises, looking at me while sitting next to me.

I look away from the paper and at him. Our faces are inches away. I watch as his eyes shift down to my lips then he clears his throat. "Let's move onto the next paragraph," I say. He combs through his hair with his fingers, and I do the same.

After a few more hours of writing, we call it a day. It's already 5 P.M. when we look at the clock. "Thanks for helping me, Collin," I say leaning against my door frame.

"It's no problem, anytime, Jules," he remarks with a smile. He rocks on his heels with his hands in his pockets for a while.

"So," we both say at the same time then laugh when we notice what happened.

"You go first," I say.

"Julia, I-" he starts.

"Collin!" someone shouts, interrupting him. "Collin! Help!" A woman around her forties comes running down the hall.

"Aunt Perilla," he calls out. Aunt? She's his aunt?

"Collin! I think I saw a rat!" she exclaims. A rat? Was there really a rat?

"I really have to call pest control." He sighs heavily. "I'll talk to you next time, Julia," he says as the woman drags him away. Halfway down the hall, she turns around and narrows her eyes at me. Did she really just do that? If she was any younger and unrelated to Collin, I'd think she would've made the rat problem up.