Charlie for Short

"You're living here too?"

Joey was trying to keep his head straight as he tried to converse with a woman who was even more beautiful now than she had appeared to be in her special agent gear - and that had been a hot enough site itself - while she was fresh from the shower and wearing nothing but a towel.

"Of course, I told you we'd be seeing a lot of each other" Carver answered in her usual, disarmingly relaxed, style "Who did you think the second bedroom was for? Visiting dignitaries?"

"Holy fuck, is that your gun on the table?" Joey gasped as he suddenly noticed a pistol casually lying next to the TV remote.

"It's one of them"

"Shit, is it loaded?"

"I wouldn't be able to protect you with it very well if it wasn't, would I?"

"What do you mean? Protect me from who?"

"Relax Joey, I'm extremely good at my job" Carver assured him "Look, why don't you unpack, I'll get dressed and clear my stuff up, and then we can hang together. I'm sure you'll feel much more comfortable once you get to know me. The whole reason I was assigned to you is that we've been assessed as having extremely compatible personalities"

"I'm really not sure I have much in common with some badass secret agent"

"Similarity and compatibility aren't necessarily interchangeable, but I do like that you called me badass" Carver told him "C'mon, give me a chance here. You're stuck with me either way"

Joey didn't have much choice but to give his new roommate the benefit of the doubt for now, but he remained extremely wary of her. For all Carver's talk of compatibility tests, the cynic in Joey suspected that might not be the only reason he had been sent the worlds most fuckable secret agent, and the adorable girl next door act didn't seem to fit with what she did for a living. If the plan was for Joey to fall hopelessly in love with Carver and turn into putty in her hands, well, there was a very realistic chance that plan would work flawlessly - but not without at least some attempt at a fight from him first.

Around twenty minutes later, Joey's handler was dressed and calling him into the living room.

"Okay Roomie, what do you want us to do? We can talk and get to know each other, or we can start our TV bingeing marathon right away. I've hooked us up with every subscription channel there is. There's no reason why we can't both enjoy our time together"

"How am I supposed to explain you to Liv?"

"The same way you'll explain me to everyone else. I'm your old University buddy Diane, and I'm letting you stay with me at mates rates since your my pal and I'm an extremely generous person"

"And what do I call you when it's just us? Agent Carver?"

"Why don't you call me Diane?"

"That's not your real name is it?"

"No, but neither is Carver, so I don't know where that leaves us"

"You don't even look like a Diane. You don't give off Diane energy, either"

"Oh, really?" Carver laughed "What kind of energy do I give off?"

Joey regarded the agent for a moment. God, she was beautiful, and so much his type. What was a nice pretty name, that could be turned into something cute?

"How about Charlotte, but people call you Charlie for short?"

"What the fuck, how did you do that?" the agents eyes widened with shock.

"Do what?" Joey was looking confused.

"I probably shouldn't tell you this, but my real name actually is Charlotte and some of my close friends and family do refer to me as Charlie. Your perception skills must be off the charts!"

"What? Are you serious?" Joey asked in amazement.

"No, I was totally fucking with you!" Carver laughed as she slapped his arm "Damn, your face was a picture for a moment there! Do you prefer Charlotte stroke Charlie for me though?"

"I do" Joey had to admit.

"Fine, then we'll go with that" Charlie shrugged "I can't believe I just let you name me. I must be going soft!"

"So Charlie, just how bugged is this place?" Joey wanted to know, still not ready to start acting like this was a normal house share scenario "The last time we had a conversation you had a friend with a stun gun pointed at me and were mic'd up. Don't tell me there aren't cameras in every room?"

"Yeah, but it's all monitored by AI, since your lies would work on any human listening remotely just as well as they would on me. So you don't have to worry about people watching you when you're in the shower, or if you and the Senator's hot daughter are, you know....Which is kind of s shame, 'cos those videos would definitely go viral"

"Speaking of Liv, why were you so keen to get her here? Just because of who her father is?"

"That's definitely a bonus" Charlie admitted "We also need a live'in guinea pig"

"A what?"

"Someone who is just there everyday to experiment on, to see what we can and can't do with your powers. Nothing harmful, obviously"

"Are you serious? You want to use my girlfriend as some kind of mind test dummy?"

"Like you haven't been doing that already" Charlie rolled her eyes "Testing is important to what we're doing here, Joey. Not to mention potentially very entertaining"

"What kind of experiments are you even talking about?"

"Well, first off, I want you to tell her she believes everything i say. Because if that works, it opens up all sorts of possibilities for our work together" Charlie then picked up the remote and began assessing her viewing options "Anyway, work talk is banned now for the rest of the evening. So, what are we watching? Can I recommend Sons of Anarchy? It's really fucking good. Have you seen it?"

Joey shook his head.

"Then come sit with me" Charlie patted the cushion next to hers "Trust me, you're in for a treat"