Yes, and we are not alone..

Finally making it to the balcony, Ingrid opened up the door and there stood a handsome young man in a three-piece suit with tanned-skin, green eyes, and dark-brown hair getting ready to light up a cigarette.

"Oooooh, busted!" the young man cursed at the sight of Ingrid, then gave a curious glance towards me as I joined him in the cool night air. "Santiago, you know how Scarlet feels about you smoking." Ingrid shook her head in exaggerated disapproval.

"Ingrid, I am begging you, please don't tell Scarlet I will never hear the end of it."

"I will consider it so long as you agree to hide out our friend here until all of the guests move away from the front exit."

The young lad named Santiago brought his attention back to me as he looked me up and down quizzically. "Yeah, who is this and what happened to his shirt?"

"This is Ahab. Ahab, meet Santiago. Santiago, meet Ahab. He is a model for Scarlet's sister."

Santiago's eyes lit up with recognition and then something that looked very much like sympathy. "Oh! the guy from all those pictures out there." laying down his cigarette on the stone guardrail, he freed up his grasp to extend his arm in an open handshake. "Nice to meet the real thing bro!" I awkwardly accepted his hand and shook it. It was very warm compared to this breezy evening air.

"Uh, yeah... nice to meet you too."

"You two actually have a lot in common. Stay and chat while I check the entrance for more people. I will be back once they've all moved on." Ingrid shut the door behind her as she left us in companionable silence for several minutes. It felt rather strange standing outside half naked in the cold with some young stranger who seemed to be having trouble working his lighter. Trying to overlook the fact that this person has seen me naked in high-definition photographs, I attempted to break the ice.

"So uh, how do you know Scarlet and her friends?"

"Scarlet's my girlfriend." He shrugged while he continued to fiddle with his lighter.

"Wait, you're dating Scarlet!?" Consider my interest piqued.

"It's a long embarrassing story so I wont go into the details. Short version is that I started out looking for a job so I ended up working for Scarlet's sister Ruby as one of her models. I met Scarlet at Ruby's studio while she was working as an intern for her." Santiago's cheeks turned red as he continued to recall the events. "We found out that we went to the same school together after she walked in on me while I was posing nude one day. She kind of latched on to me since then. Or I guess you can say I latched on to her." he sighed and shook his head. "That girl has put me through more embarrassing situations than I can count since then; but I still like her, a lot." he placed a hand on his face. "After one day while working for Ruby, I wanted to quit because it was too embarrassing. But I still ended up coming back for the money and more importantly I wanted an excuse to see Scarlet again and again. I swear all that scheming girl has to do is smile and bat her eyes and she knows she can get me to do anything for her."

As I listened to Santiago's story a amiable sense of camaraderie emerged from within me. "Dude, it's like you're describing my whole life right now! I went through almost the exact same thing a while back with my girlfriend." I placed a companionable hand on his shoulder. Though I was saddened by Santiago's circumstances, it felt glorious to finally meet someone who knew exactly what I was going through. "My man, if there is anything I can do for you, just name it. It would be my pleasure to help out my fellow coworker." I smirked at him.

He chuckled, revealing some sparkly white teeth. "Thanks man, that's actually the real reason why I am helping you out here. It feels good to share this with someone who knows what I'm going through. I mean, when I see a guy walking around in public with no shirt on, I usually have a ton of questions. But once I find out you work for Ruby and you're friends with Scarlet, that pretty much answers everything. I have friends who have been in similar situations before but neither one of them has had the 'pleasure' of working with those sisters." I nodded in understanding as he futilely clicked his lighter. "Actually, there is one small favor you could do for me. Help me turn on this damn lighter. I have been trying to get it on ever since I came out here. You should know I love Scarlet, but she hates it when I smoke, so I'd appreciate it if you could also keep this a secret from her."

Not that I ever approved of smoking, but I was eager to do something for this young lad to help ease his stress. I took the lighter from him and in one click, a flame ignited so suddenly that I dropped it on my ****-soaked pants...setting my crotch on fire.

"OH MY GOD!" I screamed.

The balcony was too narrow for me stop, drop, and roll so I maladroitly attempted to bat down the flames with my hands. Fortunately, Santiago had a better idea when he grabbed me by the belt and yanked my pants down, causing me to fall on my back. In his haste he tore off my pants, shoes, and socks altogether and tossed them over the balcony where they descended into a duck pond down below. I was now lying on my back on a cold stone floor gasping for air in nothing but my flannel boxer briefs.

"Holy shit man, are you alright!?" Santiago offered his hand to pull me back up. I promptly accepted his aid and thanked him for his quick thinking. As I stood up on my feet, the balcony door opened up. Highly aware that whoever was coming through that door was going to see me in my underwear, my face turned pink as goosebumps finally erupted across my flesh from the cold.