"No, mom, I'm not lonely," Cody said into the phone.
"Well, Megan has been gone what, six months now, and you're in that big empty condo by yourself. It would be normal." His mother continued.
"Seriously, I'm all good, mom, but I get the feeling me being lonely isn't what we're talking about." Cody always knew when his mother was fishing around one topic to get to a different one altogether.
"There is something." His mother said.
He chuckled to himself. Of course, there is, he thought.
"Ok, so you know your Uncle Ted and Aunt Alice moved to Texas, right?"
"Sure, I referred Ted to a friend of mine in commercial real estate for his new office. Everything ok with them?" Cody asked.
"They're fine," she said, "I talk to Alice quite a bit."
Alice was his Mom's sister, and they were close, but he still wasn't sure where she was going.
"Anyway, I'm not sure you remember, but Alex and Amber go to UGA, so they stayed here in Georgia."
"Mom, what does this have to do with me?" He was getting a little impatient.
"Well, they're going into their senior year, and they both have separate internships in Atlanta. It would be an hour and a half commute to Atlanta from Athens, and with their parents gone, I thought maybe they could rent a room from you for the summer."
Cody laughed. All of that to ask him if his cousins could stay for the summer?
"Of course they can stay here," he replied, "I'm not taking rent, though."
"I didn't ask you to let them stay for free."
Cody was amused. He owned a very successful tech company in Atlanta, and his condo was in a luxury building in Buckhead. He certainly wasn't taking money from college students or even his aunt and uncle.
"Mom, come on. You know I don't need the money. Do you want me to call them?"
His Mom said she'd send him both of their contacts, and he agreed to get in touch right away. They made the usual goodbye noises, and he told her he loved her and hung up. His phone vibrated almost immediately with his cousins' contact information.
Cody had always liked Alex and Amber. He mostly remembered them as little girls when he was in high school, but the two families were close and often saw them. The girls were twins, and he remembered them asking him all sorts of questions about pretty much everything. His grandfather commented that one of them would be President one day. That always seemed plausible to Cody.
After he went off to college, he attended UGA, Cody only saw them sporadically, but he did go to their high school graduation dinner a few years before, and they were still impressive and gorgeous. He didn't figure anything had changed.
Three weeks later, Cody was proven right as he opened his door and saw two of the most beautiful women he had ever seen.
"Hi Cody!" they said almost in unison.
"Hi yourselves," He replied.
The first thing he noticed was that they were identical. He knew that, of course, but he had known twins that didn't look as much alike when they got older. That was not the case with his cousins. They were tall blondes. He was guessing five foot nine inches or so and had long, athletic legs, which he saw because they were both wearing shorts. They had large breasts for their frame. One of them, it turned out to be Alex, was wearing a crop top exposing her perfectly flat stomach while the other was wearing a top that covered the area, but he was sure there was no difference. The blonde hair was shoulder length on both, but Amber pulled hers back, and Alex wore hers down. They had the same striking blue eyes and broad smiles.
"Come on in," he smiled, waving them inside, "welcome!"
Alex knew that Cody's apartment would be lovely when they saw the building, but it exceeded her expectations when they walked in the door. It was bright, tastefully furnished, and the open concept kitchen had all high-end appliances. She was impressed. She looked at her sister, who, judging by her face, was thinking the same thing. Cody motioned them to sit on the couch while he sat in a leather chair.
"Thank you so much for letting us stay here, Cody," Alex said.
"You're welcome; what's mine is yours," he replied.
"Let me show you your rooms."
"I can't believe this place!" Amber said. She was sitting on the bed in Alex's room while her sister unpacked.
"Yeah, it's incredible. Mom told me that his ex-girlfriend was an interior designer, and that shows."
"I agree," Alex said, "I guess she got a big job in LA, which is why she left. I remember her from our graduation dinner. I thought she was pretty, and now I see she's talented too."
Cody hated to admit it, he certainly hadn't been lonely as his mother suggested, but he liked the female energy his cousins brought. He genuinely admired women. He looked forward to their time together.
That night he ordered Thai food from a place around the corner, and the three of them talked about everything, including the girls' internships Alex's was in marketing while Amber's was with a PR firm run by a female friend.
"You're going to love Courtney," he told Amber, referring to her new boss, "She's one of my favorite people, and her husband is a softball buddy."
