“Whoa, watch your fingers!”

Efrain readjusted the angle of his left hand so that it just missed the doorframe as he and his new roommate carried in the last of the many gargantuan boxes they had unloaded today. Perhaps they could have done with the assistance of a moving company, but when Efrain suggested it, Carlos had pulled up his sleeves, flexed, and said, “Baby, you don’t need to pay somebody when you already got a professional strongman like me.” And despite his doubts, Efrain had to admit that the two of them had made a good team.

Disappearing into his bedroom, Efrain reemerged with his duffel bag of immediately necessary items, sifting through it till he found a box cutter. He opened it with every intention of putting it to the task of its namesake, but Carlos started whining.

“No way, man – you can’t start unpacking now! We just did a whole day’s worth of work. Don’t pile more on there. Let’s celebrate!”

With his head shaking as vigorously as he could muster, Efrain replied, “I really don’t feel like doing anything right now. I’m tired.”

“Come on, E, don’t be such a loser. We should hit downtown, take some shots, see some ladies. Anyway I got these two honeys I met recently, and they would be perfect for us. If you don’t get back in the game soon, you’ll lose all the appeal of the little helpless bunny who just escaped his cage.”

“I’m not interested.”

“Man, you’re killing me. Look at these girls. They’re pretty hot!”

On Carlos’ phone was a picture of two women around the roommates’ age, who were indeed rather attractive, but not overly so. Efrain flipped through a few pictures till he saw one with the girls kissing. “They’re not interested either,” he said.

“Then we impress them with how macho we are and get them to switch sides, or we’re the other couple in the double date. If they won’t come home with us, we’ve got each other. It’s a win-win.”

“That’s a really weird thing to joke about,” Efrain said, but he still put on his jacket and followed his new roommate out the door.