She had to wait exactly two and a half minutes before the door swung open - just enough time to put her slightly off-balance and on-edge. The smile presented by Zio as he stood just inside the door seemed calculated to be the appropriate safe harbor. Then he chuckled slightly and shook his head, taking a step further back. His dark eyes took in her appearance with growing appreciation and, with another step back, he made an expansive gesture to welcome her inside. "Cara," he said with some warmth, "to what do I owe this pleasure?"
As she passed him to enter the apartment, the first thing that struck her was the neatness of everything. It lacked any kind of indication that only a bachelor lived in the place. The floors were clean, free of all clutter, and the furniture was modern and sparse. It had the look of a slightly used magazine cover shoot. The only real personality lay in the paintings scattered throughout - vibrant and varied, heavily leaning towards finely detailed realism.