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“You need your smoothie?” he asked.
I nodded my head.
He cupped it and brought it to his for a quick kiss.
When he let me move back, he said, “Okay, babe, let’s face the day.”
Another part of my (our) new ritual, once I got back into bed after Javi went to get our coffees, as usual, I didn’t get myself out of it.
Javi got us both out.
Javi had also taken a shine to my smoothies.
And that morning, there might have been a bouncier bounce to my step when I made them.
But I didn’t think anyone would blame me.
TWENTY-TWO
“INDEPENDENT WOMEN, PART 1”
(DESTINY’S CHILD)
It was Friday and I was rushing out the door to jump into Javi’s truck so he could take me to work.
Let me catch you up on the last few days.
Sadly, Javi wasn’t able to hang with me in the mornings for forever because he had a job, and he couldn’t start that job at 11:30 until the end of time.
Therefore, our new fun morning ritual had to change.
I again reconfigured mine to add sex (still fun) and making a to-go smoothie for Javi (also fun, just not nearly as much). But even though Javi wanted me to hang at his until he could come pick me up and take me to work (so I couldn’t go to any of my classes), I was able to get back to my yoga mat and spend some time journaling about how awesome my new boyfriend was (among other things).
Dad was still calling (a lot) and had left three voicemails.
Since I hadn’t figured out what I was going to do about him, I hadn’t listened to the voicemails yet.
Not a word from Mom.
I had no idea if Javi had found the time to have a chat with my dad, and I didn’t ask. He said he would do it. I didn’t figure he’d waste time. But, call me chicken, I didn’t want to know how it went.
Though, my guess was, he did not or Dad wouldn’t be calling me.
I’d interrogated Raye and Jessie about this, and they yet again shared my instincts were correct and to “just let him do what he has to do.”
“With them, the protective instincts are strong, they are. At your peril, stop them, you will,” Jessie Yoda’ed me.
Truth told, way down deep inside (not to mention on the pages of my journal), I admitted that I liked the idea of Javi inserting himself between me and the toxicity of my family. It gave him something, it shielded me from something bigger, and it felt good, for the first time in my life I had someone on my side.
And I loved the idea of Dad seeing big, strong, handsome, together, protective, loving Javi taking my back.
Onward from all of that, our investigation was at a standstill.
Luna, Shanti and Tex had not found anything that would indicate Trev had a video setup in his bedroom, even if we knew from what Javi told me, at some point he did. So either the killer, the cops or the Nightingale team had taken it, or prior to his demise, Trev had dismantled it.
No word on Trev’s cell or laptop.
Arthur had not been able to crack the Sun Dial LLC web o’ shell company lies.