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Although this annoyed me, since this kind of thing was standard practice in the O’Neill family, that was only mildly.
It didn’t mildly annoy Javi.
He went to visit Easton at his office.
I didn’t get any more emails after that.
Just in case you were wondering, although Javi and Dad didn’t have the best first meeting-of-the-new-boyfriend in history, Dad liked Javi.
Then again, who wouldn’t like that their daughter found themselves a protective, doting, smart, financially-secure man to fall in love with?
Dad sure didn’t.
So that about summed things up.
Except to say…
Javi and I worked our two-place thing just as well as Eric and Jessie did.
His armchair arrived, and it was rad.
He bought a rug (with my input, but he totally had opinions, and in the end, it was his pick), and it perfectly pulled the room together.
His kitchen not only had the blender, the toaster, and the coffeemaker, it also had a sleek black pot filled with utensils (because we liked to cook together, and even though his kitchen was bigger, Javi found ways to bump up against me when we did). And he spent more money on a block of knives (times two, since he wanted the same at my place) than I ever knew you could spend on knives.
And his new dresser and nightstands were arriving in a week.
We had a slight hiccup when we went shopping for my new yoga mat and exercise paraphernalia, and Javi thought he could pay. I had to take him aside so the lady at the register didn’t have to listen to us bickering, it got so bad.
But in the end, this time, I won.
It seemed I didn’t have to have my How to Deal with An Alpha lessons.
Javi and I were doing just fine.
Most importantly, the Big Thing happened like this:
“You’re the best!”
“No, you’re the best!”
“No, you are!”
“No, you are!”
“Neither of you are!” Martha entered this shouting match Alexis and I were drunkenly having across the courtyard after we’d had a foursome date during which Alexis and I had imbibed copiously. “Now, shaddup!”
At this juncture, Jacob threw Alexis over his shoulder and walked her into their new pad.
And since I was standing just outside our door, Javi picked me up under my arms, pivoted, deposited me in the apartment, turned, closed and locked the door.
When he turned back, I attacked the fly on his jeans.
“Baby,” he rumbled, his voice shaking with laughter.
I tucked the tip of my tongue into the side of my mouth as I concentrated.
“Baby.” This time, that word was swallowed up by his laughter.