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Story: Tenderfoot

“Who’s that?” Javi asked.
“My mom,” I told him.
“Ignore it.”
“That’s hard, Javi,” I admitted.
“You got a life. You’re with your man. You’re gonna be eating pizza with him in ten minutes. She can wait and talk to you when you’re ready.”
“She doesn’t know I have a man,” I pointed out.
And…
Was Javi my man?
Things in favor of this idea: he was sweet, protective, a great kisser, knew how to cure a hangover, we’d slept together three nights in a row, I was showering in his shower, and he was taking me to and from work.
Things that negated this idea: we hadn’t yet had an official date, or at least one that wasn’t weird, we hadn’t had sex, and, well…that was kind of it.
Oh my God.
He was kinda-sorta my man.
My phone stopped ringing.
“I’m gonna pay for that,” I muttered.
“You’ll be okay,” he replied.
He didn’t know my mother.
Five minutes later, we swung into his townhome complex.
One minute after that, we were in his townhome.
He moved around, turning on the few lamps he had (another mental note: along with the throw blanket, I needed to ask Javi if he was okay with me buying him some lamps—there was a standing one at West Elm that overarched and had an acrylic balloon shade that would look killer—I also needed to discuss an armchair with him, since every man needed an armchair).
Thinking these thoughts, I threw my bag on the kitchen island.
“Got beer,” Javi said, moving to the kitchen. “Got you some wine. Which one you want?”
“You bought me wine?” I asked, touched yet again by Javi being thoughtful.
“Noticed you liked it,” he muttered.
I was still mildly annoyed at him about our conversation in the truck, and now I was more annoyed with him because he made it so hard to retain hold on annoyed.
“Wine,” I said.
He went to the bottle of red I now noted was sitting on the counter by the fridge, marring his pristine, no-one-lives-here-nor-ever-has vision of his kitchen.
Man, we really needed to get down to our talk.
However, it was Friday, and on Fridays (as with most evenings), after work, I usually liked to take a quick shower, lotion up with my lavender-scented lotion and put a comfy lounge outfit on.
Conundrum.
Jess and Shanti had packed a couple of lounge outfits for me.

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