Page 86 of Tenderfoot

“I’m not, since I broke your trust by being a dick to you, and I think I passed that test last night, so maybe I shaved something off the huge fuckup I perpetrated.”

There it was.

The answer was yes.

It seemed impossible, but this guy could be more amazing.

I didn’t know what to do to share how much that meant to me, so I did the only thing that came to me.

I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him.

Javi hugged me back, and he was good at it, stroking my side in a sweet way with his big warm hand.

“We didn’t get to have our heavy talk,” I said in his ear.

Gently, he pulled away (just a bit) and said, “Friday night is date night and we’re gonna have a date by calling for a pizza and having our talk tonight.”

“Saturday night is date night,” I corrected him.

“We’re gonna date tomorrow night too,” he replied. “Though, I’m gonna take you someplace fancy for that one.”

See?

He totally was going to keep getting more and more amazing.

And I got to go out on a real, official date with Javi.

I couldn’t wait!

“You gonna go to work or are you gonna stay home and sleep off this hangover?” he asked.

As much as I wanted to sleep off the hangover, I couldn’t let Tito, Tex and the girls down like that, not to mention, I needed to work to pay my rent.

I looked to his side of the bed, but he didn’t have an alarm clock. He only had a charging station.

So I looked again to him. “What time is it?”

“Around nine thirty.”

Holy shmoly!

Not only was there no way to squeeze in even a small part of my morning ritual (again!), it was a hair wash day and I only had an hour and fifteen minutes to get ready.

I scrambled off his lap and raced to the bathroom, my head screaming, my stomach churning, my lips crying, “It’s a hair wash day!”

Such was my haste, I slammed the door behind me accidentally, and my headache didn’t thank me for it.

I was rinsing off my facewash when there was a knock at the door.

“Yeah?” I called.

Javi walked in carrying a glass filled with cloudy water and ice.

He set it on the bathroom vanity.

“IV hydration,” he said. “Drink it dry. It’ll help with the hangover. I’ll bring you coffee and a bagel after you shower.”

Oh my God!

---