Page 4 of Tailored for Them

“…What are you doing Saturday?” Jacqueline asked as she blindly reached for Leo’s hand. I remembered a while back when Leo and I chatted about possible ways to help Jacqueline during that time. As he described Jacqueline to me, my internalneurodivergent person radarwas going off. Based on how well she responded to the advice I gave Leo; I was under the impression that I was correct.

“Babysitting,” I replied, adjusting to shoulder my bag. I walked next to Nicole, and I really wished that I had a chance to shower or something instead. She smelled amazing. Something floral, and I couldn’t tell if it was perfume or shampoo, ordeodorant. All I knew was that I wanted to lean in and absorb myself in it.

But I didn’t do that, because I’m not a creep.

I stayed a respectable distance away, walking side-by-side with the others, and kept my cool.

“That girl needs a babysitter?” Leo asked, glancing over his shoulder to where we left Susie and Josh.

“Not really,” I admitted, “But her baby brother, and our friends’ five-year-old and her baby brother do.”

I saw Jacqueline wince, “That sounds like a lot.”

I grinned, “The babies are relatively easy, as long as they’re fed and played with. The five-year-old tries to be in charge of everyone, though.”

“That’s cute,” Nicole’s lips lifted in a smile as she stared ahead to where we were walking, and I wished deep in my bones that she would direct it toward me. But no, I smelled like sweat, so I knew I wouldn’t be mymostflirtatious self today.

No, if I were going to go out of my way to flirt with Nicole, I wanted to be showered. Fresh.

I also needed to determine if shewantedme to flirt with her, which was weirdly difficult for me to do for some reason. I felt like I was in my early twenties, navigating the dating scene for the first time, instead of my late thirties; someone who had dated the ish out of almost every queer person in Orange County.

“Babies scare me,” Jacqueline murmured.

“Not me,” I replied.

“That’s right,” Leo perked up, stepping ahead of us with Jacqueline as the sidewalk narrowed. We were walking in pairs now, and I both preened and cringed at the thought of Nicole being stuck walking next to smelly me, “T works with babies every day.”

I nodded, “From the age of twelve months to three years old.”

Nicole turned to look up at me, her dark eyes scanning my face as she asked her question, “What do you do for work?”

“I’m an occupational therapist,” I faced forward, attempting to conceal my blush from such close, direct eye contact with her, “I work with children who have delays. I help them get up to speed and teach their parents how to support them better.”

I glanced back down at Nicole, and my heart thumped in my chest from being in such close proximity to her.

Nicole widened her eyes, her lip turned up in the corner, “That’s so cool.”

Not as cool as being a CFO at Sun Steer, I thought to myself, but hey, I’d take it.

“It’s fun,” I grinned, allowing myself one bold once over. How would she feel in my hands? She had soft curves, curves that I wanted to grab and hold and pull into myself. The flare of her hips under those khaki shorts called to me.

Would Nicole like my touch? I made a mental note in my head tonight to determine if Nicole was queer. And if she was, how queer was she? I started creating a list of queer bands and movies to ask her about, to see how she reacted to them.

Her short fingernails looked promising, though.

Nicole snapped her head forward, and I scolded myself for being so bold and checking her out.

You still smell like ass, T, I reminded myself as I faced forward.

“Here we are,” Leo announced, holding the door open to a small local bar. He was a gentleman and held it open for everyone, but I still gestured for Nicole to step ahead of me with Jacqueline.

The noise of the bar sucked me out of my lustful fantasies of my teammate’s co-worker, and I gave myself one more mental talking-to before following everyone to the bar and ordering a drink.

Just alittlebit of flirting today.

I was here to hang out with my teammate, his girlfriend, and their coworker.

Nothing sexual.

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