Page 74 of Dr. Sexypants

“I hope you don’t mind. I took your keys and went to get her. She kept running to her food dish though, so I fed her before we left.

“No, of course I don’t mind. I appreciate it. I felt guilty for sleeping so late and neglecting her.”

“Don’t feel guilty, she hasn’t been neglected. We’ve been hanging out and having a good time.” I nodded toward the coffee maker. “I got you French Vanilla.”

Her face lit up. “You did?”

“Yeah. That’s what you have at your house, right?”

“Yeah.”

She studied the coffee pods’ labels in the carousel, then took one out and popped it in the machine before grabbing a mug out of the cupboard.

Leaning against the counter as she waited for her coffee to brew, she softly said, “That was really thoughtful of you. Thanks.”

“Yeah, of course. I want you to feel at home when you’re here.”

“Well, good coffee’s a great place to start.”

Neither of us said anything else, and an awkward silence filled the kitchen.

I worried I’d overstepped by going to her house to get Dora without her permission.

Or if she’d consider getting her favorite coffee as being “too much”.

If so, then she really wasn’t going to like it when she noticed the new dog bed in the living room.

But I was done worrying.

I took a deep breath and said, “We need to talk.”

****

Kristy

Aw, crap.

“Anytime anyone has ever told me, ‘We need to talk,’ it’s never been good.”

“I don’t think it’s bad. But after last night, between the wedding and being told you’re dating Jonathan, I realized I need to know where we stand.”

“You know where we stand.”

He shook his head. “I’m not okay with that anymore. I want more.”

“Like what?”

“Like, I want to be able to call you my girlfriend! I don’t want to have to worry if I said or did the wrong thing and freaked you out. Or if you’re seeing someone else. I want to know where this is going.”

I felt my skin get hot and swallowed hard, trying to suck in air.

“How about this? We’re exclusively seeing each other, and you don’t have to worry about saying or doing something wrong, but we leave labels out of this for now.”

The look on his face suggested he was skeptical, so I added, “I mean, it’s barely been a month, Justin.”

His chest heaved with a sigh before he said, “You’re right. I’m not trying to rush you or smother you, but I don’t like being your dirty little secret. And I definitely don’t like the idea of you dating other people.”

“That’s fair. Although I promise I haven’t been with anyone else since the first time we hooked up.”