By the end of the day, Temi was beyond spent. She lumbered to Thom’s car and had some difficulty getting inside. Lord, she was so tired she wondered if this was what being roofied felt like, and boy was she glad that Thom would be driving her home.

Thom smiled at her when she leaned the seat back and closed her eyes. He was happy she had a good time the night before and seeing her this way reminded him of a child spent from the excitement of a full day at the beach. As she fell asleep, he sighed, smiling within, and settled into the drive.

            “Artemisia? Sweetheart. Baby, you’re home,” Thom gently roused her from her slumber.

            “Mmm… already?”

            “Yes, ma’am. Here, I’ll help you inside,” Thom helped ease her out of his car by the elbow. Then seeing how she was still really asleep, he shut the door, pulled out his copy of her house key, and picked her up. Involuntarily, Temi wrapped an arm around his neck bringing a broad smile across his face.

Facundo watched as a rather tall and good-looking white man carried Temi into her home. He had stopped by hoping they could spend more time together, but now he wondered just who this other man might be. He wondered if he should approach him. He figured he shouldn’t, since any disagreement would be between Temi and himself. Hell, this guy may not even know she’s seeing someone. Deciding that he should just go home and call Temi later, he started his engine. Just then, the man resurfaced from the apartment and locked the door behind him. Facundo froze. This man, whoever he was, had a key to his girlfriend’s apartment.

Once Temi was snugly swaddled in her bed, Thom left to get her some dinner. He would have cooked her something if he had the time, but he’d made hookup plans with one of the guys he used to date and wanted to have time to get gussied up. As he was walking to his car, he noticed a hot Audi two spaces to the right of his Cruiser. Inside was an even hotter man behind the wheel… a Latin man. When the man scowled at him before pulling out, it dawned on Thom that the man must have been Facundo, and he thought Artie was playing him. Sighing and shaking his head, he turned to glance back at her apartment. Well, there was nothing he could do about it. He would just leave her a note to call him when she woke up.

It was dark. Really dark. Temi turned over to find her alarm clock. Nine thirteen. “Mmmm,” she moaned and sat up. She didn’t remember walking inside, so Thom must have carried her in and put her in bed. She’d have to thank him tomorrow.

Sliding out of bed, she used the bathroom and splashed water on her face before going to the kitchen. She turned on the light and noticed that Thom had placed her phone on the charger and left a note next to it. She walked over to retrieve her phone and the note before sitting down at the dining table. “Lady Artemisia,” she read the note aloud. “Sorry I couldn’t be here when arose from your beauty rest, but since you’re now getting your groove on, I think it’s time I get back in the saddle.” She smiled and continued, “I left you some soup in the microwave and a salad in the refrigerator, so you wouldn’t have to worry about dinner. I will see you in the morning. Your adoring servant, Thomas W. Fuller.” Below Thom’s signature was an arrow indicating the note continued to the back, so she flipped it over. “BTW, I think Facundo saw me carry you in. He looked a little pissed. You should call him. Love, Thom.”

Temi closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. Then looking down at her phone, she noticed Facundo had called five times. Sighing, she went to the microwave and removed the container of soup and poured it’s contents into a microwave safe bowl. Then while her soup was warming, she pulled the salad out of the fridge, grabbed utensils, and placed them on the table. When the microwave dinged, she grabbed the bowl and took it to the table as well. With her meal in front of her, she picked up her phone and called Facundo.

            “Hello,” His voice was strained and sharp.

            “Hey,” she said sweetly. “I’m sorry I missed your calls. Thom turned off my phone’s ringer when he placed it on the charger.”

There was a long uncomfortable silence before she spoke again. “Facundo, is… something wrong? I didn’t listen to your voicemails, I just figured after missing so many that I’d just call you.”

            “What have you been doing for the last three and half hours,” his question was full of venom.

Temi sighed. “I was sleeping. As it turns out, I’m not as young as my mind thinks I am.” Temi had been taking silent sips of soup while talking but placed her spoon down, now. “I could barely make it through the workday, so Thom drove me home. He left me a note letting me know he thinks he saw you in the parking lot, so do you want to talk about what’s actually bothering you or continue ignoring what you really want to know?”

More silence.

            “Fine. I’ll talk. As I told you, Thom is my best friend. He is gay, and I work for his family.”

            “He has a key to your apartment! What male friend has a key to a woman’s apartment if she’s not sleeping with him?”

            “Woooww. Why don’t you jump off the fence and tell me what you really think?” She knew the comment wasn’t helpful but couldn’t stop herself. “Thom has had a key to my place for years. Back when he was dating another male friend of mine, they stayed at my place. When Richard, his boyfriend, broke it off and returned to San Francisco, I never asked for the key back. In fact, I found it easier for him to have it because he would housesit for me when I was out of town or when my mom was sick, and I needed to stay with her.” She paused allowing the information to sink into Facundo’s brain. “Furthermore, I’m sleeping with you, and you don’t have a key to my place. So obviously, I don’t go around carelessly handing out my key to every Thom, Dick, and Jorge!”

Temi could hear him sigh into the phone. “Listen. I’m sorry. You have to understand how hard it was for me to see you lying in the arms of an attractive younger man with your arm draped around his neck.”

Yeah, she got it. “I know, and I’m sorry too.”

He sighed again. “I know this may be out of the question now, but would you like to come over?”

Temi smiled. “It’s not out of the question. But would you mind if I stayed the night? I might get better sleep that way.”

            “Of course.”  

Temi woke the next morning feeling very happy. Facundo’s alarm was not an actual alarm at all, or at least not your traditional incessant beeping. It looked like a globe and at night it was completely black, but about a half hour before your alarm, it would begin to brighten, and a bird would begin chirping. By the time you were supposed to get up it was at its full brightness and the bird was then several birds tweeting happily.

            “Good morning,” Facundo kissed her.

Temi smiled and then put her hand over her mouth. “Good morning,” she said in a muffled voice.

Facundo laughed. “Oh my, Lord… what the hell are you doing,” he tried to remove her hand from her mouth. Temi rolled over and tried to get away from him. “Come on.” She made it to the edge of the bed and rolled off onto the floor, then bounced up so quickly someone would have thought the floor was on fire.

            “Okay. Okay,” she was panting and holding a finger up before her. “Just stay right there.”

Facundo sat with his legs over the side and watched as she straightened her enormous t-shirt. “Are you going to tell me what,” he placed his hand over his mouth, “this was all about?”

Looking like a little girl caught in the act, Temi twisted the end of her shirt. “I just didn’t want you to smell my morning breath,” she shrugged.

            “Come here,” he waved her over. “I don’t care about your morning breath.” When she began to protest, he held up his hand to silence her. “Hey, I’m just glad you’re here… morning breath and all. In fact, I especially like the morning breath because it means you stayed with me through the night.” He kissed her gently on the lips and then gave her ass a little slap. “Now get ready for work, you don’t want to be late.”

            “Hey Mister,” Temi stopped by Thom’s office before signing in, “thanks for taking care of me last night.”

            “Anytime, sis,” he smiled up at her from behind his Resolute-esque desk. “Did you call Facundo?”

            “Yeeess,” she rubbed one of her arms sheepishly. “He did think there was something going on. He didn’t like seeing me in the arms of an attractive younger man with my arm draped around his neck. We worked everything out though.”

            “Phew, that’s good,” he leaned back in his chair. “Wait, did he really say that I was an attractive younger man?”

            “OMG,” Temi began to leave the room, “can your head get any larger? My fault actually… shouldn’t have told you.” Smirking and shaking her head, she exited his office, but Thom was up in a flash and shouting to her back.

             “Be careful. If he thought I was attractive last night, you may have to find a new man when he sees me the next time,” he laughed. Temi flipped him the bird as she continued walking to her desk, laughing all the way.

After signing in, she began to push her call button, when Janice tapped her on the shoulder.

            “Temi, girl, what have you been into?” Grimacing a little, Temi tilted her head to one side and moved it forward, no-verbally questioning. “I mean, you workin’ your regular hours, you’ve lost a bunch of weight, and you be smilin’ all the time. Me and the other girls been talkin’ about it.”

I bet you have, Temi thought. “Well, I’ve just made a lot of changes in my life,” she began. “Since I’m no longer supporting a deadbeat boyfriend, I don’t need the extra money. Not working here an extra ten to twenty hours a week, means I have time to go to the gym. And, girl, now I have a new man. He’s hot, he’s an attorney, and he’s crazy about me.” She lifted her headphones, “So, I guess I have several reasons to be smilin’ these days.” She winked at Janice, put on her headphones and accepted her first call of the day.

Work went on as usual, but today wasn’t a slog like the last. The calls were more complex, and there were fewer people yelling, making for an all-around enjoyable experience. She and Thom had lunch together as usual and discussed knocking back their everyday workouts to every other day. Temi was a little nervous about asking for the cutback, but Thom told her it was about time. He had decided to take back his ex-boyfriend, Seth, so cutting back their workouts and dinners together would allow him the time to renew that relationship. Temi was happy to hear Thom was seeing someone, but Seth was not the guy for Thom. She remembered a quote she’d once heard; if she remembered correctly, it was Halle Berry’s mother who said it. It was something about a relationship being like a picture; one person was the art, and the other person was the frame. Well, in a Thom / Seth relationship there were two pictures… no frames.

Since Wednesday was going to be a workout day, Thom and Temi agreed to meet at the gym after work. Since Temi arrived first, she dressed and waited for Thom outside the men’s locker room. While thinking about what she would wear for dinner with Facundo, someone dropped a towel as they exited. “Excuse me,” she uttered after retrieving the towel, “sir, I believe you dropped this.”

Before she knew it, Mr. Hot-Stuff turned around to accept the towel. Temi couldn’t help thinking how beautiful he was and how tall; six foot one, perhaps two? His eyes were not a cool grey but the deepest blue and his hair wasn’t brown with red, it was red-red; a vibrant beautiful red. The scruff upon his chin was now a full beard, cleanly trimmed… nice… with streaks of blonde in the mustache and just below his lip. He had a few small freckles; barely noticeable, and well-shaped brows.

            “Thank you.” His voice was deep, eyes piercing.

            “You’re welcome,” Temi replied as their fingers touched during the towel passing. She couldn’t understand why she was so nervous, why his gaze never wavered from hers. Eventually, after what felt like several moments, she dropped her eyes and let the towel go. “Have a nice workout.”

He chuckled a little and flung the towel over his shoulder. “I will. You do the same,” he smiled and turned away.

Temi’s eyes followed him to the back of the gym where he got on a bike and put in a pair of earbuds. He began to peddle slowly with his arms down at his sides and as he picked up speed, he leaned forward to hold the bars. As if knowing she was watching him, he turned in her direction just as Thom surfaced from the locker room, placed an arm around her and planted a kiss on the side of her head. “Sorry I’m late. I had to catch Derrick up on an issue with the phones at the south end of the center. They haven’t been queuing correctly.”

Temi looked up at Thom and smiled. “It’s alright. Let’s just get it done.”