Then he said, “You think I’m a little scary? I think you’re a little crazy.”

Okay, so it was time to let it al hang out.

“I’m not crazy, I’m anything but crazy, I’m so not crazy that I’m anti-crazy. Eddie, I hate to tel you this, but I’m boring.” He waited a beat, watching me, and then burst out laughing.

My mouth fel open.

Then his head dropped and he nuzzled my neck.

“Definitely crazy,” he muttered against my neck and then lifted his head and looked at me, “and total y ful of shit. You couldn’t be boring if you tried. And if this is your next tactic to try to get me to give up, go for it. It’l be amusing to watch you try to be boring. Almost as amusing as it was to watch you pretend to be normal.”

Wel , what could you say to that?

Except, I’m so… very… sure.

He didn’t read my look of supreme unhappiness, or more likely, ignored it. Instead, he touched his lips to mine and he was gone.

Yeesh.

Even the truth didn’t work.

* * * * *

Mid-morning, Indy swung through the door. “How’re you doing?” she asked when she got to me, her eyes concerned.

“After work, Eddie and I are going shopping… for a coffee maker,” I answered, thinking she’d understand my plight.

She blinked.

“No, I mean with the guy who’s threatening to rape you.” I waved my hand and went back to steaming milk.

“Oh that. I’m over that,” I said.

Her mouth dropped open.

She snapped it shut and said, “Last night, with that phone to your ear, you looked like you were going to have a coronary.”

“That was last night, I was taken off guard. Now I feel like throwin’ down, kickin’ butt and takin’ names and…

whatever,” I petered out, not having any more macho-speak at the ready, “I’m done with being scared.”

“Right on, Loopy Loo!” Tex encouraged, pul ing a portafilter off the espresso machine with brute force, even though he didn’t need to, and slamming the grounds out of it.

“What are you going to do?” Indy asked.

I looked at her. “I have no idea, but I’l think of something.

The only thing I know I’m not going to do is nothing.” She looked at me for a beat, then she smiled.

* * * * *

It was close to noon when the bel went over the door and Mom and Blanca walked in. “Great, Tex, here she is,” I said to Tex, “Now you can meet my Mom.”

Tex looked up and across the store.

Then his face froze. “Un-unh,” he muttered.

“Hey, dol face,” Mom cal ed.

I smiled and waved at Mom and Blanca but turned to Tex.

“What do you mean, ‘un-unh’?” I whispered frantical y.

Tex was stil frozen.

Mom made it to the coffee counter and she gave him her majorette smile.

“You must be Tex,” she said.

He made a kind of guttural noise, grabbed my arm and marched me out from behind the counter. He frog-legged me to Indy, who he also grabbed by the arm and he shoved us down the aisle of books turning into fiction, the M-N-O

section. Then he stopped and glared at me.

“You didn’t tel me she was pretty,” he said.

I looked at Indy, Indy looked at me.

“Give me your phone, woman,” Tex said to Indy.

She handed over her phone, he flipped it open and started to push buttons at random.

started to push buttons at random.

Indy snatched the phone out of his hand.

“Who do you want to cal ?” she asked.

“Chavez. Get me Chavez.”

Indy scrol ed down her phone book and hit Eddie’s number. Tex seized the phone from her hand and put it to her ear.

“Chavez?” Pause, “We got a problem.”

He walked down the aisle and muttered something.

I looked to Indy, she was smiling. I smiled back.

“Uh-huh,” he said, nodding, “Uh-huh,” he said again, stil nodding. There was a pause, “Fuck no!” This was an explosion and I jumped. Then, “Right.” Then he threw the phone back at Indy who caught it and flipped it shut.

He looked at me.

“Al right, Loopy Loo. Let’s go meet your mother.” We walked back to the front of the store and, I couldn’t help it, I was near to laughing.

Tex thought my Mom was pretty.

Mom and Blanca were looking concerned.

“Let’s try this again,” I said when we approached them.

“Tex, Nancy and Blanca. Nancy and Blanca, Tex.”

“You like cats?” Tex boomed to my mother.

Mom jumped, stared up at Tex and nodded.

Anyone would nod, even if they hated cats.

“Then this’l work. I’m goin’ home at one, can you wait that long?”

“Sure?” Mom asked and answered, not certain which way to go.

Everyone stood around and looked at each other.

Everyone stood around and looked at each other.

“Maybe you can make them a coffee?” I suggested.

Tex turned to me, blank faced.

I felt a little sorry for him, I mean, I knew how he felt.

“What’l it be?” Indy asked, “Tex is the best barista in the Rocky Mountains, whatever you want, it’l be fantastic.”

“Latte?” Mom said.

“Just coffee for me,” Blanca said.

Tex lumbered behind the counter.

“He’s a little strange, isn’t he?” Mom leaned in and whispered to me.

“He’l lay down his life for you, or, more to the point, for Jet,” Indy answered in a voice that said she meant it.

Mom and Blanca looked at each other.

That was enough for them.

* * * * *

Twenty minutes later, Al y and Kitty Sue walked in. “Blanca! Qué pasa? How’s it going, Nancy?” Kitty Sue peeled off and went to sit with them and Al y came to me.

She handed me a shiny, new, very expensive, cel ular phone.

“Mom and I got you that. I already programmed everyone’s numbers in it and it’s charged. You should text everyone so they’l have your number,” Al y said.

I looked at the phone, I looked at her. I opened my mouth to speak but she got there ahead of me.

“Think of it as a Christmas present,” she said, waylaying my denial.

“It’s October,” I told her.

She shrugged.

“I don’t know what to say,” I said quietly.

“How about, ‘thank you’?” Mom yel ed from across the room, using The Voice.