I Don't Date Dragons

Chapter 12

Jack awoke the next morning in a clean apartment, he didn't want the embarrassing situation of Tiblisi seeing his weekly clothes strewn about the floor again. She had left quickly the morning before. He was questioning whether or not to call her too soon, he really wanted to call her right away. He was remembering their night together and he had wanted her to stay a bit longer. Maybe get her coffee and a bagel and have a distinguished tumble in bed. He would obviously take her on a picnic or something first but he had so much fun the night before that he was eager. Eager to hear her voice again, eager to see her again, eager to hold her again, eager to kiss her again. It was only 11 o'clock on a Sunday Morning, only a day after they had slept together, but he decided to dial up anyways, clean apartment that he had, he rang her up. "So I just cleaned my apartment and the tub, have you ever seen that old Seinfeld episode? Tub is love?" 

"Seinfeld thats one of my favourite shows, still! I watch it sometimes on Crave when I couldn't sleep after work. And don't think I'm ignoring the sentiment of the fact that you cleaned your tub, because frankly your tub looked like it had things growing in it." She felt so lucky, he had called in less than 24 hours and was now quoting one of her favourite shows and indicated in a less than subtle way of telling her he loved her. But she wouldn't read into that just yet. She needed more proof, a cushy place to land in his heart was what she was aiming for. Things were looking good on that front. She was twirling a lock of her hair when he responded. "Hey, I take showers, what do you want from me?"

She was thinking really hard of what to say, "... I dunno, another date.. maybe, if I just didn't offend you too bad there. I love your tub and your smelly apartment" She then worried at what she had just said, she revealed too much. The only problem with the beginning of a new relationship was the insecurity of everything you do and say to the other person.  And then the constant overthinking when something goes wrong or you're just sitting in the tub alone after getting off the phone with them. Usually Tiblisi didn't feel that way with Jack, he was pretty reliant on making her feel comfortable but there was always this push and pull in new relationships she reminded herself.

"Well the tub is back to full functioning conditions, and I'm not going out on a limb when I say its even ready to bath in. Sorry again about the mess here yesterday, as I said I wasn't expecting you to come over after the party, but I'm glad you did... And about this date you want set up, you can't wait to see me again can you?" He smiled to himself looking around his newly cleaned apartment and decided the pillow on the couch wasn't fluffed up enough so fluffed it as she lingered on the other end of the line. "Well, I have a busy schedule you know between looking for a new job and finding a new place to live, but I think I could squeeze you in. Let's go for a walk to the Locks... see if there are any geese, we could feed them halved grapes, they love those."

"Anything wrong with good old fashioned bread? Grapes will get our hands all sticky."

"It'll be fine, we can wash it off in your tub" They laughed together and he blushed, happy with his efforts. "You're really happy that tub's clean arn't you?" 

"Yes!" she exclaimed happily. "Now what do you say to this walk to the Locks, I could meet you there in 30 minutes, it'll take me that long to walk."

"How about I pick you up in an hour, there are some stops I have to make on the way over but I'll see you soon?" Jack's voice inflected at the end of the sentence and Tiblisi was glad for the extra time to get ready. "Alright see you soon, Jack" he could hear her smiling on the other end of the phone. "You know where to find me."

After Tiblisi showered she enlisted Mo's help again to help her wardrobe situation out. Mo was curious of her friends behaviour as of late. Tiblisi seemed to be throwing caution to the wind and she never did that. Maybe it was the loss of her job that was propelling her into this cycle. But either way, Mo thought she'd bring it up. "You really like this guy don't you?" Mo asked.