“Oh, I can’t grow anything,” Mari said. “Everything plant-like that I touch dies instantly.” Exaggeration. Though, she wondered if she could actually acquire the power to kill instantly with a single touch. It scared her more than she cared to admit. “I go to the grocery store, and the special “Cuban” seasonings and items that aren’t sold around here, my mom orders by the truckload from Amazon.” As Americanized as they all were, it was still important to maintain the essential Cuban food sources in order to ensure the survival of the Cuban peoples.
She nodded though and headed on over to the laundry room, just feeling around at the clothes and noticing that some were still a bit damp. She didn’t want to overstay her welcome though, so she pulled them out and just tried to shake them off as best as she could. Now that she was away from him, she could smile that goofy smile she had been meaning to let loose earlier. Had he really kissed her? Was she dreaming or something? She stood there for a moment, just remembering the feel of his lips on hers as her clothes remained slightly damp in her hands.
“I’ll make a note if I ever start a garden not to let you anywhere near it for fear of everything wilting,” he teased. It was interesting to hear about her life even if it was just the three females together trying to make the best of things with their dad gone. Yet somehow on this little island that was frozen half of the time they were still trying to keep up all of their cultural traditions. Including coffee that could easily keep him running from sunup to sundown on super hyper mode. He could only guess what her tolerance level for caffeine was with that as her daily wake-up drink.
AJ tried not to be a complete perv and only glanced over while she was walking away and settled back into his sofa to half-watch whatever was up on the TV for now. A snack soon would probably also be a good idea, but he was slightly more interested in making sure that his guest was comfortable. After all if she enjoyed her stay then she might consider coming back when she wasn’t just stuck there and just of her own free will. Plus, he had a dinner to plan now. Could things actually be going right for once?
Suffice to say that her tolerance level for caffeine was so high that regular “American” coffee did her absolutely nothing. It was like drinking water with some coffee flavor, and that was about it. She couldn’t drink the stuff in the morning if she had any hope of actually waking up. A cafe con leche in the morning and a cortadito, which was about a mini cafe con leche, at 3 in the afternoon was all she needed. Even then, sometimes, she just needed a straight colada, which was Cuban coffee in its purest, blackest form. It could peel the paint off walls and likely the inner linings of the stomachs of anyone who wasn’t Cuban.
Despite how much she was enjoying these mini daydreams, she realized that her clothes were still not dry enough for her liking and found herself even shivering at the idea of wearing them. So, she tossed them back into the drier for a quickie before glancing at herself in a mirror. She was wearing his clothes. She had almost forgotten about that. Could she just walk out there and wrap her arms around him and be the sexy vixen everyone believed lived inside of latin people? Probably not. She was likely to trip and fall over her own two feet before she did anything remotely sexy. Maybe though... She undid the top button of the shirt and just let it hang before heading back. “Another few minutes should do it.”