Page 2 of Protective Tiger's Curvy Girl Crush

Now, two hands grab me and I begin to kick and punch and lean in for a bite.

“Toni!”

I swing my right arm hard but the person ducks. We fall into the circle of light.

“Toni, what’s wrong?”

Oh God, it isn’t him. It isn’t him!

It’s my neighbor, Vance. As my mind records that this is not Maxwell, I try to calm down but the adrenaline isn’t ready to let go. I start sobbing again and Vance pulls me to him.

He’s a tall, muscular guy, but honestly so is Maxwell. In the dark and in the middle of panicking, I simply confused the two. I wish I hadn’t. In real life, Vance is a badass fireman and Maxwell is just a fucking creep.

All this runs through my head at lightning speed as I slowly come to my senses while Vance kindly holds me and helps me settle down. He takes my keys from my still jittering hand and opens my front door. He walks me inside and sets me down on my couch. “I’m going to just get you a drink, okay? I’m not going far.”

I nod. A rush of fear hits me as he leaves, though, so that, when he comes back from my kitchen with a glass of water I’m crying again. He sets the glass on my coffee table and sits down next to me. Then, he pulls me back into his arms and smooths my hair, rocking me a bit like a little child.

“Shhh, Toni, it’s okay, it’s okay. I’m going nowhere, I promise. It’s okay.”

I eventually stop crying but I’m still shaking. “I’m, uh, I’m so so...sorry.”

“No being sorry.” He slowly lets me go so he can look at me directly. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

I look at him and then, look away. “I feel so stupid. I can take care of myself.”

His voice is calm and soothing. “You are not stupid for being afraid.”

I laugh-cry. “Well, I’m the one who went on the blind date! I mean, I should be more careful, right?”

“Toni, you did nothing wrong. So, tell me about this blind date.”

I start to tell him about my date with Maxwell. It was set up through some new dating app that was giving free hook-ups as a beta test. “Well, he was just creepy from the get-go, you know? How he looked at me, what he said, everything. Even how he stood or ordered the food, everything was like a weird control thing.”

Vance nods and hands me the glass of water. I sip at it and continue. “And the weirdest thing was how he kept going back to mentioning my body type, how my hips were made for childbearing. It fucking really creeped me out, but I just ended the date with a quick hug and thought it was over.

“But that was three weeks ago and it’s been getting worse and worse. Like, right after the date, the very next day, he showed up at my work. At my work! I hadn’t even mentioned where I worked. I hadn’t said much of anything because he just talked and talked. He loved the sound of his own fucking voice.”

My hands are shaking again and the water sloshes out of the glass onto my knees. Gently, Vance takes it from me and puts it back on the table.

He gives me time to gather my thoughts and pull my emotions back and then, I tell him the rest.

Chapter Two

Vance

“What happened after that?”

She shakes her head. She’s really worked up. “I don’t know. I just ran. I ran wildly and lost my shoe and then I couldn’t open the door and… and then you helped me.”

She puts her arms around me again, weeping again. I hold her as she cries and soon enough, she’s quiet and then sleeping. I gently set her on the couch and tucked a throw blanket over her. Then, I sit there on the couch and stare at her for a while.

I know enough about myself that I can admit that I’m a protector, a rescuer. I’m one of those guys who’s always trying to take care of a damsel in distress. I have to tell you, though, that I’ve been attracted to my neighbor for quite some time.

She’s beautiful. Yes, I’m shallow enough to admit that plays a role. I can’t pretend her beauty doesn’t drive a lot of the attraction. I can’t help myself, though. I’m a Grey. Some call us Caldwell tigers. Some call us blue tigers. Some call us Maltese tigers. For all of our recorded history, we call ourselves the Grey.

There are three hundred and ninety-eight of us. Right now. That number goes up slightly or down slightly every year. Science can’t prove the existence of our natural counterparts. That’s because our natural counterparts don’t exist.

There are reports of seeing blue tigers in the wild, which are really reports of seeing grey tigers in the wild. Just like housecats are called Maltese because of the color of their coats and not because of breed, people call grey tigers Maltese tigers.

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