Page 32 of Broken Grump

When I get my bearings back, my Pebble is still vibrating away on the comforter. And after fumbling to pick it up, I turn the switch off, sit up with my knees in the air, and push some hair back on my forehead.

Damn.It’s bad enough that my mind unconsciously cooked up steamy scenes between the two of us. But now his stupid, handsome face was now intruding in my personal love-making time.

In the end, I know that I can fantasize about my teenage crush all I want, but we’ll never get a second chance at happiness because I can’t trust him. He’s proven that to me time and time again.

Thankfully, my alarm goes off shortly after that, and my motherly tasks flood the rest of that out of my brain. Like muck being sprayed off the sidewalk by a pressure washer.

I get up, put my robe on, and walk over to Luna’s new room.

“Good morning, starshine!” It’s something I’ve said since she was a little girl.

I can tell she is already starting to wake up because after a brief stretch, she responds cheerfully with, “The world says hello!” If she was still dead asleep, I would’ve been met with a grumpy sigh instead.

Sitting down next to her on her bed, I ask, “How’d you sleep?”

“Good.” When she sits up, her waves are all over the place, and I try to calm them with my hands.

“That’s good. Have any interesting dreams?”

From there, she launches into a diatribe about these evil, wrinkly aliens who came to earth on a pink ship shaped like one of the donuts Homer Simpson eats.

I have to stop her there and ask how in the world she knows that, asThe Simpsonsis not something she’s allowed to watch.

After shrugging and mumbling something about one of her classmates going on about the show, she launches into more explanation about their guns being unicorn heads that fired laser beams out of their mouths.

“Well, did Princess Luna end up saving the day?”

She rolls her eyes. “Of course, Mom. I always do. Except I wasn’t a princess in that dream. I was a special agent. Agent Luna Flores.”

“Okay, baby.” I stand up and kiss her head. “That’s enough of that, it’s time to get up and get ready for school.”

“Okay.”

I help her to her feet and lightly smack her bum as she walks into the bathroom.

“Remember to floss, please!” I yell through the door.

Just like I did when I was around her age, she’s really been fighting me on that recently.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“I’m serious, Luna Flores!” Then, I think about what she just said about being a special agent in her dream. We watchCriminal Mindstogether, but only the non-violent parts, and I’m sure that’s what stemmed the whole FBI thing. “I mean, do you think Emily Prentiss can hunt down America’s most wanted with stinky, smelling breath and periodontal disease? I think not!” I refer to one of the badass women on the show.

It’s quiet for a few seconds, but then I hear the floss being spun out of its squeaky cartridge and then subsequently ripped off the little metal nub.

Good girl.

***

“Goodbye, my love!” I call out from the back door before she closes it. “Have a great day. I love you so much.”

“Bye, Mom. Love you too!”

Okay.With her drop-off out of the way, my next mission is to pay Steven a visit.

After I stormed off of the site, he called me and asked me to come in and discuss things with him in private. I have no beef with him, so I agreed to hear him out.

When I walk into the building, which is a subsidiary of Flores Holdings, I’m instantly flooded with the aurora of my abuelo.

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