Chapter 16 Put That on a T-shirt
Dakota
I catch a glimpse of my retro signage before cutting down the back alley to enter through the back.
“The T-shirt Shop” isn’t the most original name for a business, but I was twenty-two when I came up with it and thought it
was gloriously meta of me. It’s located in downtown Boulder near the Pearl Street Mall area, which is a redbrick pedestrian-only
thoroughfare. The storefront is on the back side in one of the original redbrick shops so the foot traffic is decent but not
crazy busy.
I unlock the back door and set about my daily routine. Make coffee, water plants, check to make sure the online sales have
all been fulfilled, and rearrange anything that isn’t quite up to my standards. I’m always rearranging in my store. No matter
how I display my T-shirts, I can never seem to find the perfect layout for everything, and the employees I hire to work here
when I’m busy don’t quite have the eye that I do when it comes to displays. Plus, I’m always getting new shipments in, so
just when I find a display I like, I have to change it to make room for more.
My store has an artsy and eclectic vibe, different from the stuff on the main roads. It even has the original creaky wood
flooring and retro lighting to match the decade the property was built. A lot of my T-shirt designs have a vintage feel to
them, so it all fits really well together.
I really do have my dream job. And the only reason I even scored this incredible location was because of a grant I received from the city of Boulder years ago.
I was fresh out of college, and the city was trying to revitalize its downtown area.
One of my graphic design professors showed me an application where you can receive a three-year grant for a storefront downtown.
So I put together a pitch, complete with logos and expense-and-income projections, and I gave a presentation on the value a T-shirt shop would provide to the city of Boulder.
And how it won’t be just a T-shirt shop but a timeless boutique shopping experience with a casual, more approachable aesthetic.
Next thing I knew, I was a twenty-two-year-old business owner.
The store has grown tremendously in the past decade, from offering basic Colorado-love shirts to hoodies, thermals, and even
a super popular knitwear line. The majority of my product is made locally by a factory in northern Colorado too, which is
an important part of my branding. Made local, sold local.
And I have a huge online store presence, thanks in part to my college bestie, Tatianna. She’s a high-end designer out of Aspen
who specializes in plus-size formal wear, but she has a line of graphic T-shirts here that keeps my online store booming.
So much so, I had to pay for a fulfilment center in Denver to manage it all. It’s like I have my own little workhorse over
there that continues chugging along without me doing the heavy lifting.
Here in Boulder, it’s a much more chill vibe. There are three college student employees that rotate in and out when I need
time off, but otherwise I can run the business almost entirely on my own. It’s busy but manageable. And then, because I just
can’t help myself, a few years after I opened, I expanded my back room to offer tie-dye classes. The T-shirt Shop is a popular
spot for birthday parties, bachelorette parties, day cares, and preschools. It’s a nice boost of income that helped me purchase
my own home before I got married... which isn’t easy to do as a single person.
This store is my baby and feels like the one thing I did right in this world.
I work hard for it, and I love what I do, which is not something many people can say in their careers.
And the fact that I opened the store and purchased my house before I met Randal makes me even more bitter over the fact that he tried to take half of it in the divorce.
Tried being the operative word, thank God.
Though he still came out smelling like a rose when it was all said and done.
I shake away those negative thoughts because I told myself on the plane ride home that I was going to hang on to this post-vacation,
post-sex high I’m on. I do not need to let the negative vibes continue to drag me down.
I shuffle through my mail, and my eyes zero in on an envelope from the Best of Boulder Business Bureau, and I frown curiously
as I open it. I’m a member of all sorts of business groups around town and I get mail from them all the time... but this
isn’t one of them, so I’m curious what they might be contacting me about. My jaw drops as the letter that starts off with...
Dear Ms. Schaefer,
The Best of Boulder Business Bureau has hand-selected you as this year’s winner for outstanding service and contribution to
the city of Boulder. With over 40,000 businesses in Boulder County and 8,000 businesses in the city of Boulder, this is a
prestigious award that we want to honor you for...
My eyes gloss over as I read about the selection process and an award gala they want me to RSVP to. I’ve heard about this
award, but never expected my little T-shirt shop to ever be considered, let alone win. Holy shit! This is so unexpected.
My phone starts ringing from the desk, and I see a FaceTime call coming in from my friend Tatianna. I prop it up and sit down
at my desk, attempting to collect myself before accepting the video call.
“Oh my God, you had sex!” Tatianna squeals as she jumps on the video chat for our monthly meeting.
“Wait... wait... what??” I shake my head, my mind on information overload right now. “Why would you say that?”
“Your face!” Her round features move closer to the screen as she squints at me. “You look so different. Like the weight of
the world is off your shoulders.”
“Or I just got a little sun.” I laugh and shake my head.
“Are you sure?”
“I mean... I did have sex, but my face right now is because I just found out I won the Best of Boulder award.”
“Oh my God, Dakota. That’s incredible!”
“I know.” I hold my hands to my cheeks, feeling flush and overwhelmed and crazy excited. “I can hardly believe it.”
“I can! You’re a badass, and this is well deserved.”
My mind reels with that praise because if anyone is a badass here, it’s Tot. We met in college, and from the moment I met
her, I knew she had more creative genius in her pinky finger than I did in my entire body.
However, she’s one of those creative types who must be guided or nothing would ever get done. I always had a bit more business
sense than creative sense, which is why we made a great team. I don’t see her as much as I’d like since she moved to Aspen,
but these monthly calls end up being 90 percent girl talk and 10 percent business so we’re still well informed on each other’s
lives.
“I’m just so shocked.” I shove a hand through my hair as I look over the letter again to make sure I’m not dreaming.
“I’m more shocked by the fact that you had sex. We can get back to singing your award-winning praises later. That’s not nearly
as shocking as you getting laid! Did you find someone at that sex club? I’ve been dying for details about that night, but
you’ve been on fricken vacation, so I was trying not to bother you.”
“Well...” I turn the letter over and focus on my friend, trying to reset my brain from business to personal. “I guess you
could say I found someone at the club.”
“Holy shit, I am dead,” Tot squeals. “I still can’t believe you had the guts to go to a sex club in the first place. I still
can’t believe sex clubs actually exist. I still can’t believe you went to a sex club!”
She repeats herself, and I have to hold my hand up to stop her rant. Tot has a tendency to get carried away sometimes. She’s
the best.
“I ran into Calder Fletcher there.”
That silences Tot real quick. “Is that Max Fletcher’s brother?”
I nod and tell her the whole awkward encounter all the way down to getting him kicked out of the club. Which maybe was a little
cruel in the moment, but he was being completely overbearing and ridiculous.
“So then we get to Mexico and end up having to share a room... and he just wouldn’t let it go. He kept begging me to tell
him why I was there.”
“Oh, he’s obsessed with you,” Tot says with wide, exhilarated eyes.
“No, he’s not.”
“Puhleeease.” She waves her hand at me. “He sounded jealous. Like he didn’t want anyone to see you like that.”
“No, he didn’t!” I argue. “He wasn’t jealous, he was just overprotective. Like a big brother.”
“A big stepbrother who wants to fuck you, maybe.”
“Tot! Can I finish my story please?”
She presses her lips together, and I give her all the dirty details from Mexico. The bloody nose, the dancing, the movie watching,
the fighting, the flirting, the fighting again. And then... the finale.
What a finale it was.
A flash of Calder crawling to me has my cheeks heating so much that I pray Tatianna can’t see it through the zoom video.
“He got me out of my head, Tot. Like I swear I wasn’t thinking, I was just doing and feeling and feeeling. Jesus, he has a
magic penis, I swear.”
“Put that on a T-shirt,” Tatianna giggles.
I giggle too. It feels good. It feels like the old me. Like the free, confident me that I used to be.
“So how was the next day and the plane ride home? Awkward?”
I shrug. “Fine, I think. We shared the bed but didn’t cuddle or anything. He was quiet in the morning and didn’t say much,
but he helped me with my bags and stuff and slept most of the plane ride. It was a little weird but not horribly.”
“Wow. That sounds like a successful one-night stand.”
“I know. He’s such a confident guy... I fed off that, you know? I think I was faking my confidence so much I actually started
to believe myself.”
“Amazing.”
“It kind of pisses me off that he found a way to help me let go so easily. Like I hope some of these guys that I hope to meet
at the sex club are able to give me that too.”
“So you’re still planning to go back to the club?”
“I mean, maybe?” I inhale deeply and feel anxiety prickle back into my mind. “But I’m nervous. I realized it’s hard to be
in those places alone. A lot of people come as couples. I don’t know if it’s just a strong swinger community there or what,
but it’s not easy to approach people when you’re on your own.”
“Man, if only you had a big, tattooed mountain man you could go there with.”
My brows furrow. “What do you mean?”
“I mean Calder. Why not ask him to go with you?”
My eyes widen. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not? You guys have already seen each other naked.”
“I know but...”
“But nothing. He’d probably jump at the chance. I know I’d sure feel a lot better if you took him with you. It always scared
me to know you were going there alone.”
“I know but it was a one-night thing between us in Mexico. He wouldn’t want to see me again, I’m sure,” I state firmly for
Tatianna to hear... as well as myself.
The truth is, I’ve been thinking about my night with Calder nonstop. It was obviously mind-blowing sex. And shocking on so
many levels... not just because of how good it felt physically, but how good it felt emotionally too. Calder wasn’t Calder.
He was like... taken over by some person who passes out compliments and listens to a woman’s voice.
I’m used to Calder just being a dick or a misogynistic asshole who leads with his penis. And he did lead with his penis... he could knock over a stack of books with that giant thing swinging all around.
But for him to admit that he’s been attracted to me all these years? That he noticed every outfit I wore on the trip? That
took guts. He was vulnerable. And it’s what made the sex that much hotter.
I have to hand it to him, he’s got game.
But it was a one-night thing. We were both very clear on that. And I can’t let one night of mind-blowing sex with a tattooed
mountain man derail my plans.
“You don’t have to have sex with each other,” Tot says, snapping me out of my inner musing. “You said he’s casual. You’re
casual. So just use each other as wingmen to find that with other people.”
“A wingman.” My head jerks back as I ponder this idea. A week ago, I could never have dreamed of Calder being my wingman.
But he’s shown me a different side to him recently, and the idea isn’t as ridiculous as it once might have been. He was very sweet and helpful during my hangover day on the trip.
My stomach swirls over the potential of being with Calder again in that night club. The dark lighting, the mood music, the
erotic vibes you get entrenched in when you walk into the space. My breath comes out a little shaky as my libido enters the
chat, and I have to squeeze my thighs together.
But there is no way in hell I’d have the nerve to ask him. He’d probably laugh in my face and use it as ammunition against
me for the rest of our lives. No. No way. No way in hell. I need to stick with the plan. What happens in Mexico stays in Mexico.
The more space I maintain from Calder Fletcher, the better for everyone.
Tot bursts out laughing, ripping me out of my inner musings. “Listen to me... I’ve had sex like a handful of times in my
life, and now I’m sitting on a video call giving advice on sex clubs. Delulu, party of one, please.”
My brows lift as I refocus on my friend. “Maybe you could be my wingman? You know what they say... nothing bonds some besties like a visit to a sex club.”
“No one says that.” She laughs and shakes her head. “And sex clubs aren’t ready for a body like this.” She slides her hands
down her curves with a giggle. Tot is the most confident curvy girl I know, and I desperately need to take a page out of her
book. She’s beautiful, self-assured, successful, and famous in the fashion world... yet still, she’s thirty-three and single
like me. It ain’t easy out there. Maybe we’re all doomed to live alone.
“This is your sex quest, not mine,” Tot adds with a pointed look. “You’ll figure something out.”
“Yeah, I will.” I nod and begin shuffling through the stack of mail on my desk.
“Okay, let’s go back to discussing your big award. Or do you want to hear about my shitty Bumble date first?”
“Duh... shitty Bumble date, please.”
I listen intently as Tatianna shares her wild tale of assholery, and it reinforces my decision to do this sex club thing.
I’m at the top of my game professionally. It’s time to give my personal life some TLC as well. And really, I’m not asking
for too much. No deep, personal connection. I just want to do what I did with Calder a handful of times before I put myself
out there again.
I know it’s crazy, but I have to find my mojo again, and that one little moment with Calder got me closer than I’ve felt in
a long time.