Morning Wood

Alex woke up to the sound of her phone buzzing on the nightstand. The red phone slowly slid along the wooden top of the nightstand and toward the edge as it vibrated loudly.

‘Bzzzzzz’
‘Bzzzzzz’
‘Bzzzzzz’

With a tired groan, Alex’s hand reached out to the nightstand and she blindly felt around for the phone. She missed it a few times but eventually grabbed ahold of her noisy phone. She picked it up and brought it to her face. It was her mother calling. At first, she wondered why her mother was calling so early in the morning, but then she glanced towards the top left corner of her screen and saw that it wasn’t at all early, it was already 11:30 AM. She pushed herself up on one elbow and turned over her shoulder to check on the horse asleep next to her to make sure she didn’t wake him up before she slid her finger across the phone’s screen to pick up the call.

“Hey mom,” Alex spoke as she rubbed her eyes with one hand.

“HAPPY NEW YEAR, HONEY!” Alex’s mom shouted loudly through the phone, causing Alex to squint and pull the phone away from her ear as it folded slightly against her head. She brought her phone back to her ear again once she was sure her mom had finished shouting her greeting. “Happy New Year to you too, mom,” Alex said with a smile spread across her lips. Alex turned to look over her shoulder at her sleeping horse boyfriend again to make sure that her mom shouting through the phone hadn’t woken him up. His eyes were still closed, his nose flaring as he inhaled and exhaled, and his chest rising and falling slowly to his breathing.

“Are you and that boyfriend of yours coming over for dinner today?” her mother jumped straight to the point. Alex had been putting off having dinner with her parents for a while, but since it was still the holidays, she couldn’t use the excuse of having to work, since both her and Tashi were off work until the following Monday.

Alex brought her free hand up to rub at her temple and took in a deep breath through her nose. “His name is Tashi, mom. And Yes, we’re coming over for dinner,” she sighed and dropped her hand from her temple down to the blanket that she was still partially entwined in.

“Great! Your father and I can’t wait to meet him!” the older tigress chirped. Alex could hear her clapping her hands over the phone.

“Can you tell dad to not like, try and intimidate him?” Alex asked, “He’s really worried about that, and he only wants you guys’ approval.” Alex used her finger to draw little circles in the blanket as she waited to hear her mother’s response.

“Oh, you know how your father is, he’s a hardass with everyone. But he loves you, Alex, and if that horse makes you happy, he will have his approval.” Her mother murmured.

“And what about your approval?” Alex asked teasingly. She stuck her tongue out a little as if she were talking face-to-face with her mother.

“Oh, Alex, honey… He’s a horse, he HAS to make you happy, right? If you know what I mean. He’s had my approval since you first told me about him. He’s not like that mouse boy you dated in high school!”

Alex let out a groan, loud enough to wake Tashi. “Mom! Gross!” Tashi’s ears flickered to Alex’s voice and his eyelids twitched before they slowly opened.

Alex’s mom laughed. “Oh honey, it’s true! That mouse was very small, I can only imagine his penis was even smaller,” her slightly raspy chuckle leaked through the earpiece speaker on Alex’s phone. She didn’t have her mother on speaker or anything, her laughs and chuckles were just that loud sometimes. Alex squinted her eyes shut and stuck her tongue out in disgust, “Mom, stop talking about my ex-boyfriend’s junk!”