"Okay, here it is." I invited my Tinder date into my little studio apartment.
"Wow," she said neutrally. "It's kinda..."
"Messy?"
"Uh, sure. Let's go with that."
I smirked at her. She was so strange.
"May I borrow some clothes?"
I raised an eyebrow at her. "Isn't that usually after we...?"
My cute little date shook her head. "No sex tonight. I didn't bring condoms and don't trust you enough to use any of yours."
A blinked a couple extra times, at yet another bold statement like that from her tonight.
"But we can cuddle or whatever. I just wanna shower first, and smell all your clothes."
"You want to borrow my clothes... to smell them?" I slid past her thin, tiny body and moved over to my kitchen to start putting away the leftover food from the picnic meal she'd made us.
"Yeah, you have this amazing all-natural smell on you. It's gotta be your detergent," she charged for my closet without my permission. "I've been trying to find one that actually gets things clean without harsh chemicals for ages, and..."
I appeared behind her, my body pressed against hers from behind and my hands grabbing her wrists. She froze, her pulse quickening obviously in my grips as I towered over her tiny stature and pinned her still in the air with her limbs still outreached for my favorite jacket, draped over the basket in which I hide sex toys.
"I need you... to slow down," I said in my deep, low voice. I felt her shiver against me as the words traveled through her body.
"Hmm..." she moaned in thought, sounding like she was about to comply. "No," she used my trust to yank a wrist free and grab at my jacket. A gift from my last lover, whom I was very much not all the way over yet. I snatched it from her hand, and shoved her away from my closet and back onto my bed.
"Eep!" she yelped and giggled as she crashed into my pillows and plush animals.
"Why... why are you being so difficult?" I asked. "First you won't tell me your real name or where to pick you up, then—"
"I'm a brat," she leaned back on her arms and let her head fall mischievously to the side, biting her lip and eyeing me hungrily. Or maliciously. "Is... that gonna be a problem?" she kicked an innocent little plush panda off my bed. I watched as it fell on its face on the dusty floor. I eyed the skimpily-dressed bohemian temptress posing confrontational on my bed.
"Not at all," I accepted the challenge this flighty woodland creature would be, and threw some of my smallest clothes at her, turning away right after toward my bathroom to take my shower first. I tried to push out of my head how much trouble she could cause while left alone until I finished washing, and resolved to keep it slightly quicker than usual, but otherwise let those worries go.
When I got out, I tossed her a rolled up clean towel, and passed her by without looking at her on my way to finish cleaning up in the kitchen. I think she didn't take being ignored very well. I noticed her unmoved on my bed in the corner of my eye for a while before she gave in and took her shower. I sighed as the bathroom door closed. We'd been at each other's throats all night for some reason or other. This was starting to get frustrating, and I didn't need a repeat of what happened with my last sexual partner for damn sure. But some elements of this new connection were starting to shape up comparably already. I washed her picnic dishes quickly, and resolved to put this out of my head and take each challenge as it came rather than make any kind of gameplan in advance for how to deal with her. Maybe if I just focused on how incredibly fucking sexy she was, I could channel my frustration into fucking with her right back, and the whole thing would be fun. But I wasn't sure. She was starting to get on my nerves.
Soon, we cuddled in bed without saying anything else to each other. She smelled me a bit, then just turned away and yanked my arms over to make me her very big spoon. We laid together in tense, yet intimate silence while both likely wide awake for about 45 minutes before she finally said something.
"I actually like you quite a bit," she muttered. "We're having a bit of a rough start, but I think you could be a good fit..." Her voice trailed off like there was more.
"But...?" I asked kind of indifferently. I wish I'd said something better.
"But... you said... in the text. We're not..."
"Not compatible long term? Yeah, I know."