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xoxo,

Clover

THE JEWEL EFFECT

Man’s First Time with a Trans Woman

Clover Cox

CHAPTER 1

It was Wade Jones’s turn to do the coffee run. His palms were sweating as he stepped into the café. He was terrible at doing the coffee run. He always got someone’s order wrong. His coworkers had a friendly bet going about whose drink he would mess up that day, and he was determined to prove them wrong, but he wasn’t feeling so great as he approached the counter. It was the same barista as always. She was young, friendly, and beautiful, but Wade couldn’t find anything comforting about her smile.

“Good morning! Big order today?”

“Yes,” Wade groaned as he pulled the piece of paper everyone had written on out of his wallet. He took a deep breath as he read over the list. There were seven drinks in total, which meant he had seven chances to mess up. He wasn’t feeling good about his chances.

“I can have a look at it if you’d like,” the barista said and held out her hand. “People have the worst coffee orders.”

Wade nodded, handing over the list. He felt ashamed of himself. It was pathetic that the barista knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t be able to recite the list correctly. She must have thought he was a dweeb to the tenth degree.

“Your coworkers sure have a lot of special requests,” the young woman said as she punched at the screen. “Where do you work?”

“At a small tech startup. We’re in the big office building around the corner,” Wade said stiffly, digging his hands into his pockets. He hated making small talk with people, especially when he thought those people were secretly judging him, but the barista was relentless. She asked about what kind of technology he worked with and how long he’d been working in the industry. He struggled for his words the entire time.

What he didn’t notice was the woman standing behind him, listening to every word of this interaction. Jewel couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing or seeing. How could a man so handsome act so awkwardly? The guy in front of her wasn’t ripping with muscles, but he had a cute smile and a nice head of hair, and the glasses he was wearing looked absolutely adorable on his face.

He finally finished his order and stepped to the side. Jewel stepped forward and told the barista what she wanted, and then she was standing at the end of the counter next to the handsome guy that worked at a small tech company around the corner. She glanced at him several times, but he didn’t seem to notice her. He was staring obsessively at the list in his hands.

“Wade!”

Eight drinks were sitting in two carriers at the end of the counter. Jewel loved this coffee shop for their efficiency and went out of her way to stop there because they were always so fast. Wade picked up his drinks and swung around fast, making one of his drinks fly out of the tray. It slammed onto the ground at Jewel’s feet and splashed up her legs, spattering the bottom half of her dress.

She screamed.

Wade scrambled. He looked each way, not knowing what to do with the drinks in his hands, but then he came to his senses enough to set them down when the sweet barista came running from behind the counter with a towel in her hand. “Oh my, goodness! Your dress!”

“I know!” Jewel hollered. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” the barista said to Jewel, and then both of them turned to glare at Wade. He crumbled beneath their furious look. He wanted to apologize, but he was too ashamed to say anything. He realized the drink he’d spilled was his, so he forgot about it and ran out of the door with the others.

“What a jerk!” Wade heard just as the door closed behind him.

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