Daddy’s Picky Eater (Blue Collar Daddies in the City #8)

7. Dexter

7

DEXTER

Well, that fucking broke my heart. “Augie.” I reached across the table but then hesitated with my hand hovering just above his forearm. “Is this okay?”

He looked at my hand and nodded before I gently gripped his arm.

“I can promise that I’m not gonna get mad at you for things that aren’t important or that are out of your control. And if I do get mad sometimes, like every person gets mad sometimes, that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you and that we shouldn’t be friends. Does that make sense?”

He nodded but then shrugged. “Everybody says that at first. But if you really wanna try, we can try.”

Fuck. I’d heard about Augie being in a pretty serious attack, but it seemed like there were lots of other hurts in his past as well. “Thank you, Augie. I would like to try.”

He took another bite of his bagel and looked at me. “If we just do bagel dates, we should be okay.”

I chuckled. “Well, are there other things that you also like? Maybe you can give me a list.”

He blew a breath out of puffy cheeks. “Yeah, lots of things. But it’s not just an easy list. Some things are okay with other things. But not in certain form factors.”

Now I had to laugh. “Form factors?” I’d been in culinary arts for a long time and didn’t hear that term very often…and probably not in the way he meant it. “Can you give me some examples of what you mean?”

“Yeah, but it’s complicated. For example, onions. I hate onions. Chunks, flakes, dried, cooked, pickled. Eww, just…no onions.” He held up his finger. “But…powder is okay. I’m okay with onion powder. Like…the flavor, I guess. Because I like sour cream and onion potato chips. But I don’t eat sour cream, and I don’t eat onions.” He threw his arms up dramatically. “See? Complicated.”

I nodded. “Okay, I’m understanding these form factors. Are there other examples?”

He cocked his head and smirked. “Only a million. That’s the problem. I can’t just easily make a list and say these are good and these are bad. Every single one is different, and it’s really annoying to people.”

“Why is that annoying? I mean, I’ll have to be more careful when I order for you, but as long as you know what you like, it doesn’t really affect me.”

He threw up his hands. “I know. That’s what I’ve been saying. But it seems to affect other people’s meals if I don’t eat what they like. I don’t get it.”

I didn’t either, but at least I knew what he was worried about. “Fair enough. How about we make a deal? I promise not to ever make you eat something you don’t like. As long as you make healthy choices, I won’t question what you want to eat when we’re together.”

He raised his eyebrow. “What do you consider healthy choices? I do eat vegetables, but…only certain form factors.”

I held in a grin. “You seem like a healthy young man, so I think you’ve been doing just fine all this time. I’d say you know how to make healthy choices.”

He smiled as he looked at his second half of bagel. “Thanks.”

“By the way…” I didn’t want to ruin all the progress we’d made, but I also wanted to continue to make progress, so I pushed forward. “Brayden said you enjoyed our day flying kites. Is that true?”

He looked at me with big eyes. “It’s so true. That was the funnest day ever. Thank you, again.”

“Anytime. In fact, I saw a flyer for a maple festival this weekend, but…you don’t like maple syrup, do you?”

He flinched as if I were crazy for suggesting such a thing. “Of course I do. It’s delicious. Don’t you?”

“I do. I just thought…” I wondered if maybe Brayden had mixed up something in his transfer of information to me. “Do you like syrup on…pancakes?”

Augie cocked his head as if confused by the oddly specific question. “I guess I do. But usually, I just eat pancakes with butter because they’re so delicious that way. But on waffles, I like lots of syrup.”

“Okay, that makes sense.” And as surprised as I was, it really did. I was actually starting to understand his way of eating. At least a few of his ways. “What about French toast?”

Augie thought about it for a minute. “Depends on the bread. If it’s really thick bread that’s a little bit dry, then yes on the syrup. But if it’s skinny bread that absorbs butter well, then maybe not.” He shrugged. “It just depends. This is why I’m such a problem.”

“You’re not a problem, sweetheart.” I moved my hand up to his shoulder and wrapped my thumb across his tense muscles. “I promise. None of this is a problem. I just wanna get to know you. And maybe you’ll wanna get to know me too.”

His eyes went wide as he nodded quickly. “I do. I have lots of questions for you too.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?” I was happy to know he’d put enough thought into our time together that he wanted to know more about me.

“Like, are you a Daddy like Ethan?” Augie was completely stoic, not giving away his preferences at all.

“Yes, I am a Daddy Dom like Ethan. But most of my experience has been through scenes at the club. I’ve had partners that I’d meet with on a regular basis over the years, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been in any kind of relationship.”

He took a moment to ponder my response and probably to think about what his would be back. “Do you like Littles like Brayden?”

I could almost sense him beginning to regress right in front of me. If we weren’t in his workplace break room, I would’ve pulled him onto my lap and cuddled him, which reminded me that this was not the place for us to have this kind of conversation. I needed to bring things up so he could finish his workday off on a good note. “I do like Littles like Brayden. Very much.” I let my hand slide down his arm and then tickled his side.

Augie giggled as he arched away from me. “Oh. That’s good.”

“Augie, I really do want to have a much deeper conversation about this with you, but not when you’re at work.”

“Oops.” He looked at his watch. “Yeah, I need to get back.”

“Can we have dinner tonight? I can pick something up and bring it to your place.”

And just like that, his happy mood dropped, and I could already see the worry lines forming in his face. “Like what?”

“Like, you order anything you want from any restaurant you want and just tell me where to go. I will pick it up, pay for it, and bring it to your house. Does that work?”

“Really? Anything I want?”

“Yeah, that’s our deal, isn’t it?”

He blew out a relieved breath. “Yeah, I guess it is. Okay, I can do that.”

“Excellent. It’s a date then.” I popped the last piece of my bagel in my mouth and then cleaned up while Augie took his last few bites.

I wanted to give Augie a hug on my way out the door, but I wasn’t sure if we were there yet, so I reached out and gave him a gentle shoulder shake before I said goodbye and headed back to work myself.

Getting to know Augie and his preferences was actually gonna be a lot more fun than I had anticipated.