EPILOGUE
Three Months Later
CASPIAN
Daddy Rick had given me free rein over his apartment, and that was months ago.
Now it was my very own play house, with some of his things inside it.
I was technically living there, but I still had my place above the bakery if it got late and I was busy with play.
Tea parties were still important to our weekly schedule, even now coming up to Christmas.
We had a big tree in the middle of the living room, which was surrounded by beanbag chairs, and of course Daddy’s big armchair.
We’d been slowly adding presents to the space beneath the tree.
It was a fake one—I didn’t want to have to deal with the pine needles, they’d always stabbed me when I was younger.
I sat in my beanbag chair, comfy in a new onesie with all the fancy fur on the inside. My picture book was finished, and I was a little weepy because all the pictures were so cute. I sniffled, and Daddy caught me.
“You okay?” he asked, whispering. He got on his knees with a hand behind his back. “I have a gift for you.”
“But it’s not Christmas yet,” I told him, wiping my eyes.
“This is something I want you to open now, though,” he said. “It came in extra special.” He revealed a wrapped box and I breathed a sigh of relief. I knew typical fashion for gay people who found their one was to put a ring on it, but that needed to wait at least until after the New Year.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Open it and see.”
I tore through the wrapping paper with force, my eyes meeting the object my heart had wished for the most. It was a Fudgeable.
One of those teddies you could fuck, and—I pressed the belly and Daddy’s voice played through it.
He called me a good boy, and then again, this time telling me he was proud of me.
“There’s about ten in there,” he said. “It’s mostly for when I’m working in the evening and you’re alone.”
“I love you,” I said, and as I squeezed the belly of the teddy, it said it back to me in Daddy’s voice. It was tinny because it came out of a voice box, but it was still his voice. “I should let you open a present early.”
He shook his head. “No, this is your early present for being a good boy,” he said. “And also to tell you I’ll probably be away on Christmas morning at work. Holidays are full of emergencies, baby.”
“I understand, Daddy,” I said as he pulled me into a squeezing hug.
“That means no setting the alarms off to get me home.” He nuzzled into my neck and kissed me. “Got it?”
“I’d never do that,” I giggled, and I stood by it. That alarm at the bakery was faulty. “And it’s okay, we can open presents together when you’re home.”
I looked back at the Fudgeable. I absolutely adored it.
I almost didn’t want to take it out of the box to inspect the insides.
They were expensive, and I didn’t want to ruin any part of it.
But at least I had the recordings, so I kept on pushing it all night just to hear his voice.
Daddy joked about me needing new batteries for it soon.
And in the night, as we slept squeezed together, the occasional sound of his voice would play and my lips twitched into a smile.
It was perfect. He was perfect.
Keep reading on for an excerpt of DRIP.