Chapter 7
Sage
At work, I kept screwing up the drinks until Mateo took over for me and put me in charge of delivering them.
Usually, I made drinks well. I didn’t overly water them down.
I knew recipes for most of them by heart.
If I didn’t know it, I’d ask the customer and they’d tell me and I’d make it perfectly. I got great tips.
Not today.
I couldn’t stop thinking about meeting Preston. My mind swam with possible scenarios. What to do. What to say. Two nights ago, we’d barely talked. Would he see me differently in big boy mode? Big boy was my private code for adult. I was always a boy. But not always little or a baby boy.
When my shifted ended, I took my backpack to the bathroom and changed out of my pub shirt and black pants and into jeans and a fuzzy pink sweater shirt. I had on my favorite stretchy bracelet of glass heart-shaped beads and some silver rings.
Mateo called out to me to have a good evening as I walked through the door. I waved and then hurried to my car. I didn’t want to be late.
I had fifteen minutes to get to the restaurant. It was less than ten minutes away—except I hit traffic. Which made me even more anxious.
It was exactly 6:30 when I pulled into the parking lot. There were people in front of me at the entrance, talking and laughing. I couldn’t easily shove forward to get past them. Maybe Preston was already there and waiting. Or maybe he was late.
I waited until the crowd surged and thinned out, then moved past them to look over the booths and tables. And there he was.
Preston looked fantastic. He wore a black cotton pullover and his hair was a perfect cap, all shiny and dark. His cheekbones were more beautiful than I remembered, giving his face a chiseled look and showing off a strong jawline. I loved chiseled looks.
His head was bent as he looked over the menu.
Sometimes I ate at work. But today I didn’t have any pub food on my break, saving my appetite for tonight.
I bypassed the host, saying quickly, “I see my friend over there.”
She nodded as I approached the booth.
Preston glanced up and his entire face lit with a friendly glow. Wow, seeing him right now, right in front of me caused me to freeze. For a moment, I couldn’t move.
“Sage. Hey. Glad you made it.”
I loosened up and slid onto the booth’s soft bench facing him.
“Hi. Preston.”
He nodded and held out his hand over the table. I shook it. It was a strange action after being held by him on his lap for so long. But actually, we hadn’t formally met. He’d told me his name, but it was like an afterthought.
“How was work?”
“Good.”
We had to start with chitchat. It was human protocol. I almost laughed out loud.
“Thanks for texting. I hoped you would.”
“Did you?”
Preston nodded. “Very much.”
“May ask why?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. His head tilted as if he didn’t know what to say. Then he seemed to blurt his words. “I liked the way you made me feel.” He grimaced. “Did that come out right? Not sure. But it’s… it’s something different for me.”
“I have another question.” I folded my hands on the table.
“Ask away.”
Our menus lay forgotten before us as the waiter came up. We ordered water and Cokes and asked for more time to decide on our orders.
“All right,” Preston said, as the waiter walked away. “You wanted to ask me another question.”
My mouth felt dry. I wished the water was already here. “Are you a daddy?”
His eyebrows went up. “You don’t think I am?”
I shrugged. But no, I didn’t think that and I wasn’t sure why because he’d been my best daddy experience ever. And for only one hour.
“I don’t know what I think.” I shrugged. “But are you?”
“I have never been a daddy. I went to the club with my friend.”
Now it was my turn to be shocked. “Your first time?”
“No. But I haven’t been in almost a decade.”
I blinked. How old was he?
Just then our drinks were delivered. We quickly opened our menus. I was hungry and wanted the biggest cheeseburger and fry plate they had. With lots of mustard.
I quickly told my order to the waiter.
Preston ordered chicken with mashed potatoes and a side salad. I liked it. It was a daddy sort of meal.
When we returned to chatting, I nervously spoke up. “Can I ask what you did? I mean ten years ago at the club. Or is that too personal?”
“I’ll answer. I tried just about everything.” He lowered his voice. The kink family was discreet in public. “Bondage. Discipline. Masochism. Tried all of it while dominating or being dominated.”
“But not daddy stuff?”
He shook his head. “When I was there, there was no littles room. I knew about boys and daddies as an age play thing, but I don’t remember the term little. It’s new for me.”
“So, you came on Friday night to check it out?”
He nodded. “Like I said, I went with an old friend.”
“What did you think?” My face got all hot just asking that. But he was here to meet me. He’d already said he liked how I made him feel.
Preston smiled. I saw a light behind his eyes that looked warm. And the way he talked was like a spoonful of honey to my mind.
“I think I said I was glad you texted. I left you my card because I hoped you’d contact me.”
“Hmm.” That didn’t really answer my question. “But you’re not a daddy.”
“I came into that room on Friday because it was new and looked intriguing.” His mouth scrunched and he took a sip of his Coke. He looked like he wanted to say more but didn’t.
“You say you’re not a daddy, but then you picked me up from the floor,” I whispered. Stating it was almost too intimate, at least to me, to say it out loud.
His fingers tapped the table. “Instinct.”
I bit my lip but still couldn’t stop my words. “Maybe daddy instinct?”
He didn’t hesitate like I thought he would. “Maybe.”
It was like being doused in warm water. That liquid feeling poured through me. My body remembered his arms around me. The room almost faded but I quickly got my wits about me.
“But did you really think that?”
“I wouldn’t have left you my card if I didn’t think it.” His voice faded. “If I didn’t maybe want that again.”
There it was. He wanted that feeling. He’d never said anything about sex. Was he the daddy I’d been waiting for? Someone who wanted to actually experience my little and baby tendencies with me? And not just to get off?
I wasn’t sure how to respond. His words were what I wanted to hear. But he hadn’t ever been a daddy. Would my eagerness scare him?
“Maybe I texted because I wanted that again, too,” I boldly stated.
It was almost too much to hope for. It seemed like a high expectation because I’d yet to find that in anyone beyond momentary, shallow age play.
Our food came and we busied ourselves with that for a minute. I put mustard all over my burger, then picked it up to take a bite and the bottom fell out. I set it down quickly, putting everything back on it and getting mustard all over.
Preston laughed. “That always happens to me, too. I like lots of junk on my burgers. Usually, I have to cut them in half.” He held out his knife and fork. “Here. Let me.”
I watched as he pulled my plate toward his and reached out to my food. Before doing anything, he looked up at me with those beautiful eyes of his. “Okay?”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
Hell, I already wanted to call him Daddy. Every move he made showed me that he wanted to care about what I needed. But maybe he didn’t consciously believe it yet. What was most important was he’d liked how I made him feel. But I had to be sure. I’d been hurt too many times.
He cut my burger perfectly. This time, I could take a bite without losing it all. “Perfect,” I said, chewing fast. I was starved.
“Looks tasty.”
“It is.” I devoured the half in my hand losing only one pickle in the process.
Preston ate with much better manners. I had to ask for extra napkins. We both laughed about that.
Afterward, we kept looking down, then up at each other. It was heady. Like there was a whole world between us just waiting to explore. We chatted about jobs. I found out he did litigation in the financial sector for a fairly large company, but he never mentioned the name.
He found out I was a psych major.
“You’re the age I was when I was experimenting with kink.”
“Yep.” But I wasn’t experimenting. I’d known I was a little for a long time.
“May I ask how old you are?”
“I look young for my age. I’m twenty-four now. I took a two-year break between high school and college.”
“So, you’re a senior?” he asked.
“Yep.”
“Good for you.”
I basked in his words. Okay, I had a praise kink, too.
“Um, can I ask how old you are?”
“Thirty-five. I graduated law school and passed the bar at twenty-five.”
An eleven-year age gap. I could deal with that. I always went for older men anyway.
“That’s pretty amazing.” I took a deep breath. “Is that when you stopped the kink stuff?”
“Hmm. Yeah. I got busy. And I got maybe a little tired.”
“Bored?”
“Not exactly. I had a couple of darker encounters and I took a break.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”
“It’s okay. You can ask me stuff. I mean, I’d like to see you again if you would.”
I nodded. “Very much.”
“Would you like dessert?”
I grinned and repeated, “Very much.”
I didn’t want our date to end too soon. Plus, I loved ice cream. I was happy because now he’d just confirmed he wanted to see me. Again.
“I like the looks of the ultimate brownie,” he said.
“Does it come with ice cream?”
“It does.”
“I like the looks of that one, too.”
“Do you want one all to yourself or share?”
The idea of our spoons clinking together captivated me. “Share.”
“Good answer.”
Preston ordered it with two spoons.
All tension in my body lifted.
Later, giddiness nearly overwhelmed me as I walked to my car. Preston wanted to see me again. We’d made another date. This time, he wanted me to go to his house.
I couldn’t wait. Maybe he’d hold me again. I think he wanted it as much as I did. I hoped.