Chapter 3 Leo
I’d accidentally got myself sucked into this entire situation.
It wasn’t technically a situation, more like me helping Henry out and then leaving with some more cupcakes for the time I’d spent there.
I half thought he was going to put his hand around my waist or lean in and kiss me.
It was a silly idea and an even sillier dream for him to do that.
A, he was still covered in paint . . . and B, he was new to town and just being nice.
Adding in C, he seemed like he wanted friends.
I was just a friend.
At the town hall, I waited until Oliver was done with his last meeting of the day. He looked exhausted, rolling his neck and letting out deep sighs. “Tell me your day was better than mine,” he said.
“No.” I returned the sigh, sitting opposite him at his nice, fancy desk.
“But you went to the bakery,” he said. “You’ve got to have had a much better day than me. I mean, it’s practically impossible to have had a worse day.”
“Well, yeah, sure.” I rolled my eyes. “There’s just something about Henry that I can’t shake, but I don’t think he sees me as anything but a friend.”
Oliver scoffed. “Well, the best romances come from being good friends. You’ve just got to be a friend, and see if he you know . . . bats for our team.”
“Hey,” I said in a chuckle. “You’re happily married.”
“Well, I can look, and so can Mason,” he said, wiggling his brows.
“I’m kidding, obviously. But we can all appreciate a good-looking man.
” He took my silence as a reason to fill the void with all the boring stuff he’d done today, admitting himself just how boring it was to talk about reports and town finances.
“So, are you going to let me drone on, or are you going to tell me what happened?”
I told him everything, about how I got roped into painting, and how he was a nice guy who’d let me use his bathroom, even if it had smelled a little like mold.
That was nothing the smell of paint hadn’t overpowered anyway.
Finding a man for me was a lost cause. I was picky, and that was never a good trait.
“When the time’s right, it’s gonna be right,” he said. “But every single time we have our pride events, you don’t get involved. You know you get in your own way, right?”
“I’m trying not to anymore.”
Oliver smiled and sighed. “Was there any flirting at all?” he asked. “I know you can be a bit oblivious to it sometimes. Remember that absolute bear who was in town last year?”
“Big D,” I said, recalling his name fondly. He was hot, so body positive. “And he had a boyfriend.”
“Open relationship.”
“I’m monogamous,” I said. “I’m a one Daddy type of guy, and I don’t want to share.”
A knock came at the office door, startling me into near whiplash from the speed in which I moved my head in the door’s direction. Mason was standing there with a brown paper bag and an accompanying plastic bag. “I didn’t hear it all,” he prefaced. “Just enough.”
I presented my forehead to the desk and pretended to whack it. “I bet Oliver told you all about it.”
“Of course my little Oli-bug told me,” he said. “I’m rooting for you.”
“We were all rooting for you,” I said in sync with Oliver from the famed Tyra Banks meme. We both burst into laughter.
Mason looked worried, walking toward us. “I can leave if you two are having a moment,” he said, placing the food on the table with a thud. “But I brought you food, since I knew you’d be too hangry to get home and eat my food.”
“I’m leaving anyway,” I said. “Just giving Oli-bug the updates.”
“I wish you luck,” he said.
The smell of fragrant Chinese food from one of the nearby takeout spots wafted toward me. I was starving. All I’d eaten was some more of Henry’s samples, and while his buttercream was delicious, it hadn’t done the job of filling me up.
“I’ll call you tomorrow or something,” Oliver said. “Unless you’re busy at the bakery again.”
The truth was, if Henry called or texted and asked me to help him again tomorrow, I would.
Even if I did have to be at the community center early to get some admin done for the bulletin board, and then work a couple of hours at the library.
I would fit him in, and the naughty part of my brain wanted that to be physical.
I got back to my apartment after a nice leisurely walk with the sun setting and the air growing cooler.
I should really have been on my bike, but I hadn’t really intended on walking all the way to the bakery earlier.
I’d just started walking, and before I knew it I was there, texting him to see if he was around.
Replaying the moment over in my mind, I wondered what was going on in his mind about me.
I’d helped him out, so it couldn’t have been all that bad.
My apartment was a studio, with a murphy bed that folded out from the wall.
Everything else was covered in collectable Sublime teddies.
They probably weren’t worth much seeing as they were all out of the boxes and I’d given each one so many cuddles, and most importantly, used them in my teddy bear cuddle puddle.
From a box, I poured mac and cheese mix into a pan, followed the instructions, and whipped up a quick dinner. I wolfed it all down and finished it off with a strawberry milk carton. Except for in my coffee, strawberry milk was the only time I drank milk.
Then I put myself to bed. It was hard work being an adult all the time.
I had to pull the bed out, yank the duvet and pillows out of the small crevice they always got stuck in, and then I had to read myself bedtime stories.
Granted, I enjoyed doing that, since it wasn’t just for me, it was for all the teddies in the room too.
I only slept with one teddy on my bed, a larger stuffed teddy called Albert. He was named when I was younger, but I couldn’t change his name now, even if he did sound like an old man. He’d been sewn back together and restuffed more times than I could remember.
Sleep came for me fast as I cuddled Albert tight. He’d slipped between my thighs in the middle of the night, and in that dream, my legs had been wrapped around Henry. I didn’t know which part, but I just knew they were around him, tight, squeezing, almost begging him for attention.
The following day, I tried not to think about how I’d behaved around Henry because I really didn’t know how it had been received.
Part of me wondered if I’d put him in the friend zone first. I had a habit of coming off a little too hard on people when they were getting to know me.
It wasn’t me, it was my past, and other lies I told myself.
At the community center, the workers arrived to set up for their day, readying for the kids who would ransack the place with all their joy and color. I was jealous that they could come in here and just paint, watch movies, and listen to music, all with mandated fun lunches and snack times.
Missy approached me as I stapled upcoming plans within the center to the notice board. “You’ve got to tell me where your friend’s bakery is,” she said. “I was looking all over, and I couldn’t find them.”
“It’s not open yet, but it should be before you leave. Hearthstone, it’s called, and they’re amazing. If you want, I could see if he’d bring some more over for lunch.” I’d jump on the opportunity to get to speak to him again, especially with work being neutral ground.
“Might not work today. I don’t want to get into trouble with the parents for giving their kids too much sugar,” she said, shooting my dreams right out of the sky. “But sometime during the week should be fine. You know, as a special treat.”
That’s exactly what Henry was, a special treat, and I should’ve been more like her, not wanting to indulge more than my body could handle. Yet I knew my body well, and it could definitely handle a little more time with Henry.
It turned out, I didn’t have to wait long. On my walk to the library, Henry texted my phone.
Henry: I’ve just made some pies, and I’d love you to come and taste them. It doesn’t have to be right now, whenever you’re free. I’ll be in the bakery all day, just come on in, the door’s always open for you.
I could’ve squealed right out of my body. The door was always open for me. He was probably just being nice, and a friend. I had to get to work, but the temptation to go experience these pies had me wanting to show up late. Except I didn’t. I’d never miss work, even for a hot man who could bake.
Work at the library passed slowly, with my stomach suddenly being my main antagonist, practically creating evil schemes to get me out of work so I could fill it with Henry’s delicious pies—and definitely get filled up with his filling.
It was like everyone else vanished from my world when I was thinking about someone, especially when it excited my inner little, and being around him did that. There was something about him, and I knew he’d take care of me in the way a Daddy would. Call it little’s intuition.
After work, I went straight to the bakery. Nobody could distract me from where I was about to go and what I was about to do. I was a little on a mission, thumbing my Sublime teddy attached to the keyring, stroking its furry belly to self-soothe and comfort myself because this was just pie tasting.
Pausing at the door, behind the newspapers on the glass I could see the bright white of a light on inside. I knew I couldn’t just go barging in; I had to approach the door with a soft push, maybe even a knock.
And as I went to push-knock the door, it swung open, and my fist went right into his crotch.
“Oh god.” Henry keeled inward slightly, both of his hands flinching to cover himself. “You have—good aim.” He laughed it off through the pain.
I just stood there, my eyes widening and my body freezing, my hand still clenched into a fist. I couldn’t believe I’d just done that to him. My knuckles—while not really full of nerves—had definitely touched something big. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I was about to come in.”