Chapter Twenty-Four
DAISY
“What if I didn’t want fruit?” she asked as soon as the waitress left.
“Tough, you need fruit if you get pancakes,” he replied.
There he was doing it again... taking care of her. She should fight him on it and tell him no, since he wasn’t anyone to her right now. But she couldn’t bring herself to say anything. It felt damn good to have someone looking out for her.
She didn’t realize she had been missing out on this her whole life.
“Are there any fruits you don’t like?” Asher asked. “They normally have strawberries, grapes, cantaloupe, and some peaches in there.”
“I like all of those,” she replied.
“Are you telling the truth, or not just telling me so I don’t go up there and ask them to change something?” He raised an eyebrow.
She held up three fingers. “I promise I’m telling the truth. I don’t like eating fruit too often, but those are all good ones, except for peach.”
“Why?”
Her eyebrows pulled together. “Why?”
“Why don’t you like eating fruit too often?” he asked as he handed her a piece of paper and some crayons.
Daisy immediately grabbed the red and started to color.
She shrugged. “It’s not a very good reason… I don’t like to wash them and cut them up. It takes so much time, and I’m a little lazy when it comes to cooking.”
Oh, she enjoyed fruit so much, but it was just something she didn’t like to do, and it deterred her from getting it.
“So, if you had someone who would wash and prepare them, you would eat them more often?” he asked.
She nodded. “Oh yeah, I would. There are a lot of things like that,” she rambled.
“What else?”
Daisy continued to color, picking up the green next.
“I don’t cook much because I’m not good at it, so I buy a lot of premade things.
Granted, I survived on those growing up, since my parents didn’t cook, so I’m used to them.
But I hate warming them up because you stick it in the microwave and then the container is too hot.
I haven’t learned yet that I need to put something under it so I don’t have to touch the container. ”
“Do you burn yourself?” he asked.
She nodded. “Oh yeah, almost every meal I do. You think I would learn, but I haven’t yet. I don’t think I ever will, but it’s okay. My fingers are like steel now.”
That was a total lie. Every single time she touched them, her eyes burned with tears.
“Daisy,” he started, making her look up at him. “Are you lying to me?”
She rubbed the back of her neck. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to. I just, it’s really okay. I’m quite used to it.”
“I don’t want you to be used to burning yourself, or lying to people and saying you are okay when you aren’t,” he said as the waitress walked up with their food.
“Oh, honey, learn from me. You may think it helps the person you are trying not to worry, but they just worry anyway,” she said. “Sorry, I overheard and had to say something. Enjoy, and if you need anything, let me know.”
Daisy looked at her food but didn’t touch it.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Oh.” She shook her head and looked at him. “Yes.”
He just raised an eyebrow.
“Everything really is okay,” she said. “I promise I’m not lying.”
“Then why are you just staring at your food?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I was looking at it.
I don’t remember the last time I had pancakes.
It was just a thought that came to mind.
Maybe that’s what I was thinking about? Or I could have just zoned out because I told you some things that I didn’t think I was going to tell anyone.
It’s like you have a way to get information out of me without me really knowing or understanding how.
Are you some kind of wizard or something?
And you can stop me from talking at any time now.
I really shouldn’t be rambling like this. ”
Asher smiled. “I like it when you start rambling.”
“I don’t,” she muttered. “I say things that I probably shouldn’t say, and then I end up in trouble. Okay, that isn’t completely true. I ramble about things that relate to me. And then all of a sudden, people are looking at me weird, but it’s just easier to say that I get in trouble.”
And here she was, doing it again. Daisy cut up a piece of pancake and shoved it in her mouth, stopping herself from talking.
“Whoa, Little Flower. Don’t stuff your mouth so full or you’re going to choke,” Asher said, pulling her plate away from her. “I’m going to cut it up into bite-sized pieces so you can eat it. Then I won’t worry as much.”
She quickly swallowed, tilting her head to the side. “You were worried?”
He nodded. “Oh yes, I don’t want you to choke. I want you to eat slowly so you don’t make your stomach upset either, and don’t overfill yourself just to finish the food.”
“H-how did you know?” she whispered.
“I had a feeling you would try to do something like that since I’m paying. But I want you to know that if you get full and still have some food left, you don’t have to finish it,” he said.
“O-okay,” she said as he pushed her plate toward her again.
Everything was cut into bite-sized pieces for her.
“Do you want some syrup on it?” he asked.
Her eyes grew wide. “Oh my goodness. I can’t believe I just ate part of my pancake without syrup. It ought to be a sin to do that. I should be punished accordingly. Oh my goodness. It’s like Little code that you have to lather it with syrup so there’s more syrup than there is pancake.”
Asher pulled the syrup away from her. “You will not be dousing it in syrup. I’ll pour it for you.”
Daisy pushed her bottom lip out. “But then you aren’t going to give me enough. I need to be able to taste it. I want to see it, not it just getting soaked into the pancake.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t skimp you out on having syrup, but I don’t want you to give yourself a tummy ache because you put too much on there.”
She gasped. “I would never allow myself to do that! Do you know how hard that is to do?”
“Not very hard. Remember, almost all my friends have Littles, and I’ve seen them. It’s very easy for you to get a tummy ache from this.”
Asher started to pour the syrup on her pancake, and she watched in anticipation as he continued to pour.
“A little more,” she muttered. “Just a little more.”
Daddy chuckled and pulled the syrup bottle away, making Daisy pout.
“Daddy,” she whined. “I want just a little more.”
Asher stilled. She looked wide-eyed when she realized what she had just said.
“I’m… Umm... I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I think I should just leave.”
“Freeze!” he commanded, and Daisy stopped. “You are not going to leave.”
“I shouldn’t have said that, though,” she mumbled, not able to glance up at him. “I really shouldn’t have. I’m sorry. I know we’re not together or anything.”
“Daisy.”
“I just... I’m exhausted, but that isn’t any excuse to use…” she continued to talk.
“Daisy.”
“I’ll try not to do it again. I promise.”
Asher placed his hand on top of hers, and she sucked in a breath.
“Daisy, I want you to listen to me. Can you do that?” he asked.
“O-okay,” she stuttered.
“I would like you to look at me, but I think that might be too much right now, so this will do,” he said. “I know we aren’t in a dynamic, but it’s okay. I told you how I felt about you. I know you feel the spark between us, too. I’m not mad at you for calling me Daddy, okay?”
“I’m really sorry,” she said, briefly looking up at him.
“Thank you, but now you don’t have to be sorry again,” he replied and got out of his side of the booth and slid in next to her. “We are going to talk about this after we eat, when we get you back home, so you don’t have to worry about other people listening in.”
Her eyes darted around the diner, but no one was looking at them. Did anyone hear her call him Daddy?
“No one heard. While I am okay talking about it here since I know no one will overhear us, I want you to be comfortable while we talk, so you can say what you want without worrying. So we are going to wait until we are done eating and get back home,” he said.
“Thank you,” she mumbled.
Daisy looked at her pancakes but didn’t pick up her fork. She was slowly losing her appetite.
“We can just go home now,” she said, looking up at him.
“Nope.” He popped the p. “I’m going to feed you, and I’ll eat at the same time. Once we are done, we can go home.”
“I’m not that hungry anymore,” she replied.
Asher picked up the fork and scooped some pancakes onto it before making a plane noise as he moved it toward her. Daisy giggled and opened her mouth, eating the piece of goodness.
“Such a good girl,” he cooed. “You just enjoy the food while I feed you.”
And that was exactly what Daisy did for once in her life. Asher was blocking her view of the rest of the dining area while he fed her little pieces of pancake, fruit, and bacon.
“I don’t think I can eat anymore,” she whispered as she leaned back and rubbed her full belly. “I think I’m going to burst at the seams if I try to.”
“Do you need to unbutton your pants so you don’t get sick?” Asher asked.
Her eyes went wide. “We are in public.”
He shrugged. “You can do that if you need to. No one is going to say anything. If they do, they will have to deal with me. Besides, your shirt covers your pants.”
Her stomach was uncomfortable in the jeans she was wearing. Daisy hadn’t known where they were going and what she should wear, so she’d copied him. Jeans and a shirt.
“You want to know a secret?” he asked, leaning forward.
She nodded.
“Just last week when I was in here, I ate so much that I had to unbutton my pants. My stomach was so uncomfortable being constricted. I knew that if I didn’t do something about it, I was going to have problems.”
She gazed up at him in wonder. “Really?”
“Yep. People do it more than you think. Some people are just really good at hiding it,” he replied.
Daisy looked at her pants before checking if the waitress was coming back.
“What about when you stand up?” she asked. “My jeans will fall off my body.”
They weren’t the best jeans and didn’t properly fit, but they were comfortable when she needed to wear them.
“You just button them up,” he said. “Do you want to try it?”
“I don’t know,” she mumbled.
“I’ll stay here, so if you want to, you can. No one will be able to see you,” he offered. “And you can button them up before we leave.”
Her stomach was getting uncomfortable because her jeans were digging in.
“Okay.”