17. Wallace
Wallace
Wallace was playing hooky again.
Well, not completely playing hooky. He’d worked late two nights in a row last week, so he was doing the same thing that his employees were supposed to do and taking some comp time.
He hadn’t really understood comp time before. Or things like work-life balance, but now it was starting to make sense. He’d done the work that needed to get done, so why would he want to stay one extra minute in his office when he could be with Volt?
It was Tuesday, and the second he’d finished up the dreaded weekly meeting with his father, he’d jetted out the door. Honestly, with Daddy as a reward and a plan to quit soon, he didn’t even care what his father had to say to him.
Well, he did. Their meeting had been brutal today, with his father threatening to cut the nursebot project that was near and dear to Wallace’s heart.
He’d promised some things he didn’t want to promise, and it had left him dashing into the hall closet to wipe tears from his eyes and text Daddy for more of those addictively comforting words.
But the frustration and embarrassment hadn’t lasted long, and he wasn’t going to think about it right now. He was going to think about his goodnight call with Daddy last night, when Daddy had made him come over all over his hand with naughty commands and that endlessly sexy voice.
And today, since it was so early in the afternoon, he’d made plans for them to visit a new park with a weekly vendor fair.
Wallace wasn’t sure if they’d have anything that he wanted to buy, but he loved walking around on Volt’s arm and browsing the stalls, and they’d probably have some tasty treats.
And then afterward…
Wallace shivered in the seat of his car, sliding one hand between his legs to feel the press of satin against his bits. He wasn’t trying to get himself aroused… but he really liked the feeling of those panties. They’d arrived in the mail this weekend, and this was his first day wearing them.
Obviously, he’d worn quite a few sexy panty sets that Daddy bought for him, but this was the first time he’d bought them for himself. It was also the first time he’d worn them to work.
The rest of his clothes were still fairly masculine, though he’d been trying out some more colorful options for his shirts, like burgundy and russet. But today, wearing those panties all day… It made him feel powerful. And sexy.
Well, he didn’t exactly feel sexy around his coworkers. But now that he was alone in the car, he could imagine Volt’s surprise and delight when he discovered his surprise later.
He’d also ordered a couple pairs of clingy yoga pants and some loose, slouchy sweaters that he’d seen another fat fem man wear on a website. He wasn’t sure if they were his style yet, but he was thinking about them. Hell, he was thinking about them a lot.
He was heading home to quickly change before meeting Volt at the park and maybe he could try the…
No, the panties were a big enough step for today. He’d just put on some nice jeans and a t-shirt, but he’d know what he was wearing underneath.
He had no idea what he would look like in the new clothes, anyway. Probably stupid.
It left him thinking about the app that Maxamillion had built.
He hadn’t quite had the heart to download it, given everything that he’d done. Yes, he was hoping desperately that Maxamillion was alright, but several more weeks had gone by and there hadn’t been much news from Ben or his friend Evan.
Wallace had set it up so that any shipments from Orbit to either of their apartments would go through automatically, ping him with an alert, and be billed to his account if they didn’t have a clear source.
That hadn’t happened, but Evan had purchased a few circuit boards that would be compatible with a sexbot, so Wallace had to hope that Max was recovering.
He knew it could be a long process. If Maxamillion had successfully made the jump and transferred his consciousness to that sexbot, Wallace had read—far too late—that it might still take him months to learn to walk and talk. The fact that he’d already been trying for months didn’t bode well.
A thousand times, Wallace thought about sending something over as an apology gift. But what would he send? A fucking fruit basket? A box of random circuit boards? A blank check?
Nothing seemed like it could possibly be enough. Ben had solid savings, as Parker had discreetly confirmed, and far more skills than Wallace did for making any needed repairs or upgrades.
Honestly, checking on Max was one of the few things keeping Wallace at Orbit.
He told himself that once he knew, for sure, that Max was okay, he’d have the courage to download Max’s app and use it to order some clothing.
But not yet. Right now, the guilt was too much.
And maybe he needed some more baby steps before working up to… a dress or something.
That, and telling his father he was quitting. There always seemed to be more projects due and more responsibilities on his plate and…
Okay, that was bullshit. He was passionate about the nursebot project but really wasn’t ready to face his father yet. The fallout was going to be massive.
And even with Daddy there to cheer him on, what would he do if he wasn’t working at Orbit? He’d never had to apply for a job. He’d never had a time when he wasn’t going to a school that his father had chosen for him or working at a job that had been waiting for him since birth.
How did other people do this stuff?
It didn’t help that he didn’t know what he wanted to do next.
“Message from Volt,” his car announced.
“Read it,” he answered.
“Hey, creampuff,” the generic voice read. “My appointment at the bank is running later than I was expecting. Could you pick me up there?” The speaker dinged. “Send reply?”
Wallace grinned. Just the thought of his Daddy, even for something so mundane, made his day brighter.
“Yes,” he instructed his car, waiting for another ding. “I’d be happy to pick you up anywhere, Daddy. Just send me the address, and I’ll let you know when I’m on my way.”
A different ping sounded a moment later, followed by the car announcing that he’d received a map location. He pulled his phone out of his pocket to look it up and saw that Volt had sent a heart with it, too.
Did that heart mean love? They’d been sending an awful lot of hearts back and forth to each other.
But emojis were different from words.
How soon was too soon? When could he be sure that this swoopy, overwhelming feeling of adoration and delight was love? And when could he hope for Daddy to love him back?
While Wallace was lost in thought, his car pulled up to a parking spot just around the corner from his apartment, neatly gliding back and forth a few times to fit into the tight space.
That was always one of the things that had mystified him about vehicles before self-driving features became standard.
Did people really drive back and forth like that on their own?
How did they calculate the angles? Or even know where to park if they weren’t getting data from the city system letting their cars know where an open spot was?
He usually parked in the lot below his apartment building, but since he was just rushing in to change, he’d told it to look for a spot on the street.
Plus, it was a nice day, and this way he got to enjoy the sunshine. There was colorful produce at the corner grocery store, and the well-kept planters in front of his building had flowers tumbling over the sides in a riot of colors.
One more thing that Daddy had changed in his life. Now, when he saw a pretty sight, he took the time to really enjoy it.
“Hey, Wallace!”
He turned at the sound, wondering if it had really been his name.
A man hurried toward him, waving widely. Wallace squinted. He looked vaguely familiar. Some colleague from another department? Maybe someone from his family’s god-awful country club? No, his suit wasn’t nice enough for that.
He scrunched his nose at the thought. He truly hadn’t meant to sound so judgy, but it was also a phenomenally bad suit and, really, he was just gathering information to figure out who this guy was.
“Hey, Wallace!” The man called again, greeting him like they were old buddies. He had dark hair, a white shirt buttoned a bit too tight, and nothing else particularly memorable about him.
“Sorry, who are you?” Wallace asked when he got closer.
“Colton. Colton Alexander.” He reached out his hand, and Wallace shook it reluctantly. “We met at Prism, remember?”
Wallace looked around to see if anyone had heard.
Not that he was embarrassed about being seen at Prism—the more he got to know Magnolia and Angel, the more proud he was of Volt’s business—but he knew that one part of the agreement he’d signed the first time he visited was to not share the identity of anyone else who attended.
“Oh, hello.” He already wasn’t thrilled to meet this Colton Alexander, with his used car salesman vibes, and those words had clenched it. Wallace started walking toward his building. He still couldn’t quite place Colton’s face, but his goal right now was to get home and end the conversation.
The smarmy man fell into step beside him. “So, I see you didn’t need my little love potion after all,” he commented.
Oh, fuck. That was where he’d met him before.
On what had felt like the worst night of his life, when he’d thought Volt was rejecting him.
It had all worked out in the end, but he’d been angry and embarrassed beyond belief when this Colton guy had called him out on what he thought was unrequited love.
Then the bastard had given him an illegal mod that would supposedly make Volt fall in love with him.
He hadn’t used the wretched little nickel drive—thank goodness, because he wouldn’t have been able to live with himself, and what he had now with Volt was more precious than words—but this guy had been a dick then, too, not taking no for an answer.
Wallace didn’t dignify the comment with a response, instead scowling and walking faster.