Chapter 6
TWINK
“I said three,” the customer reminded me as I was about to walk away from the caramel pump.
“That was three pumps, sir.”
His brows knitted together. “I think you only did two.”
Okay, sure. And then you’ll complain about it having too much caramel, as if it were my fault. Ugh.
I hated taking shifts at the café. Sure, I liked coffee, but I wasn’t a barista. When I first started here, you had to learn to cover in the café for breaks, and my first day, I asked a cute guy if he needed his bagel heated up…
His frozen bagel!
But if the store needed a guy to burn their cookies and oversteam milk, I was their twink!
This job was so different from the bookstore, where I knew exactly what I was doing. Where I could recommend my latest favorite reads to customers and introduce them to an author or series I was sure they’d love.
I added the extra pump to the guy’s latte and gave him his warmed-up bran muffin before approaching my coworker, Eric, who sat at the bar like he normally did, keeping me company on his break.
Peeking up from the X-Men comic book he was reading, he said, “So Roger told me you were getting under to get over last night.”
“That mouth. Yeah, he walked right in while the guy was still in his fetishwear from the night before.”
I was glad Eric brought him up, though. It was nice thinking about how sexy he looked, how it felt to have him keep me from slamming against the wall (though I still didn’t get how that happened), and the way he gripped my wrist…
firm but gentle… There was a flutter in my belly as I thought about him, which I tried to chase away because it was silly to think about a guy like this, whom I couldn’t even consider a one-night stand.
“Roger also told me,” Eric added, “that the guy is a very attractive Daddy.”
He didn’t try to disguise his jealousy.
I thought about Daddy’s beefy physique, his striking features, and those eyes…fuck.
“Definitely attractive, but I’m not sure he was into me.” Something I was more disappointed about than was warranted, given I’d only met him last night.
“Is that something you worked out while he was coming up in you?” Eric joked.
“I wish. We didn’t do anything.” As I said it, I couldn’t help thinking that sounded disturbingly like what Carter said when I first accused him of hooking up with Leo, so I amended, “He was a real gentleman and helped me get home. And then we cuddled.”
“I don’t know that gentlemen cuddle on the first night,” Eric teased. “But that sounds like the Charliest thing you could have told me. Makes me want to barf.” He made a retching sound, which earned glares from our customers.
“Eric…” I chastised, and he noticed the looks.
He wasn’t wrong about it being the Charliest thing. I do like all the cheesy things—cuddling, long walks, date nights. Not that I would mind a nice dick filling me out.
“Whatever,” Eric said. “I’m only disappointed because I was hoping you’d have a sex adventure.”
“Why?”
“Because one of us should.”
“You should have come out with us.”
“I would have, but I was watching my shows, and I want to socialize about as much as you want to be in the café.”
“That’s not true,” I insisted. “You like to socialize. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be bothering me while I’m supposed to be working.”
I was only teasing, which he knew, since this was pretty typical banter for us.
He glared. “You know what I mean. It would be nice to meet guys outside of the apps.”
“Now you know you can be out at a bar, meet a hot Daddy, and still not get any. I wish I’d had a little less to drink, and then maybe Daddy could have fucked some sense into me after I saw…” I trailed off, but Eric picked up on it.
“That asshole? Of course he was out with his new hot reality-star boyfriend.”
Heat rose to my chest, like it did the day I found out what Carter was doing behind my back.
“Reality star?” I snapped. “He was on Judge Judy once, and the other guy won a judgment against him.”
“I’m sorry, when was the last time you were on TV and then went viral on TikTok? I’ll wait.”
He had a point, and though I told myself I wasn’t jealous, my tense jaw disagreed. Although, I doubted that had anything to do with Judge Judy.
“Based on what Roger told me, this Daddy is new to town, so there’s still time to meet up.”
“Trust me, I tried to exchange numbers with him, and he looked at me like I’d grown a third eye, then fled the scene.”
That really disappointed me. I must have totally missed something because the way he looked at me beforehand didn’t just make me feel wanted, but like he was about to take me…
go feral on my ass. Which was exactly what I wanted.
But given what happened with my ex, maybe I was just bad at reading people.
Eric cringed. “Ooh, yeah, that’s not a good sign.”
“It was confusing. One minute he was looking at me and touching me like he was interested—which I’d say was an understatement—and then he bolted.”
Eric shrugged. “Maybe he has a boyfriend.”
Oh fuck. I hadn’t even considered that. Come to think of it, I didn’t even ask him, which was definitely something I should be doing before letting strange guys back into my place.
“Now why did you have to take an already ruined night and make it suck even more?”
“Sounds like the problem was, there wasn’t any sucking happening.”
“I don’t think that one came out as slick as you were hoping.”
“Well, you already said there wasn’t any coming, so…”
“I feel like anything I say is gonna be twisted into something.”
“Wish I could get twisted into something…”
“Stop it,” I said with a glare.
“Or what? You’ll get back to working?”
The timer went off on the cookies I’d put in the convection oven, and I pulled them out to cool, when Eric, his gaze shifting back to his comic book, said, “So that Daddy? Would you have happened to let him wear your pink unicorn shirt and a pair of shorts he needed to use a belt with because they were too small to button?”
My thoughts scrambled. “How could you possibly know that?”
He motioned toward the back of the dining area, indicating someone standing with his face pressed against the glass window, hands cupped to peek inside.
Daddy? What was he doing here?
I waved, unsure if he could see me, but he waved back. This felt particularly awkward, especially as he drew the attention of the patrons sitting around the dining area.
“I mean…” Eric began, “you’d have to be really hot to pull off that outfit and be a creepy stalker without that totally killing it for me.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Daddy picked up something off the sidewalk—oh, the Tupperware I’d lent him—and walked alongside the window, searching very hard for something until he came to the door. Gripping the handle, he pushed.
And pushed again.
And again.
“Just pull…pull it,” Eric whispered, as though hoping his direction would somehow travel out to Daddy and help him out.
It only took a few—and by few, I mean maybe seven—attempts before he worked it out on his own.
By this time, everyone’s eyes were on him, something he didn’t seem particularly concerned about, like he didn’t mind wearing the ridiculous clothes I’d given him to tide him over until he returned to his place.
And the way Daddy approached the counter, it was clear he’d come to see me. He set my Tupperware down and took a breath, as if he’d been walking for some time. “There. Returning it.”
I blinked a few times, uncertain how to respond.
“Thank you, Daddy,” Eric nearly sang, and Daddy seemed to only then notice him before returning his attention to me.
“You really didn’t have to rush to get it back to me. I was thinking you might not return it at all, the way you rushed off.” I still sounded disappointed by it.
“I wanted to see you again,” he said matter-of-factly, still with that intense stare, like the one he’d given me at my place, when I felt like he wanted to ravage me.
My cheeks warmed to the point where this was getting embarrassing. “Eric, do you mind?”
He glanced between us. “I do, actually. I’m not hurting anyone.”
At my glare, he turned his attention to his comic book, which definitely wasn’t what I meant, but with Eric, that was about as good as it was gonna get.
“Well, I did mention I worked here,” I said, trying to make sense of him showing up.
“Yes. I asked around, and some friendly people told me where this place was located.”
“But apparently you didn’t have time to change out of the clothes from this morning.”
I figured we needed a joke to cut through the tension, but he didn’t laugh.
He glanced himself over before saying, “Yes, I like it,” as though I’d been sincere.
I gulped. I liked it too.
“Hey, you!” someone called, and I turned to find my four-pumps-latte guy approaching. “You put too much caramel in here.”
I put the exact number of pumps he requested, but whatever. Now my cheeks were even hotter from the embarrassment of Daddy having to see me deal with an annoying customer.
“I’m sorry, sir. I can make you another in a minute.”
The guy eyed Daddy, then told him, “Technically, I was here first, so it’s only fair he fix my order before working on yours.”
Daddy stood a little taller, puffing his chest out. “You’re making him uncomfortable,” he said, his voice deepening as he balled his hand into a fist.
Whoa, Hot Daddy was getting worked up! Surely not over this guy being a dick to me.
“What?” the annoyed customer asked before directing his attention to me. “Am I making you uncomfortable?”
“No,” I lied.
Daddy studied me, his face turning as red as mine probably was, but for a different reason. He took a step toward the guy. “Yes, you are. You should go.”
I wasn’t surprised when the guy conceded because if Daddy had looked at me like that, I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to stick around.
As he walked off, Daddy’s expression relaxed. “Twink,” he said, earning a snicker from Eric, “I was hoping, since you’re more familiar with this place, you might be willing to help me get a better understanding of it.”
“Show you around? Like a tour around town?”