Epilogue
TWINK
Two weeks…
and one day later…
Keep it to-fucking-gether, Twink.
I handed the customer his brewed black coffee. “Here you go,” I said, choking on the words. “Have a nice…” I had to turn away from him as my chest tightened and a tear pushed free from my eye. I wiped it away, then turned back to my customer, finally managing, “Have a nice day.”
“Um…I…” The wide-eyed man in a tartan blazer looked to me like he didn’t know how to respond.
That was when I realized—
“Oh yeah. Sorry.” I headed back to the convection oven and retrieved his warmed-up banana-nut bread, doing my best to keep my tears from falling onto it as I bagged it and handed it over to him.
“I…um…sorry,” he said.
“Thank you.”
He glanced around and rushed off, leaving me with Roger and Eric, who sat at the counter, exchanging concerned looks.
I probably shouldn’t have gone to work.
Before Daddy returned to his home planet, he’d warned me it would be a struggle because he’d bonded with me.
The first few days, I was sure I’d be able to handle the emotions, but it really wasn’t until day five that I could feel the effects—searing emotional pain terrorizing me to my core.
The sort of pain that left me feeling more sympathy for Sheila than I’d ever thought possible.
I mean, she did try to kill me, after all.
“You know, maybe you could say you’re feeling sick,” Roger said.
“Then I’d have to cover for him,” Eric said bitterly.
“Well, it’s in your job description,” Roger argued. “And you don’t want to fill in for a friend?”
“Why don’t you fill in for him?”
Their bickering brought up a new emotion in me. Anger. “If Monika would just quit, then maybe they would hire someone, and I wouldn’t have to spend all my time messing up orders and cleaning coffee grounds off this stupid floor.”
Several patrons glanced our way.
I crumbled, sinking to the floor and putting my arms around my knees as I sat in a fetal position, sobbing uncontrollably.
This was wild. I didn’t feel such intense pain even after Carter cheated on me with Leo.
This was a thousand times worse. I wouldn’t even wish this on Carter. Okay, maybe that’s not entirely true.
“Hey, buddy,” Eric said, coming around the counter. He settled on his knees beside me and rested his hand on my shoulder. “You should call in sick. I’ll cover.”
Seeing Eric, who usually acted like such a prick, being nice to me, it was too much, and now I was crying for a new reason.
“No, I need to do this. It’s much worse sitting at home all day, not knowing when I’m gonna see him again. At least when I’m doing this, there’s some chance of a little bit of distraction.”
“Daddy will be back in no time,” Roger assured me, stepping beside Eric.
“You don’t know that.” I sounded more like a petulant child than my grown-ass self. “He said two weeks.”
“I thought he said it might be three weeks,” Roger said.
“That was when he was estimating. He ran the numbers before he left and said it should only be two.”
“Well, it’s been two weeks…and a day, exactly,” Eric reminded me, as though I didn’t know that. As if it wasn’t all I was thinking about. “I’m sure traveling across the universe can add a little time in there.”
The logical part of my brain appreciated what he was saying, but the dark ruminations that had been hounding me since he went away kept on, relentless.
“What if they send him on another mission and don’t care at all about some creature he mated with on the other side of the universe?
What if his ship didn’t make it all the way back because something went wrong?
What if he changed his mind or realized bonding with me was a mistake and found someone else to bond with? ”
I devolved into another fit of sobs. Oh, crying was the only thing that gave me relief.
“Well, if he does bond with someone else, maybe it releases you or something,” Eric said.
Roger shot him a look.
“What? I’m trying to be helpful.”
“Please stop helping,” I pleaded before hearing a cough from the other side of the counter.
Great. Another customer.
“You want me to get this?” Eric asked, and this was big for him. Eric never volunteered to cover for me on his break. I mean, I knew he would in case of an emergency. Hell, the guy had thrown himself in harm’s way with a damned alien, but God forbid he clock in when he didn’t have to.
“I’ll be fine,” I lied, sniffling.
Eric and Roger pushed to their feet, and Roger’s eyes widened.
Goose bumps prickled across my flesh as I feared the worst—that Sheila had somehow escaped from Kryton yet again and was coming back to claim what was hers. Oh, if she just ended me now, I wouldn’t feel this unbearable pain.
Okay, definitely being dramatic…
When I turned, it wasn’t Sheila, though.
“Hey, Twink,” Carter said, like that was somehow an insult, but it did piss me off. He didn’t have the right to call me the name that brought me so much pleasure when Daddy said it.
Leo stood at his side, glancing around uncomfortably, like he wasn’t exactly eager to be coming here with his boyfriend.
Carter wore this cocky smile, looking full of himself the way he had when he’d interrupted Daddy and me on our date and tried to tell lies about me to make Daddy mistrust me.
But despite the excruciating pain that came with bonding with Daddy, there was, I discovered in that moment, one massive advantage: I didn’t feel a fucking thing toward Carter anymore.
No grief or betrayal. No jealousy of Leo.
Not even anger at how he tried to turn Daddy against me.
I was just annoyed as fuck that he was even bothering to come in here after all he’d put me through.
“Hi, Carter,” I said.
“You sure you don’t want me to get this?” Eric asked.
“No, I’ll be fine. So, what can I get for you?”
“I don’t know. I probably shouldn’t order anything you can spit in.”
He waited for a response, which I didn’t give.
“Maybe you can tell me what the specials are?”
Oh, he was trying to eat this the fuck up, and I was having to fight back tears—that only had to do with Daddy, but obviously, I couldn’t start bawling in front of him because he’d think it was about him.
I ran through the specials, including our buy one get the second pastry free, which he took me up on.
Then he asked for two brewed coffees, I guessed because he figured he’d have to see me make them.
Eric and Roger watched me as though anticipating I was gonna snap any moment now. Fortunately, despite how worked up I was over missing Daddy, I managed to get through the order, and Roger helped me hand it over to them.
Carter winked. “Thanks, man. Good to see we’re cool.”
“We’re definitely not cool,” I said, and he pressed his hand to his chest, his mouth forming an O as he acted oh-so-wounded by my comment.
Leo’s forehead creased. He didn’t seem to know what to make of the interaction, and after a brief hesitation, followed Carter toward the exit.
I felt bad for the guy—for real, this time.
It couldn’t be easy being with such a prick, although, in Leo’s mind, given what Carter had told Daddy, who knew what else he’d told Leo to make me the bad guy in the relationship.
As they reached the door, Carter dumped his cup in the trash as he and Leo left.
Asshat.
On the plus side, I could finally let the tears break free again.
Eric and Roger, being the good friends that they are, consoled me, and I managed to push through my shift.
At the end of the hour, Eric clocked back in and Roger had to head off to his latest temp job, leaving me to deal with all my emotions, which escalated quickly without my friends to distract me.
As my shift was coming to an end, I was refilling one of the carafes, when a sound caught my attention—a faint yet familiar yapping…followed by another sensation that moved through me.
With Daddy having been gone for so long, I hadn’t really experienced anything like this before, but I already knew what it meant even before I saw him walking alongside the store window, with Pluto on a leash, mostly barking at Daddy as though he was being dognapped, but still continuing to hound him like it was his job.
“Daddy.” I abandoned my work and started around the counter.
As he headed inside, he said, “Come on, Pluto, give me a break here,” before his gaze met mine and he flashed a pearly-white smile.
Fuck, how I missed that beautiful face…that perfectly groomed, sexy-ass scruff…those piercing blue eyes. Relief washed through me in an instant, and all the agony I’d been experiencing dissolved as I sprinted across the café toward him. “Daddy!” I called out.
Pluto went wild, growling at me, as though saying, Why have you been at work all this time instead of at home with me? Give me scritches! Something I’d had to get used to since adopting him.
As I neared Daddy, I was crying for a new reason—fuck, was being bonded gonna make me a massive sap?
I already knew the answer, and I didn’t care. I wasn’t even thinking straight as I jumped at him and Daddy caught me, hooking his arm in the crook of my legs and twirling me around before offering a kiss.
It was everything. My body purred at his touch, relaxed as though I’d been starving for the past few weeks and finally had the taste of a delicious meal. He was all tongue, nibbles, and sweet kisses, and as good as it felt, it wasn’t enough.
I didn’t just want his human form. I wanted his Furker self, his tentacles crawling all over me, beating me off… And the tension in my crotch…wait, was I still at work? This wasn’t good…
When we pulled away from our kiss, Daddy looked at me with those icicle-blue eyes, which sparkled under the café’s fluorescent lights.
I was totally hypnotized.
Totally in love.
Although, I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied until we were back at the condo, making up for lost time.
“You came back,” I whispered.
“Of course I came back. You’re my Twink.”