AllFreeNovel
Share Us
With the radio humming in the background and the smell of Harrison’s strong coffee in the air, the kitchen was a perfect hub of morning activity – and it was all the better for the fact that there was a fun-filled day in the offing.
Benji was so excited. In fact, that was a huge understatement. Benji hadn’t been so excited in as long as he could remember. This was the kind of triple-level all-star excitement that Benji would only feel when he knew something super awesome was about to go down.
Benji and Harrison had taken their relationship to the next level and Benji was all there for it. It felt so real to him, and he was pretty sure that Harrison felt the same way too. Benji might have seen his confidence take a hit as a result of Tucker and everything that had gone on back in the city, but suddenly Benji was feeling way more like his old self.
The Princeford University campus was a great place to be as far as Benji was concerned, but today it was about to get a whole lot better. And it was all down to Benji’s Daddy, Harrison…
‘Do you think me and Louie will be friends?’ Benji said, a hopeful note in his voice as he took a sip from his new panda bear design sippy cup. ‘I want us to be. Then we can play and have fun and you and Max can do Daddy stuff together.’
Benji smiled and took another sip of his OJ.
Benji was already wearing his romper for the playdate, and with its black and white panda pattern, it was very much the case that Benji was going all-out on the panda theme.
‘Yeah, I think you and Louie will get on just great,’ Harrison replied, sipping on his coffee, and tenderly running his spare hand along the bottom of Benji’s chin. ‘Max wouldn’t be with Louie unless he was a great boy. And I think you’re going to like Max too. Me and him go way back. All the way back to our days as students here.’
‘Cool,’ Benji replied. ‘I think it’s so cool how you’ve got your Daddy friends all the way back from college. I wish I had something like that.’
‘Hey, you will one day,’ Harrison replied. ‘I was lucky enough to meet my guys when I did. But it doesn’t matter when the friendships form, it’s all about how long the last and how deep the feelings run.’
‘That sounds like it could be from a book, Daddy. I love it!’ Benji giggled, blushing as he realized just jhow much he hung on Harrison’s every word.
And no sooner than Benji had finished talking, a knock came at the front door.
‘Yay! It must be them!’ Benji squealed with delight.
‘Well let’s find out, shall we?’ Harrison said, a knowing look on his face. ‘Come on, let’s see precisely who it is knocking at our door.’
Benji couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride as he picked up on Harrison describing it as ‘our’ door, but now wasn’t the time to be thinking too deeply. Benji simply wanted to meet his playdate friend and get down to the very serious business of having fun!
Harrison opened the door and Benji was delighted to see Louie standing there next to Max. Louie had a big smile on his face and almost immediately threw off his overcoat to reveal a matching panda bear romper suit.
‘We’re twinnies!’ Louie declared, bursting into laughter.
‘Yay! Do you like Lego?’ Benji blurted out, his excitement flowing over. ‘I love it! Do you want to build?’
‘Yay-yay-yay!’ Louie squealed, clearly on the same page as Benji.
‘Okay, you two go and have fun,’ Harrison chuckled. ‘Me and Max will be in the kitchen. I’ll come through with some snacks later.’
‘Okay, Daddy,’ Benji said, his cheeks reddening a little from calling Harrison Daddy in front of other people.
But as new as it was to call Harrison Daddy, it also felt totally right. It probably helped that it was another Daddy and Little couple in the room, but nonetheless it still felt like a pretty momentous occasion.
‘Now go and have fun, boys,’ Harrison said, swiftly turning and walking through to the kitchen along with Max.
And Benji and Louie certainly took Harrison’s words to heart and it wasn’t long before the pair of them were hunkering down on the large playmat and tipping out a huge box of old-school Lego that Harrison had in storage.
‘Shall we build a spaceship?’ Louie asked. ‘We could pretend to be space pandas on a mission to find the magical bamboo planet?’
‘I like it!’ Benji replied, grinning from ear to ear. ‘But first let’s fuel up.’
With that, Benji and Louie both took huge gulps from their sippy cups and then got to work on building their panda-friendly spaceship.
‘Phew, this is hungry work,’ Benji said, taking a step back and looking at the colorful spaceship as it took shape. ‘Daddy… I’m hungwee!’
‘Mweee toooo!’ Louie added, calling out to Max. ‘We want foodies!’
And it wasn’t long before both Harrison and Max made an appearance, walking through from the kitchen with two large trays full of cookies, sliced apples, and chopped up strawberries.
