Page 5 of Dear Daddy, Please Want Me

Levi had been crushing on him since his job interview.

“Hey, Saul. I was sleepy, but I’m awake now.” As soon as he said it, he realized it wasn’t the right thing to say. He should have lied. Said he wasn’t busy or something, and totally awake.

But it was Saul calling and he was still tangled up in dreams. If Daddy wanted to know what he was doing, he would tell him. When his boss called, he was supposed to be a professional. His mouth just hadn’t gotten with the program.

“Lazy Shabbat nap?” Saul asked with a chuckle. Even his voice sounded like Daddy.

Levi nodded, then realized Saul couldn’t see him. “It’s a mitzvah to nap on Shabbat,” he quipped. He liked to Jew it up around Saul, like their little inside joke.

“Really?” Saul sounded amused. “I think you’re just supposed to refrain from work.”

“Nope! It’s actually in the Talmud. Shayna b'Shabbat ta’anug. Sleeping on Shabbat is a pleasure.”

“Ha! I believe you. I barely made it through my ba–, er, bar mitzvah, but that sounds like something some rabbi would have said at some point. Then someone would have disagreed with him.”

“Yeah, that was the point of the passage. You should take enjoyment on Shabbat, but the best enjoyment is Torah study. Something like that.”

Levi found himself grinning. He was slowly waking up, but this relaxed back-and-forth with Saul was almost as good as dreaming. He could hear the smile in Saul’s voice and imagine it in his eyes.

Levi’s hand drifted down his belly. He wondered if Saul knew that it was a mitzvah to have sex on Shabbat, too.

He probably shouldn’t mention that to his boss.

“Hey, um, why did you call?”

“I really hate to ask this, but we’ve got a pretty major bug somewhere and I can’t track it down. Christy’s sick and everyone else has already disappeared for Christmas.”

“The whole development team?” He already knew that Nikhil was in India for the whole month, but someone had to be around.

“Well, I haven’t called anyone else yet. But since you’re not celebrating Christmas…”

Levi groaned. He was going to spend the next hour repeating this same miserable can-you-come-in-to-work call with whoever on his and Christy’s teams hadn’t left town, and then working on it himself.

“...I thought maybe you’d be willing to come into the office and we could try to figure it out together.”

Oh. That completely changed things. Levi’s hand dipped a little farther. He had so many fantasies about being alone in that office together with Saul.

Completely inappropriate fantasies that it might not be the right time to indulge in.

“Um, sure! When do you want me?” He sure hoped that his voice didn’t sound as husky and eager to Saul as it did to him. He had no game.

Also, he reminded himself for the seventy-zillionth time, he shouldn’t be lusting after his boss.

“I’m already here so any time you can make it would be appreciated. Er, after dark that is.”

After dark? There was a long pause while Levi’s thoughts raced with suggestions. Alone in the office at night with Saul, the city lights laid out all around them while their voices echoed in the quiet rooms…

“I meant if you’re shomer Shabbos, then I wouldn’t ask you to work until Shabbat’s over.”

Oh. That wasn’t nearly as exciting.

“I’m clearly not shomer Shabbos. I answered my phone, right? I try to use it as a day off, though. Wander around the city, visit friends, that kind of thing.” Strangely, they traded Jewish in-jokes all the time, but they’d never actually talked about their personal practices. He just knew that Saul was a lot less observant than he was.

“Do you have anything planned today? Or just prefer not to work?”

“Nope. I’m all yours.” He needed to buy himself a muzzle. “I mean, I can be there in twenty, maybe thirty, minutes.”

“Thank you, Levi. This means a lot to me.”