Page 54 of Dear Daddy, Please Want Me

He waited till the nasty lady walked to the pick-up counter and ordered his three coffees.

When the barista called his name, there was a brown pastry bag with a folded top wedged between the three cups on the cardboard tray. Someone had written on it in marker, “Share it with your Daddy. XX”

He caught the barista’s eye and made sure she saw him putting a ten in the tip jar while he called out his thanks.

After that, it was just a short trip to the office. His fingers were freezing from gripping his handlebars in the wind, but the coffees hadn’t spilled in the milkcrate and bungee-cable set up he had going on. So he couldn’t think of anything to complain about on such a glorious day.

When he got upstairs, he headed to his own desk first to drop off his coat. Then he left Christy’s coffee in front of her keyboard. She wouldn’t need a note to know who it was from. He lived near the good coffee shop and she lived near the good sandwich shop, so they had a system worked out.

Finally, he made it to Daddy’s office, only to find Gabby from marketing lingering in the door. She was tossing one of those squishy stress balls into the air and catching it.

He looked at the stress ball the next time it came down. It was shaped like a butt plug, which must be a new design. He wondered who they convinced to manufacture them, and whether anyone would be stupid enough to try to actually use something with such porous material.

Probably.

Hopefully they had warnings on those things.

Gabby seemed to be deep in some recitation about her holiday plans.

Should he come back later? No, he decided. He and Daddy were hopefully going to spend years working together. That was the point of the HR changes and the contract. Better to start now.

“Hey Saul! Hey Gabby!”

Gabby greeted him, and he got close enough to see Saul waving him in. He surreptitiously looked down and made sure the writing on the paper packet was turned toward his chest.

“Gabby, sorry I didn’t get you anything. I picked up some coffees on the way, but I didn’t know who would be here.”

“Sure,” she teased. “I see you trying to get on the boss’s good side.”

Levi froze and he could see that Saul did, too. He knew it was a joke but, shit. It was a little too close to home.

Levi recovered first. “Yep. That three dollar coffee ought to be worth… what would you say, Saul? An extra one percent on my bonus?”

“At least,” Saul agreed.

They all laughed and Gabby’s butt plug ball bounced off the ceiling before she caught it. “No worries. I mostly drink tea anyway, and I’m taking off at noon. I only came in because I forgot the banner that I need for an event tomorrow. And I’m hoping that this box of magnets will come in. Actually, I should go check the mailroom. Bye, guys!”

As soon as she sauntered away, still tossing the obscene freebie, they both sighed. Levi shut the door.

“This is going to be harder than I thought,” Levi admitted. He glanced at the couch and then quickly looked away. Forbidden office romances were hot in theory, but he was serious about maintaining his professionalism.

“Yeah, I was just thinking that.” Saul rubbed his eyes.

“Is it too much? I mean, should we…”

“No, baby.” Saul cut in quickly. “I mean, Levi. Er… Yeah. This is going to be difficult.”

Levi set the tray of coffees down on the desk, waiting to take his cues from Da– Saul.

“Alright, let me try that again.” Saul let out a deep breath. “Thank you, baby, for bringing me coffee. That was very sweet of you.”

“You’re welcome… Daddy. There was a mean lady who gave me the evil eye because she heard me talking to my Daddy on the phone, but then the barista gave me this!” He held up the packet. “I don’t even know what’s in it yet.”

“Kinehora,” Saul murmured with a smirk. It was the Yiddish word meant to avert the evil eye so that inexplicable curses wouldn’t befall the recipient.

“Hey, I’m serious! She was giving me the evil eye, and I’m not going to let anything take my Daddy away.”

“Well, in that case, why don’t we sit down and talk about how things are going to work.”