Page 11 of Milk Drunk

I took out my phone when I reached the car to tell him again that I had such a good time with him. But then I decided to wait until I got home. If Casey replied that he did too or that he wished I hadn’t left, it’d be hard for me not to march back in and stay forever.

Besides, it was probably best for us both to take some time to digest all that had happened these past twenty-four hours before moving on to the next step.

But one thing was for sure.

I wanted that next step with Casey.

6

CASEY

It was official. I had it bad for Jason.

When I hugged him goodbye, I didn’t wanna let him go. And then he walked out the door, and I already missed him before he reached his car. It was messed up to be so clingy with someone I just met, but I couldn’t help it. That was just how I felt.

The atmosphere in my apartment also changed when he left. It was too quiet, and the couch was too hard without him to lean against. And my bed was too soft without him to snuggle up to. I was like freaking Goldilocks in my own home.

And sadly, there was only one bear, my Daddy. But he wasn’t mine, and I had to keep reminding myself of that. He was just a Daddy…not my Daddy.

We’d only known each other for a day, but out of all the blankets in my ottoman, he picked out the right one for the movie. Just like I would have. And he gave me milkies when I asked and kissed my forehead.

Time and again, his Daddy vibes shone through.

“Are you thinking of me too?” I ran my finger over my forehead where he’d kissed me.

My phone buzzed, and I almost ignored it because I didn’t want to ruin the moment with a silly spam call. But I glanced at the screen and there was nothing spammy about it.

It was Jason. Made my way all the way to my car before I wanted to text you.

Such restraint. I almost told him that I had the same struggle before he even got down the hallway, but I thought that might be too much.

Brat.

Was I? I had never considered myself to be a brat, but there was no denying it was pretty bratty behavior to sass a Daddy. And also pretty fun. I responded back with a halo emoji.

He didn’t take the bait. How are you feeling? Any residual hangover?

Not really. I had a really good Daddy to take care of me.

I’m glad, sweet boy. He’d called me sweetheart multiple times, and I loved every one of them, but “sweet boy” felt more personal. Special. I was probably reading too much into it.

Go to bed early, okay?

Yes, Daddy Jason. If he could call me sweet boy, I could call him by his title without worrying that I’d overstepped. One day, it would be nice if he was just Daddy, but for now, this would do.

That was the first of many text exchanges over the next few days.

He’d leave me a message when he went to work or when he saw something interesting, and I’d do the same in return. We weren’t texting each other twenty-four hours a day, but it was enough that I knew he thought about me when I wasn’t there. I wasn’t just a one-time play date or rescue project for him.

When he asked if we wanted to get together, it was natural, not like some big ordeal where I had to think about it. And by think, I mean overthink like it was my job. It was just a “wanna get together?” and I always did. It was so easy with Jason.

When the day finally came to see him again, I tried to convince myself we were just hanging out and it was no big deal. I reminded myself that I’d accepted his invitation without a pause and getting ready should be treated the same.

But I failed to relax and spent far too much time getting ready than I should have. I changed my jeans multiple times and held up shirt after shirt before checking my hair about a thousand times.

He picked me up right on time, and the second I saw him, all those nerves flitted away. It was just the two of us, and we were going out to have fun.

We weren’t doing anything fancy. There was a small festival in the park with some food trucks and music this weekend. It was an easy decision to make that our destination. It gave us something to do as well as access to yummy food. And if we got bored, there was music to listen to.