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“I’ll be quick!” he says earnestly. He jumps from his seat and hurries through the restaurant, nearly knocking into a waiter in his haste.
“So you’re a sugar Daddy.”
Jalen’s words stun me so much I almost pull a muscle with how fast I snap my head back around. I stare at him with wide, slightly horrified eyes. “No! Of course not! That’s…I’m not…”
He laughs and shakes his head as he pats my hand. “It’s not an insult. Sorry. You give off such Daddy vibes that I thought you were in the scene.”
I blink as I collect my thoughts, aware that I probably don’t have much time before Colby comes back, and there’s probably a reason that Jalen brought this up the second he left the table.
“I don’t…I mean, I’ve never…” Wow, this is going well. “It’s not a bad thing?”
Jalen is unusually calm and sincere as he squeezes my hand. “It’s a kind of kink where someone gets pleasure out of spoiling another person or lots of people. It’s not necessarily sexual or anything. The other person gets their kicks out of being treated super special. Like they’re not used to believing they matter, so they need extra reassurance.”
Why do I get the feeling he’s not talking about himself right now?
“Oh,” I say, thinking over his words. “I guess…yeah. That’s exactly what I’m doing here, isn’t it?”
Jalen nods, the sparkle back in his eyes. “Just so we’re clear, I’m having amarveloustime, and so will Colby once he chills out. I assume you’re not expecting anything in return. Although you are gay, aren’t you?”
I splutter again. “No! I mean…sorry, yes. I’m gay. But of course I don’t expectanythingin return!” I swallow and make an effort to lower my voice. No one’s looking our way. However, I’m only a decibel or two away from creating a scene. “That’s not what this is about at all.”
Jalen bites his lip and looks like he’s trying to stop himself from laughing. “Oh, you poor baby. Iknowthat. That’s what I’m saying, Sugar Daddy. I just thought I’d clarify so we’re all on the same page. And by ‘we’, I mean you and I, because Colby will need a little looking after either way.”
“By you?” I ask.
He shrugs. “By both of us, maybe. You want to treat us, right?”
I toy with the stem of my Champagne flute. “Is that weird? We only just met.”
Jalen shakes his head. “Not at all. In fact, it fits right in with the whole sugar Daddy thing. We can be your sugar babies for an evening, and everyone has a good time, yeah?”
His eyes light up, and I don’t have to look over my shoulder to see that Colby’s coming back. Knowing what I do already about him, I suspect that something in his past has made it tough for him to accept kindness, gifts, or any kind of affection, probably.
That only makes me want to try and take care of him harder.
But…it’s not just him. I glance at Jalen as Colby sits back down, watching the easy way this sassy boy leans in to bump shoulders with his best friend. He’s already launching into another funny story about the last time he tried to use chopsticks and how he accidentally catapulted a prawn into the hair of the lady on the next table over. “You know, chopsticks aren’t actually a Thai thing, but most restaurants offer them now anyway,” he tells us.
I marvel at these two young men and consider the ton of information that Jalen just dropped so unexpectedly into my lap.
Honestly, I definitely thought being a sugar Daddy was a seedy thing. But the way Jalen described it is exactly how I’ve been feeling for a while about what I want in a relationship. I don’t want to be a power couple and date someone else with millions in the bank. I want to nurture and take care of somebody. I want to help and guide them. I want to spoil them.
Just like how I want to spoil these boys.
Jalen said that it didn’t have to be a sexual relationship. So…what if I take this surprising new relationship with these two boys and use it as a sort of…practice? I could test out how to be a sugar Daddy and see if it’s what I’m really craving. There’s no chance Colby would allow it to become something grubby, that I can already tell. In fact, I don’t think Jalen would, either, despite being utterly fabulous and flamboyant.
It’s obvious from their flat that these guys barely have two pennies to rub together. What harm could there be in me in spoiling them a little? Maybe more than a little.
It is Christmas, after all.
CHAPTER4
Colby
“Go on, then,”Jalen asks as the waiter comes with a third bottle of Champagne. “You never told usyourfavorite episode, Andreas.”
I’m feeling all giggly and tipsy. It’s helping me to stop worrying so much about, well, everything. Why Andreas is spending all this money on us. Why he took the time and effort to hand-deliver the Jurassic Galaxy set to us in person so we could share it. Why he fixed up the more broken figures just to give them away to us. Why he wants to hang out with us now.
It’s not in my nature to accept good things. In my experience, everything comes with strings attached. Yet Jalen’s just rolling with it as if rich guys take us out to dinner all the time.
