6. Chapter 6

six

Nathan

T he evening before my date with Will, I was at my friends’ place to meet their new babies, but he was still at the forefront of my mind. Will and I had done some texting back and forth to firm up our plans, but I made sure to also say good night and good morning, to show I was thinking about him.

Remembering how he bought gifts for the children in his family, I brought them some of the most popular things my store sold. I couldn’t help laughing at the baby spit-up on Ash’s silk blouse. They were never anything but perfectly put together, for kink scenes or selling houses, but now Ash was in lounge pants and had their long blond hair pulled back in a messy bun.

“You’ve got a little something on your shoulder,” I pointed out and Ash cringed but didn't stop rocking one of the twins, I wasn’t sure which. “Want me to unwrap the burp cloth things I got you?”

“Yes, please,” Ash begged, laying the infant down in a basket. A bassinet, maybe? I wasn’t a baby person, but this one was pretty cute, with a wisp of blond hair and a serene expression on their face. “We have some, but Carter won’t stop throwing up everything he eats.”

“And Mimi won’t stop pooping,” Jefferson proclaimed as he entered the room and put the dark-haired baby down in the bassinet with her brother. Jefferson’s expression held nothing but love, though, and I could tell he was over the moon to be a father. “You brought gifts?”

“Ah, yes. These,” I handed him a burp cloth from the stack I’d been holding and a second one to Ash. The babies were born a few weeks before, but I hadn’t wanted to visit too soon when they were still getting the hang of things. “Also, butt cream, diapers, and an outfit my customers swear by for something called swaddling.”

Choosing a seat across the room so I wasn’t in the way, I took in the new parents and how Jefferson sat to pull Ash into his side. They were so sweet together. Their place was a modern fixer-upper in the city, and I knew they’d put a lot of work into it, but the baby-proofing was new. Their floor to ceiling fire-place had a gate around it, though I was pretty sure their kids were months away from crawling.

“Well, my shirt is ruined,” Ash tossed the soiled cloth to Jefferson and leaned forward from the sofa beside their newborns. “Might as well keep it on now.”

“I like their names,” I commented. “Did you have them picked out before they were born?”

“We each picked a name.” Ash leaned back into their husband again and launched into the story. “Mimi is from Rent, of course. Jefferson and his siblings are all dead presidents, and he liked the name Davis. But I pointed out that Jefferson Davis was the president of the confederacy. Not a good look with his first name. So he picked Carter.”

“I don’t think President Carter is dead yet,” I chuckled and Jefferson rolled his eyes. “Just very old.”

“We both liked the names Carter and Davis, and it had nothing to do with presidents.” Jefferson poked Ash in the ribs and I sat back to watch them bicker and threaten punishments in the most loving way, and I had to assume their babies could sleep through anything since they hadn’t stirred.

“Oh,” Ash’s eyes lit up as their attention settled back on me. “I wanted to ask how your search was going?”

“My search?” I leaned forward, resting my arms on my thighs.

“For your older boy,” Ash prompted and I remembered what I’d said almost two months ago.

“I actually met someone,” I smiled, happy to think about Will again. “Remember the guy I tried to talk to at X Club?”

“The bear that got away,” Ash stage-whispered to Jefferson.

“Ha, exactly,” I tapped the side of my nose. “I met him at my store this week and we have a first date tomorrow.”

“Wow, was that awkward?” Jefferson asked.

“What do you mean?” I had to ask, though Will had been awkward in an adorable way.

Ash exchanged a glance with their husband and finished for him, “Did you just walk up and say, ‘hi, I saw you at the kink club and now you’re at my place of work,’ or something?”

“No, I didn’t mention the club.” I ran my fingers through my hair and sat back to explain. “I saw him put a note for Santa on the charity Christmas tree and I read it. Then I knew for sure he was the man I saw at X Club, so I talked to him and gave him my number.”

Ash narrowed their eyes, “I feel like there are multiple layers of lying by omission going on here.”

“Will’s shy, but I plan to tell him about seeing him there,” I assured them. I didn’t want to hide anything from Will. Except maybe the note so he wasn’t embarrassed.

“Wait, Will Wilson?” Jefferson interjected and the hairs on my arms stood up.

“Yeah, why? Do you know him?”

“Hold up,” Ash hopped up and grabbed their phone from a side table, typing away until they came to sit on the arm of my chair. “Is this him?”

At first all I saw was the familiar black and red colors of a fetish site I rarely went on. But then I noticed the profile. A full, fuzzy chest with the same harness I saw on Will at X Club, complete with barely there scars under both pectorals, told me exactly whose profile I was looking at. He was listed as a forty-five year old trans man and the username struck me…

WillubmyDaddy

“That’s him,” I nodded looking up to see Ash smiling as they handed me the phone to keep reading. “You know him?”

“I sold him his house a couple years ago and suggested X Club to him.” Ash glanced at Jefferson, then added, “He’s so sweet and shy.”

“He is,” I agreed, thinking of how he was less shy by text. We’d shared more, like him being trans and my being pan but attracted to masculinity.

“He comes to the gym to train with me sometimes,” Jefferson told me but he wasn’t smiling like Ash. I met them at Q & A gym, myself, and I knew Jefferson took privacy seriously, so maybe he was worried he would share too much?

“I know he’s trans and doesn’t date much,” I explained, hoping my friends would get that I was saying he was safe with me. “I just hadn’t looked up his profile before.”

“He’s finally coming into his own,” Jefferson continued. “So you need to be gentle with him.”

“I think you two are taking this parenting thing a little too seriously, because I feel like I’m being interrogated by Will’s parents,” I teased and got an eyeroll out of Jefferson.

Ash put a heavy hand on my shoulder and pointed at me, “What are your intentions with this boy?”

“From our few interactions, I already know Will needs someone to appreciate what an amazing person he is,” I started, looking between my friends. “I also know he is a strong, independent adult who wants a Daddy to take care of him.”

“He does,” Ash agreed, letting out a gust of air right as one of the twins started whimpering. They got up to grab their squirming child and Jefferson stood to walk towards me.

Clapping me on the upper arm, Jefferson finally smiled and gestured to Ash’s phone in my hand, “He’s a good man, but so are you.”

“Thanks, that means a lot,” I replied earnestly. Jefferson was as honest and loyal as they came, and he never said things he didn’t mean. “I just have to convince him of it now.”

“Be your usual, charming self,” Ash told me as they started to head towards the nursery. “And you’ll have yourself a boy before Valentine’s Day.”

If I had my way, he’d be my boy before Christmas.