3. Riley

Chapter 3

Riley

The hotel was loud, but that was to be expected. Last night was no exception. As soon as I’d fall asleep, someone or someones would wake me up.

There were drunk people walking through the halls, others giggling as they fumbled to their rooms, and more than one round of arguing with partners or strangers—I couldn’t tell. The scariest moment was when someone tried to get into my room. Eventually, they barked out that it was the wrong floor, slammed a fist against it one last time, and then went on their way. As if I were in control of what elevator button they’d pressed.

All that played out with the sounds of horns honking and sirens blaring down on the street below. I never realized how loud those combined sounds could still be even after traveling all the way up to my floor.

It was a lot to block out, and I failed miserably. Once upon a time, I tried noise-canceling ear plugs. They did work at keeping things quiet for me, but it didn’t feel safe because they blocked them out too much.

Somehow, my exhausted body gave in, and I managed to fall asleep to my cartoons. I got a few hours of sleep, but once midnight rolled around, either there was an escalation of activity or my brain was rested just enough to no longer be in crash mode. Whatever the case was, it sucked.

I kept dozing off, but I woke up again and again. First at 12:07, then 2:03, then 3:20, then 4:15, and again at 5:31. I tried but just couldn’t sleep for long. Finally, right at six o’clock, my alarm went off. It was time to admit that sleep wasn’t going to be a thing for me.

Sitting up with a groan, I turned off my alarm and hugged my teddy bear. “It’s time for me to go take a shower. You’re gonna be good today, right?” I pushed his head so he nodded before I climbed out of bed, taking my bottle with me.

I was beyond exhausted, but even though I didn’t have to get up so early, I wasn’t going to sleep, so there was no use lying around in bed any longer. Well, maybe tonight would be better after I was used to the sounds, or maybe not. I didn’t know. But worrying about it wasn’t going to change anything.

My bottle hadn’t been rinsed out before I dozed off, and I was paying the price. I went to the sink and rinsed out the bottle as best I could, kicking myself for not bringing any dish soap. Even if I had some, it would still be a pain to deal with. Chocolate milk had a way of clinging to everything. I needed to pick up some soap and a bottle brush in between work crap, maybe during a break… if I got one.

The schedule hadn’t been finalized as of yesterday because a couple of the rooms were under construction and changes were being made.

That meant I wasn’t going to be able to use my bottle again without a decent scrubbing. In hindsight, I should’ve gotten up and at least rinsed it before I fell asleep. Chocolate milk was the worst, and I knew better. For now, I set it beside the sink, put my teddy in the drawer, and padded into the bathroom to get ready for the day.

There was a time when I would have been embarrassed by my unicorn pull-ups and I would have done everything I could to try to hide them. I didn’t bother anymore. Hotels were hotels, and the housekeepers saw much more unusual things than a random pull-up in the trash. I hadn’t even used it. It was more of a comfort item for me. And really, what was the worst they would think? That I was incontinent? Have at it. It wasn’t like I’d ever run into them again, and even if I did, there was zero shame in having a medical condition.

The shower felt great for about five minutes, and then the water pressure dropped. It wasn’t awful, but it took extra long to rinse off, and it wasn’t quite as hot as I liked. Please, don’t let this be a sign of what’s to come. I had to be on my A-game today. Big smiles, all professional, doing my thing. Being exhausted, grumpy, or whiny—none of that was gonna fly.

Before long, I was dressed and heading downstairs with enough time to stop at the coffee bar for a bagel and something that had extra shots of espresso because I was gonna need it in order to stay awake.

My phone buzzed in my pocket as I walked off the elevator. The app for the event sent a notification that the room for the opening talks had been switched. Great .

“Need any help?” The security guard at the kiosk probably sensed my confusion.

“Yeah, I’m looking for...” I turned the phone around to show him the location.

“Oh, that’s easy.” He gave me directions that included going past specific slot machines and gaming tables. I got lost early on but kept nodding my head as if I understood. I knew the general direction he indicated and crossed my fingers it was good enough to get me there.

The coffee place was out of bagels already, but I did manage to get my $18 cup of coffee. They really liked to take everything you had at these places, but it had extra shots, so I was optimistic it would be worth it.

I got lost more than once trying to find the new room, but eventually, I did. I even had a couple minutes to spare. I jogged inside and found a seat—one of the very few left—just as the doors were being closed.

Keynotes were always boring and didn’t really matter. Usually just a rah-rah session to start off the event. Instead of paying attention, I focused on my coffee as they introduced the first speaker. I wasn’t sure who he was or what he was doing when his voice first filled the room over the speakers.

“It is my honor to be here today...” Those words were the beginning of every speech ever given, but there was something different about this time. This time, they were silky, sexy, and pretty freakin’ Daddy. I looked up to see that the face speaking was just as Daddy.

Maybe work wasn’t going to be so bad.

Only three sentences in, I realized I was in the wrong room. This wasn’t work. This wasn’t even close to work. This was a meeting for men who lactated.

I’d heard of them, of course. It wasn’t an unusual condition. It wasn’t overly common, but it wasn’t ultra rare like one of those no-one-would-have-heard-of-it kind of conditions. It wasn’t a condition I’d ever really given much thought to.

Personally, I didn’t lactate, so why would I?

But the more he spoke, the more I realized that I really wanted to know about this. Like, did they lactate and then just sell their milk? I’d heard that was a thing. Bodybuilders talked about it on different news outlets to add some shock value when ratings were low. I assumed some of the guys just pumped and dumped, too. But did they sometimes have people drink their milk? Adults even? Adults like me, who were Little. Was that a thing? I hoped it was a thing. And if it wasn’t, could it be?

Not that I knew any men who lactated to dip my toes into this. Or maybe I did. It probably wasn’t exactly something they’d advertise. I leaned back in my chair and watched the Daddy up front as he went through his speech. My head filled with far more questions than he was answering, and my pants got a little too tight for a polite conference attendee.