Chapter 17

The morning of the inaugural Littles' Market, Rachel woke super early, and was fully awake almost instantly. She looked over her shoulder at where Isla lay sleeping, and smiled. Her Daddy Isla was pretty cute when she slept, though she'd have denied the assertion vehemently. Head thrown back, mouth open, snuffles emanating from her mouth rather noisily. Rachel wasn't entirely certain how she was so capable of sleeping through such a racket, but something about Isla's presence meant that she got the best night's sleep whenever her girlfriend stayed over.

She snuck out of bed, headed to the bathroom to perform her morning ablutions, and then slipped into the kitchen to turn the kettle on.

It was going to be a long day, so Rachel had planned on a fairly hearty breakfast, but considering how stressed she'd been the night before, a cooked breakfast felt like it might be a little too heavy.

Instead she opened the fridge and looked inside. What could she make that would be filling, but not too much so?

She grabbed some leftover avocado, a punnet of mushrooms, and a couple of slices of sourdough bread, and set about making some rather fancy smashed avocado on toast, with fried mushrooms.

Soon Isla came padding into the kitchen and sleepily dropped a kiss on her shoulder. "that smells good, babygirl; what you making?"

"Avocado on toast with mushrooms; will that be enough food for you today?"

"That sounds perfect," answered Isla. "And I'll take some food with me so I can snack if I need to."

"Excellent plan," said Rachel. "And remember that you can put in an order for lunch with the kitchen when you arrive, and they'll deliver it straight to your booth around one."

Isla murmured her agreement, still vaguely sleepy, and leant her head against Rachel's. "You're amazing, babygirl, and today's going to go like clockwork."

She wasn't entirely right, because nothing ever went completely like clockwork, but set-up went as smoothly as Rachel could have hoped.

All of the vendors went to the right entrance, and were able to get into the venue without any harassment at all, which she considered to be a strong start. It was weird to see everyone in person, rather than over Zoom or as bodiless voices in her ear. They were all chatty and excited, and seemed to set up fairly quickly.

The layout was simple; three rows of booths, with plenty of walkway for wheelchairs to pass through. Rachel and Cat had poured over the plans for a few weeks, and had eventually decided to mix up the types of vendors who were next to each other. They didn't want people to only explore one section, because they thought that that was what they'd like best. This way most people would at least pass pretty much every stall, and hopefully stop and chat.

Emma's table was next to Stuffie Hospital London's, and Rachel found herself hovering, looking at the pretty collars that covered the table. They ranged from traditional heavier-set o-rings, all the way to very subtle day collars made from pearls.

"They're gorgeous, aren't they?" said Isla.

Embarrassed to be caught looking at such things, Rachel went to back away, but Isla beckoned her closer. "What do you like, babygirl?"

She took a moment to look over the pieces, and Emma saw the two of them together and winked at Rachel. She flushed and turned back to the necklaces.

"I'm not sure," she replied. "I've never been collared before, and I'd want whatever it was to really mean something. But what that is changes with the person who gives it to you, I suppose." Very steadfastly not looking at Isla, she continued, a little falteringly. "The big chunky pieces, they're cool. They're statement, that's for certain, but I'm not sure I'd like something so heavy around my neck. And I do a lot of work with clients over Zoom, and as much as I'm encouraged by work to be artsy, I know that they prefer me to have a normative smart look for those meetings."

"That makes sense," said Isla. "Besides, I kind of see collars as being for the person who wears it and the person who gives it—it's not really anyone else's business."

Rachel laughed.

"What do you think?" asked Emma, coming over. "You see something you like?" She looked between the two of them and smiled. "You're day collar people, I think. Here, have a look at these," and she showed them a tray that hadn't been laid out on the front of the stall just yet.

It had the most delicate necklaces that Rachel had ever seen, silver and gold chains so fine they could have been lace.

"Wow," she breathed, "they're beautiful."

Emma pinked. "Thank you; these are my favorite ones to make."

Reaching out, Rachel stroked them carefully. "Seriously, Emma. These are amazing."

She caught Isla's eye, and flushed. This was too close to the start of the market; she didn't have time to be thinking wild thoughts about Isla and being collared and belonging to her Daddy. Definitely absolutely no time for that sort of thing.

"I'd best…"

Isla laughed, and Rachel knew that she'd guessed exactly what Rachel was thinking. "Go on, babygirl. Go smash it. Proud of you."

"Thank you," she said, stopping just before she called her girlfriend Daddy in public. "Love you." And she pressed a kiss to Isla's lips before hurrying away from a tray of collars that were as tempting as they were pretty.