15. HENRY

It was going to be impossible going back to my apartment and sleeping in bed alone. I didn’t even want to leave his bed now. Part of me wished I could’ve stayed the night again, but I knew it wasn’t wise. I was going to get far too attached far too quickly, and then it would all be ruined. I didn’t want to ruin this. And I didn’t want to begin grating on him.

“You are my favorite thing right now,” he said to me as I laid in his arms. He occupied the wet patch I’d made, cumming on the bed sheets. “I don’t know how we’re going to keep our distance at work. After this weekend, we might just have to take on the whole Clark Kent and Superman identity thing.”

I giggled. “I’m always down to play around. Superheroes are hot.”

“I didn’t meant it literally, although I think I could rock a spandex superhero suit. I mean, leading double lives. At least until I’ve got some things squared away with HR about this.”

“If there’s one thing I know I can do, it’s play pretend,” I told him. “But it’ll be fun, having a secret nobody knows about.”

“And since the Aurora Records stuff is done, we might not work together on something else for a while,” he said. “Unless you want to work on things together. I’ll always be around if you need an ear, only you though.”

That was a major slippery slope. As much as I was excited by his offer at helping me, just like a true Daddy. I knew I had to keep work professional, and maybe he knew too, maybe he was testing me. “Nope, I’m not going to have people talk about me more than they already are. Although I think I’ve earned a little credit to myself now after that win.”

“You absolutely did,” he said. “All you need to do now is bake the best cookie and enough for the entire upper floor, and you’ll be everyone’s favorite.”

“Am I already your favorite?” I asked, looking up at him, my hand combing through his chest hair. “Because if I’m not then—”

He placed his hand over my mouth, they smelled like mint. “My absolute favorite. But you’ve got to keep that between us.”

“Then I expect your vote for the best Christmas cookie,” I said. I hadn’t even decided I would take part in it, but Fallon was right, I did make a great variation of my great aunt’s recipe, and it was the season for Christmas cookies after all.

“It’s actually a blind taste test and voting,” he said. “So even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to.”

“Well, then I guess I’ll have to win the old fashioned way.”

“Don’t tell me what that plan is,” he said. “You know, in case it’s incriminating.” He laughed.

I tugged on his chest hair. “I would never!”

“I know, I know. I was just joking around, you would never sprinkle salt all over the other cookies so they taste awful.”

“Yeah, please don’t do that,” he said. “I don’t think my doctor would be too happy about it either. All that salt intake.” He stuck his tongue out and I went in to kiss it.

“I want all the kisses before then,” I told him.

He smothered me in them, wrapping his arms around me and rolling me over in the bed so he could kiss as much of my body as humanly possible. I didn’t want to wash again until the next time we were together like this and he could replace all the spaces on my body that he was kissing. Most of all, I didn’t want to leave. The drop was going to be awful, leaving his apartment and all the cozy Daddy vibes he’d been giving me would soon be gone, and I’d be left with a hole in many places.

There was only one benefit to going home and that was catching Fallon up on everything that had happened, and for him to tell me if we needed to have a deep clean in the house if him and Sterling had gotten freaky in any of the shared spaces. Daddy helped me get dressed, and we took our time during it.Neither of us wanted to part, we were connected, maybe through the slight residue of cum and lube we still had dried to our bodies.

Fallon was excited to see me when I got back to the apartment, begging me for every ounce of detail. And the biggest question of all, the most important question, the single question we always asked whenever we met someone. “Is he the one Daddy for you?”

“Yes,” I proclaimed.

We did a little boogie together, jumping around. “Go put a onesie on and we can have a dance party,” he said. “And then I’m going to tell you something that happened to me last night when you were away.”

Immediately, I needed to know. “Tell me right now.”

“No, go change.”

“Noooo, I wanna know.” I was scared to be truthful, there were a lot of things that could’ve happened.

“Go change.”

I changed into a onesie as quickly as possible. Fallon was waiting in the living room with a glass of white wine for me in a Sippee cup. Those only came out when we were about to go deep into play, or we were going to get messy, and we didn’t want to spill anything.

“Tell me now,” I said, sipping the chilled white wine in the cup, the slurp was so loud from it.

“Sterling is taking me to a cabin Upstate and I think he might ask me to move in with him, or propose,” he said. “And I only say that second part because when I searched up the place online, I saw that a lot of the links to places with that name had perfect places to get engaged in the title.”

I screamed, excited for him. “Are you serious? That’s amazing. Well, not moving out, because I hope not. But I hope he proposes.”

“I already told him I don’t think I’ll ever move out, unless we’re both seeing Daddies and then we can live with them,” he said. “But I think he took the sign of you and Grant together as him being able to ask me that. Or will ask me that. But he might not ask me either. I might just be overthinking it.”

Fallon had been through a lot in life, I was really happy for him. This was great, but he definitely wasn’t moving out around Christmas. That was a huge no-no, everyone knew how special Christmas was for me. “Well, I think Grant is going to talk with HR about us. Since we met before I started work there, I think it’ll be ok. I mean, it’s not like we met at work. And if they don’t think it’s a good idea, well, I guess I don’t know.”

“Protect it,” Fallon said. “You’ve found someone. Don’t let a silly whatever stop you from being together.”

I didn’t want to, but it was also the job I’d been waiting to have my entire life. Assuming I’d wanted to be a lawyer since I was a baby, which given my family name and reputation, that was definitely going to be a given. “I won’t, there are more firms out there, if it does turn out to be a conflict, because I really want to see where this goes.” I’d been talking to Daddy Kringle aka Grant for so long now that it didn’t even feel like we were just meeting now. And I didn’t want to anyone else at the firm to think that either. “But we’ll see what tomorrow brings.” I sucked hard on the wine in the Sippee cup to get more from it. I needed full streaming access to the fountain of white wine.

That night as I got ready for bed, placing Arnold on my pillow and surrounding him with the other teddies. They all carried a certain scent from Grant’s apartment. And thinking about him, I checked my email inbox. An hour ago, an email from Daddy Kringle had arrived.

‘ Good evening, Little Elf. I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately, and I wanted to let you know that I’m going to be thinking about you some more tonight. I wanted you to know that I’m going to leave you a little gift on your desk. A secret Santa gift, if you will. I don’t expect anything in return, but I’ll speak with HR and seek out their advice on us. I really cannot see a reality where you’re not in it, and if they think it’s a liability, we will have to not even let that manifest itself. So don’t think about that. Understood? I know you do.

Make sure to apologize to the teddy I threw last night, and imagine my lips giving you a lot of kisses. So many kisses they’re like sedatives to your skin.

Sweetly, Daddy Kringle.’

I hugged my phone. It was an act I’d done several times after receiving his emails in the past. This time it was different, and also special. This time, I knew what his hug felt like, his smell, his taste, and even the way his scratchy beard tickled my cheek when he pressed his face close to mine. I sent him one back once I was in bed and ready to sleep for the night. I looked at the stars on my ceiling, thinking he was right next to me.

‘ I can’t stop thinking about you, Daddy Kringle. You’re like a wish I made on a shooting star and I don’t want to stop wishing for you, every single day, just in case you disappear from my life. I want to call it our Christmas miracle, but I’m putting it down to timing. Perfect timing, and the law should have something about perfect timing, like a waiver saying that anything that happens and is considered perfect timing, all other precedent is thrown out of the window. A potential argument for any negatives. Maybe?

Might need to invest in a six foot heavily stuffed body pillow just to have something to cling to like a little elf around a large candy cane.

Sleepily, Legal Elf. ’

Once the email was sent, I placed my phone on my bedside table and continued to stare at the ceiling. My mind wandered, as it usually did, and within minutes, I was out. My phone alarm woke me, seemingly seconds later. I’d gotten eight full hours of sleep, but not a single dream to recount. I suppose once you’re living your dreams, having them seems a little moot.

My first thought was Daddy. I wanted to know if he’d replied to me. He had, reassuring me that everything was going to be ok. I was a worrier, and I had to trust he would be able to talk his way into a positive outcome from his talk. I didn’t know if it was going to happen before I got in, or at lunch, maybe even in the evening. I was suddenly stomach grumbling nervous and sick, eager to know the future.

Fallon was still fast asleep when I got out of bed and had breakfast, a bowl of boring cereal. I wished to have more pancakes the way Daddy made them with the layer of Nutella and the sliced fruit, all of it together rolled and folded. I drank a coffee from the pod machine in the kitchen, it was a regular americano with no creamer or sugar. I needed the hit of caffeine and the full extent it would have over my body. Today was the third time I was getting the subway to work rather than forking out for a taxi.

I arrived at the office after an uneventful trip, unless you count seeing a rat scurry away underground with another rat in its mouth as an event. Forcing a large smile on my face and making sure everyone saw how happy I was and not at all nervous, I walked right through the pit to my office where Sophia was standing in the doorway. She looked me up and down, a hand cocked on her hip.

“Everything ok?” I asked. “Am I late?” I hurried inside and placed my briefcase on my desk, right beside a red and gold giftwrapped box with matching bow. “Oh.”

“I know the partners give gifts for—”

“Partner,” I choked. “I don’t think it’s from—”

“No, it probably is. I wanted to know what it was. The manager partner, Rachel was singing your praises for the work you did. Elliot was seething. He’s not even in his office right now, so you know he’s out there trying to grind an angle or something. He’s probably upstairs actually.”

I didn’t want to open it in front of her. The idea that Grant had left me something cute was giving me anxiety. I sat at my desk and looked at the mug I’d forgot to take to the kitchen on Friday evening. “I should probably get a coffee first beforehand, I don’t want to look like I’m in this for people giving me gifts.”

She laughed. “I was the same when I first started, but now I kind of expect it for certain jobs.”

There were two options. I could either open it and potentially out that someone had a crush on me, or I could grab a coffee, hope Sophia has somewhere else to be, and then see what it was. But she wasn’t leaving, and she blocked the door as she near begged to know what was inside it.

“Ok,” I said. “But it’s probably nothing.”

Unwrapping it, I discovered a small bed of confetti and two passes to the Christmas music festival happening next week. Backstage passes too, sponsored by Aurora Records. Relief swept across me. “Oh, Grant mentioned these,” I said.

“I didn’t know backstage passes were up for grabs, I might’ve tried to get on that,” she said. “Well, don’t let everyone in here know. They’ll be biting your arm off for the other pass.”

“I’ve already told my friend I’m taking him,” I said, “but thank you for the advice.”

“Speaking of advice, some partners make a big thing about Christmas here. If it’s not your thing, you don’t have to take part. They do this ugly Christmas sweater thing, and a cookie bake off thing too. They give out prizes for that as well, they’re smaller gifts, but sometimes a great way to get partners to notice you,” she said. “Although, you’re a Beck, I doubt you have any issues with that.” She flashed a smile at me and turned on a heel before leaving. It felt like she was complimenting and cussing me out at the same time.

I sighed into the office chair and booted the computer up. I just had to get through today. And I needed to see Grant.