11. GRIFFIN

I'd never had the boyfriend experience before, but that's exactly what Russell gave me. It was mixed in with the Daddy experience, and I'd definitely had that before, but they were usually two different things. Boyfriends went on dates with you and took pictures. Daddy's helped you play and access the little side. Russell was managing to do both.

Maybe it was because my agent hadn't ever scheduled time in for me to have much of a personal life, or maybe it was myself not wanting to have much of one. It was scary to be gay sometimes, the idea that it would get out and someone holding it over my head like it was a bad thing, but that's how I was still thinking of things, even if it wasn't like that anymore.

Daddy moisturized me and applied the skinned aloe plant to my skin before we went to bed that night. It was probably the best night of sleep I'd had in a long time. It was a mixture of exhaustion from the walking and then the exhaustion from playing and sex. It was a great feeling, I wanted to experience it more, and lucky for me, we were porting in Lisbon, and this would be my first time ever in Portugal.

That morning, Daddy was awake before me. It was the first time since we'd been rooming together that he woke before me. He was right beside me in bed, fully clothed, holding Snug Bug in my face and speaking through him.

"Good morning," he said, putting on a squeaky voice. "We've got another big day ahead. Daddy wants to know where you want to eat breakfast?"

In my sleepy daze, I tried to grab Snug Bug and accidentally pushed him into Daddy's face. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's ok, it's just plush," he said, pulling him away. "So, where do you wanna eat? And what do you want to eat? There's a couple of breakfast options we haven't checked yet. I was thinking maybe the oat bar they have open. Great for getting in fiber and fruit."

It sounded like he had his Daddy hat firmly on, and also like he'd just received a memo from my agent telling him to remind me I needed to be staying healthy on my trip. ‘A vacation for the mind isn't always a vacation for the body,' Jill's words every time I went somewhere.

"I like the sound of that," I said. "As long as I can get chocolate chips and syrup with mine."

"Absolutely. Go wild!" He tickled me, climbing on top to make sure his fingers could get in all my tickle spots. "Chocolate syrup. Caramel syrup. Strawberry."

"Yep, yep, yep!"

"But you need to get dressed first," he said. "And I picked your clothes out already."

I was dressed up for a living, but I loved it. I loved it even more when someone who knew all parts of me dressed me up.

Daddy picked out a pair of navy shorts with little anchors on the upturned bottom. He paired it with the sea life themed briefs and a plain navy polo shirt. But we couldn't go anywhere until I had my sun lotion on, even if we weren't going out into Lisbon until later that afternoon.

There wasn't ever a big breakfast crowd, which might've had something to do with this being a party ship, and everyone on here was going through the motions of a hangover.

Ryan joined me after breakfast, Russell was back in the cabin preparing for the day, and Thom was at the onboard spa.

"If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have met," Ryan said, already listening to the little devil resting on his shoulder. "All I'm saying is, when the two of you make it official, I want to make a speech at the wedding."

"You're jumping like fifty steps ahead there."

Ryan was my best friend, but also worst antagonist. "Surely the two of you are gonna want to make it official," he said. "Russell isn't getting any younger, and there's like only so much youth left in you."

Lucky for me, I knew Ryan's love language was teasing and I took it as the compliment it was meant to be. "You're lucky Thom settled for less," I said.

"No, he didn't."

"Yeah, he definitely settled."

"You're a bitch," he said, throwing his head back in laughter.

"I learned from you."

"You know, I hope you and Russell do become a couple because at least that way you'll spend more time in the city," he said. "I'm serious. I miss you when you're not around. And I get jealous when you're out hanging with those supermodels."

"Why? They've got nothing on you. At least around you I don't feel self-conscious about eating."

Ryan raised his brows and wiggled them at the two empty bowls on the table. "I can see that."

"One of them was Russell's," I said. "Don't be silly. Although I almost went for seconds because they must have crack in that caramel sauce."

"Go on," he continued. "Tell me more reasons why I'm better than your model friends."

"They're not friends," I said. "They're just people I've met through networking. We help each other out at castings, and it's good to know people. But they don't know me like you do. And if they find out half the stuff you know, I'm hiring a hitman."

"I'd never, not unless I was given a six-figure advance, but even then, I'd probably make sure it was close to seven figures."

I couldn't even argue with that, my secrets weren't worth that much, but if he could get it for six figures, then more props to him. "But we'd split it."

"As long as it's not taxable income," he grumbled. "I don't want to end up with pennies."

"You've thought hard about it then."

"No. But everyone knows like the government take like half of any winnings, even if it wouldn't be a winning, right? It's not like—"

"You're complicating it now," I told him. "So, what do you and Thom have planned for Lisbon? I'm thinking of that wine tour some rep was selling earlier."

Perked up, almost jumping out of his seat, Ryan nodded. "Yep. Absolutely. Wine tour. Get your tickets now, and we can have our first ever double date."

"It's not a—" I started and quickly realized that I'd be lying. It would be a double date, because in the moment, me and Russell were dating, in close proximity to each other and enjoying every single second of it. "I'll text Russell now."

Wine was one of those drinks I used to hate, but then since a lot of celebrations had wine at them, I eventually grew to enjoy the sometimes sour and bitter taste of it. I couldn't discern any type of wine or understand regions, and I didn't quite get how people could pair them with things because to me, all wine went with everything, like water.

More people came out once the afternoon approached, but since we were in Lisbon for two days, there wasn't such a rush to get off and explore the city. At the front of the queue there was Ryan and Thom, arm in arm, and me and Daddy. He had the bag on his back with the lotions and water inside.

We hadn't discussed much about Lisbon or the sights I wanted to see there, but that was because I hadn't searched much about it like I did with Seville. So, I was going with the flow, and the flow was taking us directly to wine town. We were also lucky that the port was in Lisbon and we didn't have to travel to and from the city.

"I just want to put this out there," Daddy said, squeezing me in at the side. "I'm not great with wine. So, I'll probably just nod, smile, and pretend."

"Me either," I said in a relieved breath. I'd thought he would've known all about wine given his background in corporations. Those were the types of people I pictured going to visit wine shops on the weekend and being taken to those little downstairs rooms where they sell those bottles for a couple hundred thousand. "So, I'll just nod, smile, and pretend as well."

"That's a good boy," he whispered to me.

It filled me up with a little full body shimmy. "Thank you."

There weren't a lot of us heading to the wine tasting tour. Six couples. Split evenly guys and girls, three couples women, and three guys, with two of those being mine and Ryan's. We all headed for a small mini bus, and that's when we realized we were all going together. They were super chatty. And talk turned to last night at one of the parties.

"That man did box splits right on the dance floor," a woman said.

"I know how we could do that," her partner added. "But doesn't a guy's—you know, balls get in the wall of that. Like, it surprises me he didn't split from the center."

My hand went to my waist. I'd never done the splits, but imagining the pain of being kicked in the balls as the sensation of what it would be like banging them against a hard floor made me a little nausea.

"Same with drag queens," one of the guys added. "The way they can tuck their dicks is a work of magic. Like, where does it go?"

Ryan was quick to hand with knowledge, although he wasn't a drag queen, he did have knowledge on it from TV. "There are many different techniques," he started. "But the main one is when they push their balls up into the little sockets they originally descended from. That way, when they bounce down on their tuck, they're not going to be bouncing on their balls."

"It must still hurt," another voice added.

"I can ask my friend," Russell said. "He's one of the onboard drag queens." That was a mistake to let on, because he became the topic of conversation. I was only a little jealous that all eyes were on him, I liked it when he was giving me his attention instead of sharing it.

The tour guide rep quietened us all. "So, we're heading to a winery, it should only take fifteen minutes, but this is our first stop on the tour," she said. "There's going to be plenty of wine, but if this is your first ever tasting, then you should be made aware that we swill and spit, we do not swallow."

"I do!" Ryan announced, raising a hand.

I burst into a fit of giggles.

"I've been know to swallow," one of the guys added. "But on occasion, I'll spit."

"Well, make sure this is one of those occasions when you spit," the tour guide said, a huge smile on her face. "There will be chance to purchase any of the bottles we sample today, so if you taste one you enjoy, make a note of it."

"Question," I said, raising a hand.

Ryan burst out into Destiny's Child Independent Woman, Part 1 lyrics.

"Yes," she said.

"Do they offer the same stuff like they do in Spain?" I asked. "You know, the wine with Fanta or cola."

"Sangria," she said. "They do, but I'm not sure if these vineyards will be accommodating to it. They want you to make sure you get the flavor of the wine and not the orange juice and flavorings."

That made me a little happy to find out. There was something special about sangria, almost like it was summer in a glass. And I was inclined to believe it contained magic.

I'd never been to a vineyard, so I wasn't sure what to expect, other than what I knew of them from Lindsey Lohan's version of The Parent Trap. And surprisingly, it was just like that. Rows of land with trees. It was almost an optical illusion, trying to figure out when it stopped.

There was a large house at the center of it all, and it was at that moment, I decided my new life dream was to own a vineyard and live in a cute house with the exposed brick and wood. A man and woman stood at the door, greeting us. Andre and Carolina, they were lovely. They accompanied us on the tour, the two of them, alongside the cruise guide.

"Whoa, it's a whole operation," Russell noted.

We were lead into what looked like a storage shed on the outside, and inside, it was where the large casks of wines were aged. They lined both the walls and at one end of the room, there was a long table right beside a cabinet filled with wines and glasses.

We sat around the table, enough seats for all of us.

Caroline started talking. "This is our famous white wine grown right here in theBucelas region. It is a light and fruity wine made from the finest Arinto grapes. We are going to let you taste some fresh and some aged to see if you can pick out some of the things that aging does."

I knew from the get go that I wouldn't be able to figure out what the differences between the tastes were, but I was happy to give it a go, and exercise some of those spit techniques they talked about. I was a swallower, and the joke didn't get less funny the more it was told throughout the evening.

For the rest of the day, we visited two over vineyards. They all merged to one by the time we visited the third. Their wines did all have different tastes, some were more fruitier, like peaches, and others had a tarter taste that made the taste buds on my tongue want to shrivel up.

Daddy ended up buying a bottle of each I expressed the slightest enjoyment in. But Ryan bought the most, after being told he could only spit, he was almost the most drunk afterwards. But we were all tipsy in some form. It turns out, spitting wasn't completely effective.