He nodded. “Good, and what did he say?”
“He told me to have fun.”
Daddy Henry smirked. “Perfect,” he said. “Let’s have fun. I found a whole bunch of books, but I didn’t want to touch them in case you had them organized. I know how you library folk get when someone messes with your pile.”
I sat on my knees in the circle, opposite him in the space he’d seemed to already predetermine was for me. “Thank you,” I said. “So, what do you think about my outfit?”
He pinched his fingers together and pressed them to his mouth. “Chef’s kiss, gorgeous,” he said. “I’m not at all surprised you look good. But I thought you were going to put on something cooler. I bet it’s warm in there.” He reached over, touching the fabric and slipping a thumb up my sleeve to rub.
“Well, you have to let me get to it,” I said with a giggle, pulling the zipper down the front. “It’s a reveal. Ta-da!” I had wanted to show off the onesie more than anything, and my brain was all haywire. This was the first time I was properly getting to show off without some guy wincing and wondering when he was going to be getting some action. “This one doesn’t have a slogan on it.” The reveal wasn’t that interesting since it was a quick change and all my fun ones needed to be washed.
“I like it either way,” he said. “So, little one, do you listen to music? Or watch TV? I—” He turned his head, looking around.
“I don’t have a TV,” I said. “I watch everything on my laptop. And with a tea party, I usually give out tea. Which is never tea, because I’m not a fan. I think it’s one of those things you like when you’re older, or you start liking.” I giggle-snorted, hoping I wasn’t about to offend him.
“So, what do you drink instead?”
Hiding beneath a pile of plush small teddies was a large plastic-wrapped bulk buy of juice boxes. “These,” I said, pulling one of them from the plastic. “This one is...” I turned it around in my hands to see the fruit. “Strawberry. It’s either strawberry or apple. Either way, that’s a win. I love both.”
“Lucky,” he said.
“Not really, it’s the only one I buy.” I snorted again.
A tea party wasn’t done right unless there was a tea pot and tiny cups. I had a set, and they were somewhere, hiding under something. The set never held any liquid in them, ever. They were for play and show, never for practical use. The cups didn’t hold much, and I’d learned the hard way that they were difficult to clean.
Like a headless chicken, rushing around, ducking, and swiping my arms under things, I eventually found the set all together on the blue plastic tray beneath several blankets. It was close to where my bed would be when it was down, and probably the result of me scrambling to put things away when I was pulling the bed down.
All set up, finally, I felt a little self-conscious with him watching, but the moment he held my carton of drink to my mouth and I got to take a sip, I was in the space... my sweet little space.
“Okay,” I announced. “I bring to order the tea party. There aren’t enough cups for everyone, so some of you will have to share.”
Daddy chuckled. “Which teddies are your favorite?” he asked. “So I know for next time. I want to be prepared, make sure I get their names right, and where they sit in your circle.”
“I’ll make you a list,” I giggle. I loved a list in both iterations of who I was, the adult and the little. “I have a lot of favorite stuffies, and I make sure to give them each their own time with me. Especially time in the tea party circle, or the reading circle we have every night.”
“Everything takes place in a circle?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Some things happen in cuddle puddles as well,” I said. “Especially in bed, although I’ve limited capacity on the bed because of an incident from a couple of weeks ago.”
Daddy perked up. “You’re gonna have to tell me all about that.”
“Well...” I cleared my throat and looked around the circle for the culprit. “I love all my teddies and stuffies, but sometimes they get under me in the night, and when they get all the way under me—” I puffed out in a scoff. “They make me walk funny the next day.”
“Whoa, little one, I didn’t know they had that much power.”
I burst into a giggle fit, snorting away. “Not like that, silly. Because they hurt my back. Have you readThe Princess and the Pea?”
“Are you the princess?”
Shimmying my shoulders a little like there was a flourish of sound and adingto my action. “If that’s what you think, then I won’t deny it.”
“Well, I hope my sandwiches are up to your standards, princess?”
I took a big bite from one of the finger sandwiches and pulled it away to see the teeth marks I’d left behind. After swallowing, I let out another giggle with the comment I’d formed. “Don’t think I’m much of a princess today,” I said. “That was a big bite.”
“Can I have one?” he asked.
There were at least three full sandwiches on the plate, all cut up into nice dainty slices. “Of course, Daddy. They’re good.”
