First, I was late. Fucking traffic. It made me want to pull some racing moves and dodge these slow pokes, but laws. So no. Thankfully, I wasn’t terribly late, but I had to drive through downtown Tampa since he lived way out on the east side in Ybor City. Popular place, and not too far from Afterglow, but still far enough away from Davis Island to have shitty traffic.
The apartment building where Joey lived was a huge, gorgeous brown-brick building that had once been one of the famous cigar factories. Black iron balconies crawled along its exterior, looking like it should have been in New Orleans rather than Tampa, but I could certainly see the charm. After parking in a nearby garage and walking over, which took even more time—yes, I practically ran—I stepped into the lobby and called him.
“Hello,” he answered so sweetly.
“Are you ready?”
Joey snorted. “Are you here yet?”
“Yes…” I rolled my eyes. “In the lobby. Sorry. Traffic.”
“No worries. I’m coming. Getting on the elevator now. See you in a sec.”
“Great.” I hung up and took a better look around at the bright, sunny walls and sat in a comfortable club chair in a sitting area. The carpet patterns clashed a bit with the furniture, but it was still nice. I liked the security of the place more than anything else.
“Hey,” Joey called, stepping off the elevator. And holy shit did he look good. The purple in his hair was vibrant, as if he’d just dyed it, and it matched his sneakers. His jeans were black, and his tight T-shirt was powder blue with an anime character on the front. The whole thing made him look very young, and I hoped people didn’t think he was my son.
But damn, I wasn’t even going gray yet. The difference in our ages was only a handful of years, though, and I wasn’t going to let it bother me. “You look great.”
“Thanks. You too.”
I glanced down, not thinking I looked all that special in blue jeans and a black golf shirt. “You ready?”
“Sure, where we going again?”
I’d texted him to wear casual clothes since we wouldn’t be going anywhere too fancy. “Two choices. Everyone talks about the Columbia.”
He squinched his nose up. “Everyone does that. Boring.”
“Or…there’s this place called Motorworks. It’s a sports pub, but they have locally brewed—”
“You picked somewhere called Motorworks? Geez. Is there going to be race car décor all over the place?”
“Snarky much?” I shook my head and put my arm around his shoulder to walk him out the front door. “And no. It’s called Motorworks because the brewery started out in an old nineteen twenties auto dealership. But that’s in Bradenton. This place is in south Tampa and it’s just a taproom.”
“So bar food?”
“Elevated bar food. It’ll be good. Unless you have other ideas.”
We turned into the parking garage and Joey’s head swiveled, checking out the few cars on the first floor. “No. That’s fine. Where are you parked?”
I beeped my key fob and pointed in the right direction.
“Whoa. This is yours?” he asked, circling the Bentley.
“It is. Get in.”
He whistled and got in on the passenger side. I couldn’t blame him; it was a sexy car, inside and out. “This is super nice, Daddy. I mean, knew you had money but sweetness…”
“Daddy again, huh? What’s the story, Joey?”
He tapped his fingers on the center console. “Come on, you know. Daddy-kink. I’m into that. Like, uh, really into it.”
“I got that much, but what exactly does that mean to you? And what’re your deal breakers?”
“Wow, you jumped right into that. You a Dom or something I don’t know about? Setting up a contract?”
“What? No. But, I mean, you’re serious and you go to Afterglow, so I figured we should start there before we waste each other’s time.”
