ALLEN
I hadn’t planned on acquiring new bees. I was already pretty busy with the ones I had. Even though I sold out of all the honey pretty much as soon as I uploaded it on my website, I hadn’t been itching to expand that part of the business. There were more important things in life than work, and for me, that more important thing was Patrick.
Living with him and having him as part of my daily life was everything. And taking away time with him for a few more bucks sounded like a shitty idea.
But when a local family came to me because they lost their grandfather and had his colonies of bees, I could hardly turn them down. Bees were so important to our environment, and the thought of them randomly giving the colonies to somebody who didn’t know what to do with them sounded awful.
When I brought it up to Daddy, he agreed.
At first, things went well. The bees adjusted and I had plenty of space with abundant opportunities for them to pollinate. But when it came time to process the honey, I was in over my head.I could’ve asked Patrick but his business was thriving too. He didn’t need to be working all day to come home and help me finish up my stuff.
One day, after I’d spent until midnight getting packages ready to ship, Patrick sat me down. “You don’t need to do this all alone.”
I sighed and kept my mouth shut. Anything I said about him not having time would come across as accusatory in my tired state, and I didn’t want that.
He took my hands in his. “You’re about to tell me I don’t have time either.”
I gave a single nod. One thing about Daddy was that he could read me well. I tried not to make him have to, but in times like this I appreciated how well he read me.
He cocked his head and gave me a soft smile. “I know, but I was thinking maybe you could hire some help.”
“But they’re my babies.”
Patrick loved the idea of bees and had helped me when he could, but there was no denying he was a little standoffish when it came to really being around them. He wasn’t alone in that.
People tended to see bees and think of the yellow jackets that stung them at a community picnic, or a wasp that got a friend of theirs while they were swimming one day. And there were a lot of flying insects with stingers that were pretty painful, but honeybees usually kept to themselves.
“You could be right.” He was definitely right. “About hiring someone.”
“I tend to be.” He winked and tickled my side.
I stuck out my tongue, not even pretending to be serious anymore. For some reason, getting that permission to hire someone was what I needed. It was my kick in the pants to action and all that. “While we’re talking about work things, HR had a meeting today.”
“Yeah? With your department or everyone?”
“With my department, but they had the same meeting with multiple departments. It looks like my company discovered that four-day workweeks save them money in the long run. I was thinking about doing four ten-hour days, then getting three-day weekends might be worth a try.”
“And will those workdays be too much for you?”
“I’ve been thinking a lot about that. And at first I was leaning toward yes. But I think if I had help with the bees, especially during the busy times, then no. It will actually open up time.”
It would mean a full day for when I had big shipping days, like today. I could line my releases up with my schedule and be done by dinnertime instead of midnight.
We spent the next hour talking logistics, and I felt pretty good about the decisions we’d made. It was even better when I heard that Daddy had already discussed it with his staff and decided to close the bakeries on Mondays beginning the next month for a variety of reasons. If I could do my four days Tuesday through Friday, we could spend that Monday together.
“Enough work talk. You need to go to bed, sweetheart. Mr. Bees is already asleep.”
“He’s not asleep. He’s waiting for me.”
“Want Daddy to help you get ready?”
“Yes, but if you help me get ready, I won’t be asleep for another couple of hours.” Learned that one the hard way…and by hard, I meant blissfully hard and thick.
I went and got ready for bed. When I had my pajamas on, Daddy was already in bed waiting for me, ready for my nighttime milkies.
He’d been living here for a few months now, and we’d fallen into some routines, including my nighttime milk, and it was one of my favorites. It was a time to unwind while connecting with him physically. And there was no denying the milk had some sort of magic sleeping potion in it, or maybe it was the act of suckling that did it, but I was always sleepy and snuggly when I was finished.
“Did you want a story tonight?”
