Chained had rules in the little room. Daddies couldn’t go to littles. In that space, the littles were in charge. It kept them from worrying about circling daddies looking for scenes. We could simply play.
“What? Wait. Are you looking for someone to play with?” It came out far more accusatory than information seeking like I meant and, based on his reaction, he felt it that way, too.
His jaw dropped.
“No, no. I didn’t mean it like that. I meant, like, for scenes.” I was only making it worse.
He shook his head, a small smile on his face. “No. I mean, I’m not opposed to playing, but I was more thinking…a date.”
“You want to go on a date with me?” That was not on my bingo card for today, but neither was being late.
“Is that too forward?”
“No, I’m just surprised.” Understatement of the year. Up until I walked into this elevator, I hadn’t considered that he spent a second thinking about me.
“Surprised that I want to go on a date with you?”
“Yes. But I want to…go on a date.”
We exchanged numbers and talked a little bit about our date but didn’t get much past that when the elevator started up again.
“Looks like we’re not stuck anymore,” I said.
“Nope. The elevator fairy knew that our plans were made.”
“That’s funny, considering the traffic light fairy was so mean to me today.”
It had been a long time since I heard somebody refer to technology as fairies before. It was such a daddy thing to do. I picked it up from a little friend who picked it up from their ex-daddy.
“Or maybe the traffic light fairy was making sure that we’d be here together.” He smiled.
“Let’s go with that.”
We arrived at my floor. “I gotta go. Catch you later.”
I itched to reach in and pull out his Secret Santa gift and hand it straight to him. But just because we were going on a date didn’t mean I had to stop spoiling him. Nope. I was going to go right on and keep doing it because whether or not our date turned into anything, he still deserved a merry Christmas.
Chapter Nine
Vaughn
The scarf was coming right along. Bridger suggested I just use one stitch and keep it narrow enough to make counting easy. But I loved the color. It was a yarn that went from dark blue all the way to a creamy off-white and then back again, including all the gorgeous shades from my snow globe. I liked that I didn’t have to pick out all the colors because they were there for me and that it was so soft, I kept putting the skeins up to my cheeks just to feel the softness. It would be the final gift, for Christmas Eve. If all went well, I planned to Secret Santa the heck out of my Secret Santa. Still unsure about how much Christmas I could take, I was also unwilling to not let Gunnar enjoy it, so the best date I could come up with was the European-style Christmas market not far from our offices.
We agreed to meet in the lobby at the end of the business day, since neither of our homes were closer than our planned destination, which helped with having to decide what to wear for our very first date as well. The business casual I generally wore would do fine. Gunnar wore some very nice suits, I’d had opportunity to notice lately, but my clients would probably be put off if I did. Being approachable mattered in the counseling business.
After a long day of listening to people whose holiday experiences were anything but jolly, I was wrung out and feared I was too tired to be much good to anyone and almost texted Gunnar to postpone the date. In fact, I had my phone in my hand when it buzzed with a notification.
Running a few minutes late, but I’ll be there! Don’t go without me.
As if I could go on a date, without the date? No more than I could say what I’d thought would be the more responsible thing. That I’d had a rough day and was exhausted. Instead, I stepped into the men’s room and splashed water on my face before patting it dry and grabbing my black leather jacket. The sweater I’d worn to work was red, my slacks charcoal gray, and my low boots a matte black. With my dark hair, I thought the colors looked decent and hoped Gunnar would think so too.
I glanced at my phone and startled. I hadn’t replied.
Quickly, I typed,Just heading down myself. I won’t leave without you. Promise.
When I got down to the lobby, I took a seat on one of the benches along the walls and watched people streaming out of the elevators for about ten minutes. As each door slid open, I tensed, ready to stand up and greet my date, only to sag back in disappointment. I told myself that I was way too wound up for a first date, but it felt as if we’d known one another longer than we had, which was hardly at all.
My emotions had been shut down for two years, my heart guarded against pain. So why did this little blow past the walls as if they didn’t exist? It wasn’t like he was the first person—male or female—to try to connect with me in those months. He was just the first one who made me think it might be possible to be happy again.
