Sam
“How do you think things are going with the new playroom?” It felt like forever ago when I’d first sat down with Jack to discuss the possibility of creating a space for our littles and their Daddies. I might have been a bit biased, but in the first few months, I was beyond ecstatic over the feedback we’d received in the first few months.
Unfortunately, as I delved deeper into my own relationship, I was beginning to question my original ideas for repurposing the second space. While I still thought it would be cool to have a space for the puppies to hang out like the littles had now, it was valuable real estate we could use for other purposes. Plus, it would mean taking away the largest educational space we still had, and I wasn’t sure that was wise either.
I only hoped Jack wouldn’t be upset by my latest set of sketches. Work had already begun, and I didn’t want him to feel like he’d wasted his money and time.
“The littles and Daddies love the new space.” It felt good to be able to give him a positive report. We’d recently sent out a survey to the customers on our email list to get their feedback on the changes we’d made, as well as what they felt we were lacking in the local kink community, which is another piece of why I’d been scribbling notes and making drawings to show my boss. “I’d like to order a few more toys and pieces of furniture based on the feedback we’ve received but, overall, it sounds like we hit the nail on the head.”
“You did that,” Jack corrected me. “Take ownership of your success, Sam.”
He pulled up something on his laptop and turned the screen toward me. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen the profit and loss statements for the bar, but as I looked at the growth percentages, it finally hit home that the playroom was helping all areas of the club. I slumped back in my chair, a bit overwhelmed by it all.
“This is exactly what I needed to do but I never would have realized it without your innovation. I will admit, I’m a bit old school and I’d never considered bringing kink into the front of the club.” He scrolled down the page showing me various line items, flipping between various tabs and graphs. The club hadn’t operated at a loss since the year it opened, but there was an obvious spike in the past few months. Now, the trick was keeping them on the rise. “Pride is coming up in a couple of weeks and I want to do something to celebrate. Since you’re apparently the ideas man around here, I wanted your input.”
If I didn’t know better, that would have felt like a set up. It was a perfect segue for me to show him the concepts I’d put together when I’d needed a break from the last project I had to complete before graduation. I pulled out my notebook and handed it to him.
Originally, the second large room was going to be a playroom for the puppies and other pet play kinksters because they deserved an area with padded floors and wide-open spaces to romp around. I still wanted to give them that because we’d put in so much work, but I felt like my idea had been a bit short-sighted. Jack leaned in, giving me his undivided attention as I explained that it would be possible to keep the original concept while making it something that could be easily transformed once a month to provide an area for a recurring vendor fair, and on those days we could provide demonstrations and education based on who we’d invited to sell their gear.
When I finished, he leaned back, pinching his chin between his thumb and index finger. I focused on staying still and breathing as the silence dragged on. “I think it’s a good idea.”
The tone of his voice told me there was abutcoming. I curled my fingers around the arms of the chair as I waited for him to tear apart my proposal with all the reasons it wasn’t feasible.
“Relax, Sam. I really do like it, but I think it would be incredibly time intensive to organize everything,” he told me. He pulled out a pad of paper and started making notes of his own. “What would you say if we do a vendor fair the weekend of Pride? We don’t have much time, but I can make some calls and I think we can get enough vendors to make it worthwhile, and it will bring people into the club. But for something more ongoing, I’d like to try a concept I haven’t seen many places, but it worked well for a friend with a club out west.”
“You can try whatever you want.” I didn’t mean to sound snarky, but at the end of the day, this was Jack’s club, not mine. He didn’t need my permission to do anything.
“True, but this is something I want you to take ownership of. With William managing the back, I wanted to talk to you about shifting your focus to take over some of the day-to-day operations,” he explained. It was exactly what I wanted, but I still doubted my ability. Even after the incident with John, I couldn’t get the staff in the back to respect me as an authority figure, and I wasn’t sure there was anything Jack could do to fix that. They rarely called me by name, thinking it was cute to call meKidwhenever they saw me. Maybe they didn’t mean anything by it, but it felt like an insult. “I see a lot of myself in you, Sam. You’re ambitious and you have amazing ideas. Eventually, you’re going to realize you’re better off building your own dream, but until then, I don’t want your talents wasted overseeing the staff.”
“Thank you for having that much faith in me.” I swallowed around the lump of emotion forming in my throat.
“Of course, this will also come with a pay increase.” He pulled a sheet of paper out of the top drawer of his desk. I gaped at the salary he was offering, shaking my head when I saw the bonuses that would be available to me. I opened my mouth to tell him it was too much, but he silenced me. “Don’t argue. The club is doing well, thanks in large part to the ideas you bring to the table, and you’re officially a college graduate. The salary is more than fair, and the bonus structure is something I would offer any manager taking on the responsibilities I’ll be placing on you.”
God, I still couldn’t believe I was done with school. I’d walked the stage a week ago and it was still surreal. My parents and siblings had come down for the day, and after the commencement was over, Daddy had insisted on taking all of us to dinner at Marino’s. I’d been tense at first, expecting one of the brothers who ran the restaurant to make a comment that would clue my family in that we all knew each other from the club, but Daddy promised they were nothing but professional when they were at their business.
My hand shook as I picked up the pen to sign my first official contract. My heart beat rapidly in my chest, and as I scribbled my messy signature on the bottom of the page, I kept waiting for someone to jump out and tell me I’d been punked.
No way was this real life.
No way did one job posting that I’d called about because of my own curiosity, turn my entire life around. I had a boss who trusted me to oversee things when he was gone, and truly listened when I had ideas to grow the business. I had friends who would always have my back no matter what. And I had a Daddy who saw to my every need and never missed an opportunity to tell me how much he loved me.
It was all a bit much for one boy to take in.
Jack slid the paper back to his side of the desk and added his signature before tucking the contract into a folder. “Now, what do you say we go take a look at the second space and figure out how we can divide it into both a playroom and retail area?”
“Yeah.” I stood, wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans. I grimaced as I glanced down at my attire. I’d planned on spending my day packing the last of my stuff at the apartment so I could officially close that chapter of my life, but then Jack had called, asking me to meet him at the club.
There was an energy as we walked through the club that had the hair on the back of my neck standing on end. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something felt off. I glanced down the back hall, sure I’d heard someone, but there was no one. The entrance to the back deck was dark with nothing out of place.
And then, Jack flipped on the lights in the empty play space and I almost fell to my knees.
“Surprise!” everyone screamed in unison.
Before I could lose my balance, Daddy was at my side holding me upright. “Happy graduation, baby boy.”
“You did this for me?” I cupped my hands in front of my mouth, praying I didn’t break down in tears. Even when I’d graduated from high school, I’d never had a celebration like this one. Every employee from the club and their partners were there. My parents. My brother and sister. Jayden’s mom. The Marino brothers and Mama, the matriarch of their family who took every local gay kid under her wring. “How did you do this without me knowing?”
“It wouldn’t have been much of a surprise if you’d known, now would it?” he mused.
