Which came first—the taste in interior decoration, or the only son?
I got my phone out, remembering it was still in flight mode, and flicked it back to normal to find a text from Marissa.
Marissa:tell me when you get there safe
Hayden:Got there safe.
I hesitated, and then sent a second text.
Hayden:Dad has a boy toy with the most perfect ass I’ve ever seen
I wanted to think I couldn’t believe it, but Iabsolutelycould. I wasn’t even surprised he hadn’t mentioned it.
If I thought about it long enough, I’d convince myself that he had a different beautiful creature running around naked in his house every week.
Which was fine. He was allowed. Mom had been gone for ten years. He didn’t have to be lonely for the rest of his life.
Marissa:really?
Hayden:Really, but I haven’t seen a lot of asses, so maybe I’m not qualified to judge.
Marissa:no, I mean, your dad has a boy toy?
Hayden:You say it like this would be unusual for my dad
And it wasn’t, not really. Or at least, not out of character. I wasn’t aware of him dating someone quite this young before, but people were drawn to him. He had this incredible charisma. People loved being around him.
No one would’ve left after ten minutes of a date with him. He wasenthralling.
Marissa:do we have to use the term boy toy?
Hayden:You’d prefer I called him what? A sugar baby?
Marissa:point.
Marissa:Sugar, Baby would be a cute name for a patisserie, though
I snorted.
Marissa had been talking about branching out, opening up a more traditional patisserie than Pleasure, my ice cream bar. There wasn’t enough space on the premises for much else, definitely not the full kitchen and bank of ovens she’d need for baking on the scale she was talking about, but I knew she’d been scouting locations.
I wanted her to succeed—she was a damned good manager, and with a good chef beside her she could absolutely do it—but I was scared of losing her, too.
I’d been pushing her away for over a year, and I was just now realizing how much damage I might’ve done.
Giving her a break from me was probably a good thing.
Hayden:It’s definitely not the worst one you’ve come up with
My phone rang just as I was about to put it down and nearly startled me into dropping it.
“Hello?” I asked, answering without checking the caller ID.
“Hey, Hay.”
My blood ran cold.
“Aaron,” I said, stomach already twisting up into knots.
