Page 16 of Teddy Tea Time

When I step outside, Gerry practically tackles me in a hug.

“I don’t wanna be rude, but that suit you wore today was fugly, Ash.”

Jace tries to hide his laugh with a cough, but the person behind me doesn’t bother. Turning around, I notice Jackson coming around the back of my home with a toolbox in hand.

“Baby Bear said your window broke. Figure I should take a look as the resident mechanic up in this shizzouse.”

Steve and a few of the other guys from Good Boy Tinkering and Towing start shouting things from the party, but Jackson just sticks his tongue out at them.

“Go have some fun while I get this jiffed up,” he says with a pat to my arm. “Even if I can’t fully fix it today, I can at least get the window up to keep the bugs, rain, and critters out.”

Apparently, that is enough of a cue for Gerry to drag me over to the field where Spencer is chasing a half-naked Lucky to get some sunscreen on him and an almost fully naked Toby is playing frisbee with his Owner. I’m surprised that he isn’t trying to catch it in his teeth considering he’s wearing his club shorts and is obviously halfway into pup-space.

After three hot dogs and the best damn macaroni salad I have ever had, I start to feel like I can leave the earlier events of the day behind me… mostly. Inside, I am still panicking over how I am going to continue to live on my own with bills piling up. Rent and utilities aren’t bad. Those can be covered from what I make at the bar and club. What kills me is my student loans, car insurance, and internet needing to come out every month.

Still, I can’t help but smile at the sight of my friends having fun today. Money problems will still be there tomorrow, so I should take this time to enjoy myself. Planting myself on one of the benches spaced around the field, it doesn’t take long for Eric to approach with a brightly colored drink held out for me. It even has a paper umbrella made out of the American flag.

He fucking did that on purpose. The bitch knows how I feel about the consumerism around the misuse of the flag, and he made the conscious decision to add that stupid little umbrella to my drink.

After removing the offensive item and pitching into the nearby firepit – the only proper way to dispose of a desecrated flag – I let myself indulge in the sugary bliss of the mocktail. While I indulge in alcohol occasionally, I never do when I’m around Eric. It’s not like he is a recovering alcoholic or anything. It’s just that he is on medication that doesn’t mix well with alcohol, so I like to remove any chance of an accidental slip up.

“Spencer owes me fifty bucks,” he says before nudging my shoulder with his. “He bet that you would grumble about the umbrella and lecture me. I said you’d torch it within thirty seconds.”

With fake indignation, I raise my middle finger in the idiot’s direction, only to set off his boy and Gerry into a bought of giggles.

“Get me some of that Korean style cheesecake again and I won’t be pissed at you for buying the fucking disrespectful things.”

His boisterous laughter triggers happiness from most of the people hanging around waiting for the sun to start disappearing. We’re lucky that our little community is far enough away from anything that we are allowed to do a full fireworks show. Eric almost always splurges for professionals to come set up a show to go off automatically at ten o’clock. People who live all over Wrenshaw are treated to the show he funds every year, being set off in the gravel lot next to Mac’s at the bottom of the hill.

Throughout the evening, Gerry pulls me to meet someone I already know to tell me something he just learned about them. Instead of annoying me, I find myself relaxing and feeling happy because he is fitting right in with all of us. At times, I feel wrong that the kid is showing so much attention to me, but then I glance at Jace to see the dopiest grin ever on his face.

Fuck, he looks good like that.

15

JACE

The call from Bradley isn’t exactly unexpected, but it is two weeks earlier than I had anticipated.

“I know I’m the last person you want to hear from, but when Gerald’s name was entered into the system on a police report, it flagged a follow-up.”

Gerry told me all about how Ash threatened to throw down with some old granny at the supermarket a few weeks ago, so I am not completely blindsided. I only hate the fact that I didn’t anticipate this call coming sooner. Being on this side of social services makes me feel unsteady.

“I’ve read the report,” Brad continues while I have my little existential moment in front of my drafting table. “My supervisor is ready to rip the cops a new one since they didn’t verify legal guardianship before releasing him with this Ashton guy.”

Nothing could stop the bark of laughter that bursts out of me. Ashton? Ash’s legal name is Ashton? For the life of me, I could never come up with a worse name to represent my friend.

“You already met Ash,” I manage to get out between chuckles. “My neighbor and the official childcare that should be listed in Gerry’s file.”

Brad legitimately squeaks out a sound of annoyance, and I can hear papers rustling through the speaker. Turning back to the design on the table, I sketch in a removable gag piece and notate to ask the client’s preference for safety signals to be built into the hand restraint areas. I won’t add a gag without secondary safeword adaptations, and I won’t sell to anyone who has an issue with safety measures for my devices.

“Mother fucking piece of anal tension,” he curses in the background, causing me to nearly drop my pencil… Anal tension? Actually, that might be something to think on adding to a design… Hook? Expanding plug?

Oooh. A cheek spreader! That is right up the client’s alley. He likes looking at his boy’s hole, but the guy has some serious substance back there.

“Here it is! Ashton Reginald Harper… I’m gonna kill her.”

Immediately, my good mood evaporates. Ain’t no chance anyone is going to go after Ash with me around. They are by far the best person I have met outside of Mama Sue, and I already threatened to castrate a mother fucker for trying to intimidate her into giving up one of her foster kids.