Page 55 of Summer Haze & Tokyo Craze

"Blackmail material," she sing-songs with an eyebrow wiggle and puts her phone away. "So I've got good news and bad news." Her eyes are wandering over the rest of the café behind me, and I pinch the bridge of my nose yet again.

"The good news, yes, I can order you a coffee, and you're just going have to sit and smile while they draw you a little picture. But," she points to a table to our right, "they’re going to makeyou do a little dancey-dance." Her hands flutter through the air in an amateurish demonstration.

"A what?" I ask way too loudly, and I know I'm not subtle at all, but I turn around to look at what she’s talking about. Two tables away from ours, the patrons are following along their maid’s instructions. She’s doing some kind of movement with her hands, way too quickly for me to follow, then showing a heart with her fingers and waving it around, making the people on the table do it along with her.

My eyes widen and I shoot Lily a panicked glance. I can’t dance. I doubt I can even wrestle my fingers into that heart shape.

"Don't worry," Lily quickly assures me, reaching for my hand and giving it a condescending pat. "Even if you don't get it right at all, I'm pretty sure they won't say anything and embarrass you in front of the whole room."

“Please tell me they actually won’t.” Lily grins and I pinch the bridge of my nose.

“I’m just kidding. They won’t.”

"Thank fuck.” My shoulders sag in relief, then I narrow my eyes at her.

“But knowing you, you’ll make sure to get more blackmail material." She shoots me her most innocent look with wide eyes, and I shake my head at her. "Yeah, I knew it. Keep your phone away when that happens here, or I swear to God, Lily. You don’t want me to think of a revenge."

"What?" Now it's her turn to narrow her eyes at me playfully.

"I'll think of something," I assure her. She leans back and crosses her arms in front of her chest.

"Alright, for now you have to ring that pretentious little bell." She nods towards the little bell standing on our table, and I sigh, noting that her hand is very close to her bag and she’s one hundred percent going to get a shot of me ringing that goddamn condescending bell.

"You should have talked me out of this," I mutter and bury my face in my hands.

"Why? I'm having way too much fun."

Without looking up, I blindly reach for one of the bells and shake it quickly, setting it down fast.

"You should have talked me out of this," I tell her again, as we walk out of the café, after having the most humiliating afternoon treat I’ve ever had.

"Oh, come on. You started to look like you were having fun by the end in there." She's teasing me, lightly tapping my upper arm. I rub my hand over my face once again before I reach for her hand with the other one.

"Nope, never stopped cringing, I’m sorry to say. But it was certainly an experience." Not exactly one I wish to repeat, but a tiny part of me is happy that I did it nonetheless.

After the maid took our order, the lights in the room dimmed, and all of a sudden, what must have been at least ten maids started dancing through the café, animating all of us to join them, which we did more or less enthusiastically. It was peer pressure at its best.

When it was time to sit back down, our drinks were already there. Turns out it wasn't just one maid who drew a cute little cat into my coffee, but five more were standing around her as she did it, clapping and cheering, and making me feel way too old and way too pretentious.

"And there are people who go there often?" I ask Lily and raise my eyebrow.

"I mean, yeah." She nudges me with her elbow. "You might find it cringe as hell, but therearepeople who actually have fun at these."

"You mean the whole being called master or prince thing? Or do they like doing the little dances?"

"I mean, probably both?" Her eyebrows scrunch together as she thinks. "I mean, there must be a reason the whole ‘Sir’ and ‘Master’ calling is such a thing in the kinky scene; ‘Prince’ and ‘Princess’ is not such a different concept." She shrugs, but I grimace, suddenly seeing the whole experience in a whole new light that I never wanted to see it in.

"Oh God." I groan, all too happy when the elevator announces itself. Finally, I will be able to escape.

"Why? Not your thing, Daddy?" She starts cracking up when she sees my expression.

"Don't you dare," I scold her playfully. "I've been half of a dad for half of my life. Definitely not Daddy material. In fact, I'm happy to not get called that in the foreseeable future."

"You were?" She raises her eyebrow and cocks her head curiously.

"My parents died sixteen years ago, so I’ve been raising my siblings for almost half my life,” I remind her, and she looks at me, shocked.

"Oh Adam. I’m sorry. You told me, fuck, I didn’t realize you were that young when it happened."

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