Page 14 of Becoming His Perfect Daddy
I gasped.
“What? They’re good! And the D/b rabbit hole isdeep, dude.”
“Well,Iknow that, but I didn’t knowyoudid!”
He grinned. “Now you do.”
I exhaled dramatically. “Wow. You think you know a person . . .”
He kicked the air between us. “Give it a rest. We both know you love Daddy romances just as much as I do. Probably even more.”
My grin was wide. “True story.” We both cracked up at that. Quietly, of course. This was still work. Speaking of . . . I launched into a workload update in preparation for our trip next week to a client’s office in southern California. Alex confirmed he was stillset to go and offered to do a final virtual prep session with me tomorrow afternoon after we’d finalized everything.
“Sure,” I offered. “Just send me a meeting with a link. I’m working from home tomorrow, as usual.”
He eyed me as he started clicking away, no doubt scheduling that meeting. “Same.” My computer dinged a few seconds later with the meeting notification. I quickly accepted it, then we both dove back into work.
My mind kept swirling with everything we’d talked about as we worked—including my suspected Daddy inclinations that I would most definitely be researching when I got home tonight—and the things we hadn’t, like my emails to Cameron. I wasn’t ready to share my suspicions about being a Daddy with Alex, since I would need time to work that out in my head, but maybe it was time to share more of myself with him, the guy who’d become my best friend and helped me be brave enough to start to create the life I wanted.
Maybe it was time to come out. To him, anyway.
But not here. “Hey, man, you wanna grab a drink after work? Friendly Mike’s?”
Alex scoffed. “You know I’m always down for happy hour at Friendly Mike’s. Though I wish they’d come up with a better name.”
I chuckled as I scanned my inbox. “As long as they keep serving half-price drinks on Thursdays, I’ll go no matter what they call the place.”
He toasted an imaginary drink in the air between us. “Amen, dude.”
***
Five o’clock came and went, but we managed to wrap everything up by six fifteen. Thankfully, happy hour went until seven.
“Ready to go?” I asked as I grabbed my coat.
Alex nodded. “Yeah. I actually took the train in, so I’m good to get as drunk as you’d like.”
“Same. We can grab dinner, too.”
His mouth dropped open. “I can’t believe you just assumed I don’t have a hot date tonight.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Do you?”
He huffed as he shrugged his coat on. “Obviously not. My love life is as exciting as yours.”
I ignored the pang in my chest at his words. He didn’t know the extent of my love-life troubles, just that I basically didn’t have one, so I knew he didn’t mean anything by it. But it still hurt, just a little.
That pang was familiar at this point. Over the past few months, it had happened with frequency, every time someone called me Samantha, referred to me assheorher, or otherwise addressed my assumed gender. It wasn’t their fault—they didn’t know—but again, it hurt just the same.
Which was why I had to tell someone. Alex was the obvious choice, and I knew he’d be my greatest ally as I started the process of socially transitioning. Which might have been more nerve-wracking than the physical transition, honestly. I couldn’t know how everyone would react.
We got to the bar in time to order a first and second round of dark lagers at happy-hour prices, our drink of choice on nights like this. When we were sufficiently buzzed, I decided it was now or never.
“Alex,” I started, pulling his attention away from the cute bartender behind the bar. He’d shamelessly flirted with Alex when he’d grabbed our second round, so I couldn’t blame him. He was obviously into dudes, and given that and his short brown hair, clean-shaven killer jawline, slender build, and an ass thatwouldn’t quit meant I was into him. But he didn’t give me a second glance, per usual. I couldn’t blame him.
No one talked about how everything felt off-kilter to a transgender person while they were figuring things out.
“Hm?” Ever the attentive friend, Alex turned to me. His gaze was still strong, despite the beer, so now was the perfect time.
