Page 4 of A Daddy for Christmas 3: August
“I thought the fee was two hundred dollars a session. Did Douglas steer me wrong?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, no, no, that’s the right amount, but I was only there for half the session.” So, reasonably he should only get half the fee.
“Don’t worry about that. You were covered.”
“By you.”
“I’m already getting paid for the class, so it’s fine.”
“You should have half the sitting fee,” Auggie insisted stubbornly. He counted five of the twenties off the stack and put them in front of Thor. Then he added another one. “That’s for the food.”
“You don’t have to.” Thor pushed the bills back toward him.
Auggie refused to pick them up. “I’m not a charity case.” Money might be tight, but the only reason he’d skipped lunch today was because he’d been distracted, not because he couldn’t afford it.
“I never said you were.”
“Then I should only get paid for the amount of time I modeled. The rest is yours.”
“Okay.” Thor picked the bills up and returned all but one twenty back into his wallet. The last one was handed back to him. “Supper is my treat because I insisted.”
Auggie pressed his lips together, but one of Thor’s eyebrows went up, the expression very clearly saying that it was a done deal.
“Okay,” he finally said, grudgingly, and pocketed the last twenty.
Thor went back to eating, and Auggie did the same. He was going to be stuffed like a tick by the time he finished his plate, but that was okay; he was making up for his lack of lunch.
“So what kind of a name is Thor?” He snapped his mouth shut the moment the words were out. That was not polite. He was putting it down to the commencement of the food coma the pot stickers were bringing on.
Thor only chuckled, though, and didn’t look particularly put out. “My mom’s family is originally from Iceland. Thor is the Norse god of thunder and apparently there was a hell of a stormthe night I was born. Bad enough that she didn’t make it to the hospital. And she was only fifteen when she had me so it’s not really surprising she went for a… unique name.”
“That’s actually pretty cool.” His name was August because that was the month he was born in. He’d always been thankful he hadn’t been a spring baby. April, May, and June werenotboys’ names.
“I eventually thought so. It’s funny, though, because lots of people think I use a pseudonym for my artwork.”
“But you don’t, eh?”
“Nope. Although I did decide not to use my full last name, so it’s Thor H.”
“That definitely sounds artsy.” He almost added fartsy to that but managed to close his mouth in time.
Thor chuckled. “That’s exactly what I thought. Did you want some dessert?”
He did, but he shook his head. “I think I’d explode,” he admitted, as much to himself as to Thor. “These were so good, but that was a big portion.” And he’d eaten every last one. He should have saved half to bring home. Not that he was hurting for money—although there were times like today when his account was very nearly empty—but it was easier to grab something to eat if he had leftovers in the fridge.
“Well, I’m going to go see if they have any of their chocolate mousse. It’s yummy. Be right back.”
Thor’s last words put a stop to his plan to shake the man’s hand and make his escape. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Thor—the guy seemed super nice, not to mention he was hot as hell—but Auggie felt like an awkward idiot, between being late, being shaky from having skipped a meal and not being able to pay for his own pot stickers. Still, it would be unnecessarily impolite to slip away now. Besides, he wasn’t really looking forward to starting his hour-long trek home.
It wasn’t like Thor was gone long, either. He was back within minutes with a tray with two desserts on it. One on a plate, the other in a clear take-out container. Thor set the dessert on the container in front of him.
“I figured you could take it home with you and enjoy it later this evening. It really is an amazing dessert.”
Auggie blinked a few times before his manners kicked in. “Thank you. You didn’t have to.”
“But I wanted to.”
And that was that. Thor was far too nice of a guy.
