Page 9 of A Daddy for Christmas 3: August
Auggie blushed at that and ducked his head. Grabbing his menu, he hid behind it. “Oh man, they have roast beef with Yorkshire Pudding and all the trimmings. I can’t remember the last I had a roast dinner. I might have to switch to that.”
“I’m also switching—I’m having the fish and chips because in my mind that’s the quintessential British pub food, and I use it as a baseline for how good a pub-style restaurant is. If it’s good, I’ll be back and I’ll try other stuff. Like the authentic shepherd’s pie.”
“So the professor is making the pub take a test,” Auggie said dryly.
“Yes, exactly.” He laughed as Auggie rolled his eyes. Oh, this boy needed some laughter and joy in his life.
He felt like he might want to be the one to help with that.
Chapter
Three
Auggie didn’t know when going out to supper with Thor post-posing for his life painting class had become a thing, but after having no classes for reading week, he had to admit, he’d missed their weekly dinner. That was when he realized that yeah, it had been a thing every single week since the start.
They talked about everything from light to deep. Thor was surprisingly easy to talk to, and easy on the eyes, too. Auggie was man enough to admit to himself that he had a crush on the man. He was also self-aware enough to know that he was a skinny, just making ends meet mature—they called you that as soon as you hit twenty-five for fuck’s sake—student who hadn’t even graduated from university yet and Thor was way, way out of his league. Like, if his league was earth, then Thor’s was the outer reaches of outer space.
He sighed and tried to lose himself in Thor’s painting, but he was finding keeping his pose hard tonight. He thought it was probably because he was anxious about whether or not Thor was going to invite him to dinner. What if the guy decided that he’d enjoyed not having to share a meal with Auggie last week? Yeah,this was what his brain had been doing the entire evening, and it was making him wiggly.
He heard Thor clearing his throat slightly, and he sighed again, stilling the fingers that had been moving without him even realizing it. This was not the first time Thor had had to do that, either.
Come on, Auggie, focus. You’re going to get yourself fired.
He managed not to earn anymore throat clearing for the rest of the session, but he’d never been so relieved at hearing Thor call time and dismiss the class than he was this evening. He shrugged into the robe and headed to the alcove to change. He made short work of that and grabbed the robe to give back to Thor. It probably didn’t need washing every week, but he liked that Thor did. He liked the way it smelled.
Just before he stepped out of the alcove, he heard people talking, so he peeked and sure enough, two students were talking to Thor. Damn, Thor wasn’t likely to suggest supper together in front of the students. He debated a moment or two as to whether he should stay back in the alcove until they’d left, but that felt like silly high school games, so he headed out, pushing down his disappointment.
He left the robe on the edge of the desk and skirted around the two students.
“Auggie, can you wait a moment, please? I need to talk to you.”
“Oh. Okay, sure.” Damn it, Thor was obviously upset about his inability to keep still. He was going to get a lecture. He just hoped that was the extent of it, though. Technically, this would be his second warning because he’d been late the first day. How many chances would Thor give him?
It seemed to take forever before the two ladies talking to Thor finally left. When they did, Thor grabbed the robe and the restof his stuff, putting it all in his satchel before he pulled out his wallet and counted out Auggie’s sitting fee.
Thor handed it over. “Were you just going to leave? I was hoping we could have our usual post-class dinner.”
“Oh. I wasn’t sure if you still wanted to,” Auggie admitted.
“Of course, I do—they’re the highlight of my week.”
Auggie found that hard to believe, but he wasn’t going to say anything and make Thor change his mind.
“Why did you think I stopped you?”
“To scold me for my restlessness.” Auggie didn’t know what it was about Thor, but he couldn’t seem to keep his mouth shut around the man.
“It wasn’t that bad. Unusual, though. Anything on your mind distracting you from your usual modeling Zen?”
“Oh, just life.” Auggie left it at that, managing not to spill about his crushtohis crush.
“Well, it wasn’t so bad that it hindered anyone from their work. And you did stop anytime I cleared my throat, so no harm, no foul.”
The elevator delivered them to the ground floor and they went out. Auggie shivered, wishing he’d brought a heavier sweater, or maybe even a jacket. As soon as evening hit, lately, he could really tell they were into fall and winter was coming.
Thor unzipped his own sweater, took it off, and put it around Auggie’s shoulders.
“You don’t have to do that.”
