Page 39 of Daddy to Go

Mary pouted. “You never do that for me. Bitch.”

“You don’t make my knees shake and my mouth hang open,” I replied, sticking out my tongue.

Mary looked at me proudly. “Look at you with the dirty talk. I like this new Abby. Now I can make disgusting sex jokes at you and you’ll get it. It’s like leveling up in a video game, except instead of getting stronger, you get even more sarcastic. You level up enough and people won’t know whether you are just angry, or funny.”

I popped another piece of donut in my mouth and grinned.

“If Ryder has anything to say about it, I’ll be the Queen of Sarcasm by the time my twenty-first birthday comes around.”

Mary shook her head.

“Lucky you. My last date ended because the guy had a curfew. And I don’t mean we went to dinner and then he dropped me off with a kiss goodbye. I mean, we were back seat, parked out at the old factory on Interstate 81, my mouth wrapped around his cock, and he looked down at me and said, ‘Oh shit, I gotta go. My mom is going to be so mad.’ I literally said, ‘What?’ with a dick in my mouth.”

We both laughed.

“I don’t know what’s more disturbing. A, you making out by the old factory where homeless people live; B, he was thinking about his mother while getting some; or C, that he finds it so normal to have a curfew that he tells people about it.”

Mary put her hand out. “I know! As far as the location, everybody needs a little entertainment sometimes. There was another car there too, all steamed up, with the girl moaning while riding some guy to town. Let me tell you, the place washappening.” I giggled but Mary just shrugged. “Andhe texted me this morning about finishing it up but I told him my mother said he couldn’t come over to play.”

I snorted, covering my mouth. “That is not nice. Ha! Oh my God. You are too much.”

Mary pointed her spoon at me, now eating pudding. She was pigging out this morning, which actually was nice to see since I was usually the one with the most food.

“It’s too much maybe for the momma’s boy, but just right for the type of hot guy I want to take me back to hobo factory number four.”

I didn’t even know what to say to my friend anymore. I laughed and glanced down at my watch.

“Oh, shit. I need to get to work. I have a lot to catch up on since my head was in the clouds yesterday and I pretty much just said, screw it. Call me tonight.”

Mary waved. “Yep. Tell midget porno guy I said hello.”

“I will,” I said through a laugh. “I’ll send one of them over to you later to satisfy those needs.”

Mary winked. “You’re starting to get it now. Good. Send two.”

As I walked out the door Ryder sent another sweet message. Between Mary’s ridiculous jokes and Ryder showing me so much attention, I was on cloud nine. Now all I had to do was make it to Friday and then I could see his face again. I was dead set on having the conversation about “our future” during our next meeting, because it’d been on my mind non-stop.

But I wanted to make sure I was prepared for the worst. I wanted to be able to stand there, no tears, no anger, and be okay if he said he was going to move on to his next job. While I would most definitely be devastated, I would save the ugly tears for a private time. But despite my preparation for the worst, I still hoped for the best, or at least something somewhere in the middle.

After all, men can be pigs. They can be shallow and unemotional but that was not Ryder. He truly felt something for me deeper than physical attraction. I could see it on his face, and hear it in his voice. And he was a good guy, there was no denying it. I really couldn’t imagine him just telling mehasta la vista, baby.

Then again, I had a scarred past, and shouldn’t be surprised no matter what happened. After all my father pretty much flipped us the bird and said peace out. I can still remember what my mom’s face looked like when she read his note left on the table. It looked like someone hit her, out of nowhere, with a giant metal wrecking ball. So I guess men could be that way, but I really didn’t want to believe that it was Ryder. I wanted to believe that I knew him better than that.

I guess I would have to wait for Friday to find out.

* * *

“Happy Friday, Abby,”one of my colleagues yelled as I pushed the door open with my back.

“You too, Heidi,” I replied with a smile.

My arms were full, carrying all the stuff I had brought in for our normal Friday fun day at work. We did finger foods all day, wore crazy hats, and talked in accents when we answered the phones. At first my boss was terrified it was going to affect our ratings, but when they came back the next week, they had spiked, starting that Friday. Ever since then, he had implemented a mandatory fun day on Fridays. Mandatory and fun didn’t really go together, but hey, I got to munch on good food and wear a unicorn horn on my head. Why would anyone complain?

I tossed the box in the trunk of my car and took the unicorn horn off, hanging that on my rearview window. Checking myself out in the mirror I found that my makeup had lasted, and there was even a little glitter on my cheeks from the horn. I looked cute, and I couldn’t wait to wrap my cuteness around his hotness. I was dying to see Ryder, and I bounced in my seat, practically vibrating with energy.

I put on music and tapped my hands on the steering wheel as I made my way to his apartment. We had still been texting non-stop, except for this morning, when I oddly did not get my normal, “Hello, Beautiful,” text message. I didn’t think anything of it, though. Fridays were wildly busy at his office, so he was probably just slammed. Either way, I looked forward to seeing his surprised smile as I handed him my homemade brownies that were in the work box in the trunk before getting on to thereallyfun stuff.

How could a man turn down brownies after a long day at the office? They can’t. That’s the entire point.