Page 6 of Tying Little Tay (Littles of Rawhide Ranch #13)

Guilia

Work was… strange.

They headed straight to the kitchen to do the morning prep and the rest of the staff were already there, working away. Guilia had to take ice cream off the menu, which had Tay looking more than a little shamefaced, but aside from that it was business as usual.

There were five of them working in the Italian restaurant.

Guilia was Head Chef, and oversaw all the food, as well as running the pass and making the ice cream.

Her team was comprised of Tay (of pasta and pranks fame), Lily (who made the most delicious hand-stretched pizzas), Nico (the king of antipasti), and Hannah (who was the dessert queen).

The five of them had been working together for a number of years.

It was hard work. The team, with the exception of Guilia who chose her own schedule and worked far more hours by choice, worked longer hours four days a week in return for three days off rather than the standard two.

Chefs and line workers from the other kitchens rotated in to cover when people had days off, but they spent a lot of time together.

They had to, really.

But that didn’t mean that they couldn’t be friends also.

Guilia had a rule that twice a week before service, the whole team came and had lunch together before they opened for customers—cooking staff and front of house—it reminded everyone that they were a family.

Another mini-family inside the larger Rawhide one.

Because everyone had their own things. Tay, Nico and Hannah all lived in the Littles’ Wing, and British Lily had her own life out on Rawhide Ridge, being the only other Top in the kitchen.

The Littles spent most of their time out of work playing together, and socializing, and she wasn’t entirely sure what Lily did up on Rawhide Ridge.

It was only Guilia who had a room in the Submissives Suites.

She’d taken one look at the layout of the Ranch when she’d first arrived and spoken to Derek about needing a room close to the restaurant.

She liked to get up super early and bake fresh bread for the bruschetta, or even work on a new ice-cream flavor, and she hadn’t liked the idea of having to risk waking everyone else up so early.

That didn’t mean, however, that she was a submissive.

Far from it.

But she had made friends amongst the service subs, and they were good neighbors to have, rarely getting into too much trouble, and usually pretty quiet—even if that was because they spent most of their evenings in the Dungeon.

It worried her though. It had been so long since she’d had any kind of dynamic, that she’d simply gotten out of practice. She woke, went to work, came home, went to sleep.

Her life had gotten stale. Tired.

And then Tay had appeared.

A smiley ball of sunshine, wrapped up in the cutest genderqueer package.

She let her gaze fall upon Tay now. They’d jammed a hairnet over their short, riotous curls, the shorn sides of their head still fuzzy.

Black leather boots combined with a tartan skirt and an oversized sweatshirt.

Guilia envied how comfortable they looked in their own skin.

As if they were a crow stealing shiny elements from every single person they passed.

You could never tell how Tay was going to present—sometimes it was more femme, other days masc, and sometimes almost agender in their androgyny. But no matter how they were dressed, they were always themself. Light-hearted, cheerful and mischievous.

They didn’t look cheerful now.

The kitchen had received a specific request the week before, and so Tay was concentrating very very hard on making different-colored pasta.

“If they want rainbow pasta, they’ll have rainbow pasta!” they’d declared the day before. “I’ve got natural colorings I can use; it’ll still be healthy.” And true to their word, there was an array of colorful pasta shapes on their work bench.

Lily was focusing on prepping her pizza dough.

The Brit was very quiet; kept pretty much to herself, and rarely joined in the general hubbub of conversation, but she had a true talent for creating the most incredible pizza topping pairings.

Her current special was down for their lunch today: the pig and fig, slices of prosciutto crisped up and paired with roasted figs and goat cheese.

It was sinful how good that woman’s pizzas were.

“Chef?” That was Hannah.

“Yes, Hannah?”

“Is it just ice cream as a dish in and of itself off the menu, or in general.”

“In general,” she said, and out the corner of her eye, saw Tay pull a face of discomfort. “The ice cream for breakfast prank this morning? That used up my stock of ice cream. Please offer whipped cream as an alternative.”

Hannah’s eyes widened but she nodded. “I’ll let Billy know.”

“I think everyone on the Ranch knows by this point,” muttered Tay, and then, pulling themself up to their full height, they admitted their culpability.

Guilia didn’t know how the rest of the team were going to react, but she was pleasantly surprised. Though clearly disappointed, no one was angry with Tay at all, Nico even going so far as to congratulate them on their excellent heist skills.

He hushed up pretty quickly when he saw Guilia’s face. As ingenious as the prank had been—and she wasn’t above admitting that—she also didn’t want people praising Tay for it.

Tay needed to learn how to use their words and ask for attention, rather than acting out and bratting in increasingly chaotic and prank-filled ways.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like bratting.

Tay made for a very adorable brat, but it was rather that Guilia got the feeling that they weren’t bratting for the right reasons.

She wanted Tay to be able to act out for the joy of it.

Not because they didn’t think that they were worthy of positive attention.