Page 45 of Deep Daddy

‘My outfit?’ Sammy said, not sure what Tucker was talking about. ‘But-’

‘But nothing!’ Tucker replied. ‘Trust me. I’m your manager. I know exactly what’s good for you. Now, hurry up. We’ve got some naughty footage to record!’

Sammy gasped but he didn’t say anything. Stunned into silence, Sammy’s heart felt sad. As Sammy followed behind Tucker, his only wish was that the day could come to an end as soon as possible.

What does Tucker mean by naughty fun?

I don’t like the sound of this.

I don’t like the sound of this at all…

* * *

Sammy was finally done for the day. And he was glad that there was at least no more filming to do, even if that meant he had to work on writing a blogpost to go live the following day.

‘Urgh. I’m no good at writing stuff like this,’ Sammy sighed, his mind still distracted by the embarrassment he had felt at filming in nothing but a pair of skimpy gold shorts earlier on. ‘Zozo, I don’t think I can keep on doing this.’

Sammy and Zozo were back in their apartment.

They were sitting at the small kitchen table with a big blanket over them. Tucker had apparently cancelled the heating so that more money could be invested into buying a new camera for them to film on. Well, this is what he had told Sammy anyhow. Sammy was beginning to have some serious doubts about whether Tucker was truly looking after his money well at all.

This just doesn’t feel right.

I don’t think Tucker is a good man.

But I feel… trapped.

Sammy wanted to burst into tears. Cold, tired and hungry wasn’t a good place to be – and especially when Sammy cast his mind back to just how happy he was living in Harrison’s house. The roaring fire, the fully stocked kitchen, the endless supply of Daddy-snuggles.

‘I give up,’ Sammy said, his voice full of sadness. ‘This blog can write itself. Come on Zozo, let’s watch a movie in bed.’

Sammy picked Zozo up and the pair of them walked into the bedroom. It was so cold that Sammy didn’t even change into his pajamas. Instead, Sammy simply got under the covers and wrapped both him and Zozo up as tightly as he could.

Sammy tried to warm up, but it was difficult with the whole apartment so chilly. Even the prospect of watching a movie didn’t seem appealing.

Lying in bed with no motivation and feeling physically and emotionally drained, Sammy’s mind cast back to one of the moves his family made as a child. It had been across from the West coast to the East, and Sammy remembered how the new house didn’t even have a working heating system for the first three weeks. Each night had been a long, horrible experience of shivering so hard it wasn’t possible to get to sleep.

No, no, no, stay positive.

Life is different now.

I have friends, security, a… Daddy.

But Sammy knew that his positive thinking was only worth so much. Right now, he felt like his life was about as far from perfect as he could possibly imagine. Something had to change, he had to somehow work out a way of escaping from Tucker’s clutches and getting control of his money back at the same time too.

Sammy remembered how when the family had moved to that cold, miserable house they had all eventually decided to sleep in the same bed until the heating issue got resolved. That had actually been kinda fun.

‘I wish we had Daddy here,’ Sammy said, holding onto Zozo extra tightly. ‘Hmmm. Speaking of Daddy…’

Sammy didn’t have his phone with him – it was with Tucker.

But Sammy did have his Kindle. And maybe this meant that he could be closer to Harrison without actually speaking to him. After a quick search, Sammy found Harrison’s most well-known novel and downloaded it.

It may not have been a movie, and Sammy was definitely worried about it being too grown up for him, but Sammy was desperate to feel a sense of closeness to Harrison and figured this might just be the way to do it.

But just as Sammy touched the screen to begin reading, the Kindle’s battery warning flashed, and it turned itself off. This was the last straw for Sammy.

Everything that could go wrong was going wrong.