Page 45 of Bear’s House

"He trained you well," he said to Daddy, who shook his head.

"He only knows the theory. In practice, he keeps doing it over and over."

We all laughed.

Our drinks arrived shortly after. The waitress set them around the table and asked if we wanted to order any food. I got the ham and cheese croissant. Daddy ordered a grilled cheese sandwich. Esteban and Rick decided to split a sandwich.

"Be right back," she said, and again I noticed her staring at my collar again. I decided to say something to Daddy.

"Do you think she's part of the community? She keeps staring at my collar," I asked.

Esteban laughed.

"Who knows. Maybe she just thinks it's cool. I noticed she was staring at Rick's too," he said. She had, in fact, been staring at his as well.

"Can I ask her?" I asked Daddy. He seemed to think it over for a second.

"What do you think?" he asked Esteban.

"If your boy doesn't mind, I don't see any harm in it. Worst case she asks what it is, and we just say it's a fashion thing," Esteban said. We laughed.

When she came back carrying more things, she kept staring again. She set my croissant down in front of me, and I waved her closer. She looked confused.

"I want to whisper something in your ear," I said.

She seemed comfortable with the idea — probably because it was pretty clear I wasn't trying to flirt with her and I was sitting there with Daddy beside me. I leaned in and asked:

"Are you looking at my collar because you want to say something to me?"

She pulled back, looking shocked at the question, but let out a loud laugh, glanced around the table, and said:

"Could we maybe swap numbers, and I'll ask you over text?"

I nodded, and asked, cheeky, right in front of everyone:

"Can I, Daddy?"

Daddy also seemed to find it very funny that I'd done that. The girl looked even more shocked, like that had been the confirmation of her entire night.

"Sure," Daddy said. I handed her my phone, she typed in her number, and I saw her name was Bella.

"Text me, I've got some questions to ask you," she said, and walked off, but then seemed to remember something and came back. "Can I get anyone anything else?" she added quickly.

We all shook our heads.

"Bella, we're good for now," Daddy said, as always, speaking for the whole group.

My croissant was delicious. I texted Bella a "hi" and she didn't reply because she was working, but I filed that away for later.

We kept talking about other things too — complained about our jobs, obviously, and I told everyone about Mikey having to work overtime even though he was a manager at his branch, because his coworkers always dumped extra work on him, and he was so tired of it. "It's so unfair," I said, upset. I hated that my brother suffered without it being his choice. "I really want him to find another job or just quit for good and stay home. It's so exhausting for him, right, Daddy?" I asked.

Daddy nodded, thoughtful too.

"He has to keep up a mask for hours a day, and people always take advantage of him. I try to talk to him about changing it, but it's hard."

I found out Rick worked as a salesperson at a store and Max worked online. He only said that much, and I looked at Daddy, wondering if I was understanding him right.

"You mean you have OnlyFans?" I asked, and the whole table kind of stared at me.