Page 40 of Daddy's Lesson
“Lennon, my man!” Archer exclaimed, offering his hand for the complicated handshake we’d perfected when we were roommates our sophomore year, while Audrey looked on, giggling.
“How’s it going with the art professor?” The question was asked with the wink-wink, nudge-nudge tone he’d also perfected during our college days.
“It’s going.” I tried to hold back a grin and not show my hand, but probably failed miserably.
He rubber-necked to look around the lounge. “She didn’t come with you tonight, so it can’t be going that good.”
My pride forced me to answer, even though I should have ignored it. “She’s not a prior member,” I reminded him. “It’s not exactly her scene.”
“Oh, right. ‘Cause she’s old enough to be your mother.”
“Shut up.”
“No, seriously. How’s it going? Tell me about your trip to Cougar town.”
The glass of scotch I’d poured him was halfway to his lips when his arm jerked from the hard nudge Audrey gave him, sloshing the amber liquid all over the mahogany bar top.
“Ignore him,” she told me. “It’s been a rough week in court. I’ve noticed that the harder he has to work in court, the more juvenile he becomes out of court.”
“That makes sense. He did the same thing during finals week.”
“And before the boards,” Bas piped up his agreement from across the room.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Archer dismissed our good-natured teasing with a flick of his wrist, as if he were shooing it away. He took a swig from his glass, then narrowed his eyes. “Is it really going good, ‘cause like… I know you have a thing for her and all that, but she really didn’t seem like she was interested in anything but accountability.”
I rolled my eyes. “Like you would know. You were doing nothing more than the bare minimum and taking everyone at face value.”
I could tell my words hit with a zing they weren’t intended to have. Archer’s eyes narrowed. “It’s a business. She was a client. It’s her job to tell me what I need to know, not mine to drag it out of her.”
I eyeballed him and poured myself another shot. It’s not like I was upset that he hadn’t paid her any mind. It was clear his attentions were elsewhere, and he’d been detached from his clients keeping things strictly professional, something the majority of us hadn’t been capable of.
“You’re right,” I agreed jovially, “And I’m certainly not upset that you didn’t, and I got to take over your contract. But also, I don’t feel bad for digging deeper. This was my one chance to shoot my shot. Of course I had to take it.”
“Of course,” Archer agreed smoothly, grabbing a napkin to wipe up the spill he’d made and clapping Audrey on the bottom, presumably for making him spill in the first place.
He picked up his drink and walked over to take a seat near Bas and Nyla. Audrey sat in his lap. I joined them. Theo stayed put across the room.
“So, any official business that needs discussing?” I asked Nyla, even though I’d seen her at work the day before and we’d gone over new marketing materials and updated the website. That was the business end of things. The other side, like the actual day-to-day workings of the clubs and the Rent-A-Daddy business were usually reserved for these Friday night meetings.
“Not really.” Nyla shrugged, sliding off Bas’ lap to sit beside him, leaning forward to grab her wine glass off the table. She held it but didn’t drink. “It’s been kind of slow. No new Rent-A-Daddy clients. It could be that the need isn’t as great as we originally anticipated.”
“It could also be that the Daddy pool is dwindling, and now that I’m off the market there’s no need for people to sign up,” Archer put in.
I knew he was only half joking. Last month, we’d had a sudden influx of new clients, and all of them, including my Zoe, had requested Archer as their Daddy. Archer had so many appointments he’d had to hire an assistant to keep them all straight, and the rest, as they say, was history.
“Anyone playing tonight?” I asked, as Bain and Jasmine entered.
I jumped to my feet to offer them drinks, but Bain gestured for me to sit and stalked behind the bar himself, grabbing two bottles of water and giving one to Jasmine. “We are,” he said, holding his beverage in the air as if to explain why he wasn’t drinking.
“God, I can’t wait,” Jasmine exclaimed, sliding into a chair between him and me. “It’s been a crazy week, and I feel like I’m about to crawl out of my skin. I’ve been looking forward to a good play session, hoping it will take the edge off.”
“Everything okay?” I asked, concern furrowing my brow.
Jasmine twisted the cap off her water and chugged half the bottle. “Everything is fine, it’s just… kids, man. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Doctors’ appointments, field trips, dance classes, permission slips, science projects, reading logs. Sometimes school is so much, I look forward to summer. Sure, they’ll be home and underfoot all day, but at least there’s less expectations and deadlines.”
“Speaking of deadlines, are you still working from home?”
I didn’t miss the glance she exchanged with Bain before shaking her head. “No, we decided I had enough to do as a wife and mother without the added stress of a job.”