Page 127 of Daddy's Pride
I ran across the room, jumped on the bed and high-fived the paw headboard first. “It’s so bouncy!”
Chase stood there staring at Henry and me.
“Are you okay, Chase?”
“I-I don’t know what to do.” Poor guy was lost. I wondered if his Daddy bought him any toys.
“What do you want to do?” Daddy had taken the time to label the containers on the shelves he’d filled. “We have blocks, cars, dinosaurs. Oh, I got a new tea set. Want to have tea party?”
“Okay,” Henry and Chase answered at the same time.
“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” I hollered as I ran out of my new playroom. “Need help.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing but I need help moving my tea set and my stuffies. We’re gonna have a tea party.” Before Daddy could pick anything up, I hugged him again. “Thank you for my room and the bestest birthday ever, Daddy.”
“You are very welcome, sweet boy.” Daddy helped me get it all moved then went back to play with the other Daddies.
“Hey, look!” Henry ran over to the shelf and came back with one of the containers. “You have a whole bucket of pretend food.”
“Ooohhh, my Daddy is the bestest!”
Henry passed around the food while I filled our teacups. “Okay, pinkies out like this.” I showed them how Daddy did it. “Nummy, nummy, nummy.”
Chase played but didn’t say anything, just stared off at the row of new stuffies on the shelf. “Do you want to hold one of my new stuffies? You can if you want to.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything, though he did return with a teddy bear.
“What should we name them?” I thought it would be fun if he helped me out with that. Plus, he was super new to being a Little, or a Middle, I wasn’t sure which he was but he’d figure it out on his own. Either way, he was still my friend. “I like your tattoos.”
“Thank you. This one is my band logo.” He pointed to a big knife with blood on it.
“Embrace the Fear. Oh, that sounds scary.” I didn’t like blood.
“It’s not. It’s fun, but overwhelming sometimes. When I get off stage, I have all this nervous energy and I don’t know what to do with it.”
That didn’t sound like fun. “Do you have any toys?” I asked him. “Coloring or playing with my stuffies helps me after work sometimes. Now that I have a Daddy, it’s a lot easier to unwind.”
“I have some coloring books but there are usually a lot of people around, so I don’t bring them out much. I live with my best friend, David, and his boyfriend, Jordan. Jordan is a boy but not a Little. They’re the ones who told me to go to the club. I’m glad I did because I made new friends.”
“Friends forever!” Henry cheered.
Chase finally smiled. “Yes, friends forever. I like you guys, you play with me.”
“You can come over and play with me anytime.” And I meant it. Chase needed his friends to help him play better.
“Same. My Daddies let me and Jamie have sleepovers.”
“So, what are you going to name your new bear?” I asked Chase.
“My new bear? He’s yours, you should name him.”
“Nope, it’s my birthday so I get to choose what to do and that prezzie is for you.” It was so easy to be nice to Chase and he clearly needed that stuffie more than I did.
“Thank you,” he whispered as he stared at the bear. “It’s my first stuffie.”
“Cheers to his first stuffie!” Henry held his cup up and we tapped ours to his.