Page 69 of Daddy's Pride

"Babygirl, it works though, doesn't it?" I winked at her and she rolled her eyes.

"I fell for it." She shook her head. "What happened afterward?"

"Nothing much, they had dinner, exchanged phone numbers, and they talked for about a year as friends. Dad didn't have any family other than the guys he rode with, and he liked having someone to talk to. Mama didn't think Dad would like her romantically.”

Asshole teenager or not, I’d seen how much it hurt Mama believing what she’d felt was one-sided. Being young I hadn’t known what to say to make it better.

“One weekend Dad said he was going to be in the area and wondered if he could see her. She offered to let him crash with us. I was a bit dubious when I met him. Not that he wasn't a nice guy, but I was an asshole who was used to having my mama to myself. He was around for about a week, and he surprised her with a goodbye kiss." I paused to take a drink and a few more bites, and I drew it out because her little, impatient huffs were adorable.

"And…"

"Impatient. He stayed away for about two weeks and then he was back banging on the front door. They've been inseparable ever since. They are disturbingly obsessed with each other." Honestly, I didn’t believe obsessed came close to describing the relationship between Charlotte and Bruiser Barrister.

"Was he like a dad?"

"Oh, big time. He'd always wanted kids, but he was never able to have any. The first time I called him Dad, he teared up. He bought me my first motorcycle when I was sixteen, to the horror of Mama. I had the largest cheering section at graduation. The sound of revving engines drowned out the applause.” Bruiser had taught me so many lessons about life acceptance. “He taught me how a woman should be treated with love and respect. But more importantly he made my mama happy. Typical teenager I was, I hadn't fully understood how miserable she was before him, my mother made mama's life hell, after she came out and before, actually."

"Did you know I was Trans when you invited me here?" she asked.

I finished what was left on my plate and picked up a napkin to wipe my mouth. "I don't assume anything. I'm a Nonbinary person who loves my suits and a bit of makeup. I have cis-male friends who love skirts and dresses. My mother is a straight Trans woman, and my dad is a straight cis-male. People say ‘love is love’ so much that it lost its meaning for the most part. There's always a hierarchy in groups. You didn't correct me when I said I bought a beautiful woman a drink, that's all I needed to know."

"Thanks."

"For what?" I asked as I just sat there as she slowly finished off her dinner and shook her head when I asked if she wanted more. "Are you going to answer what you're thanking me for?"

"I left home without telling anyone except Freida. She'd always known. We made all these plans; the minute she knew I was accepted to school she said it was time to go. Next day, everything we owned was packed into our car and we took off. Halfway here, I changed in a gas station bathroom into my favorite dress. I never looked back. I'd secretly started hormones a few years earlier and the changes started to get noticeable."

"Are you happy here? That you don't have to hide?"

"Yes, it's freeing, but terrifying too. I've been thinking about why I felt so different since I was eleven, but outside my apartment I was always waiting for the floor to fall out from under my feet. I feel guilty I haven’t told my parents but part of me… I don't know, I'm scared they won't understand."

"You're not alone. Mama said she'd felt the same way. She'd worked so hard to be something she wasn't because she didn't want to lose me. Stayed in a marriage that was slowly killing pieces of her. She hit her lowest and over dinner one night as mother was bitching about a long list of things that mama always did wrong, Mama blurted out she was Trans. A week later there were divorce papers and a nasty fight over custody for the next year. Have you dated?" I asked to shift the subject. Those weren’t happy years I cared to remember.

"I hooked up with a few guys in my hometown who were all in the closet, or whenever Freida and I went on vacation. She's told me recently that I'm acting like a nun."

I snorted. "That's pretty bad."

"No it's not, two years isn't that long." She glared at me as I grimaced. "Be nice. Look what happened tonight, I hooked up with some strange guy and then came home with the owner of the club where I found said hookup."

"Terrible sex, I was your reward for suffering through." I smirked at her adorable glare. There was this almost uncontrollable urge to kiss the tip of her scrunched nose.

"How do you know it was terrible?" she asked.

"Five minutes of bathroom sex with a guy who has terrible taste in cologne… Why do you think I asked if you wanted to clean up?"

"No wonder you're single."

"I was made handsome to make up for my lack of charm."

"You're an odd one," she whispered as she leaned back in her chair and reached for her glass.

"Normalcy is boring."

She glanced at the microwave display and then back at me. "It's getting late." She set her glass back down on the table.

"Ready to escape already?" I asked.

"No, but I'm sure you have better things to do."