Page 409 of Unexpected Ever After

Professor Daddy

A Cocktails and Coloring Age-Play Romance, #1

Rene Webb

Chapter 1

Violet

“Professor, you made it!”

“Yay!”

My friends chirp excitedly as I reach their table. I unwrap my rose-colored cashmere pashmina, plop down onto the booth seat, and exhale, “Finally.”

“We ordered a few apps,” Samantha tells me as our usual waiter, Tony, makes his way over with a tray laden with dishes.

“Chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, and mac and cheese balls.” Tony smiles, placing the delicious-smelling plates onto the center of the table. “Can I get you ladies anything else?”

“An order of nachos, please,” Fawn orders, looking up from the cat picture she’s meticulously coloring with crayons. The veterinarian can be a bit obsessive about staying in the lines. I’ve often wondered if coloring is truly relaxing for her.

“Yes! An order of nachos sounds delicious,” I tell him, plucking a mozzarella cheese stick from the plate and dunking it into the marinara sauce. “And a cosmopolitan, please.”

Having missed lunch due to an unplanned meeting with the library curator between lectures, I hum softly as I take a bite of the perfectly crispy stick.

“An old-fashioned and an order of the glazed meatballs too,” Samantha adds, looking up from where she’s cracking open her Disney Princess coloring book. She breaks the spine, forcing the pages to lie flat on the table.

“Good choice,” I mutter around my bite as I carefully eat the piping hot cheesy, gooey goodness. “I’m starving. I didn’t eat lunch.”

“I’ll put your orders in and be right back with your cocktails.” Tony smiles and moves off to a chorus of thank yous.

“Skipping lunch?” Samantha asks sternly, looking up from selecting a colored pencil from her meticulously organized case.

I stick out my tongue of her, grinning as I reach into my bag to pull out my coloring book and pencil case. Fawn giggles around the chicken finger she’s bitten into.

“The turn-of-the-century cameras arrived today.” They’ll understand how excited I was about their arrival. I’ve been talking about little else for weeks. “So I got a little distracted between my two classes.”

“We’re all coming to the unveiling,” Samantha says, and Fawn nods. My heart warms at the love and support I receive from my friends.

“How’s the case going?” I ask Samantha. She’s a lawyer in the district attorney’s office and has been working on prosecuting a local drug dealer. Even if I didn’t know her, the news has been on every local blog and newspaper.

“You know I can’t discuss a pending case,” she states, waving a bright pink pencil at me. “Off the record, things look good for a successful prosecution.”

“You’re going to kick ass, Sam,” Fawn states, pointing a well-loved purple crayon in her direction. “You always do.”

Samantha blushes and refocuses on her coloring.

“And what about you, doc?” I snag a chicken finger from the plate, giggling. “Did you neuter anyone today?”

“Not today.” She grins. “Today, I cuddled some kittens who came in for their vaccinations. But tomorrow is neutering day at the clinic.”

“Do you do humans too?” Samantha asks with a smile before thickly swallowing a mozzarella stick. “I know a few colleagues who would benefit from it.”

Fawn and I burst into laughter.

This is why I force myself to join my friends even when I’m tired and would rather go home to curl up on the sofa and watch Beauty and the Beast for the trillionth time. In the end, I always feel happier and lighter once I spend time with them.

Shortly after moving to town five years ago, when I took the position as a history of photography professor, I became active in various local groups as a way to make friends. I joined the library’s book club, the cycling club the local gym organizes, and I attended several adult coloring evenings. There, I met a group of professionals who are also littles in their private lives. We now meet weekly at the local ski resort’s restaurant for cocktails and coloring.

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