Page 1 of Taste Me Daddy

Chapter 1

Korben

Korben opened his kitchen window just a little bit at the bottom so that the sound of early morning birdsong could make its way inside.

‘Ahhh, sing my little birdies,’ Korben said, the musical chirping delighting his just as much as it did every single morning. ‘I wish you could come with me to work. But I guess I’ll have to make do with Spotify on the speaker.’

Korben smiled and continued to prepare his lunchbox for the day.

Carefully chopping up a tasty salad with a healthy side of hummus and pitta bread, Korben was already looking forward to diving into his lunch – and it wasn’t even 8:00AM yet!

Korben was twenty-two years old and the proud owner of his own business. Korben’s Kandies specialized in making candy that was both sweet to taste and also designed with the most wonderfully bespoke wrapping. It was early days with the business, but already Korben felt incredibly proud of how far he had come in such a small space of time.

Having been through law school, Korben was able to use his sharp, highly trained analytical skills to build the business up from scratch and do a good enough job to already have his candies placed in various high end stores and boutique outlets.

Money wasn’t Korben’s motivation though.

In fact, Korben really didn’t care about money at all.

As long as Korben had enough money to pay the bills each month, all he needed to be happy was the chance to go to his little workshop every day and work on developing his candies and all the other design and practical elements that went along with running his own business.

‘Two or three apples?’ Korben mused, looking at his fruit bowl and lightly tracing his fingers across the selection of rosy-red apples that all looked as scrumptious and tasty as each other. ‘I think… two. One for my morning snack, and one for after lunch.’

Korben took the apples and put them in his lunchbox alongside the salad box.

‘Time for me to scoot,’ Korben said, looking up at the wall and seeing the clock tick over from 07:59 to 08:00. ‘I don’t want to get in trouble with my boss…’

Korben laughed at his goofy joke, the same one he told himself every day just before he departed home.

Korben had been left his house in his Great Aunt’s will and even though it might have been one of the smaller houses in the neighborhood, Korben absolutely adored it. Gradually, Korben was putting the finishing touches on making it his own style and vibe.

As much as Korben loved his Great Aunt, they weren’t exactly on the same page style-wise. But with a few licks of paint and some colorful pieces of art later, the house was looking and feeling like Korben’s home.

Korben knew he had a long day ahead of his though, and as much as he would have enjoyed taking his time at home, he knew that he did in fact need to get his butt into gear.

With the recent growth of the business, Korben had realized that he realistically would need a bigger studio so he could expand his day to day operations and maybe take on one or two members of staff.

This was all well and good, but to safely expand the business Korben knew that he needed one thing that he currently didn’t have much of… namely money – and lots of it.

With this in mind, Korben had been busy putting together a presentation to go to potential investors with. Had there been any other option, Korben would have raised the money himself, but the last thing Korben wanted to do was to use his home as security on a loan. The risk of losing his house was something that Korben just couldn’t contemplate.

So with that in mind, Korben had somewhat reluctantly accepted that he would need to find an outside investor. This would be a way of getting a cash injection into Korben’s Kandies – but that didn’t mean that Korben was entirely happy at the prospect of potentially having someone that he needed to answer to.

In fact, one of Korben’s main demands when it came to securing the funding would be that the investor take a back seat role and not even attempt to involve themselves in the running of the business.

Korben valued his independence fiercely and wasn’t about to let anyone else step in and tell his what to do!

Of course, Korben knew that anyone looking to invest their money into his business would probably try to assert their authority in some way, but backed by his legal knowledge and determined streak, Korben was more than confident of ensuring that the only person having creative input in Korben’s Kandies was his.

Just as Korben was packing Jazz, his squishy shark stuffie, into his backpack, Korben saw that he had a message on his cell phone from his friend Louie…

Hey Korben! I know it’s early, but I figured you’d either be at the workshop or about to leave already. Anyhoo… I was wondering if you wanted to have a stuffie tea party either later today or maybe tomorrow? I know it’s only been a week, but it feels like we haven’t hung out in aaaages! Let me know (and please say YES hehe). Louie XoXo

Korben giggled and felt thankful to have such a good friend as Louie. The fact that Louie was a Little too was just perfect. Together, the pair of them loved nothing more than having a playdate, talking about Daddies, and generally getting themselves and their stuffies in as much wholesome mischief as possible.

However a combination of Korben’s work schedule and Louie now being with his Forever Daddy meant that it was getting a little bit harder to schedule time with one another. But that wasn’t going to stop Korben making plans with his BFF…

Yippee! I was going to message you last night, Louie. But I fell asleep on the couch again. Grrrr! But… yes, let’s do something. I’ll message later once I’ve got my work done and we can make some fun plans. PS, say hi to Max from me! Korben XoXoXo

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