Page 13 of Taste Me Daddy

‘They’d be with us, silly!’ Korben giggled. ‘And I think Jazz and Huggle would be the best co-pilots a Little could ask for.’

‘Me too,’ Louie said, giving his stuffie Huggle a kiss on his squidgy tummy. ‘Shall we have some juice?’

‘Yes, but let’s travel there in our spaceships,’ Korben said, lying down and pulling the bottom of the duvet up to his face. ‘Takeoff in three… two… one… WHOOSH!’

The two Little friends laughed raucously together as they imagined travelling through space toward a new solar system that housed a planet with the nicest known juice boxes in the whole universe.

‘Not bad,’ Korben said, pretending to slurp on an exotic, inter-planetary juice. ‘But I think we’ve got some even nicer ones in my refrigerator. Come on, let’s go. Travelling across the universe is thirsty work.’

With that, the two friends got up from the den and toddled over to get some much needed refreshments.

Korben knew that he had a busy time ahead of his after his playdate with Louie ended, but so far it had been a great day – and with a juice and a nap to come, it was only going to get better!

The playdate with Louie was a whole heap of fun. But more than that, it was inspirational too…

‘Okay, so I’m thinking more glitter effects on the wrapper,’ Korben said, staring at his iMac screen and fiddling with the mouse to change the shading on his new candy design.

Korben was at his workshop and feeling positively inspired. This would often happen after a playdate or being in Little Space, and he was had learned to make the most of it.

Having always been creative, Korben was the kind of person who had to act whenever he felt a new idea or concept pop into his head. It didn’t matter if it was in the middle of the night or halfway through eating a lunchtime sandwich – when inspiration called, Korben simply had to reply!

‘Now what kind of center will this space themed candy have?’ Korben mused, thinking back to how fun it was to play pretend astronauts with Louie. ‘Space is cold, vast, and kind of spooky. But it’s also full of hot stars and colorful planets too. Hmmm… what do you think, Jazz?’

Korben looked across to Jazz for help, but by the looks of things his cherished stuffie was still fast asleep after Korben and Louie’s nap time.

‘Some help you are!’ Korben giggled. ‘I guess it’s all on me this time.’

The reality was that Korben absolutely adored having the sole responsibility for designing and bringing his candies to life. Ever since he could remember, Korben had loved the feeling of taking an idea and running with it.

Whether it was his Barbie dolls or his own dress-up costumes, Korben would imagine the most creative scenarios and fully commit to them for hours on end. Not much had changed, even now he was in his early twenties.

The only real blip occurred when Korben went to law school.

Having always done well at school, it kind of felt like law school was the natural next move. Korben’s father was a lawyer, and so was his father before him. His mom had also worked as a lawyer for some very high profile charities, and his reputation was known the world over.

You could say that the law ran in Korben’s family.

But Korben knew from his very first day at law school that he simply wasn’t cut out for that life. Of course, he didn’t want to disappoint his parents and drop out before graduating. Korben could see that it was probably sensible to finish, graduate, and then see how he felt.

However graduating and then facing up to the possibility of a life spent in an office or courtroom was too much to take. Korben knew that both his parents were good people who had helped a great many others over the years. But it just wasn’t his, and there was no escaping that.

When Korben finally told his parents that he wasn’t going to pursue a law career, he could tell that they were both very disappointed. In fact, Korben’s father hadn’t reacted well at all.

Even now, Korben felt like his relationship with his mom and pop hadn’t quite fully recovered. There was always an unspoken awkwardness between them whenever the topic invariably cropped up.

Added onto this, Korben could see that neither of his parents thought his candy company aspirations were serious. In fact, it was this that probably hurt Korben the most. For his, making candy was a passion – something that he could truly throw himself into. But as far as his parents were concerned, making candy just seemed far too trivial compared to the kinds of things they did in their careers.

In truth, Korben tried not to think about his situation with his parents too often.

Korben hoped that one day his parents would see just how happy and successful he was with Korben’s Kandies. But until that day came, he was determined to carry on regardless and simply make sure that even if his parents weren’t happy with his choice, he was.

And if there was one thing in the world that made Korben happy, it was working on a new idea. With that, Korben took a step back from his computer screen and closed his eyes and imagined his perfect space themed candy…

After spending the next couple of hours sketching out a whole mood board of ideas for his new candy project, Korben realized that he was running late for his first business meeting with Michael.

After a rushed Uber journey, Korben arrived at Michael’s office building and made his way past the snooty front of house staff and up to the thirteenth floor.

Korben couldn’t help but notice just how expensive everything looked.

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