Page 19 of Taste Me Daddy

‘Wow! Where did you get these from?’ Korben asked, marveling at the Japanese style character design on the side of the juice box. ‘An astronaut koala? I’m sold!’

‘Look, I’m a race car tiger!’ Danny squealed with delight.

‘And you know I had to be the train driver unicorn!’ Louie said, holding his juice box aloft. ‘But just wait until you taste the juice.’

Korben eagerly unwrapped his straw and pierced the juice box.

‘Yummy,’ Korben said in between slurps of the tropical juice. ‘I think I’ve just found my new favorite juice.’

‘My Daddy got these for me in Japan,’ Louie said. ‘He was over there for a car race and arranged for a whole crate of them to be shipped over. He’s the best.’

‘Swoon!’ Danny said, sucking down his juice at triple-speed. ‘You’re so lucky to have met Max.’

‘I know,’ Danny said, a look of true love in his eyes. ‘We had our ups and downs to begin with. And there was the whole false start back when I was at college. But I wouldn’t change our journey for the world, you know?’

‘Hell yeah,’ Korben replied, grinning from ear to ear.

It was wonderful to see how happy Louie was with his Daddy, but at the same time it made Korben wonder exactly how good it could be if he and Michael became Daddy and Little.

I think Michael could be a great Daddy.

But does he care too much about his businesses?

Would there be enough time for us together?

Korben momentarily grappled with the idea of whether he and Michael were simply too busy to each enter into a relationship, but he wasn’t able to daydream for too long…

‘Catch!’ Danny said, tossing Korben a small Halloween themed beanbag.

‘Whoops!’ Korben laughed, fumbling the little bat and dropping it onto his lap. ‘Hey, don’t worry Mr. Bat, I’ll do better next time.’

With that, the three friends got to their feet and began to play with the beanbags. There was a bat, a Frankenstein’s monster, and a vampire too – each one just as cute and cuddly as the other.

‘So are you going to spill who this secret Daddy you’re seeing is?’ Korben asked, tossing the vampire beanbag to Danny.

‘Well… are you going to tell us about exactly what happened between you and Michael?’ Danny retorted, a knowing look on his face.

‘Argh! I just want to know what both of my BFFs have been getting up to!’ Louie squealed in frustration. ‘You guys know all about me and Max. Well, not quite all…’

The three friends all laughed conspiratorially and decided that now wasn’t the time to be spilling their naughty secrets. Instead, it was time to take the little beanbags and set them up alongside their stuffies.

‘I’m hungry,’ Danny said, flopping down onto the picnic blanket. ‘I want food!’

‘Same!’ Louie said, opening up his wicker picnic basket and revealing an array of the cutest sandwiches, biscuits, and juices.

‘Wait, check these out too,’ Korben said, opening his bag and tipping out an array of brightly wrapped test candies that he had made at his workshop over the last few days. ‘I want honest feedback, as always.’

‘You got it,’ Danny said, his eyes wide with desire as he scanned over the many different candies piled up on one another.

‘Always,’ Louie added.

Korben smiled. It felt so wonderful to be able to bring his candies to the picnic and know that his friends would always want to try them.

Not every candy turned out to be a winner, but that wasn’t the point. There was something that Korben found so incredibly wholesome about making new candies for his friends to try – and the fact that it saved money on hiring a taste-test team was simply an added bonus!

With the sun shining above them and not a single cloud in the sky, the three Little friends got down to munching and crunching their way through the various foods, snacks, and treats on offer.

The picnic had been a resounding success.

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