Page 55 of Baby Boy

“Truer words have never been spoken,” Jace agreed. “I met Avery at a coffee shop. He wasn’t into the lifestyle yet. Imagine finding someone at the club who already knew what they needed.” He bumped shoulders with Mitch.

Mitch reached under the table and pinched Jace’s leg. Hard. Jace laughed and winked at Byron.

§ § §

AVERY

Avery put the order into the computer before taking a deep breath. He was so fucking tired and try as he might, he couldn’t seem to do anything right. The flu had hit their city hard. It had been a week since he’d seen Jace and phone calls at night were not cutting it.

“Hey, Avery,” the hostess, Marissa, called to him. “I just seated your last table for the night. It’s for two.”

Avery wanted to cry. He didn’t know if he could take another table. Instead of giving in to his exhaustion, he plastered a smile on his face and turned to her. She was always so nice to him.

“Thanks, Marissa. I’ll get right to them.” He grabbed a tray and a basket of bread before filling two glasses of ice water. Then he walked out of the kitchen carefully. He had a bigger section than normal since three servers had called in sick. Luckily only three more tables, then he could go home. One table was already eating, one he’d just placed the food order for, and now his new one.

As he took his time so he wouldn’t trip or spill anything, he didn’t look at the table until he was in front of it.

Avery gasped and the tray wobbled. “Daddy?” Oh shit, he shouldn’t have said that.

“Hey, boy,” Jace greeted with a smile.

“What are you doing here?” He looked at Jace’s companion and flushed. Was he on a date?

“I missed you,” Jace told him. “This is my friend Mitch. Remember I told you about him?”

Mitch, the lawyer. Jace had told him all about meeting his friends and Avery’s professor at the club. And of course Jace wouldn’t bring a date to where Avery worked.

“It’s nice to meet you, Avery,” Mitch said politely.

Avery started to offer his hand, but damn, he was still holding the tray. He blushed. “Sorry, it’s nice to meet you too.” He set the bread in the middle of the table before passing out the glasses of water. As he worked, he checked Mitch out.

Mitch and Jace had been roommates in college. When they’d both found out they were kinky, they’d started to go to clubs together. But they never played with one another. Jace had said Mitch was too much like his brother.

But Mitch was a boy like him. Avery didn’t know if that made him more or less nervous. He hugged the tray to his chest.

“I didn’t know you were coming.”

“Well, since you couldn’t come over tonight as planned, I asked Mitch if he wanted to get a drink with me. I decided to bring him here so I can at least see you.”

He felt bad that Jace had to get out because Avery had picked up yet another shift. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t turn down the work.”

Jace sighed. “I know.”

“I would rather be with you, though.” Avery leaned close so only Jace and Mitch could hear them.

“Good answer,” Jace praised. He looked around the restaurant. “It doesn’t seem too busy now.”

Avery shook his head. “No, thank God! You’re my last table.”

Jace perked up. “So if we sipped our drinks slowly, I might be able to take you home?”

Avery bounced a little. “Yeah, I mean it could be a little bit since one of my tables hasn’t eaten yet.”

“I can wait,” Jace assured him.

“What would you like to drink?” Avery requested. He wanted to get the drinks and go check in at the kitchen. Plus it looked like his first table was finishing up.

They placed their order and Avery hurried away. He couldn’t believe that Jace had come all the way just to see him. He’d even offered to stay and take Avery home.Oh, shit!He couldn’t take Avery home. It hadn’t been easy, but Avery had still managed to avoid having Jace see where he lived. Since he got picked up and dropped off at the café, he hadn’t had to ask Jace not to go up to his studio.

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