Page 14 of Double Delivery
“Whore,” the alpha spat at me as he turned and shuffled to the bar.
Axel and Tripp watched him walk away for several seconds before turning to me.
“You ok?” Axel asked, his fury having turned to concern.
I forced a smile and nodded. “I am now. Thank you.”
Tripp grabbed one of the empty chairs and took a seat. “We’ll stay with you for a few minutes to make it look legit. Then we’ll escort you to your car, or the bus stop, or whatever… if you want.”
Axel hesitated a few seconds, then took the other empty chair. “You sure you’re ok?”
My smile was more genuine that time. “Yeah.” I paused. “Sorry for roping you two into it, though. He kept pushing, so I panicked and told him I was meeting someone.”
“Are you?” Tripp asked. “I don’t want to make things awkward.”
My face heated. There was no way I could tell them that I was there to watch them. “No… but…” I scrambled. “I’d like to stay for a bit… if you don’t mind drinking with me.”
Tripp grinned. “Are we allowed to flirt?”
Axel elbowed him. “Not the time, Slip.”
Tripp snorted. “Always the time, Asshole.”
I chuckled. Maybe things could work with the three of us, after all.
My cock perked up at the thought of both of them being with me, and I scooted closer to the table in an attempt to hide it.
“What y’all drinkin’?” asked a server.
We all ordered beers, then Tripp leaned in—making me choke back a moan of desire as I smelled him. “So,” he asked, “what do you do that you’re shipping several packages every day?”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “I’m a digital artist. My style is cute and cartoony, and I’ve developed a following over the years. A few years ago, I was able to transition to self-employed as I started selling things with my art. Plenty of stickers, but sticky pads, notebooks, calendars, and other things like that are also big sellers.”
Axel laughed. “So that’s why most of the boxes are on the smaller side.”
I nodded.
“That’s cool that you can sell your art like that,” Tripp said.
I smiled. “I love it. When I first started doing printed products, I thought that the physical side of the business would get in the way of my art. Then I learned there’s a thrill to holding it in my hands—knowing that somebody wanted a piece of my creativity enough to buy it for themselves. I’m even planning to look into places that can do small runs of stretched canvas for a few of my more popular pieces. I’m thinking little four-by-four or similar-sized that will be inexpensive and allow people to make their own collages.”
“Don’t those have to be specially packaged?” Axel asked. “I trained on a gallery route, and those shipping boxes had to be built to protect the work.”
“I think…” I replied, “special boxing is for original works. One-of-a-kind, where if it’s damaged, there’s no replacing it. I’ll be selling prints, so good padding should be enough since I’ll be able to replace damaged ones.”
“Makes sense,” Tripp stated. Then he turned to Axel. “I didn’t know you trained on the gallery route.”
Axel snorted. “Why would you? That was before we met.”
“I just think it’s cool,” Tripp replied. “I trained downtown… where people thought the ‘delivery parking’ signs were just a suggestion, and too many times we had to resort to double parking to do the job.”
“That’s a problem everywhere,” Axel huffed.
I set my elbow on the table and rested my chin on my palm as I watched my alphas talk. Part of me was already imagining nights of long conversations.
“What’s that smile for?” Tripp teased, turning to me.
I sat up. “Oh… uh… just wondering why you two chose to work as delivery drivers.”
