Page 15 of Mariah

When he got there, the room was full of staff, hiding out and staying out of the way. The temporary staff was huddled together in one corner, Earl was loading plates into the industrial dishwasher, and Tessa and Jade were crowded around Mariah who was still sitting on her stool, crying her eyes out.

“Everyone out.” He cleared the room with a simple edict, and they all rushed to take off their aprons and gather their things, avoiding eye contact as they squeezed past him.

Soon, only Mariah was left, sniffling as she struggled with the tie on her apron.

“You stay. You’re not going anywhere until we have a little talk,” he said ominously. Even to his own ears, his voice sounded suspiciously like that of a Daddy about to scold a naughty Little.

It hadn’t been his intention, but it had the desired effect on Mariah who stopped in her tracks and then sank back onto her stool with her mouth open in a little “O” of surprise. “You don’t have to tell me,” she sniffled, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “I know I messed up.”

He couldn’t scold her with both her nose and eyes dripping, so he dug into his pocket and withdrew a handkerchief, thrusting it at her.

“Blow your nose,” he commanded. “I can’t talk to you while there’s snot dripping down your face.”

“Yes, Sir. I’m sorry.” She pitifully did as she was told, wadding the scrap of fabric in her fist when she finished.

Now that her face was dry, and her sniffles weren’t as violent, he narrowed his eyes.

“What did I say, Mariah? When you were plating the entrees, what did I say?”

“To take the one that was by itself and put an extra sprig of parsley on top so I’d know it was for Miss Lamont at table three. I thought I’d done that, Sir, but there was so much going on I must have mixed up the plates. I put the parsley on the wrong dish and gave it to Miss Lamont at table three.”

The fact that she had been listening and apparently made a mistake took some of the wind out of his sails.

His jaw unclenched, and he frowned. “It was a very big mistake, Mariah.”

“I know,” she wailed, her voice going into a falsetto as she started to get worked up again. “Jade said I gave Miss Lamont’s dish to Baze and she said he is allergic to eggplant and he got a rash all over his face and looked all weird and sweaty. I almost killed Mister Daddy!”

“His reaction was milder so that’s a bit of a stretch,” he assured her, knowing how much Baze meant to her and the other Littles in his care. “But giving Miss Lamont the wrong dish could have been very serious. We were very lucky that I had an EpiPen in the first aid kit.”

“You’re so smart,” Mariah said, her voice full of grateful awe. “And I’m so stupid,” she wailed again a second later. “I should have been more careful.”

“You are not stupid. Yes, you should have been more careful. Hopefully, tonight is a lesson that you’ll remember for a long time.”

“Yes, Sir.”

She squirmed in her seat and he knew he’d used one of those phrases that got to Littles. He hadn’t meant for it to come out the way it had, but once it did, he couldn’t help being fascinated by her reaction. Her cheeks colored as her gaze swept the floor, and she shifted in her seat, as if he’d just spanked her and her bottom was sore. Suddenly, he almost wanted to, but he knew that would just be rewarding bad behavior and encouraging more of it in the future. No matter how much he’d punished Kaylie or how hard he spanked, it had never been enough. The next time she would always push a little bit harder, just to see what would happen.

Pushing those memories from his mind, he turned his attention back to the Little at hand.

“I’m glad it was a mistake and not a case of you just not listening, but the repercussions could have been catastrophic and when things like this happen, there must be consequences.”

“I know,” Mariah sniffled again, this time shoving to her feet. “I gotta be fired. I really enjoyed working with you and I learned a lot, but I understand.” She took off her hairnet and pulled her apron over her head without untying it. Thrusting it into his hands, she looked up at him. “I feel really guilty. And I know I hafta be fired. It’s just… I kinda wish you were a Daddy so I could be punished too.”

Dammit. Her earnest admission squeezed his heart. Did he really need to fire her? If she was anyone else, he wouldn’t hesitate, but he honestly liked working with Mariah. She was nothing but professional and she was good at her job. If he fired her, he’d be left with only Earl.

Looking at her, he exhaled deeply and cursed himself for what he knew he was about to do.

“Mariah, you don’t have to be fired.”

“I don’t?”

“You have a choice. As you said, I’m not really a Daddy anymore. And I don’t believe in punishments. I can’t punish you for what happened tonight, no matter how badly you might want me to. But I do believe in preventative correction. Or maintenance, if you will.”

“Maintenance?” Mariah wrinkled her nose in confusion. “Like… on a car?”

“No, silly, like on a naughty Little bottom.”

As she started to get the picture, her eyes bulged in their sockets. “So you won’t spank me for punishment… but you will for maintenance.”