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As the number of diners dwindled, I heard Plum’s from the back. The pastry chef that captivated my tongue, among other appendages, for the past few weeks. I wandered over toward the kitchens. There could be some random diners lingering back there.
I edged my way toward the back of the house, telling myself I wanted to peek out the back and make sure there were no shady characters waiting. If there were, Maddoc and Skull would have taken care of them. Still, couldn’t be too sure.
I stepped outside. A pair of eyes glowed in the darkness before Skull stepped into the light. “All clear, boss.”
“Good. We’re wrapping up.”
I dawdled by the kitchens, waiting to see when it would be appropriate to enter. They seemed busy in their cleaning, and so decided to wait a moment longer before slipping through the swinging doors and observing silently from an out of the way corner.
Plum, the sweet pastry chef that filled my fantasies was luminous as she spoke, fire sparking in her eyes. She spoke too quickly for me to follow, and I missed the first part of her story, but it was easy enough to see that she worked herself into a huff about her family and going to a dinner.
Honey, hands on her hips, looked like a warrior queen with her braided hair coiled in an intricate knot at the nape of her neck. Her chef’s hat might as well be a crown with the way she spoke with such command. “It’s been a long day. Maybe you can think better in the morning. You don’t have to worry about dinner. It’s family.”
Plum let out a long suffering sigh. “You don’t understand my family though. All they care about is all the babies I need to have and what’s needed for babies? A man. And what don’t I have? A man!”
I hated that Plum was in distress, but I couldn’t help but feel elated to know that she was not attached to a male.
Honey finished clearing her work area. “You don’t need a man to have a perfectly stable family unit.”
“Honey, I know you’re doing the whole woman power thing, and in a different world, I would be all about it, believe me. But for now? I really need to just vent and rant about my damn familial expectations, okay?”
“Okay, deal. Switching gears to blind support.” Honey opened her arms and Plum promptly wailed against the taller woman. “There, there, let it all out.”
“Damned Malcolm with his spiritual enlightenment–which by the way is less spiritual and more a skinny blonde named Celeste.”
Honey slashed her hand through the air. “Fuck Celeste, and fuck Malcolm.”
“I’d feel better if I could just grab someone to go to the family dinner with me.” Plum filled her bag, and hoisted it onto her shoulder. “Maybe I can hire someone. That’s a thing, right?”
“You would literally hire someone rather than go to the dinner alone?”
Plum pointed to herself. “Extremely conservative parents who want grandchildren. If a fake date will get them off my back, then yes. Absolutely worth it.”
“I’ll do it.” The words escaped my mouth before I could stop them.
They both looked at me.
“Are you joking?”
“What’s the trouble? You need a beard, right? And I like eating. Doesn’t seem like a hardship.”
Plum squealed and ran into my arms. I ignored Honey crossing her arms over her chest. “My family doesn’t live within the OC limits, though. Will that be a problem?”
“Do your parents have problems with Otherkin?”
“No, not at all.”
“Then there shouldn’t be a problem.”
“I’ll pay you!”
I eyed the pastries being prepared. “So long as you keep me supplied in beignets and profiteroles, we are set.”
“Then it’s a deal!”
Chapter 2
Plum
