His Manny Omega

by Harper B. Cole

  Oliver

  “My birthday is in two week.” Chloe held up two fingers. “Two.”

  “I know, sweetheart.” I patted her head the way she liked before going back to putting away the groceries we’d just picked up.

  “Two.” She blocked my way to the fridge, making sure she had my complete attention.

  “You’ve been counting down your birthday for two months.” I closed the fridge before squatting down to her eye level. Today it wasn’t going to be as easy to move past the topic as it had been the past two months. Two months, had it really been that long? In some ways it felt like I’d always been here and in others it felt as if I just arrived.

  “Trust me, I remember.” As did the librarian, the old lady Martha across the street, everyone at the vet clinic, and the postman. She was not going to let turning four go unnoticed.

  “I want a unicorn.” Her little fists came to her side, all but daring me to burst her dream. “A real unicorn,” she added to counteract my promise that I would look for unicorns next time I went shopping. The girl had my number, and in the time I’d known her, this was the only thing she had demanded and was pretty much a brat about. Her little heart was probably going to be crushed when she discovered there was no such thing as a real unicorn, but I already had ideas in motion to make that not be on her birthday. She might not get the present of her dreams, but I’d be damned if I was going to pair that with the breaking of her whimsical spirit.

  “This I also know, but animals are your dad’s department.” I made a mental note to tell Wyatt about my announcement. Chloe wouldn’t forget my words. She never forgot anything. “I am in charge of the cake.”

  Her little eyes lit up at that.

  “Cake?”

  “Birthday cake.”

  “A unicorn birthday cake?”

  I added “check Pinterest for cake ideas” to my mental to-do list. “Is that what you want?”

  As if there were any doubt. She had been talking to her dolls during her tea parties all about the beautiful purple unicorn cake she was going to share with them on her birthday. I learned so much observing her tea parties. I learned what she loved, what she hated, and what she wanted to do in the near future. Most of our activities were planned from intel I collected while she poured her dolls fake tea as I read in the corner.

  She bobbed her head up and down. “Uh huh! Can I really?” And then she started jumping. I stood and held out my hand to twirl her, her favorite celebratory dance.

  “Yes, you can.” And that was when genius set in. Forget Pinterest, we could buy the cake. Walking to town would give us some exercise and wear her out for her nap and the money spent would be well worth it given my lack of cake decorating skills even with Pinterest’s help. “You want to order it now?”

  And with that, we were off to the little bakery in town. They didn’t have much in the way of cash and carry treats, but rumor had it they made a mean cake. We were in there less than ten minutes, and Chloe fell in love with the first design we were shown. It said it could feed twenty, so it looked like cake was going to become both a breakfast and a lunch food in a couple of weeks. We weren’t planning a big party. It was just going to be us, me Wyatt and Chloe, which felt a little too nice, given my temporary position in the family.

  Wyatt had asked for a year commitment, which I took at the time, wondering if it would be too long. Now a few months in, I feared it was far too short. I loved Chloe and the friendship I’d been building with Wyatt was so much deeper than any I’d had before. Even with the slight dishonesty of hiding my budding my attraction to him, I felt like I could be more myself around him than I ever had with my ex-alpha.

  I felt like I was lying to him every time we spoke, hiding my interest in him, and that hurt. Not as much as if I told him and he kicked me out, losing both his friendship and Chloe in one fell swoop. And the job, but that seemed to be the least important out of all of it.

  “Whipped cream?” I asked as we left the bakery. It had become our thing. She got her cup of whip and I got my coffee pretty much every time we were in town. I liked the coffee and loved all that Café Om stood for. Plus, it never hurt to go someplace where they knew your name and treated you as if you were the best customer ever and given the fact that combined we spent less than one of their mocha specialties, I knew we weren’t.

  “Welcome to Café Om.” A new omega stood behind the counter. “What can I get you, princess?” He bent down, addressing Chloe directly.

  “Whipped cream with sprinkles please.” She pointed to the biggest cup on the counter and I gave her the look and she quickly changed it to the children’s size. “You’re new.”

  “I am, but don’t get used to me, I’m a prince and I need to get back to my castle next month.” He gave her a wink.

  Her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open. “Really?” she asked with wonder.

  “More like I’m Prince of Café Om Central and they are doing a complete remodel, so I’m slumming it in the burbs,” he confessed, but all she heard was prince. I had no idea how long a remodel took, but he was going to be her prince the entire time, whether he liked it or not. The smile on his face told me he was just fine with that.

  “My prince.” She curtseyed…ish. “I’m gonna go draw you a picture.” She grabbed a placemat from the counter and ran to where they stored the cups of crayons for the kids.

  “I would love that,” he called out to her.

  “You’re good with kids,” I complimented.

  “Shhhh, don’t tell anyone. They always think omegas wanna babysit and crap and let me tell you, working out here is cutting into my social time as is, and I need some alpha in my life on the regular.”

  He was one of those omegas. I just shook my head. I understood how one got into that mindset. I was just glad I wasn’t in that place, because going out night after night with the intent of alpha hunting sucked.

  “Your daughter’s cute though,” he tried to smooth over his comment.

  “Oh, she’s not my daughter.” I leaned in and whispered, “I’m her babysitter.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Bull true.” I stuck out my hand. “Oliver.”

  “Marcus.” He gave me a quick shake before getting back to work after a throat clear from the back. “What can I get you?”

  “Today, I’m going to go wild and crazy and get the house blend, black.” Like I did every time I came in because it was freaking awesome, so why ruin it with syrup and whip?

  “You sure know how to live on the wild side,” he teased as he rung me up, handing me a cup. I picked the one thing on the menu that was self-serve.

  “That I do.” I handed him my card, delighted to find out today’s drink was free. At twelve cups before your free one, that meant I was spending far too much time here, but the smile on Chloe’s face when she got her cup made it worth it.

  “What time do you working until?”

  It sounded like a pick-up line but having seen his alpha obsessed ways already shine through I assumed it was benign and answered honestly. “It’s a live-in job.”

  “No shit. You’re a manny.”

  He looked behind him to the back door and deciding it clear, he placed his elbows on the counter, his chin sitting in his hands as if waiting for super awesome gossip. “I was going to see if you wanted to come clubbing tonight and see if we could score some alpha lovin’, but I’m guessing you need more notice.” His eyes dared me to disagree with his assessment.

  “I do, but it’s not really my scene either which way.” Because I was in love with my boss and no alpha would want a barren omega anyway.

  “Your loss.” He stood up straight at another throat clear and grabbed a cloth, making small circles on the already clean counter. “I just heard about a great place only two towns over. Fresh meat.”

  “Here, Mr. Prince.” Saved by a three-year-old.

  He took it happily and stared at it with a huge smile before speaking. “I will put it in my castle.
Thank you. I love it.”

  Chloe was beaming from ear to ear. It looked like more visits to Om were in our future because the way he made her smile made my heart soar.

  “We should be going. We’ll see you around. We stop in here a bit too much,” I said as Marcus placed her cup of whip on the counter.

  “I like whipped cream,” she announced, as if her happy dance hadn’t given it away.

  “All princesses do.” He leaned in conspiratorially. “Are you sure you’re not a fairy princess?”

  She giggled the entire time I poured my coffee. Best. Sound. Ever.

  22

  Wyatt

  For once, work was slow. I had an afternoon free of appointments, Sally agreed to come over to the house to watch Chloe for a bit, and Oliver and I had date plans. I mean, plans about a date. Plans to plan the date of Chloe's birth. For fuck's sake. We were going to escape and plan out her birthday party.

  It wasn't a date, but I wanted to do something different. Get out of our usual circle of things. Try something new. We were supposed to be getting everything planned for Chloe's birthday, yes, but I wanted to thank Oliver for everything he did for us. And how complicated could a three-year-old's birthday really be? I took him to a French patisserie Tammy had recommended to me. It was about thirty minutes away, but "totally worth the drive," according to her.

  It had been the right move. Oliver's eyes lit up at all the brightly colored macaroons. "Wyatt, these are perfect! We need these for Chloe's birthday! We can get the pink ones with the blue filling, and the purple ones with the pink filling, and the yellow ones with the purple filling. Unicorn colors!"

  The server behind the counter quirked an amused eyebrow.

  "I'll take a latte," I said, "and whatever that chocolate thing there is. Oliver?"

  "Oh, uh..." He shifted his eyes away from the glass case to review the drinks. "A French press coffee. And can I have one of each of these macaroons?" He pointed at the three he had been gushing over.

  I slid my card to the cashier before Wyatt could open his wallet. "My treat," I insisted.

  "But—"

  "You won't let me pay you extra for helping plan this birthday party. The least I can do is buy you coffee and sugar."

  "Well, thanks." He flashed me that soft grin of his that made me want to promise him anything. I looked away.

  He snorted in disgust as I poured sugar into my latte. The one negative against this place so far was they didn't do flavored syrups for their coffee drinks. Just the basics.

  Once we settled in at a booth with our drinks and desserts, Oliver pulled out a three-ring binder.

  "Okay, we need to go over cake, other food, decorations, games, party favors and entertainment."

  "Cake—unicorn, of course."

  "Naturally," Oliver said, marking it down. "Other food?"

  "Well, you said macaroons? How are they?"

  Oliver set the binder down to take a bite of the yellow macaroon. His eyes rolled up into his head. "Oh yes, these. Even if the kids are too undeveloped to enjoy them to their full potential, these are a must. But we can't have just sugar."

  "Why not?" I asked. "I've said it before; sugar makes the world go round!"

  Oliver ignored me. "I know it's not super unicorn-y, but what about pizza? Pretty much everyone loves pizza."

  "Works for me." This birthday stuff wasn't taking long at all. I felt a stab of regret. I'd figured on this taking at least an hour. An hour where I was allowed to stare at Oliver because his nose was in his planner.

  "Now, decorations."

  "A couple of streamers and a dozen helium balloons?" I asked.

  Olive glared at me in disdain. "Really, Wyatt? That's all you got? Never mind, I'll take over decorations. Games?" He turned the binder slightly toward me. "Here's a list of my top choices."

  I tried to turn my head to read them, but the angle was wrong. "One minute." I stepped around the end of the table and made him scoot in so I could sit next to him. I really had just been angling for a better view of the binder, but my subconscious must have taken over, giving me an excuse to be near him. I could have just pulled the damn binder over to my side. I forced myself to focus on the list of games. "Pin the horn on the unicorn? Like pin the tail on the donkey?"

  "Exactly like."

  "Definitely that one."

  "What about a unicorn piñata?" I asked.

  "Do you really think Chloe is going to be excited about bashing a unicorn until its guts fall out?"

  "Gross! When you put it that way...no piñata."

  We picked a couple other games to fill in the time as-needed.

  "Oh, where are we going to get the cake?"

  Oliver looked at me like I'd stomped on a puppy. "Birthday cakes are made, Wyatt! Not bought!"

  I looked at him with an equal expression of horror. "I can barely ice a plain cake, let alone a unicorn cake."

  Oliver rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'll ice the cake. But you have to help bake it."

  "Oliver, seriously, it's okay if we buy the cake. Chloe won't know the difference."

  "I will know the difference," Oliver said, staring down his nose at me in disapproval.

  How could he look so enticing while attempting to shame me? And shaming me about cutting corners for my daughter's birthday? It was ridiculous. And adorable. Ridiculously adorable. He was Chloe's birthday knight, guarding the sanctity of the birthday party. He didn't have to do this, but he wanted to. He wanted this party to be amazing for my little girl. He was amazing.

  The disapproval faded into confusion and I realized I was staring at him with a smile.

  "What?" he asked.

  I didn't think, I just reacted. I reached forward to cup his cheek with one hand and pulled him forward into a kiss. For a microsecond, he was motionless and I started to realize what I'd done. But then he responded, his lips moving beneath mine and every thought flew out of my head. I reached my other hand to his waist and pulled him closer, forgetting we were planning Chloe's birthday party. Forgetting we were in public. Forgetting he was my employee.

  But not for long. I pulled away for a breath and the thoughts that had vanished while his lips were on mine descended with a vengeance.

  "I'm so sorry," I said, jumping out of the seat. "I shouldn't have done that."

  "No, it's—"

  "You don't have to defend me to myself, Oliver." I picked up my coat. "That was inexcusable. I shouldn't have put you in that position. Trust me, it won't happen again. Are you ready?"

  He was silent as he nodded and followed me from the building. The ride back was uncomfortable. We had talked and laughed the entire way out, but the thirty-minute drive back was cold. I hoped I hadn't fucked things up irrevocably. I needed Oliver in my life. I couldn't believe I had risked it all so thoughtlessly.

  23

  Oliver

  It had been an entire week and all I could think about was the feel of his lips on mine. It had been the perfect moment, the one you saw in movies and read about in poems, at least, until it wasn’t. The awkwardness following his rejection only amplified the rest of the night. The next morning, he went on as if nothing happened and so did I.

  That wasn’t exactly true. I tried to go on as if nothing happened, but something had. Something magical. I couldn’t help but stare at his lips when he wasn’t looking, check out his ass as he walked away, and even caught myself walking a bit too close to him a few times.

  I couldn’t help it. Once I got a taste of him, I needed more. I thirsted for him. Basically, I was a hot fucking mess being led around by my lower brain. I needed to talk about it. I ran through so many conversations with him in my head, it was insane. Of course, in all of my imaginary conversations, we ended up naked.

  Naked. Maybe that was it. I had assumed he was straight when I moved in, having had an omega female and all. Was this attraction new for him? I mean, his erection didn’t lie, he had wanted me during that kiss. But that didn’t mean he was comfortable with that want.
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br />   I was frustrating myself with all the second guessing. He wanted me. He didn’t want me. Work was the thing in the way. His sexuality was the thing in the way. None of it made sense and none of it would until I managed to grow a pair and speak with him. Problem was, I was a chicken shit loser.

  I loved my job, loved Chloe, loved living in the burbs. Was it worth messing that all up because of a growing attraction and fondness for my boss? Scratch that, the attraction had always been there even when I was in denial, but the connection and comfort with Wyatt had grown over time. He was more than a friend by this point. He was my family, my alpha. Even if it wasn’t real and only in my head. I blamed my heat for the entire realization. Effing suppressants. I buried my head in my hands. I needed to get my shit together. Chloe had already been napping for a decent chunk of time and she needed me to get my head out of my ass.

  “You feeling okay?” Wyatt’s scent hit me at the same time as his voice. I could bath in that cedar and coffee scent forever.

  “Sorry, just lost in my head.” I sat up straighter, keeping my head down so he didn’t see the confusion in my eyes. “You’re home early.” I needed to man up and discuss this with him, but only after I got it all straight in my head.

  “I have an hour and a half before my next appointment so I thought I’d see if Chloe was up yet.” My shoulders fell. A not-too-small part of me had wanted him here to see me, knowing she’d be asleep.

  “She’s not.” I glanced up at the clock to see I’d been in my own head longer than I thought. “She’s been an hour and a half-ish.”

  “I guess I’ll head back then.”

  He started to turn before I found myself off the couch, calling to him. “You don’t have to.” He looked at me quizzically. Of course he didn’t have to. It was his freaking house. “I mean—stay.” I tilted my head to the couch behind me and then retook my seat. It was a bold, very un-omega move, but I needed him here. Maybe this was the right time to talk.