Alpha Boss, Baby Daddy - Chapter 14: Chapter 14

Tonight was supposed to be one of those rare nights when I could finally relax.
Ethan, the company’s Head of Technology, had invited me out to Howl for Singles’ Night. He’d heard that I was considering getting married to Daisy soon, and he wanted me to enjoy my final nights of freedom.
As I walked into the bar, the dim lights and low hum of conversation almost made it feel like any other evening. A glass of whiskey might help dull the thoughts of my upcoming projects and other work-related stresses, if only temporarily.
I hadn’t even made it to the bar when I felt something collide with my chest.
A body. Stumbling. Drunk. And, before I could even react, the unmistakable scent of alcohol hit me.
I looked down and saw her.
Cora.
Her wide eyes locked with mine, and she recoiled, her mouth agape with embarrassment.
“I think I’m gonna…” Her words trailed off as she bent forward and hurled.
Immediately, the tang of her bile assaulted my nose. Her warm vomit splashed on my shirt before I could recoil.
The damage had been done. My expensive, custom-made shirt was covered in the mess.
“I'm so sorry, I—” She was rambling, her voice soft but frantic. I could barely hear her over the rush of blood in my ears.
She looked like a mess—her makeup smudged, her outfit a gaudy mix of sparkles and tight, cheap fabric. She didn’t look like the same woman I’d seen at work.
I felt myself frown. I took a deep breath, trying to keep my calm, but the sight of her all made up like this only made my temper flare.
“Great,” I muttered, shaking my head, my voice biting with annoyance. “Just great.”
I watched as her face shifted from embarrassment to pure horror at my reaction. Cora kept apologizing in rapid succession, her hands trembling as she fumbled with her purse to find something to clean me off.
Ethan, however, seemed to find this amusing. He approached us from where he had been standing by the bar, and to my irritation, he looked at Cora with a sort of soft pity in his eyes.
“You okay?” he asked her. Then he handed her a napkin from the bar, which she took with wide, flustered eyes. “Hey, it’s not that bad. You’re kind of cute when you’re embarrassed, did you know that?”
Cora’s cheeks reddened under Ethan’s gaze, and I felt my eyes narrow.
I couldn't deny the mix of irritation and something else—something raw and unpredictable—that I was feeling. It didn't help that she was still wearing that ridiculous outfit, clearly trying hard to be seen, to be noticed by the patrons who looked at her like they wanted to devour her.
Everything about her was off, from the exaggerated makeup to the way she held herself. She certainly was getting the attention she wanted to in that dress, though. Ethan was openly ogling her, and I had to push down an instinctive growl.
Her gaze darted between Ethan and me, and her expression faltered for just a moment. But she quickly recovered, keeping her head down, not looking directly at me. She continued to try to work away the stain from my shirt, failing miserably. She was only succeeding at rubbing it in more.
“Stop.” My voice cut through the noise in the bar, and I placed a hand gently on her arm to halt her. “It’s fine. Just forget it.”
“I… I can get you a new shirt.” She wasn’t making much sense, her words running into one another as she struggled to keep herself together under the influence of what seemed like a lot of liquor. “I—I'm so sorry, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t mean to—”
“Cora.” I interrupted, a bit too sharply. “It’s fine. Just… let’s get out of here.”
The noise faded as I led her to the door, her head still down, a new apology still fresh on her lips. I could hear Ethan laughing behind us, but I choose to ignore it as I led Cora to the door.
“Look, I’ll get you a new shirt. I have some back at my place,” she said, still avoiding my gaze.
I rubbed my temples in frustration, trying to focus. “I’m not letting you drive in this state. You’re too drunk.”
Cora nodded, though she hardly seemed to register anything I’d just said. We maintained our tense silence as I helped Cora into the passenger’s seat.
I didn’t want to deal with this, didn’t want to deal with her in any capacity, but she was already in my car.
At her apartment, she took me to the bathroom, grabbing a new towel for me. Her hands shook slightly, but I tried to ignore it, stepping into the bathroom to shower.
The hot water felt good, at least. The whole night had been a mess, and at least there was this brief reprieve.
When I stepped out of the shower, the towel waiting for me gave me pause. As I unfurled it, I realized that it was far too small, barely a scrap of fabric to hide everything from view. It barely covered me, clinging to my skin in all the wrong ways.
It wasn’t like I had a choice, though. I tied it around my waist and stepped out.
I heard her muffled gasp from the other room, and when I looked up, I saw her face: red, embarrassed, and avoiding my gaze.
There was an awkward moment where neither of us moved, neither of us spoke. She was clearly trying very hard to keep her eyes on my face, avoiding dipping them lower to all of the bare skin left exposed to the cool air.
I cleared my throat, looking back at her. She was still wearing that red dress, hugging all of her curves. I wasn’t sure why, but now that we were away from the crowds of the bar, just alone in her home, I was starting to appreciate the garment…
“Uh… I’ll go find a shirt.” Her voice was shaky, and I could tell she was just as uncomfortable as I was.
As she left, Riley, her son, came running into the room, smiling as he saw me. His little hands clutched a folded paper wolf, and I couldn’t help but smile slightly as he handed it to me.
“Did you make this?” I asked, unable to resist my grin.
Riley nodded. “It made me think of you. You can even turn its head—see?”
I couldn’t ignore the sharp tug in my chest at those words. My hands closed around the wolf.
“Thank you,” I said, taking the gift from him.
Just then, Cora returned with some clothes—probably her deadbeat ex-husband’s leftovers. They were tight and small on me, but they would have to do.
When I was about to leave, I glanced at Cora, who was still looking at me, her eyes filled with a mix of embarrassment and... something else. Something heavy and magnetic.
But I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to understand whatever this was. Whatever I was feeling. It was just... inconvenient.
“Thanks again for the wolf, Riley,” I said, stepping toward the door. “Take care of your mom, alright?”
I turned and left without saying anything else.
The whole evening felt like a blur after that. I couldn’t get the image of Cora out of my head. The way she looked at me in that skin-tight dress. The way my body had responded. It wasn’t right. I didn’t want to feel anything.
I wouldn’t.
The next day, Cora brought a delicious and colorful cake into the office to store it in the communal fridges. It caught my eye from the moment she had stepped in with it, and after she had set it in the fridge, I could not help but wander over to investigate it further.
It was covered in foil with a small note stuck to the top. I didn’t read it. I just saw cake.
Given all that we had been through recently–and specifically the vomit-filled evening we had just shared—I assumed it was for me.
We’d been... complicated lately. I figured maybe it was her way of softening the tension.
So I ate it. All of it.
I didn’t realize my mistake until Cora stormed into my office an hour later, arms crossed, lips pressed into a thin, furious line.
“That was Riley’s birthday cake,” she said, voice cold. “His birthday is in a few days and I wanted to store it here so he wouldn’t see it. There was a note on it saying not to eat it. Did you not read it?”
Silence. I couldn’t defend myself, not really. I had, in fact, ignored the note, after all.
“…I’ll make it up to him,” I said immediately, sitting up straighter.
“You ate a child’s birthday cake, Kingston,” she deadpanned.
“Yes, and I’ll replace it. I’ll get something better, even. Leave it to me.”
She stared at me like I’d lost my mind but didn’t argue.
And I determined that I would make it up to her and exceed her expectations in the process.