A smiley ball of sunshine, wrapped up in the cutest genderqueer package.
She let her gaze fall upon Tay now. They’d jammed a hairnet over their short, riotous curls, the shorn sides of their head stillfuzzy. Black leather boots combined with a tartan skirt and an oversized sweatshirt. Guilia envied how comfortable they looked in their own skin. As if they were a crow stealing shiny elements from every single person they passed.
You could never tell how Tay was going to present—sometimes it was more femme, other days masc, and sometimes almost agender in their androgyny. But no matter how they were dressed, they were always themself. Light-hearted, cheerful and mischievous.
They didn’t look cheerful now.
The kitchen had received a specific request the week before, and so Tay was concentrating very very hard on making different-colored pasta.
“If they want rainbow pasta, they’ll have rainbow pasta!” they’d declared the day before. “I’ve got natural colorings I can use; it’ll still be healthy.” And true to their word, there was an array of colorful pasta shapes on their work bench.
Lily was focusing on prepping her pizza dough. The Brit was very quiet; kept pretty much to herself, and rarely joined in the general hubbub of conversation, but she had a true talent for creating the most incredible pizza topping pairings. Her current special was down for their lunch today: the pig and fig, slices of prosciutto crisped up and paired with roasted figs and goat cheese.
It was sinful how good that woman’s pizzas were.
“Chef?” That was Hannah.
“Yes, Hannah?”
“Is it just ice cream as a dish in and of itself off the menu, or in general.”
“In general,” she said, and out the corner of her eye, saw Tay pull a face of discomfort. “The ice cream for breakfast prank this morning? That used up my stock of ice cream. Please offer whipped cream as an alternative.”
Hannah’s eyes widened but she nodded. “I’ll let Billy know.”
“I think everyone on the Ranch knows by this point,” muttered Tay, and then, pulling themself up to their full height, they admitted their culpability.
Guilia didn’t know how the rest of the team were going to react, but she was pleasantly surprised. Though clearly disappointed, no one was angry with Tay at all, Nico even going so far as to congratulate them on their excellent heist skills.
He hushed up pretty quickly when he saw Guilia’s face. As ingenious as the prank had been—and she wasn’t above admitting that—she also didn’t want people praising Tay for it.
Tay needed to learn how to use their words and ask for attention, rather than acting out and bratting in increasingly chaotic and prank-filled ways.
It wasn’t that she didn’t like bratting. Tay made for a very adorable brat, but it was rather that Guilia got the feeling that they weren’t bratting for the right reasons. She wanted Tay to be able to act out for the joy of it. Not because they didn’t think that they were worthy of positive attention.
CHAPTER 7
Tay
The rainbow pasta helped.
Well, all pasta helped, really, but having a complex color scheme and pattern to make was extra helpful. It kept Tay’s mind off how disappointed Guilia had been in them.
Disappointment was the worst. Worse than anger or shouting. She’d looked like Tay had kicked a puppy and that was justawful. Tay really didn’t know how they could possibly ever make up for that. So instead they made pasta and allowed their mind to slip into the quiet place it often went to when Tay was working.
The quiet place was where some of Tay’s most nefarious pranks were brewed up, but today they were accessing it for a different reason altogether: the perfect punishment.
When Guilia had first suggested that they come up with their own punishment, Tay had felt pretty chilled out about the whole thing, but the more time passed, the more it morphed into a large mountain that they had to scale.
It had to fit the crime.
It had to be tough.
It had to make their Daddy proud.
It was that last thought that brought Tay up short. With all the stress and anxiety about their punishment, they’d forgotten for a moment what Guilia had said. That she wanted to be Tay’s Daddy.
Tay was going to have a Daddy!
