Sugar Daddy, Sugar Baby

A Confident Man

Their chairs looked remarkably suited together, and to Dan's surprise (and Phil's insistence), no one questioned their arrangement behind the camera.

"I want to see the regret in your eyes, but I need to feel the loss in my chest. Try to call upon a time when you let someone slip through your fingers David." Phil spoke passionately. Dan leaned forward as if he were taking the direction himself. His eyes flickered between the actors, but mostly his eyes remained fixed on Phil.

Dan didn't believe that he could admire the man more. Yet, here he sat, watching Phil work, falling deeper and deeper into his abyss.

David Mark was an award-winning actor who was on the cusp of world-wide fame. Phil wanted him for Synastry, insisting that no one else could play the older version of the film's main character, Mario.

David took direction well. He was quiet and focused. Dan watched as he closed his eyes and recalled such a moment of regret. He was an attractive man but not even close to Phil's level of beauty and sophistication. Phil was, without a doubt, the most incredibly handsome man Dan had ever seen in his almost twenty years.

Last night, as they were sharing a bottle of red wine, Phil asked Dan to watch David closely. "You can learn so much from an actor like him. He is young enough that he can still be taught. Some of the older actors and actresses believe that they have it all figured out. They aren't willing to take direction anymore." Phil laughed when he said not to go 'falling in love' with David. "He's a good looking man Daniel. I don't need to lose you to an actor."

"Daddy stop," Dan rolled his eyes and pulled Phil close. "You know I belong to you." He kissed him then, slowly and lovingly, as if to prove it through a single kiss.

Phil pulled back and opened his eyes. "Nonsense...you belong to no one but yourself." He smiled and kissed his young lover on the cheek, just to the right of his dimple.

"Okay then, I choose you. I choose to belong to you." Dan smiled and moved closer to connect their lips once more. They both smiled and hummed happily as they kissed, rocking gently with the joy of belonging to one another.

Phil watched now as David called upon the memory of regret. His face morphed into something quite like pain mixed with disgust; he looked as if he could actually be sick.

"There. That's it. That is what Mario feels when he sees Alejandro with his wife for the first time." Phil covered his mouth with a cupped hand and nodded. He stroked his strong chin approvingly.

Dan could actually feel David's disgust as if it were his own. He tried to imagine what it would be like to be forcibly separated from Phil, only to see him again years later with a wife. He shuddered at the thought and fought against a wave of nausea. He had to resist the urge to touch Phil's arm. Dan just wanted to hold it for a moment; he thought it may help the dreadful feeling to pass. Touching Phil always made him feel solid and grounded.

Dan thought about what could possibly come between him and Phil. He couldn't imagine that anything ever would. Even Dan's family wouldn't affect their relationship.

He didn't know how he would break the news to his partner. The text had come in overnight; his mum must have been sleepless in her angst. It simply read that she and his father were declining their upcoming visit. She would be in touch, and she was praying for the very salvation of his "lost and broken soul."

Dan's stomach felt sour. His lower lip quivered with impending tears and his cheeks burned. He deleted the text, not having the strength to read the words again, though they remained imprinted in his mind. He turned his attention to his lover, who was now sculpting his black hair into a razor-sharp quiff.