Last Delivery

“Make sure you send your cutest delivery boy ;)”

Nate took a long drag of his cigarette as he stared at the request for his last delivery of the night. Usually, he’d be annoyed; it was a sizable order, with four large pizzas, several containers of pasta, and two bags stuffed full of cannolis that he’d have to figure out how to balance while walking up to the address he was delivering to. It was already a nuisance carrying all of that on his own, so the flirty comment would have been salt in the wounds, had this been a new customer. Thankfully, it wasn’t, and he wouldn’t have to worry about shooting down someone looking for a loose delivery guy to fulfill their shitty porno fantasies. Instead, he would have the pleasure of dealing with a gaggle of sex workers who he was by now rather familiar with.

The cabaret club Velvet Temptations was his last customer for the night. They’ve done business with his boss on more than one occasion, both legitimate and under the table, and when the hosts and hostesses were off the clock they loved to indulge in greasy, cheesy pizza just like everyone else. Since the club was a bit of a ways away from Big Dick’s, they always ordered their stuff for delivery, and became well-acquainted with Nate as a result.

Nate shifted the impressive tower of food in his hands as he kicked at the service door entrance and waited. He could hear a flurry of footsteps from within, followed by a lot of grumbling—

“Someone’s outside, I think.”

“Who the hell is kicking the door?!”

“Wait, that might be…”

More footsteps, and someone bounded up to the door and flung it open. Nate was greeted by a familiar bun with a scowl on her face, but the expression was fleeting. As soon as she saw that it was him, she grinned and called back behind her. “Oh, girls,” she said in a singsong voice, stepping to the side to let Nate in. “The cutest delivery boy is finally here~”

“I’m the only delivery boy,” Nate said flatly, looking entirely unbothered as he was suddenly corralled inside by a group of hostesses. This was par for the course when he delivered to the club: one of the hosts would announce his arrival, and the others would come in and sweep him away for a short break in the club. Delivering to Velvet Temptations was never a simple in-and-out delivery, so Nate always made sure it was his last delivery of the night.

As the hosts and hostesses began to relieve Nate of his delivery one by one, Eros took the opportunity to pluck his still-lit cigarette from his lips to take a drag of it. He gave her an unimpressed look, and was met with waggling brows.

“Didn’t you say you were trying to quit?”

Eros shrugged and elected to dodge the question. “So, we got this new host…”

“Uhuh.”

“You can try to sound a little more interested!” Eros chided, whacking her tail against Nate’s back. “You haven’t been here in a while, so there’s loads of stuff to catch up on.”

“This is me sounding interested. Plus, you don’t usually tell me when you get a new host, so…”

“Well, we don’t really get new hosts. Mama and I are real picky about our employees, yknow. This one’s a total greenhorn, but we made an exception for him. Wanna know why?”

Nate blinked at her, the slight arch of his brow the only thing giving his curiosity away. Being a delivery boy came with its perks: he was privy to a lot of gossip, and though he normally didn’t care about it much, when it came to his regulars he would begrudgingly admit that he was a little invested in their lives. It was nice that they spoke to him; when he wasn’t delivering, he was usually cooped up in the back office at work with nothing but his thoughts to keep him occupied until a coworker came in to bother him.

“He’s a cherubun! Bet you’ve never seen one up close before, have you?”

Nate snorted. “Actually, I have—but I didn’t expect a cherubun to willingly work at a place like this. What, did you bully him into it?”

Eros visibly deflated. “Whaaat, don’t tell me you’ve already got cherubun customers ordering from Dick’s? No way they’d order any of that food, I think they’d faint if they saw all the phallic shit on the menu.”

“Wasn’t work related, actually. Well…I was on the clock, but it was after I finished up my deliveries for the night. I decided to take a smoke break before leaving, and that’s when I saw them.” Nate still remembered the look on the cherubun’s face: tired but satisfied, they had a pleased little smile that widened when Nate decided to speak with them. He remembered feeling a little jealous of them at the time—how nice must it be to end the day looking so happy with what you’ve done? He couldn’t relate. “It was late, and they were a long way from the Embassy, so I offered them a ride back.”

“Aww, what a gentleman,” Eros cooed. “Bringing them home outta the kindness of your heart. Unless…our favorite delivery boy had ulterior motives…?”

“Dream on.” Nate rolled his eyes. “I’m not like you.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean? I’ll have you know that I only kinda sorta suggested that Angel try out working here for a day or two—”

“—his name is Angel?—”

“—and see if he liked it! And yes, his name is Angel, kinda funny right? He’s pretty cute though, very sweet, very shy…I think your monotone voice might scare him into thinking that you don’t like him.”

Nate furrowed his brows. “My voice isn’t that monotone.” It definitely was that monotone. 

Eros only raised her brows in reply, taking another puff of the cigarette. “Anyways, Angel surprised all of us by being really into sex. He still has all that cherubun guilt and stuff…I think he still hasn’t told any of them up there what he does for a living. But he liked the job enough to stay, and he’s making us good money. He doesn’t like staying out too late and already left to go home, otherwise I might have let you guys meet for a bit.”

“Let us meet?”

“Like I said, you’d totally scare him away. Hell, when we first met I thought you hated everything ‘til I realized that you’ve just got serious RBF and a voice that never changes pitch.”

Nate actually made a face at that, and Eros tittered in response. “I’m not that bad.” He looked at her nervously, his brows drawn in a deep furrow. “...Am I?”

“Wow, did that actually bother you? Wish I had my phone right now so I could take a pic, you look so cute. I’m gonna have to burn your expression into my memory, keep looking at me.”

His cheeks were starting to get hot. Turning on his heel, Nate started walking back towards the entrance. “I’m leaving.”

The hostess snickered. “Aw, don’t be so embarrassed Nate. I meant it yknow, you’re pretty handsome—more so when you’re actually using those face muscles of yours.”

“Ugh, stop.”

“You should smile more!”

“You’re starting to sound like our other customers. Keep the obnoxious comments to yourself.”

Nate had one foot out of the door already when Eros called for him one last time, her words punctuated with ridiculous giggles. She knew that if Nate was actually bothered he would have already left without a word, so his sudden moodiness rolled off of her like water. “Aww, you can’t fool me. I know you’re blushing, hehe. Cmon, look back at me before you go, lemme see your cute face again.”

“No.”

---

It was only when Nate was settled in the car again that he realized…

…He forgot to collect the damn payment. Ugh. He’d get it next time, he decided. Hopefully they’d order pizza again soon. And if not…he’s sure his boss would forgive him.