The Barista's Burden

I'm a Daddy type, always have been. I've got this little girl thing going on with my partner that works perfectly fine for us both. But there’s one situation where it’s all come crashing down lately, and it's tied to something mundane: being a barista at the local coffee shop. She comes in every morning around nine, orders her usual latte, and we share this quiet little game of eye contact over the counter. It started as a nod to our DDLG lifestyle; now, I find myself slipping into that Daddy mode automatically when she’s there. She's an artist, creative type, not really my style, but I love seeing how she sees the world through her art. Lately though, customers have been noticing. The way she looks at me like I’m everything to her and they see it. It started innocently enough with one or two people giving us funny looks as if we're dating in a typical sense, but then someone called me out on it. A regular customer, who’s kind of an ass about other peoples' relationships, made some snarky comment about how I'm her