## ( I ) FROZEN PRELUDE ##
Nursing the last few sips of bourbon, I stared out of the wall of three-story windows in the hotel lobby. Sparkling snowflakes filled the air outside, drifting lazy and carefree, then swirling frantically, blown by another icy gust until they fell gently to earth, where black, grimy piles of the stuff cluttered the curbs, turning the street into a river of cold, salted sludge.
Who the fuck plans their wedding in Denver in the middle of February?
My daughter, of course. Yeah, sure, the groom's parents lived nearby. Yeah, it was halfway between my ex-wife's house and mine. And yeah, it was exactly two years since they'd met here on Valentine's Day. Sure, it sounds so romantic now, but let's see how big a deal it is fifteen or twenty years down the road.
Polishing off the tumbler, I shook my head, remembering why I loved living in the Old South.
A clamor of loud voices and drunken laughter grew behind me. There was no need to turn around. In her usual blusterous and overbearing manner, my ex was leading a train from the rehearsal dinner to the hotel bar. I looked anyway. Her arm was draped around the waist of the sheepish groom. He was looking back over his shoulder helplessly at our daughter, Kelly, who could only shrug. The rest of the party was in tow, the three lovely young bridesmaids, Kelly's best friends since childhood, and a bevy of stout, young groomsmen circling them like sharks. The groom's parents brought up the rear accompanied by the preacher, who I caught stealing surreptitious glances at the bridesmaid's rears. The parade disappeared into the dimly lit bar.
I felt no perverse desire to be humiliated by my ex, and there was no way I was going out in this weather, so I wandered back up to my room. A movie channel was showing the end of an old classic with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn. I couldn't help but laugh to myself at the ridiculous plot. What could a charming ingenue like Audrey possibly see in such a pathetic old codger?
It was barely ten o'clock, and tomorrow was going to be a long and tiring day. There were a couple of things - unrelated to the wedding - that I would have to do at some point. I wasn't looking forward to either of them. May as well jack-off and get some sleep. Hmm...should I crank up the good old Internet, or should I opt for some decent porn on the hotel TV? Hell, I was paying for all of this, wasn't I? But for some reason, neither sounded particularly appealing. With nothing else to do, I began my nightly routine - brushing my teeth, a little yoga, then settling down with a sudoku puzzle to focus my left brain, leaving my right brain to meander aimlessly.
Kelly was first in my thoughts. Except for her few visits to Atlanta, I had missed watching my little girl grow up. I was proud of her. Despite her mother's best efforts, she had blossomed into a smart and charming young woman. Her fiancé Brian was a good kid, and if she treated him right, I held hope that they might actually make a good life together. Better than Cece and I did.
I hardly recognized her bridesmaids. They were her three best friends since they all started school together. I hadn't seen any of them in over seven years. I mostly remembered the skinned knees, the squealing pajama parties, and the tear-stained adolescent melodramas. It was hard to reconcile the little pixies that spent so much time at our house with the full-grown women drinking, swearing, and carousing at the dinner tonight.
There was Tara, busty and curvaceous. I'd learned from Kelly that she'd married right out of high school, had a baby, and got a divorce, all before she was 20. Melissa - Missy - was the slim and sexy glamor queen, always dressed to kill. She had been the ring-leader, constantly scheming, getting the other girls into some sort of mischief or another. In subtle hints, Kelly advised me to be alert to Missy's penchant for stealing boyfriends, and a few husbands. Then there was Sophie, certainly the cutest and smartest of the bunch, but with a terminal case of shyness. When she was a teenager, she turned away and blushed if I even looked at her. Even at the rehearsal, she could hardly look me in the eye. I grinned to myself. If the rumors were true, the horny groomsmen didn't stand a chance - I'd heard that she batted for the other team.
## ( II ) WARMING UP ##
Without even trying, I had grown erect under the covers. Maybe it was the hormones floating around all of those firm, ripe young women. Or maybe it was just that I was long overdue for a good fuck. Regardless, the tiny little brain between my legs would not be ignored. I kicked off my underwear and picked up the remote.
The pay-per-view selections seemed decent enough. I picked one, and sat back against the pillows for a little video stimulation. The plot buildup was blessedly short, and soon I was stroking myself lazily while fantasizing that I was the well-hung old fart on the video. A svelte, young naked girl was on her knees, swinging on his big cock. She was cute, with long dark hair in a ponytail that whipped from side to side as her head bobbed rhythmically. I felt a little guilty. The girl looked young enough to be in her mid-teens, but I was certain the actress was much older. They didn't allow anyone under twenty-one, right? Besides, according to the preview, her 'mom' would be discovering their shenanigans soon. Lucky guy. How come that sort of thing never happened to me?
The jazzy music thrummed softly, and the old guy was breathing heavy, growling, "Suck it, you miserable cunt," and similar sweet nothings.
I heard a tapping.
I hit the mute and listened. There it was again. Someone was knocking at my door, ever so lightly.
Quickly turning off the TV, I searched frantically for my whiteys under in the sheets, but couldn't find them. I hobbled to the door, pulling on a pair of old sweat pants.
I opened the door to find my daughter's maid of honor, Sophie, in her usual 'Hello Kitty' t-shirt hanging mid-thigh. She was barefoot, her long, dark hair pulled up in a ponytail, high on her head. Just like the girl in the video, I pondered. I was chagrined to feel a fresh surge of blood rushing into my loins.
She craned her neck around me, peering into the room and avoiding my gaze, asking, "Are you - uh, busy, Mr. Lyman?"
"No, Sophie..." I began, but she had already pushed the door open, ducked under my arm, and plopped onto the hotel sofa.
I closed the door and sat on the edge of the bed, wondering at the unusual late-night visit. "Is everything okay, Sophie? The wedding still happening?"
As usual, she carefully pondered her response. I could almost hear the clockwork in her head, click, click, click. Finally, she shrugged, avoiding my gaze. "Yeah, I guess so. The snow might be a little problem."
She fell silent, her eyes scanning around my room as if cataloging every inane picture on the wall, the lie of the sheets, the pants hanging over the back of the chair. Anything to keep from looking at me.
Searching for some way to break the awkwardness, I fell back on trite. "Well, Sophie, what's up? It's been a long time since we talked. Things going well in your life?"
Not that we'd ever talked much. She was the quietest of the bunch, and hardly ever said a word to me. A twinge went through me when I recalled what I'd done to her mother. Was that why she was here? Did she even know?
"Yeah. Okay, I guess," she said, studying her anxious, fidgeting fingers.
"You're done with school now?"
A long pause. Click, click.
"No, not yet. This fall I'll begin a PhD program," she said, pulling her lower lip between her teeth.
"Wow!" I said, taken aback. I knew she was bright, but she was so terminally shy. "So I'll be calling you Dr. Sophie?"
She grinned, and chuckled, still contemplating the floor. "No, Mr. Lyman..."
"Please, Sophie, call me Chuck," I said. "You're a woman, now."
Her back straightened proudly, and her eyes actually shifted to me for a moment. Her face was beaming.
"Okay, uh, Chuck. Anyway, I won't be a doctor." She thought for a moment, scrunching up her face. "I mean, I'll be a doctor, but not like a medical doctor doctor, but I'll have a doctorate, so people will call me doctor, and..." She suddenly stopped and rolled her eyes. "God, I sound so stupid."
I laughed, and her cheeks grew red. "I'm sorry, Sophie. You sound excited, not stupid. So, what will your doctorate be in?"
"Biomedical engineering," she said.
"Whoa! Biomed? That's awesome, Sophie. You were always the smartest out of all of Kelly's friends."
Her chest puffed out a little more, and the dirty old man in me couldn't resist glaring at the smooth domes swelling her t-shirt, and the little points poking out next to Hello Kitty's eyes. She certainly didn't have those the last time I saw her.
