Sophia

Author's Notes:

Sorry it took so long to get Part three submitted. It turned out to be much longer than I thought. I want to thank people for all the praise that I was given for Parts one and two, and I hope that this lives up to your expectations.

Special thanks to my new and first ever editor Yellow Peril, he did a whole lot of work on this story, with repairs and some positive additions to the story. (Yes, I did just copy that part from Part II, but it is still true so why mess with perfection.)

Thanks for Reading

CastleStone

Disclaimer: None of this is real and actually right now, you are dreaming this story. So, if it really sucks just wake up.

PS. At the end of part two I wrote.

I have been informed by my editor that it is sweeps week. Look forward to the exciting conclusion of Sophia in Part Three. There will be romance, sex, cooking, intrigue and comedy. Honest, would I lie to you?

Well I LIED!

Actually I was mistaken, but "Well I Lied", sounds more dramatic. The story is much longer than I planned for, and it ain't done yet. Personally I like part three better than part two, but there is more to come. There is going to be at least two more parts after this. Part four is with my editor (originally the second half of part three) and I've got half (or more) of part five done, so I hope to have the rest of the story done soon.

(I lied about this too.) It is now a line in Part Five.

"Carefully she put the laser sight on Don's date for the evening. Try and steal Don, she thought. This is the end for you."

I sincerely apologize about the delay. The end of Sophia is significantly longer than parts one and two combined thus it took longer to write. Also my editor's ISP uses drunken scotch drinking seagulls while my ISP uses beer swilling ground hogs. This has caused numerous lost emails and missing files when they do the hand off. Most recently with the part that you're reading now, it should have been posted far earlier. Of course none of this is my fault and yes, my wife really hates all the lame excuses I use around the house.

…………………………………………

The next morning we were all at the kitchen table while Don was making French toast. Megan was inhaling her coffee as she turned to Robin and said, "You tell him - I'm too sleepy."

Robin brightly replied, "Okay"

"Daddy," she yelled.

"Yes, pumpkin?"

"Maria, Vanessa, Kathy, and Freddie all think you're a dork."

"That's true, honey. But I'm a nice dork." Don didn't even pause while flipping the French toast.

"Well, we started a club to undork you so you can be a stud and meet lots of women. Is that okay?"

"That's fine; I could use a good undorking. Do we have to pay anything?"

Robin turned to me and I frantically shook my head no. "No, Daddy, undorking is free." All my friends had their hands over their faces at this point. I think Freddie was struggling to keep from laughing so hard that tears were coming out of her eyes.

"What's the name of the club?" Asked Don.

"The Perfecting Daddy Association," answered Robin. Megan wasn't even paying attention, she just sat there and sipped her coffee like this was an everyday occurrence for her.

"That's a nice name, do we get t-shirts?" asked Don.

"No, just ballcaps."

"Well, I guess that's better than nothing."

With those solemn words, we were now officially in business. I was beginning to think that maybe I needed a good undorking too.

……………………

"♫ I'm a dork, I'm a dork, I'm a dork, dork, dork.

I'm a dork, I'm a dork, I'm a dork, dork, dork. ♫"

I was half singing and mumbling to myself while cooking breakfast, the words matching music from the Lone Ranger/William Tell overture by Rossini.

When Robin told me what Maria and her friends thought about me, my immediate thought was,

"No shit, it took them long enough to figure it out."

Actually it did piss me off a bit because it brought up some bad memories

. I must be a dork for my ex-wife to cheat on me so flagrantly for three years with my sisters helping her to cheat.

Well, time to calm down. At least my new friends are going to try to undork me. They probably had some bullshit explanation planned to let me know; I'm glad that Robin just cut straight to the chase.

I know that they all are doing it out of kindness, because it is probably going to be a lot of work. On the other hand, I get to take personal lessons from four ex-models; yeah I can live with that. But maybe I should burn the French toast that I serve them?

I finished cooking and sat down at the table with them to eat. "Okay, when do we start the undorking lessons and what are they?"

I, of course, cleverly waited until they all either had food in their mouths or were drinking coffee. Food and coffee sprayed everywhere and I gleefully exchanged high fives with Robin. Megan, who had been drinking coffee at the time, was the only one not to spray; she just kept on drinking her coffee.

Kathy choked out, "We thought we would go skiing today, and tonight Maria would give dancing lessons again. That's part of your undorking."

"Sounds good to me."

I did pretty good skiing that day. Only my daughters and Freddie chose to stay close to me. I think the others were too embarrassed.

That night I was disgusted to learn that, since I was the subject of the undorking, I didn't get a baseball cap; what a gyp! On the other hand, the hat might have read "Official Dork" and I wouldn't like that.

Kathy picked up the explanation after my lessons. "Don, we all think you're a great guy, but your confidence really took a big hit because of the divorce. We're going to help you not only get your confidence back, but we're going to turn you into an attractive hunk. You've definitely got the potential, but there are some skills that we think you need to gain along with some slight physical improvements, but once we get those done you will be a real babe magnet. Then the four of us will start taking you out on practice dates. When we think you are ready we will get you a real date with some lucky girl. Just leave everything to us."

Why did this entire script start reminding me of "Pygmalion"?

The thing that really hurt was that they were eventually going to try to get me a date with someone other than them. I was kind of really hoping that one of my new friends was maybe interested in me romantically.

Who am I kidding? I was hoping that the kiss with Maria actually meant something and maybe she was in love with me. Let's get real - Maria is a rich, beautiful ex-model and I'm just a cuckolded dork.

My sisters had turned on me, all my friends had believed I was submissive and enjoyed being cuckolded, my coworkers had had so little respect for me that they didn't tell me about my adulterous wife and just screwed her themselves, the court system decided I had to know about my wife's affairs, and to top it all off and make it even worse, MY OWN DAUGHTERS believed the same things about me for a time! Cuckolded Dork is too good a name for me, something new should be invented just for me. I know if I let my disappointment and sadness show that they will just spout some bullshit to placate me. Hell, they might even give me a mercy fuck! Freddie and Kathy, with their self professed interest in sex, would probably even be willing to lower themselves to give me a mercy fuck, not that they would have any actual desire to do so.

As for Maria, there is just no way, that she could be romantically interested in me, but I'm head over heels in love with her. I'm a complete joke of a man. I've got to get over a woman that I was never involved with in the first place and I don't know how to do it!

A line from a completely appropriate song came into head.

"♫ Unchain my heart cause you don't care about me. ♫"

With that depressing refrain echoing in my head I complained about being sleepy and told everyone I was going to go to bed early. First, I needed to take a long hot shower. Only wimps cry into their pillows, but when you take a shower nobody knows. I was finally able to get to sleep about four AM after spending most of that time in the bathroom. With daughters, that is the only place a guy is guaranteed privacy. Shit I hurt! But it was my own damn fault - I had built up a fantasy in my head and let it become a possible reality in my own imagination.

The morning was absolute hell. I woke up about six-thirty. I wanted to hide in my room or go home to my apartment, by myself. I couldn't do any of that. First reason: my daughters. Second, my friends didn't deserve my rejection of them. They liked me, just none of them loved me and I shouldn't have been stupidly imagining anything different.

I kept on looking at my eyes in the mirror. They looked terrible and there was just no way to hide them. I needed some heavy exercise to break me out of this funk. I took another look at the clock, but it was still way too early.

Instead of hiding in my room until the last minute, maybe what I should do is sneak down to Maria's gym and work up a good sweat.

So that's exactly what I did. Normally I like to work out for two hours at a time; sometimes I'm forced by my schedule to only get in an hour. Today I was able to do three and a half, cranking weights, doing crunches and a spending a long time on the treadmill, but it did the trick.

It was Vanessa who finally found me. I guess everyone had been searching the whole house for me and she was the only one that thought to check the basement gym.

"Don, we've been looking all over for you. How long have you been down here?"

I slowed the treadmill down by a mile per hour and reduced the incline by two, so I could talk. "Oh hi, Vanessa, I just got up a little early. I've been missing my regular workouts and I decided to hit the gym. I wasn't hiding or anything."

Oh yes, I was

.

"Well, we've got breakfast ready. Hurry up and come upstairs, okay?"

"Vanessa, you own a gym, you know how it is. I've got to complete a cool down on the tread mill and then shower. It will be at least twenty to thirty minutes, even with rushing." I reduced the incline by one notch and the speed by a half mile per hour.

"Okay, be as fast as you can. I'll tell everyone where you are and we'll keep breakfast warm for you."

My kids came downstairs a couple minutes later to check on me. They were relieved to find me, and I felt bad for making them worry. They waited until I had completed my cool down, and then chased me upstairs to take a quick shower.

When I got to the kitchen I found everyone was eating really slowly so I wouldn't be alone while I ate.

Really nice people, they broke my heart but really nice people.

Once they spiffed me up a little I was going to have to get serious about dating women. Stop living in the past or my little fantasy world. Get hardcore serious and try my best. I really didn't want to grow old alone.

We went skiing again that day and both Vanessa and Freddie stayed close to me. Kathy and Maria kept their distance. That night there were more dance lessons and Vanessa informed me that I would start physical training in the morning.

By seven o'clock, Vanessa and I were hard at work in the gym. She began by showing my some new exercises for my stomach and chest area. They were hard, but not that bad.

"Don, you are physically one of the strongest people I know. The only people I know personally that are stronger are a couple of friends of mine that are powerlifters, and I think you could earn even their respect in terms of your physical strength. So, I hate to say this because you're definitely not out of shape or fat, but we're going to have to put you on a diet if we're going to get you looking chiseled in any reasonable amount of time."

"A diet?" I asked in horror.

"I'm sorry, Don, but yes. To begin with we are going to cut your carb intake by half and I'll want you to watch your fats too."

"For how long?"

"Don, I've watched you eat. You like your breads, pastas, cakes, cookies and pies. To stay chiseled, even with all the exercise you do and with your high metabolism, you will probably have to be careful with the carbs for a long time." I just know she wanted to say "forever" instead of "a long time". If she said "forever" I would have been out of there, baby.

"We won't make you start your diet until January first. That way, you can enjoy yourself." Well, I sure dodged a bullet there. It would have been terrible if I couldn't eat my own EXTREME BUFFET APPETIZER FEAST. No big entrees, just lots and lots of really good, really fattening appetizers – did I mention they taste really good? With food being served from about three in the afternoon until one AM. On New Year's Eve the only time I leave the kitchen is for the midnight toast. I like to keep making small batches of different foods, that way it's always hot and fresh so nothing gets stale. I also had plans to use Maria's Christmas choo choo train for the night.

After our workout that morning we showered, had breakfast and went skiing. That night after dinner I had more dance lessons. The next day was the same routine. On the morning of New Year's Eve I took a three hour drive early in the morning to pick up some fresh seafood that I had especially ordered. I was at the store when they opened at nine AM and back to Maria's by one PM. Let the feast commence!

I chased everyone out of the kitchen; I didn't want them to see the goodies until I started producing them. The first thing I did was program that train of Maria's and set it up so that it pulled all three of its big open cars. Each car was easily big enough for a couple of large serving plates. I walked the train through the virtual track that I wanted it to follow. It would start in the kitchen at its charging station and then it would go to the movie room and loop around the chairs there. After the movie room it would go to the great room to do the same thing, and then it would return to its charging station. The train had antennae feelers all over it, hit one of those antennae and it automatically stops until the obstacle is removed. So, if you wanted it to stop, all you had to do was just stick out your foot.

I started making greasy, delicious food in the kitchen with a couple of my deep fryers. The kitchen would become a disaster zone, but that is the price of gluttony! I started out with one batch of coconut chicken wings and another of coconut shrimp. I had homemade mini-pizzas in the oven and I was also frying up some Italian sausage that I would slice up so you could eat them with a toothpick. Broiled kielbasa was being treated the same way while stuffed mushrooms were in a different oven. I had six ovens to work with and I was in hog heaven!

I sent the first train load out with great anticipation. Sure enough, Maria timidly snuck her way into the kitchen. "Just how much food are you going to make?"

"You ain't seen nothing yet, Baby. I'm just getting started."

"Would you mind if I invited a few friends? There is going to be too much food for just us to eat it all."

"Go right ahead, it's your house. I certainly don't mind."

Well, the first to arrive were Carl and his wife, Lucille. They had just gotten back from visiting their kids and grandchildren and Lucille was still using a cane because of her accident. She said hi to me and went back to the movie room with the other girls. Now Carl had brought some wonderful home brew, what a guy. It was a nice amber lager that was awfully good drinking, and we instantly became best friends – funny how these things work!

He became my assistant chef and chief bartender. I would stick food on a plate, and he would load up the train. When it came back he would unload the dirty dishes and wash them. Most importantly, when my beer got low he would pour me another. We talked about everything; some of the myriad of important things we discussed were tools, fishing, women, poker, sports, kids, and hunting. I'd always wanted to go hunting but my father got sick and died when I was too young so I never had anyone to teach me, and I never had the time to go.

Somewhere along the way one of us, because of the toy train, started humming "Chattanooga Choo Choo", this led to the other singing it in a soft voice and then – I don't know how it happened - both of us were belting it out.

Maria's kitchen is the most fully equipped kitchen I've ever seen; it even has its own sound system. I don't know where Carl got it from, but he snuck in a CD with songs from the Swing Era. Besides "Chattanooga Choo Choo", we were listening to and sometimes singing to (when we knew the words, and sometimes later on even when we didn't) songs like "In the Mood", "Mack the Knife", "Sentimental Journey", "Ain't Misbehavin", and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy". Occasionally we even got to dancing but that never lasted too long - Carl was a lousy dancer and he would never let me lead!

I think I need another beer

.

We started sending out loads of seafood like Dungeness crab clusters, mussels, clams, oysters, peel and eat shrimp, and then another load of mushrooms.

More guests arrived including Nancy and a few of Maria's other friends from the lodge.

Every once and a while someone would come in and check on me and Carl, but we were fine, half in the bag but fine. I think our singing was scaring them away most of the time, but occasionally they would stay and stare in awe or it could have been shock from the assault on their eardrums. Carl had gone back to his house earlier and brought back some great dark beer and a few more CDs. Maria's beautiful kitchen was a wreck. So what if I spilled a few things, I never spilled my beer!

At 11:45 we sent a train load of champagne back to the movie room. At midnight my kids gave me kisses, and then they kissed Maria. Maria gave me a short kiss on the lips. I got lots of kisses. It is nice to get kisses from FRIENDS, shit. Carl and I started the final cooking. When we had that done, we sat down with his last six pack and started playing gin at the kitchen table. We were pretty tanked when we finished off the last of the beer and I think I owed Carl a gazillion dollars, for some reason we were playing for a hundred dollars a point. Did you know home brew has a higher alcohol rating than commercial beer?

"Daddy, daddy?" Megan was standing there looking concerned.

"Yesshh, baby?"

"I think you better go to bed."

"But the kitchen izzs a messhh. I have to get it clean."

"Don, don't worry about the kitchen. Tomorrow is my regularly scheduled day for my cleaning crew. They'll clean it up." It was Maria looking awfully concerned with Vanessa backing her up. Carl was already gone, I didn't remember him leaving, and it's been a long time since I was this drunk.

"Okaayy sounds good." I staggered my way up the stairs with Megan, Robin, Maria and Vanessa waiting to catch me when I fell. But I fooled them - I didn't fall until I made it to the upstairs hallway.

Megan was talking to Maria. "Daddy hardly ever drinks; the most I've ever seen him drink was four beers in a whole day."

I decided it was time to sing. "♫ How dry I am, how wet I'll be, if I don't find the bathroom key. ♫"

Nah, that's no good, what to sing next

. Vanessa is certainly strong for a lady. I turned my head to look at Maria and came up with the perfect song.

"♫ Unchain my heart

Baby let me be

Unchain my heart

Cause you don't care about me

You got me sewed up like a pillow case

But you let my love go to waste

Unchain my heart set me free ♫"