Locus poenitente and the road less traveled aside. Life goes on. Premonitions. Missed opportunities. Time and life wait for no man, Jack Grant!
It was Saturday morning at the Grant household. Nikki sat with her customary bowl of Cheerios with milk. Jack was nursing his second cup of coffee. The breakfast conversation had taken a slight detour, kind of like Jack's life. Bizarre was becoming commonplace! Is it still bizarre if it's common?
"I want one!" she couldn't even get the words out without blushing.
Jack turned beet red, swallowing hard and desperately trying to look anywhere else in the room but at his daughter.
I have to say something; I can't just sit here with my mouth open. Think, Jack. Think!
"Okay ... so, why? I mean what do you need one for?"
Jesus, Jack, could you be more pathetic as a father?
"Because, I just do!" she snapped back, stubbornly digging in her heels.
Duh, what do you think I want one for? You makes me so mad sometimes. It's not like I'm asking for a car! Hey, that reminds me, I need a car for college.
"Where do you buy them, Daddy? Not at the mall, I bet." Antsy, she briefly gazed down at her legs. When her head popped back up, she caught the look in his eyes. Hers twinkled, knowing full-well he was uncomfortable with the whole subject.
"Well, Nicole, there are places for couples to go and shop for this kind of stuff," he admitted. He cleared his throat again, fighting to keep his voice from cracking like a teenage boy with a woody. They're called 'Adult Stores or Arcades'.
They're really called 'Sex Shops'!
"That's sounds really cool. Can we go to one?" she asked innocently.
"Those kind of stores aren't exactly located in 'The Mall', Nikki," he backtracked furiously, clenching his teeth. He studied her face, checking to see if she was understanding any part of his explanation.
Nope, nothing but an expression of pure puzzlement. She hasn't got a clue what I'm talking about.
He went on, "Not the ones with sex toys and movie arcades and movie rentals."
"You can rent movies? Like Blockbuster? I wish they'd never shut their store down; I used to love going there with you when I was little." Now, she was totally enthused. She smiled, thinking of
'The Incredibles' and 'Kung-Fu Panda'
.
Quaaaa!
"No, definitely not like Blockbuster," Jack answered truthfully. "Adult movies."
"I'm an adult."
Jack smiled broadly.
Still so innocent! God bless you, good sisters!
"No, Nikki, not 'adult' meaning your age. A-D-U-L-T ... you know, XXX-rated. Porn?"
Nicole shrugged. "But they have sex toys too, right? So, how do you know where one is, Daddy?"
"
Your mom and I have been to them together. You know ... your mom, my wife? We were adults, too!"
Once upon a time, long ago, in a land far, far away!
Oh Lord, my head hurts. Talking about this stuff makes my head fucking feel like it is gonna explode. I bet my blood pressure is ... like ... well ... fucking high! High enough to make me have a stroke!
"Mom watched porn? She had sex toys?" Nikki was bubbling with interest now. "What kind of movies? What kind of sex toys?"
"Okay, time out!" Jack brought his hands up in the referee T-sign, halting the onslaught of questions. "If you want to know about what kind of porn your mom likes or what kind of toys she might have liked, you're simply going to have to ask her. I'm not going to speak for her about these kinds of questions. I don't have the right."
And, for God's sake, don't mention that I talked to you about this.
"Mom goes to porn stores! This is sooooooo cool!"
Jack sweated as he saw the little calculations going on behind her eyes.
There are so many ways this conversation can go wrong! So many ways! Fuck!
"Okay, let's go to one of those stores," Nikki babbled excitedly, "then I can see what they look like. How big they are. How long!" She shivered at the thought. "Can I touch one to see what it feels like? You know, in my hand?" When she caught Jack just staring at her with his mouth hanging open, she promptly switched gears and demurely looked down at her lap. A picture of childlike innocence, she sat there looking like an angel, absentmindedly twisting a portion of the shirt she held in her small hands.
Her prim little Pollyanna pose had the desired effect on Jack. "Nikki Sweetheart, you're too young. Well, technically not too young, but I'm your dad and it wouldn't be appropriate to go there with me. I mean, Honey, I'm sorry; but remember, it's not exactly Blockbuster," he tried to explain. "These are definitely big person places."
"Secret places? Secret big person places?"
Full of secrets, I bet.
He laughed. "No, not secret ... not in that way."
"So, is it in a mall or not?" she demanded, pressing him for the info. She sensed his resistance.
I smell a secret. Definitely has the feeling of secrecy.
"No. Well, yes ... sorta," he vacillated. "Sometimes an 'Adult Store' uses the same parking lot as a mall; but it's always located in a separate building, far from the other stores and the main entrance."
She worked the problem, logically, just like a lawyer's daughter. Any answer, and most questions, had to meet this standard if your dad was an attorney.
She looked up and straight into Jack's eyes. "You're right, Daddy. I need stop being so impulsive and think about this logically, like you've always taught me."
There is a God! Hot damn and hallelujah! It's taken eighteen years, but she's finally coming around. Logic, yes, use that head.
"I'm so damn proud of you, Nikki; you're being very mature about this whole thing. Like I've told you a million times, 'Always use your brain. Arguments aren't won by being emotional; they're won by being rational.'"
"I know, Dad, and I think I've always appreciated it," she answered submissively. "But, now, I'm just trying to put it altogether. So, can we talk about it?"
"Fire away, Nikki; I'm all ears."
At last, a real and non-threatening Daddy-Daughter chat. No sex, no melodrama, and no guilt. No sneaking around, no regrets. And best of all, no hellfire and damnation! What a fucking relief!
Nikki began hesitantly, "Okay, here goes. Big person places equal adult places. Correct?"
"Absolutely," Jack agreed.
"I'm an adult," she continued slickly, immediately pouncing on Jack the moment he attempted to open his mouth. "Am I eighteen years of age or not, Counselor?"
"Okay ... you're eighteen," he conceded warily.
"Then your objection is overruled." Nikki's smile was wickedly smug.
Get ready, Daddy, here it comes. You are so going to lose this one.
"So ... if I had a boyfriend and, like me, he was over eighteen, he could legally take me to the Adult Store to see the toys. Correct?"
"Yes, if you had a boyfriend over eighteen, he could take you."
However, I'm having trouble picturing in my mind any boy surviving into adulthood if I found out that he'd taken you to a Porn Shop.
"So, couldn't you pretend to be my boyfriend just this once.?" Her eyes pleaded with him.
I am so fucked!
"I would look like a child molester, taking you to a place like that!" he blurted out. It was heartfelt, but he hadn't carefully weighed the words.
Hell, I may be a child molester; I just don't want to look like one. Jesus, that's not exactly staking out a moral high ground for an argument!
"I'm not a child!"
"No, you're right. You aren't a child." Jack threw up his hands in frustration, acknowledging a poorly thought-out response.
She looked up. Jack could see the wheels turning. "Daddy, you could leave me in the parking lot and bring one out for me to see. Couldn't you?"
He wiped his hand across his brow. There was sweat on it, just like when he was cross- examining a person in a hearing but actually didn't know what they might say next.
"Yeah, I guess there wouldn't be any harm. I mean ... I guess we could do that. After all, the parking lot isn't inside the store." Jack tried to get his head wrapped around taking his just-turned-eighteen-year-old daughter to an adult movie store. He parsed the words out like a good attorney, searching for an appropriate way to describe the clearly inappropriate.
No, to the parking lot of the store, not into the store itself!
Even as Jack was absorbed in his lawyer's mental gymnastics, Nikki was busy gathering up his wallet and keys. He was still working the angles when she took his hand and dragged him towards the front door. Next thing he knew, he was firing up the jeep.
On the drive there, it didn't help when she put her hand on his thigh, squeezed gently and simply said, "It'll be okay, Dad."
His cock throbbed and lurched in his pants. She felt it and leaned into his neck, whispering to him, "You'll see. It'll be fun." She traced the outline of his growing erection through his trousers.
You think so, too. I can tell.
En route, Jack nearly had a wreck twice and, on both occasions, his life flashed before his eyes like a movie; nevertheless, they made it to the parking lot alive. Fortunately, it wasn't busy. As Jack switched off the jeep's engine, all he could think was,
Thank you, God!
On the other hand, Nikki was perky as chipmunk, looking around everywhere, not wanting to miss a thing. He handed her a ball cap, ordering sternly, "Put this over your hair, so you look like a boy. I don't like leaving you out here, so lock the door when I get out. Got it?"
It's just a parking lot, Daddy.
But, she merely nodded quietly and gave him both thumbs-up. Jack guessed the cute, little two thumbs-up sign meant 'OK' in teen body language. She turned the mirror so she could make sure her pony-tail was straight through the back of the ball cap. Turning her head to the side,
Cute!
