by Alyse Zaftig
My dad must have had a glass or three while I was changing, because he’s cheerfully talking to two ladies who are sitting at the table next to ours. His voice is a little loud.
“I’m going to the bathroom.”
My dad doesn’t skip a beat, just goes right on talking about the weather and climate change. I don’t know if he even needs an audience.
I go to the back hallway where the restrooms are. I pass some guy who is still zipping up his pants. The door to the guys’ restroom is closing very slowly. There’s only one stall and nobody at the urinals. If Link is in there, he’s in the stall. I hope no guys need to use the restroom for the next ten minutes, because I go inside, shove the door shut despite some resistance, and lock it.
“Link,” I whisper.
“Camilla.” The door of the stall swings open. He sticks his head out. “Get out of the men’s bathroom.”
Instead of obeying, I push the stall door open. He has his erection in his hand. He was hiding it behind the door.
“Are you close?” I can see a little pearly liquid at the tip.
I kneel on the tile floor, ignoring the fact that my dress is definitely getting dirty.
“Camilla, you can’t be in here.”
When I pull his dick into my mouth, though, he shuts up.
“Mmm.” He tastes nice. I suck him like I haven’t eaten all day.
“Camilla, we’re going to get caught.”
I don’t dignify that with a response. I’m playing with his balls now, sucking him deep into my mouth.
Then he’s spurting seed straight into my mouth. I drain him dry, sucking even when I think everything is gone.
“Jesus Christ, Camilla.”
I stand up, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
“Don’t send me away again,” I warn him. “You won’t like the consequences.”
Suddenly, my feet are no longer on the ground. He has me pinned up against the wall, my legs around his waist.
“Don’t threaten me, Camilla.” The small thread of menace in his voice turns me on.
He has me pushed up against the wall, his hand going to the slit in my full skirt and going straight for my honeypot. His fingers go directly in.
“I knew it. I knew you were already wet for me.”
All I can say is a small wordless moan as he circles my clit with some of my wetness.
“You’re ready to go off like a little rocket, aren’t you?”
He does something with his fingers that makes my eyes roll back in my head. When I can think again, he slowly lowers me until I’m on my feet again.
“I’m going to give you what you’ve been asking for.” His hand settles on the top curve of my ass. “And you’re going to like it.”
“What about my dad?”
“We’ll figure it out.” A muscle ticks in his jaw. “He’s going to hear about it sometime.”
We both wash our hands in the sink. Someone is banging on the door.
“Hey! I have to use the toilet.”
Link unlocks the door and shields me from the guy outside, who is trying to get a good look at me.
Mistaken
Camilla
Link and I make our way back to the table. It’s totally normal for us to go to the bathroom at the same time.
“What, did you two guzzle a few gallons of water at work at the same time?” My dad’s face shows that he’s pretty drunk. The ladies at the table next to us are giggling.
“Something like that,” Link says smoothly. While we were gone, they came to serve the salad course. It’s just a house salad, but I feel a little hungry after the climax that I had in the bathroom. I start to attack the tomatoes and avocados on top. I’m not a fan of lettuce — it’s just crunchy water — but the dressing is pretty good, and there are little bacon bits in the salad, which I am more than happy to eat. The saltiness reminds me of the taste of Link’s come, which makes me blush and look up at him.
He’s dipping a finger into the little cup that holds extra dressing. He sucks it off of a finger that was inside of me. Our eyes are locked together.
“What the fuck?”
My dad is looking at the two of us. “What the fuck was that?” He gets to his feet, but he’s a little unsteady. “Are you flirting with my daughter, you asshole?”
“Dad, quiet down. Don’t make a scene.” I look around. The giggly ladies aren’t giggling anymore.
“I’ll fucking make a scene if you come back from the bathroom at the same time and he’s sucking stuff off of his finger. I wasn’t born yesterday.”
Just then, the guy who was pounding on the door of the restroom comes by our table.
“There’s the prostitute who was fucking you in the bathroom.” He hiccups. He’s clearly a little drunk. “I see that you have two clients tonight, but give me a phone number or name…I’d like to hire you. You’re expensive but worth it, if the expression on that guy’s face is anything to go by.”
“Get the fuck away from her.” Link’s voice is cold.
“Just offering her a business opportunity.” The drunk guy is holding his hands open in front of him. “No need to get so touchy about a woman that you rent by the hour.
My dad points a finger at Link. “Let’s take this outside.” He sounds frighteningly sober right now.
Link, a gentleman, takes the napkin off of his lap and places it on the table.
“I’m ready.” He’s taking off his suit jacket. My dad does, too.
“Wait. No. Stop. Dad, I didn’t have sex with Link in the bathroom.”
“Don’t lie to me, Camilla.”
“I didn’t!” The ring of truth must snap him out of his anger.
“You didn’t?”
“No.” But I’m blushing.
“You were doing something in the bathroom.” His voice is so grim. “You’re so young. You don’t know better. Link does. He knows that he shouldn’t take advantage of a young girl. Stay here.”
And I watch helplessly while the two of them quickly walk out of the restaurant. I look at their empty chairs and the discarded suit jackets on the backs of them.
The waiter comes by with our main courses.
“Where did they go, miss?”
“Just outside for a moment,” I say, even though everyone is staring at our table. Our waiter knows that he’s missed something, but he just carefully clears space for the new plates. I give him our salad bowls.
I cut my eggplant parmesan, but it tastes sawdust. It’s my favorite dish here, but I can’t seem to swallow. I put down my utensils. I can hear the sound of shouting outside. I hold back my tears, because I’m wearing eyeliner and I know people are still looking at me and the empty seats at this table.
This dinner is the opposite of a celebration.
Fight
Link
“I’m going to fuck you up for touching my little girl. Damn you, Link. You’ve betrayed me. I trusted you with her. I’ve left you alone with her.”
“We’ve never fucked.”
With a cry, he’s running at me. He’s drunker than I am, though, so he’s a little unsteady on his feet. As soon as he comes by me, I smoothly pivot out of his way like a torero facing an infuriated bull.
“I told her to work for you. Is that when it happened? Is that when you started molesting my daughter?”
“It’s not like that,” I protest, even though he’s trying to go for my throat now. Then his fist comes perilously close to my nose as I dodge. “I didn’t touch her while she was working for me. I swear.”
“But you admit that you touched my teenage daughter, don’t you?”
I’m pretty sure he’s trying to kick me in the face, but he doesn’t have the flexibility to do it, so the tip of his shoe catches my ribs instead. I use the opening to catch his ankle and pull his legs from under him. His balance isn’t that great right now, anyway.
I roll him onto his front and sit on him, pinning him in a simple hold.
“Listen to me,” I say. “I di
dn’t mean to do anything with your daughter. I’ve resisted it. I’ve known that you wouldn’t like it.”
“Damn right,” he spits like he’s tasted something foul. “I’ve been right there with you as you’ve fucked dozens if not hundreds of women. Hell, I don’t know if you have syphilis or something. You never got married.”
“I get regular check-ups for STDs.”
He struggles beneath me, but I’m pretty fucking heavy.
“You asshole,” he hisses. “My daughter’s a virgin and you’re the furthest thing from it.”
I knew he’d be outraged. I expected it. But that comment hits home, because I believe the same thing: she should have sex for the first time with some boy who is madly in love with her, not some jaded adult who spends too much time in his office.
I stand up and roll him to his front, yanking him to his feet. He puts a hand on my shoulder to steady himself.
“Leave. Now. And maybe then you’ll still have a few teeth.”
I look him in the face. I don’t want to make this situation any worse than it already is.
“I’ll leave for now.”
He just shakes his head and goes back into the restaurant. I think about Camilla. My phone is in my suit jacket pocket, so I can’t text her before I go. My car keys are in my pants. I need to get out of here before Jack changes his mind and attacks me again. The only reason I didn’t really fight back was because I knew it would hurt her. He might be my best friend, but even he doesn’t get a free pass.
I toss my keys in the air and catch them. I’ll come back for her later.
To-Go
Camilla
My dad walks back into the restaurant. His hair is a mess. Link isn’t with him.
“What happened out there?”
My dad looks at me with tired, frustrated eyes. “This isn’t about him. When did you start something with Link?”
I hesitate. I don’t know what to tell him.
“Did it have anything to do with you working for him this summer?”
“Yes.” I know that it does. If I hadn’t been faced with daily temptation, I might not have ever acted on my childhood crush.
My dad swears and breaks a wineglass. The sound makes everybody look at us. A waiter comes to clear it away.
“I’ll pay for it. Just put it on my tab.” My dad slides his wallet out and puts a Centurion card in the waiter’s free hand. The waiter puts it into his pocket as he clears away the rest of the broken glass.
“How long?”
“Not very, Dad.”
“How long?” he repeats.
“We haven’t…had sex.” I can feel my cheeks heating up, because I haven’t even had the birds and bees talk with my dad, and here I am, talking about whether or not I’ve had sex with his best friend. I squirm in my seat. This is literally the most uncomfortable I’ve been in my entire life. I want to get up and run out to the parking lot, steal the car, and just go home.
“Nothing? You haven’t done anything?”
The uncomfortable silence sits heavily between us. I could lie, but he would know. So I don’t say anything.
“You have. Sweet Jesus,” my dad groans.
I stare at my nearly full plate. The eggplant looks sad and wilted.
“I’m going to ask them to box all of this up. There’s no point in being here anymore.” He flags down a waiter. “Boxes, please.”
I don’t want to cry, but I’m pretty close to it. I’m upset because this was supposed to be a nice dinner. And if I hadn’t given Link a foot job under the table and chased him to the bathroom, we would probably be eating a nice meal.
Now his jacket is here, but he is nowhere to be seen. I wish that I just kept my foot to myself.
A waiter clears our dishes. Two minutes later, all the food is in to-go containers. My dad is shrugging into his jacket. Both of us look at Link’s jacket.
“I want to burn it,” my dad says. He sighs. “But that would make our tailor mad.” He picks it up, putting it over his arm. “Let’s go home.”
The car ride home is dead silent. We’ve said what we need to say. He knows about my scandalous love affair that never was. I know that he’s upset about it.
I stare out my window. Then we’re parking in our garage.
“Sweetie.”
“Dad.”
He squeezes my hand. “I’m really disappointed in you.”
I’m crushed. This is way worse than my dad getting angry and fighting Link.
“But I love you.” He sighs as he releases my hand.
“Thanks, Dad.”
“And you’re going away to school tomorrow, so you’ll be far away from his corrupting influence.”
I don’t say anything. I don’t go to school on the moon.
“Stay away from him, okay? And then I can forgive you.”
“I’m not going to promise that.”
My dad’s left hand, the one that is still on the steering wheel, tightens.
“You can’t see him. He’s my age, not yours.”
“We haven’t even gotten started,” I protest.
“And if I have anything to say about it, you never will. Date boys your own age.”
“I don’t want to!” I feel like a stupid teenager, but I’m an adult now. “I want Link.”
“You can’t have him,” my dad roars. “Or I’ll cut you off.”
Being cut off is one of my worst fears. I know how hard it is to keep a job and study. Most people who work and study do the minimum to be considered a full-time student. In contrast, I take twice the full-time load.
I call his bluff. “Then cut me off.”
He pulls out his phone. He opens a banking app and freezes my credit card as lost.
“I’ll do the rest on Monday.”
We’re at a standstill. He can’t dictate where I go and who I see, but he can take away all of my money. My tuition, room, and board have already been paid for during this semester, but I’m going to have to get a job.
“Thanks a lot, Dad.” I can’t stop a hint of bitterness in my voice. I slam the car door as I get out and head to my room. I’m catching a ride with Kelly tomorrow, so I have to be packed before I go back to school.
I’m mostly packed, but I shove a bunch of stuff into my backpack. I look at my phone. I send Link a text, “Hey.”
And he doesn’t respond. I guess silence is my answer. Now that my dad knows, Link doesn’t want anything to do with me.
Going Away
Camilla
I text Kelly to pick me up earlier than usual. She hasn’t even gone to sleep yet, since it’s early in the day. I leave the house before my dad wakes up. I leave him a note.
See you at Thanksgiving.
No cute sign offs. I love my dad a lot, but we’re going to have to figure this out. I’m pretty upset, and so is he. It sounds like he’s putting most of the blame at Link’s door, though.
Kelly is at the end of my driveway. I somehow manage to bring my suitcases out without making a ton of noise. When I go back for my last suitcase, I see the curtain in my dad’s room moving.
My heart feels heavy as I roll the last suitcase out. My dad and I have always been a team. This whole thing with Link is the first time that we’ve had a serious disagreement.
“You ready to go, babe?”
“Yeah, Kels.”
She’s chewing gum. I load her car, then I get into her passenger seat. We go roaring off to school. We’re roommates in a suite. Even though her parents are only covering part of college courses, she makes up the extra with a part-time job as a barista.
I cry a little as I leave my house. At least I’ll be far away from all of this.
Kelly knows that I’m sad. She turns on Disney Radio to cheer me up, even though she sort of hates it. She calls it the Kids Bop channel, because I like to sing Disney tunes.
It works just a little bit. It stops me from crying. And she doesn’t even protest when I sing along. That’s why she’s my best friend.
She comes back down. I step into the elevator with the rest of the luggage.
The end of my summer seems like a bad dream now, like it happened to someone else.
When we open our front door, Kelly says, “You should come out with me tonight.”
She’s much more of a party girl than I am. I don’t usually party with her, but I find myself saying, “Yeah, I’d like that.”
“I’ll choose your outfit and do your hair and makeup. You need to cheer up. We’ll start at six.”
“Okay.”
I push past her and go into my room. I don’t want to cry, but I curl up in a ball and stare out my window.
Link hasn’t responded to my text, even a day later. I don’t know what else to do. We never had a sex, and I know that my dad would have gone absolutely ballistic if Link had let me fuck him.
I feel like there’s an aching hole in the center of my chest, the hole where Link’s love should be. I hope that the party tonight cheers me up. Maybe I’ll meet someone hot.
Thinking of hooking up with someone just makes me even sadder. I wish he would respond to my text.
Party
Camilla
I wake up when Kelly knocks on my door. “Time to get ready, babe.” She swings it open and sees me curled in the fetal position.
“Babe, it’s going to be okay.”
“It doesn’t feel like it.”
“Let me do your hair and makeup. You’ll feel like a new woman.” She has a dress on a hanger. “And you’re wearing this tonight.”
It’s a scandalously short red dress with a deep neckline.
“That’s not a dress. That’s an embarrassed towel.”
