“Why did she do that? Drive away her lover?” I wondered, “I thought that she wanted to marry the guy.”
“Exactly. And when he refused, she punished him by keeping his son from him. She never put his name on the birth certificate, nor yours. He has no legal rights short of proving paternity, and I suppose that this was far too much effort for that guy’s taste. Too rich for his blood. Or maybe too expensive. To say nothing of how much child support would cost. He just gave up and moved on to someone else, probably one or two more married women. Besides, he was married himself. He couldn’t afford that divorce on top of the other stuff, at least as he saw it,” Angel told me now.
“Sorry to interrupt, but are you guys ready to order?” Maddie looked sincere in her apology, but I smiled at her, “or would you prefer an appetizer first. Here’s some bread, of course. Plenty of butter. Real butter, I might add.”
“Well, it might be a while, so let’s do appetizers first. Fried and breaded calamari. With plenty of cocktail sauce. What about you, sweetie?” I asked Angel now.
“Caesar salad… and don’t skimp on the dressing. I love good Caesar and I can tell that this place will have it. Must be top-notch anchovies in there or something,” my daughter beamed.
“Very well. I will get right on that,” Maddie blushed a little for some reason.
This time, she wiggled her tush as she walked away and Angel burst into girlish laughter. This was a fresh reminder that, for all of the hard-nosed common sense that she inherited from her old man, she was still a young woman. She clearly could find something amusing about the way that a girl her own age flirted with an older man. It was pretty transparent this time, after all. Maybe it was for extra tips or a good review, I cynically thought. Maybe not. Time would perhaps solve that mystery.
“Oh, my God… she’s crushing on you… she’s really smitten with my old man!” Angel laughed, adding, “I know, I know, you’re a jaded, sometimes bitter divorced, middle-aged guy who doesn’t trust the ladies. But I know girls my own age, such as Maddie. She’s totally taken by you!”
“Maybe she has Daddy issues,” I suggested skeptically.
“All girls have some kind of Daddy issues, Daddy, one way or another. That’s the dirty secret that they don’t tell you. Mine are that no man will ever quite live up to your standards or fill your shoes. Or give me back the time that Mom stole from us. It’s a very high bar for any poor schmuck that tries it. That’s just how it is. The best man I’ve ever known in life is my own father and you can take that to the bank, Daddy,” Angel brushed her golden bangs from her face as she said that, too.
“So, in spite of everything that your mother did to us, you don’t hate or resent me. What about Becca or Lauren? I know that she wasn’t thrilled with me that one time,” I commented next.
“Oh, she’s over that. If anything, she feels embarrassed by it. She hasn’t had as much time with you raising her as me or even Becca, after all. She’s never quite forgiven Mom for that fact. None of us have. We love her, don’t get us wrong… but she wronged all of us in a very real way. I’ve been seeing a therapist. All three of us have.
“They were provided by the college… not the best quality, but it’s no extra charge. She’s trying to get me to move on and let go of my resentment. Mom can feel it in all of us, but she has also noticed my distance, my aloofness with her. It really bothers her and has made her put extra effort into the effort of manipulating my brother,” Angel responded as Maddie returned with the appetizers.
“Great work here, I can clearly see,” I took a bite and raved about the fried squid.
“So… you… like seafood, hmm…,” Maddie’s eyes danced with some kind of impish thought.
“As do I,” Angel alluded to the anchovies in the Caesar salad, “very nice, too, just as I thought.”
“Yes, that must be a… family trait,” Maddlie flirted more brazenly now, “let me know when you’re ready to order, please.”
The way that the redheaded waitress pursed and puckered her lips was enough to make it even clearer that she dug me. It wasn’t an act, as I previously thought. She was like a bitch in heat for some reason. I wasn’t sure what to make of all of that, but Angel clearly found it hilarious. Then she did something herself that was… odd. It was probably an accident, I thought, but her foot brushed mine, ever so slightly. Yes, that had to be an accident. My own daughter wouldn’t play footsie with me, right?
When Angel stroked my hand lightly with hers, it felt like electricity, and not the static kind. When her other foot brushed my other one, I felt an unexpected stir in my loins. What was wrong with me? Why would I react that way to my own daughter’s touch? Suddenly, I looked into my firstborn daughter’s eyes in a new light… and saw something very strange indeed. That I didn’t recoil was for the best, as it would have hurt her on some level, but I was also shaken by my response to her teasing or whatever. Was I physically attracted to my own flesh and blood? Was she to me?
“Daddy…,” Angel said before she realized, as did I, that Maddie still stood there.
Instead of being horrified at what had to be at least bizarre or weird body language between father and daughter, Maddie licked her lips and slipped me a notepad with her own cell number. Then she walked away, again wiggling her booty as if to invite me to her nether regions. I didn’t sense any kind of alarm or moral panic or disquiet in her, much to my astonishment. There was maybe a tinge of jealousy or something of that sort, but that was as far as it went. For a ginger, that was a pleasant surprise. They had a reputation, after all.
“How does it feel… to know that every woman… and every girl my age, looking at us here in this cafe… wants to ride you like a stallion, Daddy?” Angel surprised me by getting bolder now.
“Um… honey, don’t take this the wrong way, you know that I love you, but isn’t that kind of… improper for a daughter to speak like that to her own father?” I scolded her mildly.
“Sorry, Daddy, but it is true. You need to know… despite Mom’s best efforts to destroy your confidence, pride, ego, etc… that you’re a stud. There’s not a woman here who isn’t gay who doesn’t… on some level, want to bend over for you. Hell, I can see at least three dudes who want to bottom for you. It’s in their eyes, a very intense lust. I’ve been studying body language, Daddy, mostly so I can know when Mom and others lie to me. It’s been very revealing and instructive, in fact,” Angel clarified now.
“Wow… you’ve… certainly grown into quite the woman, haven’t you?” I acknowledged once more that she was no little girl or shrinking violet.