Page 13 of Thanksgiving With Dad's Best Friend

Eddie heads to the bar, looking excited. He keeps jabbering on about how it’s his first time in a strip club, as though he’s a horny teenager. He insists that we sit close to the stage and pays for a lap dance from a busty blonde. I close my eyes and imagine my own blonde woman grinding against me. Lexi seems like the shy sort, but I bet she’s got a naughty side to her that I can bring out. If she was here now, doing the things these girls are doing, I don’t think I’d be able to control myself. I’d fuck her right here, right now.

“Earth to Flynn!”

I open my eyes. Eddie stares at me as he tucks a bunch of bills in the stripper’s panties and she walks away. Eddie forces a smile.

“You okay, man? You’ve been pretty distracted tonight…you don’t want to get a dance?”

I shake my head. “Nah…it’s okay. I’m not really in the mood. I guess I’m tired…I didn’t sleep well last night. But it’s okay. There’s no reason why you can’t enjoy yourself.”

Eddie’s eyes light up as one of the prettiest strippers waves to him saucily from her position on the pole, but he soon loses the glint in his eye. He sighs, hanging his head and staring into the bottom of his whiskey glass.

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. What would Lexi think if she saw me here…she’d be so ashamed.”

I really don’t want the conversation to turn to Lexi. It’s hard enough keeping her out of my head as it is, but talking about her with her father is the last thing I want to do. I might slip up and admit what dirty thoughts are running through my mind.

“Forget about Lexi for tonight…you should be focussing on feeling better,” I tell him. “If this is how you want to do it, then she doesn’t have to know. You don’t need to tell each other everything.”

“But we’ve always been so close…even before all of this. I like to think that she tells me everything that’s on her mind,” Eddie says miserably. I bite the inside of my cheek, praying she hasn’t said anything about the day we shared together. From the incident at the market to our drive home…there have been plenty of risky moments. Things might’ve gone further tonight if I’d been able to stay home with her. Do I need to worry that Lexi might come clean to her father about the connection we’ve shared?

I put a hand on Eddie’s arm. “Look, she’s not a little girl anymore. She’s grown up and made her own way in the world. Inevitably there are going to be things she doesn’t tell you. And I’m sure you’ve held back a lot of details about the divorce, right? To save her feelings? You just need to get used to that.”

Eddie’s smile returns. “You’re right. She has the right to her privacy and I have mine. Let’s get a round of tequilas. And I’ll take another lap dance…you sure you can’t be tempted?”

“Not tonight,” I tell him quietly. Eddie heads back to the bar to order our drinks and I slump in my seat, wishing I was elsewhere. I don’t know where to look without looking like I’m being enticed, when really, the last thing I want is attention from a stripper. It’s not that I don’t respect what they do…I just want to save myself for my woman.

And yet, I still manage to catch the eye of one of the girls milling through the crowd. She’s got long legs, especially since she’s wearing heels. She’s sporting a tight corset that makes her breasts look even larger. But to me, she’s nothing. I know if Lexi was wearing something similar, I might be inclined to take an interest, but this whole place exudes fake lust to me. As she saunters in my direction I pray she’ll pass me by, but she bends down in front of me, trying to show off her assets to me.

“Hey, there,” she whispers. “You look kind of lonely over here.”

“I’m fine,” I growl. This woman is so obviously interested in getting money out of me, but I have no intention of obliging.

To my surprise, however, she doesn’t push further. Instead, she removes a business card with her name and number on it from her corset. She tucks it in my shirt pocket with a wink.

“You know…I only do this part time. And I’m very much single right now,” she tells me. “Maybe you should give me a call, handsome. I’d love to go to dinner with you and figure out what your story is.”

I nod politely as she walks away, but inside, I’m seething. She was so damn brazen with me, not caring that I might be taken, or that I might not be interested in her. Lexi would never act that way. I can just tell.

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