Page 8 of Daddy's Best Friend

“Sup, Dad? Swimming kinda early, aren’t you?” He crammed a bit of cereal into his mouth, and I glanced at the microwave nestled above the cooktop range. He had a talk show playing on the fridge display, but the surround sound was turned off.

“It’s almost nine a.m. This isn’t early.” I chuckled as a wave of chilled air prickled my skin. With the door shut behind me, I headed for the cupboard and grabbed a bowl, then a spoon fromthe drawer. I slid them across the marble countertop in Trevor's direction. “Pour me a bowl.”

Trevor did as I asked, filling my bowl with the sugar-covered grains while I grabbed the milk from the fridge. When I sat down beside him, I noticed a familiar face on his phone. It was Ella. She wore the shortest dress I’d ever seen, her ample cleavage accentuated by the teardrop cut out in front. She held a red plastic cup in hand and had two men kneeling at her sides, mouths open as if they were waiting for her to pour her drink out for them.

I couldn’t help but gawk at the image. It was a striking contrast to the very put-together woman I worked with. I immediately thought of her father and his request for me to help her. My next thought made my cock start swelling. The sex toys found in her bathroom drawers had done a number on me that night. It was difficult leaving that washroom and returning to the table to discuss details of her working arrangement with Todd.

“Yeah, she’s crazy,” Trevor said, noticing me staring. He flicked his thumb upward, bringing another picture of her up. In this one, Ella was the one on her knees, her lips wrapped around a hose. Someone out of the shot held a large funnel and poured a beer down it. “This whole feed is like this.”

“What is it?” I opened the milk and poured some over the cereal, not really needing him to answer. Todd and I both had our share of paparazzi who would have liked nothing better than to bury us in negative press. It was always a low blow when they went after our kids. I’d been fortunate enough to keep Trevor out of it for the most part.

“It’s just a popular account that shames rich kids and their parents. There are some more…” Trevor swiped his thumb againand the image of Ella he pulled up was too racy for me to look at, but he ogled it for several minutes. I turned my eyes away from the image, but it was seared into my brain. Ella, dressed very provocatively with a sex toy protruding from her mouth and laughing faces all around her.

“Where do they get these photos?” I took a bite of cereal, pretending to be more concerned than I was interested, but if I had to stand up at that moment, Trevor would have seen the truth. My dick was not behaving my better judgment.

“Oh, you know. If the guy wasn’t at the party to take it himself, he has other people who take pics like this and send to him. It’s not even hard, Dad. Ella is literally the definition of girls gone wild.”

My chest tightened as the conversation with Todd across his dining table came back. I remained thoughtful, listening to Trevor tell me some of Ella’s exploits—none of which he’d been involved in, but all of which he’d viewed on various social media platforms. When he finished his cereal and left, it left me confused. Ella was quite possibly one of the most professional employees I even staffed. But you’d never know it judging by those photos.

I finished my breakfast, which I thought I would enjoy with my son, but he left. Then I headed upstairs to change and relax. My feet were cold. At times I wondered why I listened to the designer who told me marble floors were the all the rage. The damn stairs hung in the cold air which made them cold as ice constantly. It made going barefoot painful sometimes.

Once into the glory of my carpeted bedroom, I stripped out of my swim trunks and put on some sweats and a t-shirt. I had a bit to get done, in spite of it being Saturday morning, but the thoughtof Ella being that wild concerned me a little. I couldn’t seem to let the vivid images go. So, I did what any concerned friend would do. I investigated.

I unplugged my phone and called her father, hoping to gain some more insight. The minute he answered I could tell he was discouraged.

“Hey, Alan. What can I do for you?”

“Todd, I just wanted to give you an update on Ella.” My impression was that he was expecting me to report with bad news on her first week. I had no intention of sinking that ship for her. She was actually doing very well.

“Yeah?” He didn’t seem eager to hear my report. “Well, how bad is it?”

I chuckled. I had read him perfectly. “Well, she is doing great. Better than great, she is doing fantastic. She’s brought our accounting department into the twenty-first century.”

“Oh?” Todd sounded surprised to hear that. So, I continued.

“Yeah, she’s using some new spreadsheets to track our budget and the software she recommended to me yesterday might just solve a few issues we’ve had to fix. My old gal Rene, might just have some competition.”

Todd didn’t say anything, but a grunt of approval met my ears, so I went on. “Listen, Todd. I just heard some things from Trevor about Ella, and I wondered if you’d tell me more about the types of things you were concerned about. What I’m seeing from her in the office is that she’s professional, prompt, and courteous. That just doesn’t jive with what I’m hearing.” Or what I was seeing,but Todd didn’t need to know about those photos if he didn’t already know.

“All I can say is that the things Alex tells me about her behavior, the drinking and parties, scares me. I’m worried she will be assaulted or worse. And believe me, I’ve seen the pictures. They are shocking.” Todd sighed. “I just need you to look out for her and help her start making better decisions. She won’t come home to visit, but maybe you can encourage her to spend more time with you and Trevor. I feel like I failed her by not being more present in her childhood. Maybe she just needs a strong hand, but I can’t be that. She just rebels.”

“I’m not sure, Todd. Maybe she just needs to see that you support her. Her birthday is coming up, right? Two weeks away?” An idea started to stir in my mind.

“Yes, why?”

“Well, what if we have a party for her. I can put something together, maybe on my yacht. We can invite the whole family. Trevor will come, and maybe a few friends of hers. We can celebrate her birthday and you can show her how proud you are of her for doing so well. She will have been with me for three weeks, and by then we will have that new software in place. That might show her how celebrated she is. It might help.”

I waited a moment as the words sunk in. “Sure. That sounds great. You send Elaine the details and I’ll make sure we are there, Alex too.”

“Perfect. And, Todd, I promise I’m going to watch out for her. We’ll make sure she lands on her feet. She’s a wonderful young woman. She has a lot going for her.”

After hanging up, I felt better. Ella was clearly running from her daddy issues by partying. If she saw he really did support her, it would help her. I knew it. And maybe having a party where her boss was present might help her keep her wild side under wraps enough that she could see that fun was to be had even without being out of control. Or maybe she’d teach us all how to cut loose a little bit. God knows I needed that a bit.

Either way, I’d keep my promise to Todd because I owed him one. I didn’t think Ella would be that difficult to nurture back into what Todd thought was the image of a perfect child. She just needed to be reminded that she was loved and valuable. I could do that.

7

ELLA

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