Page 31 of Lisa's Unexpected Valentine's Day

“That was better than I expected,” her friend said as she stood up and stretched. “I don’t usually like this kind of movie.”

“The car chases are exciting, but the plots never make sense,” Maya agreed. “But this one wasn’t bad. I like the cast anyway.”

“Of course the plots don’t make sense. The police would call in a helicopter and the whole thing would have been shut down on the spot,” Rick pointed out. He’d been into the movie when it was playing, but now that the credits were rolling, his legal mind was kicking in.

“Don’t ruin the illusion, Daddy. You’re supposed to suspend your belief, remember?” She had to remind him of that frequently, otherwise he would nitpick movies to death.

“I know, I know, sugarbear.” He snorted a laugh and started picking up the debris from dinner.

They all pitched in to clean up, and it went quickly with the team effort. Maya’s attempts to get ice cream for dessert, however, were a complete failure.

“I think you’ve had enough sugar today,” Rick reminded her.

She argued, but when he slowly raised one eyebrow and asked her if she really wanted to get herself in trouble again, she let it go. Her butt was still a little sore from the night before, and the last thing she wanted was another punishment.

Lisa went back to her room once everything was put away. “I didn’t sleep great last night so I think I’m going to bed,” she explained.

They all said goodnights and Rick, not much of a night owl, herded Maya to their room to get ready for bed too. She pulled out some comfy pajamas, but sat on the bed holding them, instead of putting them on. “Daddy? Did you find out anything to help Lisa today?” She pitched her voice louder to be heard over the sink in the bathroom.

He poked his head out. “What?”

“I asked if you found out anything for Lisa today?”

Rick shook his head. “Not yet. I put in a document request, but I told them it wasn’t an emergency. I’ll probably hear back on Monday. Why?”

She shrugged. “Lisa’s just really unhappy. I wish…”

He waited for her to finish, but she didn’t. “Well? You wish what?”

“Nothing, Daddy. Never mind.”

He frowned but didn’t push. After a second, he vanished back into the bathroom. She got changed for bed as she listened to the sound of him vigorously brushing his teeth and gargling. When he returned, he put on his pajamas and then climbed into bed. He held out his arms and she rolled into them.

Snuggling up with him was soothing, and she needed it after the day she’d had. The sound of his heartbeat very quickly put her to sleep.

The next coupleof weeks were busy. Having a third person in the house changed things, but not in a bad way. Lisa took over some of the cleaning, and also some of the dinner prep, while they were at work. It was wonderful to come home to the smells of dinner cooking some nights, and she seemed happy to be able to do something for them, though Rick refused to let her do it all.

“You’re not working off your bed and board, Lisa. You’re a guest,” he said firmly.

“I like to help,” she insisted.

“I see that, and I appreciate it, but we’ll all take our turn.” And that was his final word on the issue.

There weren’t any more tense moments, and Maya was happy about that. In her free time she began to research asexuality and what it meant to be both asexual and a submissive. There were a couple of blogs online that explained it well.

She felt like she had a better idea of what Lisa was going through, after she spent a night binging all the articles she could find. There were Doms and subs out there who identified as asexual, as she’d thought, but she could see why Lisa hadn’t run into many. For every twenty pages that focused on sexual domination, she might find one that talked about other types.

Still, she sent what she did find over to Lisa’s email, but avoided discussing it with her directly. The last thing she wanted was to make her friend uncomfortable again.

Rick continued his pursuit of a solution to the rest of Lisa’s issues. “It takes time. The wheels of justice are, unfortunately, slow, but thingsarehappening. I’ll let you know when everything is settled,” he told Lisa one night over dinner.

They had a lot of dinners together, and game nights, and movie nights. Maya really enjoyed having Lisa there and she realized that she wasn’t looking forward to having it be just the two of them again.

Lisa’s presence hadn’t changed anything between her and Rick. They still had plenty of alone time. Their sex and kink lives were just as active as always, but having a third person in the house made things feel more like… family. She liked that.

And some things were just better with more than two people. Board games for instance were so much more fun now. Lisa was going to be missed.

Three weeks after Lisa had shown up on Valentine’s Day, Rick came home looking extra pleased with himself. He called them into the living room, took a seat on the sofa, and started pulling paperwork out of his satchel. “Lisa, I think you’re going to be very happy.”

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