“Daniel, who packed your gym bag?” he asks in a tone of voice that makes me grab some of my bags from the floor and make myself scarce. I know what a parental lecture sounds like, and that ain’t none of my business. Blessings to the kid, though.

Darren grabs the rest of the bags with one hand and kicks the front door closed while still lecturing Daniel. I try not to eavesdrop, but he’s making it very hard.

“If you knew you might need an extra pair of shorts, why didn’t you pack one?”

I’m not sure what answer Daniel gives, but it makes Darren so mad that he squeezes the package of frozen fruit in his hands. That was by far the most expensive thing I bought today, and I swear I hear the plastic bag strain in his grip. I imagine it bursting, little bits of frozen berries flying around the room and rolling under the fridge or something. We don’t need ants or fruit flies. I carefully rescue it from his hands and ignore how the veins popping up on his forearms are incredibly attractive to me, every single one of them.

My God, I’m wet.

But what turns my heart into a puddle of goo gushier than my pussy is the way none of that frustration translates to his voice. I throw the fruit into the freezer and turn around to see Darren strangling the lone head of broccoli he forced me to buy and speaking to his son in the sweetest voice. “Okay, take a deep breath, Danny. It’s okay.”

I have to clutch my chest at those gentle words. Darren inhales loudly, clearly for Danny’s benefit, and so I do as well. I press my hands against my abdomen as we hold our breaths, and then we all exhale together.

I swear there are tears in my eyes.

“Did you ask your brother if he has an extra pair of shorts?” Darren asks gently. “Okay, can you ask him now? I’ll wait. I’m not going anywhere.”

If there weren’t tears in my eyes before, there are now.

I hold my breath again while we wait because we’re in this together; at least we are in my mind.

I guess what Danny says by the small smile on Darren’s face, and I exhale in a slow, thin stream, trying to make as little noise as possible. “Okay, great!” He sounds so excited about these shorts. I’m so excited about these shorts. “It’s okay, as long as you learned a lesson. Yep,” Darren nods, “we’ll start checking together, but now you know. Okay, buddy. Have a good practice.”

Not to sound like a complete whore, but I’m on my knees before Darren can toss his cell phone onto my kitchen counter. But fuck, I’m a complete whore for this man.

on my knees (emotionally) (and sexually)