And then sometimes, like today, I got calls for something flat fucking stupid. Like a printer. These were Muffin’s favorites. It amused her to no end to watch me work to hide my irritation. The good thing about these jobs was that they were most often at nights or on weekends away from business hours.
Muffin laughed herself sick while I cursed the stupidity I was called and paid ungodly amounts for. She went through the basic troubleshooting steps I taught her within a moment and found the problem without a bit of help when she reconnected the printer into a different outlet. “There you go. Short.” She grinned and I cursed a long string of fury while she laughed. “Wizard’s first rule is people are stupid remember? You could make yourself seem like magic right now and then he’d hire you again.”
“Yes, well, it’s more the fact that my 18 year old daughter solves what adult business owners fucking can’t that annoys me. Come on. Let’s go.”
“Now, daddy, Belgarath the Sorcerer would hardly condone that impatience and Aunt Pol would wash your mouth out with soap like you did to me.”
My anger melted away at the reminder of last night and I smiled tenderly when she got in the car beside me. “That’s because lovely little ladies don’t have such filthy mouths and shouldn’t disrespect their fathers, dearest. You know that.”
“Yes, daddy.” She smiled. “May I hold your hand like I would a date? I’ve always wondered what it would be like and remember when I brought up the movie? It was one of the things that I meant when I said… well…”
I took her hand with a smile, twining my fingers into hers. Muffin beamed and I chuckled. “What movie did you want to see?”
She named the latest comic book movie in a franchise and I turned to take her to the movie. She stared out the window with wide eyes when we got there. “Oh, daddy, thank you!” She threw her arms around me and I chuckled.
“Anything for you, Muffin,” I whispered.
Fortunately there was an arcade to play in while we waited for the movie to start since we were early. We played Galaga together and I won her a stuffed cat from a claw machine. It was cheap and pure luck but she cradled it like a treasure when I handed it to her anyway. She grabbed my hand when I got the tickets and people started to appear. Muffin had always been like that, shy and nervous around so many people. I merely smiled in reassurance and guided her to seats. I didn’t bother asking her to choose. It would scare the hell out of her and the last thing she needed was more insecurity in her life, so I chose and pushed the chair arm up to wrap my arm around her shoulder.
I had an idea where a movie might head with Muffin in my arms. It crossed my mind. What I didn’t anticipate was the pure electric need that would fire through my body when the lights were off in a theatre with Maddie. I looked down at her under my arm and saw her glancing back up at me, her eyes wide and dilated. Her lips were parted slightly.
Well, what the hell. I’d already thrown caution to the winds. I rubbed her shoulder for the start of the movie, teasing us both and stroking her anticipation. When she shivered, I took off my fall jacket and placed it over her lap. Maddie looked back up at me, her breathing harsh and she settled the jacket in a perfect position to hide anything I might wish to do.