Daddys Quality Time With Maddy

Madison took her phone out and looked for a notification, but didn't find it. She scanned the bar and watched for anyone resembling the man she matched with on Tinder. It was now 45 minutes past the time he said they would meet. She wore a form fitting grey low cut sleeveless grey shirt, and a pair of jeans, that had a hole in the thigh. She wondered if he saw her and bailed, maybe it was the regular pair of flip flops on her feet?

Trying not to think about it, she downed the the last shot in front of her, paid the tab, and began walking out. All around her there were guys, all with a woman, having a good time, or at least it seemed that way. Chatting, flirting, one woman gave her man The Look. The signature look in her eye that signaled she wanted to be in private with him, or at least in the one person bathroom at the back of the bar. Madison shook her head and continued walking out the opposite end of the bar.

Once at her car, she got in and locked the door, then got out her phone. She asked the assistant to text "Daisy", her friend from all the way back in middle school and now roommate.

"This was a major waste of time, he was a dick, I fucking hate him. No show. Drunk, going to sleep in the car, talk later." Then "send," then "yes." Because assistants need more than one confirmation to send a message?

And with that she blacked out in the car. Apparently one drink in a half hour and then six shots in fifteen minutes was some kind of limit for her.

When she woke up though, she was not in the car, she was at home. And it was the next morning.

The blanket that covered her was warm, and the house was cool. She wore jeans, and the tshirt from the night before. First dates were never her thing and she liked feeling more like an instant friend to guys. Dressing like them made it easier. The bed wasn't too warm with her clothes on either. It was that nice time of year where you could just use a blanket and not worry about heating or cooling the house. And this run down "apartment", that was actually a two bedroom house in University Alley in her hometown, was not well insulated.

She had a headache. That's the second thing she noticed after the warmth. The third thing was the pain meds and her filled water bottle on the nightstand. Daisy saved the day.

Having taken the meds and drank some water, she got up and noticed she was in the same clothes as the night before. Holding her head, she walked out her bedroom door into the common room.

"Oh shit," she whispered. There was a man's leg sticking out from under one of the better blankets where he lay sprawled on the couch. Slowly, she inched closer and lifted the blanket. He'd slept in his pants. His shirt was bunched behind him revealing his ever so slightly rounded belly. A man with a dad bod in her house?

"Daisy!" she whispered. "What rando did you bring home?" And why did she have him sleeping on the couch?

Madison walked quietly to Daisy's room and found the door open, nobody in the bed. Nobody in the bathroom either now that she checked. After moving back to the couch, absent-mindedly running her hand across the thin shirt where it covered her small breasts, she took one more look at his body and slowly lifted the blanket to uncover his face.

A sick, sinking feeling came over her.

"Dad!?" She almost yelled this, and he sat straight up on the couch. "Hm? Yeah, heyyy.." he tiredly did finger guns at her before realizing what was actually happening. "Oh good morning. How are you feeling?"

Madison stood stunned.

"How did you get in here? Where did you come from? WHY are you here?" she looked perplexed and incredulous at the same time.

"Oh," he said, "I got your text." Her father reached into his clearly full pocket (of what? she wondered) and got out his phone, opening and showing her the text message she sent to Daisy the night before.

"What?" she said exasperatedly. Then ran into her room to get her phone.

Sure enough, the text message meant for "Daisy", was right there under "Daddy".

"I must have slurred my words and sent it to you instead of Daisy." she said, stunned as she walked back into the room.

"Classic mix up. But I'm happy it was me! I got you out of the car with my spare key, and into the house using your keys, and in bed, safe and sound. Did you take the headache meds? The way you sounded last night told me you might need them."

"Yeah, I took the meds, dad, thank you. I still have a splitting headache, though, so I'll probably sit around here today and feel sorry for myself." She plopped herself down onto the sofa beside him.

"Oh yeah, the guy. Yikes. He ghosted you?"

"Dad, can we not talk about this?"

"Sorry, yeah, I mean no, we don't have to." He stood and turned away to straighten his clothes.

Madison watched him for a second and awkwardly looked away. Luckily he hadn't seen her looking at him while he slept.

"Well look, you're welcome to come back to the house and be miserable. There's a ton of good food, a huge TV for the game later, and all the drinks you want. After all, sometimes a buzz is the best hangover cure."

"No, dad, it isn't and you know that." She laughed and threw a pillow at him, then held another pillow in her lap, moping and closing her eyes to try to get rid of the headache. He laughed too and caught the pillow, then sank back into the couch next to her. His big arm wrapped around her shoulder, their heads pulled together to touch at the forehead.

"There are other guys in the world, you know. You have plenty of time." Letting her go, he sat upright and hugged the pillow in his lap to mimic her.

"I know. It feels horrible at the moment though. Like I'll just be alone with twenty cats or plants or something."

"Ok, promise you won't do that?" he asked playfully.

Madison laughed out loud and her spirit brightened.

"Yeah, ok. Thank you dad."

She sighed and thought for a moment.

"Ok, so I don't know where Daisy is, and this place is depressing right now. Yeah, can you take me home? I'd like that."

He smiled at her, stroked her head, then got up and put his shoes on. "Let's get going then."

Madison gathered clothes, her water bottle, and a bag with a few other things in anticipation of a long weekend, and walked out the door with her father. Her car was in the driveway.

"Did you drive my car back?"

"Oh yeah-" he started. "Put you in the back seat and drove it here. My car is at the bar, let's go there first."

Madison paused thinking a moment.

"Wouldn't someone have been suspicious of you moving a clearly drunk woman around in her car and then driving off?"

"Hopefully! I would be upset if nobody was suspicious. But actually.. yeah I did get lucky didn't I." He grimaced and she laughed loud enough that the neighbors probably heard. Fingers grabbed the bridge of her nose, staving off the pain.

After picking up her dads car, they pulled up to his house. A nice two story in the hills. Very green, big front porch, a nice view of the city out the back yard. She grew up here. Her parents' first house together.

After twenty two years married, they'd separated. It was found out that her mother was experimenting with women, and her dad, who was not happy with this development, grew to be ok with his ex-wife being happier. Eventually. He was lonely ever since though, and it was increasingly becoming a thing that Madison would spend the weekend at her dad's to catch up and keep him company.

Her old room was still the way she left it. She'd only been out of the house and in college for a year and a half.

After dropping her bags on the bed, she pocketed her phone and went downstairs to get breakfast. Her father, who was showering, mentioned earlier something about making breakfast, so she doubled back to get herself a shower. As she left the kitchen, a piece of paper on the refrigerator door marked with a man's name and a phone number caught her eye.

She raised an eyebrow at it and continued on.

The water pressure and heat of it was amazing. The time spent in her apartment made her long for the days where she could shower at home. Her dad kept all her soaps stocked, as she was here almost every weekend. Soapy water ran down her milky skin, tickling her legs as it dripped down into the basin. She felt so refreshed, the memory of the previous night lingered only in what was left of her headache.

Once done, she threw on a pair of blue sporty shorts, and a white tshirt. Basketball shorts were longer than these, she normally used them for running. Her breast size was on the smaller side, and they did move around when she ran, but there was not going to be any running around this weekend so she skipped the bra. Maybe on one of the warmer days she would go running.

After properly drying her neck length hair, she walked down stairs to find her dad puttering around the kitchen. "Hi," she said, slicking back her hair and sitting down on one of the bar stools on the other side of the white marble-topped island from him.

"Hi!" he said enthusiastically. However, he quickly followed it up more seriously with "One of us is going to have to change," while walking around the counter to reveal they'd chosen the same clothes to wear.

"Awe what?" She said, playfully exasperated. "Why do the only comfortable items of clothing have to come in all the same colors?"

They laughed together, then she stood, but he placed a firm hand on her shoulder.

"No, no, I'll go change." He left the room, and she found herself watching him leave. His upbeat demeanor, a straighter back, even his facial expressions were happier than last weekend. She made a mental note. Had he met someone? Was it just that she was there to give him company? Glancing at the refrigerator, the piece of paper was now missing.

She puzzled about it and after a few moments he came back, offering her something to drink. "You can fill up your water bottle, but there is really good coffee, orange juice, those beers," he added tongue-in-cheek, and quickly started working with the ingredients to make pancakes.

She smiled big and wagged a knowing finger at him. Her headache had subsided more, but she didn't want to make it come back. He smiled right back.

"This is way better than sitting and moping in an empty apartment.."

He looked up for a second and did a finger gun at her, nodding his head. "We'll get out the ice cream and drown our feelings in it later tonight."

She nodded coolly.

As he turned to get the pancake batter bowl down, she found herself doing the same thing as this morning, looking at his strong legs. She wished she had legs like that, then going running for those long miles would feel like a cake walk. He stood on one foot and reached up, his shoulders broad and strong. He must not have had a problem picking her up and carrying her around the car.

"So what's the odds on the game today? Did they say?" she asked. She really had been into basketball since she was a child. The smell of the court, the lights. Even the squeak of shoes on the court. She played in high school and did well, couldn't play in college though, and ultimately landed on engineering for her degree track. Then four months later that nightmare ended when she switched to nutrition.

"They say we have good odds, projected 10 point spread at the half."

"Ooo ok, that's exciting."

"Yeah, we're in for a good game." He smiled while pouring the first pancake into the pan.

"You know Dad, pancakes aren't very healthy."

"You know sweetie, pancakes are good for the soul, and just look at this body. This body don't lie." He tapped his only slightly round stomach, with tight skin, his abs showing through it still, when he took the shirt off. He'd changed into a black shirt after his shower, with white and navy basketball shorts. His lucky ones. Not that he needed them for this game, but it never hurt.

"Hey, why the shorts?" she asked. "It isn't the finals."

"Oh, you know, just wanting to make this day special for you and it seems like we could use some luck with how your night went."

"Let's not talk about my night anymore! That's going to be rule one. Agreed?"

"Oh yeah.. got it this time." he laughed and added, "Last thing, he missed an opportunity."

She smiled and put her face into her crossed arms, happy someone appreciated her.

A moment after that, her dad turned around and placed two steaming pancakes onto a plate and put them in front of her. "There is a lot of toppings, let me know what you want."

He took a plate of his own, added sliced fruit to his plate, butter and syrup on his pancakes, then shook a can of whipped cream for a while and sprayed it onto his pancakes. It was really messy and went everywhere.

"That looks horrid. Can't you aim??" Madison asked, giggling.

"I'm looking to get more practice, so come over more often. Want me to do you?" he asked.

"No!" She yelled too loudly. "I mean, no thank you, I can do it myself." she said with a smile.

"Wait really?? I gotta see this," he said and handed the can to her.

She shook the can vigorously too, it felt almost empty, then turned it over and tried getting all the liquid to the side of the can with the nozzle by holding it upside down. Then she started to spray.

"This fucking can is cursed!" she exclaimed as her father laughed raucously. Her entire plate was doused with a thin layer of cream, most of it was already soaking into the pancakes. "You set me up!" She threw an accusatory finger at him and bitterly glared, smirking. Then she got up to throw the can away.

"Not cool! Look, it's so gross now," she said.

He walked around with his plate and took a closer look, shaking his head. "Yeah, that looks disgusting," he noted with a big grin, not taking his eyes off it, and then took a big bite off his plate.

Over the next hour they finished eating, chatted about new things in their life, and decided to get ready for the game that afternoon. Her dad was going to take a nap, and she was going to just sit on her phone for an hour.

"What are you going to do?" he asked before going up the stairs.

"Probably just stay down here and look on my phone."

He thought a moment and nodded. "See you later," and he disappeared.

She did in fact sit in the living room on her phone, but that got boring. She got up and went to look out at the world through the big window in the living room. Very tranquil, not much going on around them. Her dad made enough money to live in a nice part of the suburbs, mountains around, not many cars going by. The view got boring quickly despite the sprawling city below. She'd known that view her entire life.

She decided to go up to her room and look through some of her old things.

Many trophies, a couple stuffed toys from long ago, a bunch of engineering toys that moved mysteriously and had mathematical curiosities about them.

She could hear her father breathing in the room next door, and realized the walls were thinner than she remembered. From her desk, she picked up a stack of post it notes and flipped it back down, then sighed, went to close the door, took the bags from the bed and laid back on her nearly too small bed.

On her phone she flipped open instagram and went straight to the discovery page, and began scrolling through videos of the university basketball team, clothing suggestions for jeans and shorts, shirts and athletic bras. The sound of her dad's breathing was getting a little louder, or so she thought. Weird for such a normally sound sleeper to be loud like that. Then, just like that, it stopped, and he was silent. Madison side eyed in the direction of her dad's room and raised an eyebrow, then immediately dropped it. Five minutes of insta left her drowsy, and she lost consciousness.

She got up after a 30 minute nap, and headed downstairs.

"Hey," she said casually as she slunk into the sofa.

"Sup," her dad said with a big smile, in his usual affectionate bro sort of way.

"I thought you were staying downstairs earlier."

"Well, I wanted a nap too. So I went up."

"Nice," he said, looking a little nervous.

"Hey I have kind of a surprise for you." He looked excited.

"Oh?" she seemed intrigued.

"Yeah, I bought jerseys for us, want to try making them into lucky jerseys?

She agreed because of course, how cool was that? A real basketball jersey?

Her dad got up and went to the closet by the front door, and from there started talking. "By the way, AGAIN, there's drinks, food, have whatever you want. I'll be skipping the alcohol," he continued while stepping back into the room, "given.." and his eyes went wide. "Oh.. shhh.." and he placed a finger over his mouth to shush himself.

Madison smiled and gave a thumbs up.

"So what do you think?" he asked, and unveiled their jerseys.

It was the exact school jersey the guys on the court were wearing, they must have been expensive.

"They are awesome! Thank you!!" She screamed, then hopped up and hugged him, his big arms wrapped around her entire body what seemed like two whole times. He patted her butt once lightly like the guys on the court do and helped her put it on before putting his own on. She ran to the fridge and picked out a drink, then sat back down and waited for the game to start.

Her dad did the same, picking a soda, and sat down nearer to Madison. She noticed, smiled, and shuffled herself to be closer to him.

The end of the player introductions played out on the screen, and the lights went up. Both watched as practice started. In a matter of minutes the game would start.

"Dad," Madison said quizzically. "Did you ever want a son? I mean, you've always enjoyed watching the game with me, and you've given me a love of basketball. But is that why you did it? Did you want a son to share this with?"

As she sipped her flavored tea from its can, he looked at her and thought.

"When I was younger, there was a time I'd imagined having a son, sure, but as soon as I knew you were going to be a girl, I had no thoughts of wishing you were anything else."

All of it was true, though what Madison didn't know, was that her dad was working through some things. Just like her mother, he was experimenting.

"That's nice to hear," she answered back. "There have been times where I felt guilty about you maybe wanting me to be more of a man."

Her dad chuckled awkwardly, then addressed her.

"You thought.. no, no," he stammered awkwardly for a couple seconds. "Honestly, you liking basketball is more than I could have hoped for."

That was good enough for Madison. She smiled, said "Good. I love you," then looked back at the television.

Her dad shifted in his seat and sat back again, adding "I love you too, sweety." He tussled her hair and took a sip of his soda.

The time passed quickly. An exciting start led to an early lead for the home team. "Yes!" They both yelled, a long three-pointer drained to go up 5 points.

Madison got up to go to the refrigerator, where another tea was waiting for her. This reminded her that the piece of paper was gone. Her curiosity peaked.

"Dad, what was with the paper on the fridge," she asked delicately.

Her dad swallowed his sip of the soda hard. "Oh, you saw that?" He cleared his throat and sat up straighter.

"Well, um, that is," he stammered. This was difficult for him to talk about with his daughter.

"I've been seeing someone, sort of on and off. Not serious, I guess, just kind of," he trailed off without an idea of how to explain.

"A booty call?" Madison asked playfully.

Her dad looked at her with horror in his eyes. The look stayed there and gradually softened, because yes, that's exactly what it was.

"Yes. You know I've been wanting to have you around for company a lot and that's a strain on your social life, I know. I see it. This was meant to be a way for me to have company without burdening you."