An alarm on my phone woke me up. It was Saturday, so I was surprised I hadn't turned it off the night before. It also didn't sound like my normal alarm tone. I patted around the top of my nightstand, searching for my phone because I refused to open my eyes yet. Once my fingers found it, I brought it to my face and turned over to squint at the screen. In my sleepy haze, the light from my phone screen was so bright it actually hurt. I peered at my phone with one eye. "Shit," I said.
It wasn't a sleep alarm; it was an event alarm. My dad's birthday was today. Normally that would make me excited because my family has always taken birthdays very seriously and we go out of our way to have a great time. The only problem was, I forgot to get him a present. In almost twenty years I had never forgotten to give him a present. My mom either, when she was still around. To make matters worse, we had a no commercial gift policy. It was originally my mom's idea, but it's become sort of a tradition in our family.
Instead of going out and buying something they could get for themselves, we always try to give a gift that cannot be bought. There is some flexibility as to what counts as 'bought'. For example, one of the first gifts I remember giving my dad was a macaroni necklace. I know that's not very original, but I was five, cut me some slack. So while we had to buy the macaroni and string, the creation itself was my doing and thus the gift was not commercial. This also applied to experiences like ticketed events or something you wouldn't normally do for yourself, like an expensive spa day or live show.
The main idea was that you don't just run to Target and grab something off the shelf. It has to have some thought behind it, some originality. Usually that requires a bit of planning, the kind of planning that you can't do on your way downstairs to eat breakfast. I cursed myself for not putting the alarm yesterday, when I could have done something about it. Now I had to come up with something creative and personal in about five minutes that he'd actually enjoy and with only the objects in my room. I was in quite a pickle. I looked around.
I had a small collection of beads I used to make myself jewelry, but I doubted he'd want any of that. All the makeup on my vanity gave me the idea of doing a quick self portrait by putting on a colored lipstick and kissing the paper, then drawing my face around it. That might be cute, but uninspired. Plus, I did something similar when I was eleven. I had some colored and textured paper from a school project. Maybe I could make a card of some kind? Again, uninspired and would probably take a while. What the hell was I going to do?
My eyes swept over my clothes hamper with one of my old bras hanging off the side. That was an idea. Maybe I could have him help me pick out some new bras and let him watch me try them on?
No, that
's dumb. He's your dad, not your boyfriend.
Besides, how does making him buy me underwear count as a birthday present for him? Think,
think
! I glanced around the room and came up fruitless again. My eyes returned to the dirty bra hanging from the hamper. "I mean, I know he's a boob guy," I muttered.
He couldn't stop staring at them when he was in the booth with me and my mom was no slouch herself. Mine were a cup or two bigger, but she was still busty by anyone's standard. Could I maybe just flash him? That didn't seem like enough. Let him hold them?
Again, this is your father you
're talking about, not some frat boy.
Even still, I know he's been craving sexual attention and release, otherwise he wouldn't have gone to the glory hole. Twice. Plus, once more, just to watch me. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all to let my body help him out a little. Would that be so wrong?
Of course it
's wrong, he's your dad.
Sure, but he's already came inside me twice and on me once. There's not much modesty any more.
That doesn
't mean you should encourage it!
I kept mulling it over in my head, and if I'm honest, it felt more like I was trying to talk myself out of it than into it. I had already made up my mind and was desperately trying to convince myself otherwise. Call me what you want, but I love my dad and I wanted today to be special. If he found out I forgot his birthday it wouldn't kill him, but it would disappoint him and I didn't want that. I wanted him to feel loved and appreciated.
I crawled out of bed and looked for the sexiest bra and pantie set I had, which was tame compared to some. It was a Victoria's Secret number with white cups and black lacy accents, and a push up to boot. It made my already enormous chest look massive. I went through a craft box under my bed and pulled out a length of pink ribbon that I tied into a cute little bow in the center of my bra. I considered putting on a robe and giving him a sexy reveal, but ultimately decided against it. I didn't want to send any mixed messages.
As I made my way downstairs, the familiar smell of waffles and bacon greeted me before I even entered the kitchen. I padded silently into the kitchen, arms behind my back and a slight arch in my back to help draw attention to my chest. As if I needed it. Dad was busy flipping the bacon and hadn't noticed me. "Morning dad," I said, waiting for him to turn around.
"Morning sweetie," he said, adjusting the bacon with some tongs. "Sleep OK?"
"I did, and you?"
"Can't complain," he said, still fixated on the bacon. I stepped a little closer.
"Happy birthday," I said.