Jennifer, my daughter, came home late from work one evening. I watched her through the front room window as she opened her car door, the light inside illuminating the front seat for a moment, and then turning off as she closed the door. I thought I saw, out of the corner of my eye, the light inside the car, come on again, and then go out. I assumed Jen had bought something or was bringing home dinner, as she was known to do such things with it just being her and I nowadays.
I considered getting up and going to the door to open it for her, decided against it, and then decided to do it anyway. It would be a nice gesture, and on an especially cold night out, I figured she would welcome a nice hug.
As I got to the door, it opened and Jennifer stepped inside, stomping the snow off her shoes. She gave me a sheepish smile and said she was sorry for being late, but she had a surprise for me.
"Oh yeah?" I asked. "What is it?"
The door came open again, and a strikingly gorgeous face peered in and then smiled. Thick voluptuous lips pulled back to reveal bright white teeth, and he eyes captivated me as much as her luxurious dark brown hair. I swallowed nervously, trying to not assume too much.
"I brought home dinner," Jennifer said, pulling a plastic bag around in front of her and setting it on the dining room table. "This is Mack. Mackenzie I mean. I call her Mack."
"Hi Mackenzie," I said, holding my hand out formally.
"Hey Mister, uh... Jen's dad." Mackenzie said, pulling a thick woolen scarf from around her neck. She pulled her hat off with mittened hands, and then shed those as well, which Jen took from her and stowed away in a basket we keep by the front door.
"Oh, sorry. My dad's name is Rick. He's Rick. Rick," Jennifer repeated as she hurried to take her own jacket and boots off and put them by the front door.
"I'm Rick," I said, shaking Mackenzie's hand finally, and then stepping back. She was hot. Not just in looks, but she was warm to the touch and I wondered if she might be running a fever. Just for good measure, I took another step back and held my breath. You couldn't be too sure nowadays and I wasn't wanting to get sick any time soon. I knew it would happen, I always got sick every winter, but I just wasn't ready for it, yet.
"Uh, dad, I, uh..." Jennifer pulled me into the kitchen and then leaned close, giving me the puppy dog eyes. "Is it okay if Mack stays with us for a few days?"
"Wait, what? Why? What for?" I gave Jen the look; It's the same look I gave her when she asked if she could loan her bike to her best friend in third grade, the same look I gave her when she asked if she could have $500 to go on a high school field trip to North Dakota, of all places, and the same look I gave her when she asked me to loan her $1000 as a down payment on a car from the used car lot that she really, really, really-really-really wanted a lot. Jen was a sucker for sob stories, scams, and people who just wanted to take advantage of her. I, on the other hand, was an experienced expert in utilizing my second-most favorite word in the dictionary. "NO."
"N-no? You didn't even hear what I had to say," Jen said looking at me in sheer disbelief.
"Do I need to?" I asked. "Let me guess. She lost her job. Got kicked out of her house? Boyfriend cheated on her?"
"My mom got in a car accident," Mackenzie said quietly, walking over to stand a few feet away. "My dad is with her, and -she's gonna be okay- but I really don't wanna be home all by myself and it's supposed to get like, freezing..."
"Oh. So you're not moving in. Jesus Christ," I say like Jennifer completely misrepresented the situation, and deflecting like crazy because now I feel like a complete asshole. "You're just staying the night a couple nights. No biggie. Sure."
Jennifer smiles at me and then goes up on her tippy toes to give me a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks, Dad."
"You're welcome," I say, turning to the refrigerator in order to hide my embarrassment.
"C'mon," Jennifer says to Mack, grabbing her sleeve and pulling her out of the kitchen. "I wanna show you my room."
I pull the refrigerator door open and grab a grape soda. I pop the cap off and toss it in the trash and then stand there, sipping the best god damned flavored soda man ever created. The back porch is dimly lit by a floodlight I put in a few years back. Snow is just now blanketing the wooden rail and the backyard which I really needed to rake one last time before winter set it, but, it was too late now.
I'm halfway through my soda before I hear Jen yell out that she's going to take a shower before dinner. I nod to myself and then head over to the table to investigate what she brought home. I'm rummaging through the grocery bags when I hear the floor creak behind me and I turn, surprised, to see Mackenzie standing there.
"Oh, hi," I say, my eyes drinking her in before darting back to the grocery bags. I feel like shaking my head, but I don't due to impropriety. She's older than Jennifer, that much I can tell. How much older? Don't know. Haven't asked. I'd put her over twenty-two, and definitely less than thirty. If she were close to thirty, I might feel like flirting with her. If I knew she was mid-thirties, I might even have a go at her, only if she wasn't one of my daughter's friends...although I'd never heard of her before tonight.
"So, what's for dinner?" Mack asks, stepping up to the dinner table.
"Oh, uh, looks like Indian," I say, grabbing a package of microwave rice and a packet of sauce from inside the bags.
"What a coincidence," Mack says. "I'm Indian."
"You are?" I reply, and then I see it, yeah. She's got that smoky kind of beauty, the long dark hair, those eyes. I smile because I can't help it. I take another drink of grape soda from the bottle.
As I bring the bottle away from my lips, Mackenzie reaches up, takes the bottle out of my hands, and then takes a swig. She licks her lips and smiles and then asks me, "So you wanna eat me?"
I swallow, hard. She hands the bottle back to me and smirks, just the edge of her lips turning up as if she's caught a canary in a trap. "I, uh... sorry, no. I wasn't trying to say anything like-"
Mackenzie bursts out laughing and hands the bottle back to me which I take another big gulp of, sloshing the remaining contents into a roiling bubble inside the bottle.
"I'm joking," Mackenzie says, a gigantic smile on her face and not a shred of pink on her cheeks. "I like making people uncomfortable," she says, giving me another way too serious and way too sexy smile before bursting into laughter again.