Ch. 4: Jen Returns Home

“Darn it!” Theo yelped, hastening to the dining room table.  He thought he’d checked every nook and cranny of the house for lingerie and toys and other evidence of his and Alice’s sexscapades, but he’d missed Alice’s skimpy see-through panties dangling from one of the dining room chairs.  Hell—and there was a blindfold, crumpled up under the table.

He hid the evidence safely away in his bedroom closet, with the various other items.  What a glorious time it had been.  The best distraction imaginable.  If anything could’ve kept his mind off of his worries – and off of his towering, hotheaded muscle freak of a daughter – then these past two days with Alice would’ve surely done the trick.

But it wasn’t enough.  The events of Saturday were just too scarring.  Too burned into his memory, even days later.  Jen had given him a freaking piggy-back ride for three whole minutes on national TV!  And the bossiness; the barked orders; the air of command.  You just couldn’t go back from that!

And the anonymity of the Mouse mask only went so far.  Someone still recognized him the other day, on the street.  “Hey, it’s that Mouse!” they called, making everyone stare.  Jesus!  And the way his phone had been lighting up with friends, family, and neighbors congratulating him – they all already knew!  And no doubt laughing at him behind his back, every one.

He could not allow Jen to walk over him today.  For his own sanity and self-worth, he had to exert a real air of authority.  What he’d let happen on the show, he would not and could not allow to happen at home.  The first moments were key: she had to see that he wouldn’t bow down to her, from the very moment she stepped through that door.  She—

He heard an engine outside.  A car door opening, then slamming shut.  Oh Christ.

She was here.

His heartrate took off like a rocket as steady thumping – footsteps – approached the front door.  He was already backpedaling as the knob turned and the oak door swung open.  And when he saw the towering creature ducking through (lliterally DUCKING), he fled like a goddamned coward.

Jen felt a moment of vertigo at how much the familiar door had shrunk.  And the rest of the house too.  She felt like Alice in Wonderland as she crossed the too-small kitchen and set her bag on the too-short kitchen counter.  Even the top of the fridge was a foot below her eyes.  A whole foot!  She reached up and touched the ceiling with ease.  The whole world looked so different through her eyes now – especially in these super high heels.

“Dad?” she called.  She thought she’d heard a sound earlier.  But all was silent now.

Despite Alice’s reassurances, she felt … nervous?  No, uncertain was a better word.  He’d changed so much by the end of last round.  That docile, attentive, receptive look in his eyes was something real; it could not have been faked.  She was certain of that.  But a lifetime of being a total arrogant jerk doesn’t get erased that easily.  And two days might be plenty of time for his old habits to have seeped back in.

“Dad?”  She found her voice getting preemptively louder, more aggressive.  She would not, could not allow any assholeness to be tolerated.  She had to swat it down right off the bat.  “I see your car in the driveway!  Come out – we need to talk!”

Theo cupped a trembling hand to his mouth.  He was just barely out of sight, flattened against the hallway wall.  So much for standing up to her.  One look at her had drained his last courage.  Now, it was only a matter of time before she—

“Dad!  I swear to god, if you’re back there …!”

His legs jerked forward in instinctive self-preservation, taking him into the kitchen.  And then he saw her.  Oh.  Holy.  God.