Heart hammering in her chest, she fled before he could say anything else. Like ask her to stay.
***
As she sat down in the car, Juliet realized she was extremely wet. She gave a little moan of frustration as she started the car.
Her mind raced the entire drive back. Images kept surfacing in her imagination: the father in the movie, plundering his daughter’s willing mouth. How own father’s erection, plainly visible through his clothing. The look in his eyes as he realized she’d seen. What had it been? Concern? Embarrassment? Had there been desire there, too? Or was that only wishful thinking on her part?
Was that what she wished – for her father to feel desire for her?
The question burned bright in her thoughts. As her car crossed into the no-man’s-land of Culver Park, she realized these feelings were not truly new. For months, during these Thursday night movie sessions, something had been changing inside her. She’d begun to think of their time together as a kind of date, from the first hello to the goodbye kiss. A kiss she’d missed tonight, because-
Well, she knew why. They both did.
By the time she got back to her apartment, she felt more confused and emotional than ever. She parked the car, turned it off, and sat in the dark for a moment, trying to calm her thoughts.
To distract herself, she checked her phone. He hadn’t texted. He always texted while she was driving home, to tell her he loved her and make sure she got home safe. Not tonight. She didn’t blame him, but it still caused a twinge of hurt that she didn’t like one bit.
She had so little connection in her life. Few friends and fewer people still she could call close. Her dad was one of those few. Was it so wrong that she had feelings for him that lay outside the norm?
She thought of the end of the movie. Of Lisbeth screaming as she burned.
Before she could ponder any further, she unlocked her phone and sent a text.
[I’m home safe. Love you Dad.]
She locked her phone again before he could reply.
***
Juliet fell into bed without taking off her clothes. She lay thrashing for awhile before finally falling into an exhausted, dreamless sleep.
She awoke the next morning to sunlight streaming through the half-open blinds. With a a groan, she rolled over and grabbed her phone from the nightstand.
Two messages from her dad.
[love you too pumpkin. good night]
And then:
[you left the movie here]
“Shit,” she muttered. She’d forgotten all about it in her haste to leave. It was hardly an emergency, but she’d still have to go back for it.
She looked at the messages until the words were meaningless. Perfectly normal. Nothing out of the ordinary. But last night had been anything but normal. She hadn’t imagined what had happened. She’d been turned on by the incestuous scenes in the movie – and so had he. Even as doubt crawled into the back of her mind and settled there like a scorpion, she knew what she’d experienced.
Now the question remained: what, if anything, was she going to do about it?
Juliet dropped the phone on the bed and stood. Stripping off her clothes, she moved into the bathroom for a hot shower.