Page 35 of Storm in a D Cup

‘No, itdoesn’t!’ I whispered as Julian came through the door and stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes huge.

‘That’s nothing compared to the gorgeous clothes I got her!’ Genie Stacie cried, like she was about to burst into tears with the sheer joy of it. ‘Maddy, show your mother and Julian what I bought you,’ she urged as she dropped her designer bags and skipped to the bar in the corner and poured herself a martini, Marcy’s favorite fuel. Anybody see a pattern here?

‘Look, Julian!’ Maddy casually addressed her stepfather as she pulled out a strip of black cloth smaller than my cloth duster from a bag with D&G on it. I didn’t know what was worse – what I’d heard or what I was looking at. I stared, wordless.

And my man, who’d coughed at the sight of the mini-outfit, didn’t miss a beat. ‘Young lady, when did you stop calling me “Dad”?’

‘Isn’t itgorgeous?’ Genie Stacie squealed and Maddy joined her, and soon they were stomping their dainty little feet against the terracotta tiles as if they badly needed to go to the bathroom.

‘It’s so sexy, isn’t it?’ Maddy squealed as she put it against herself. Julian stood up, his face tight. ‘Uhm, Genie Stacie, can I have a word with you in the living room?’

Genie Stacie looked in my direction, satisfied, inflating her chest under Julian’s blinking gaze. ‘Of course, Fox,’ she purred, sashaying before him.

I watched them go, then turned to my fifteen-year-old. Now, just to make sure: did my daughter just ask her father if her outfit wassexy? The man who used to play in the sandbox with her and teach her how to kick a ball? To the man who told her bedtime stories and tucked her in? Maddy hadalwaysreferred to Julian asDaduntil now. What kind of garbage was this peroxide flake piling into my daughter’s head?

‘Maddy, why did you call your father by his Christian name?’ I asked her the second the door closed.

‘Genie Stacie said Julian’s not my real father.’ Maddy shrugged.

‘Yes, well we didn’t need her to tell us that, did we now?’

‘I know, Mom, but Genie Stacie says that girls today don’t use the words Mom and Dad anymore. And besides, Julian is really only thirty-one years older than me, which is not a lot, if you really think about it.’

I raised my eyebrows at her. Maybe Genie Stacie could marry an old geezer like Tom Jackson, but my daughter was doing no such thing.

‘Onlythirty-one?’ I aped.

‘Look at Genie Stacie. Tom Jackson is thirty-five years older than her.’

‘Yeah, and look how that ended.’

‘I want someone older than me, too. I’m sick and tired of these young pups.’

Youngpups? ‘Maddy, you are to stop this nonsense now. And you are returning these things immediately.’

‘Mom! No!’

‘Maddy,yes.’

‘But they’re so beautiful!’

I sighed. ‘Not on my fifteen-year-old daughter, they’re not, Maddy.’

‘And stop calling me Maddy!’

I stared at her. ‘You let her,’ I said, losing my ground.

Maddy shrugged. ‘Because she’s so cool. She can call me anything she likes – I don’t mind.’

I had a couple of names to describe Genie Stacie, but I wasn’t going to repeat them in the presence of minors. ‘Now pack this stuff back up. Tomorrow we are returning them.’

‘You’re just jealous!’ she spat in fury.

My mouth dropped open. Was it that obvious? ‘Maddy—’

‘Jealous!Because she is gorgeous and famous and men all over the world are crazy about her, including Dad!’

I know it must have taken me a few minutes to close my mouth, because nothing I could say would do my thoughts justice. So I settled on being me. ‘All right, that’s enough! Go to your room. I’m having these, thank you,’ I said, taking the bags of designer postage-stamp-sized couture from her.