Disciplining Little Abby

by Serafine Laveaux

  He kissed the back of her hand, then turned it around and laid his cheek in her palm.

  Oh now, that’s not fair, she thought dryly. She couldn’t stay mad at him if she wanted to, not when he’d laid himself so utterly bare at her feet like this. Not that she wanted to stay mad. In fact, she wanted to pull the sheets aside and have him make mad, passionate love to her until she’d completely forgotten about everything that had happened.

  “Baby… Abby, all I want is for you to be happy. If that means playing with toys or skateboarding or going to the theater in high heels and Versace, then I’ll help you do it.”

  She looked at her lap and twisted the sheet between her fingers. “And if I want to be bent over your knee and spanked?”

  Chris took her chin in his hand and gently turned her to look at him. “Then I will do that too.” Standing up, he leaned over and kissed her on the top of her head. “But for now, I think you should rest. You’ve had enough excitement for one day. I’ll be back in the morning to pick you up.”

  The nurse came in just as he was leaving. Abby grinned as she saw the older woman stick her head around the curtain and watch him as he walked away. When she looked back, she gave Abby a nod and a wink. “That one has half the nurses on shift finding excuses to come down to the ER,” she said, unfolding a blanket and draping it over Abby. “And he doesn’t have eyes for a single one of them. You got a keeper there, honey.”

  Abby smiled sleepily as the nurse tucked the blanket up under her chin. It seemed impossible that just that afternoon she’d been convincing herself to forget about him. Now she found herself eager to resume their relationship. The woman whose name (and tampons) had sent her into a wild eyed rage just a few weeks ago was now someone she looked forward to getting to know better. Chris had been right. She’d had enough excitement for one day.

  Chapter Fifteen

  By Monday Abby felt perfectly fine, but Chris called her boss anyway and told him she would be unable to come into work for the remainder of the week. She’d had plenty of unused sick time built up, so it wasn’t a problem. Plus, Kali would be there.

  They’d hit it off just as Chris had predicted. Abby considered Amanda her best friend ever, but with Kali she could lay everything out in the open and not only be accepted, but understood. They’d stayed up way past their bedtimes talking about their lives and families, and Kali had opened Abby’s eyes to a world she never knew existed. Even after Chris had stuck his head in their room and told them to go to sleep, they’d lain in the dark, whispering excitedly across the room for hours.

  Friday morning Kali woke Abby up early and told her to hurry up and take a bath. She promised she had something special planned for that day. Abby rushed through her shower as best she could. Her sprained wrist made washing her hair a difficult task at best, so Kali came in and helped her shampoo and condition it. Ordinarily Abby would have cringed at the thought of another woman seeing her naked in the shower. She didn’t have a problem with gays and lesbians; she just didn’t have any interest in being one herself. With Kali, it was different. When Abby was small, Eva had often been tasked with getting her bathed and ready for bed. Now it seemed she had a new big sister to take care of her, even if Kali was ten years younger.

  Back in Kali’s room, she quickly put on her panties and dried her hair as fast as she could while Kali waited impatiently. Once her hair was semi dry, she reached for the drawer Chris had put her clothes in, but Kali ordered her to stop.

  “Not those clothes,” she giggled. “Today we’re playing dress up!”

  “Dress up?” Abby looked at her warily.

  “You never played dress up before?” Kali’s eyes light up. “It’s so much fun!” She practically danced to the closet and slid one door open, then gestured towards the clothes inside as she stepped back and gave Abby room to take a look.

  The first thing that caught her eye was the sparkly pink dress Kali had worn the night she came to the hospital. Curious, Abby pushed it to the side and looked at the others around it. She’d looked in the closet the morning after Chris brought her home from the bar, but only in the right side. Apparently the left was where Kali kept her party clothes and her everyday things. Her big girl clothes.

  Pushing her aside, Kali began to rifle through the closet, pulling out things to hold up in front of Abby, then shaking her head and trying something else. At last she found a red halter top with white polka dots that met with her approval. Bending over, she grabbed a pair of high heel sandals that seemed tailor-made to match the halter top. They had wooden platform soles with the same red polka dot material over the top of her foot and red leather ankle straps.

  Kali tossed the top and shoes on the crib mattress, then opened one of her dresser drawers to retrieve a pair of white framed, oversized sunglasses. Next, she led Abby down the hall to Chris’ room, where they dug through his jeans for a pair that would fit Abby.

  “You’re so small-framed,” Kali fretted as they tried to tighten the waist with a belt. “Wait, I have an idea!” Pulling the belt free from the loops, she began to roll the waistband over several times until at last the too-large jeans held fast to her hips. Dropping to her knees, Kali did the same with the legs until the cuffs hung just above Abby’s ankles.

  Back in the baby room, she helped Abby into her shoes, then pulled the halter top over her head and tied the straps behind her neck. Handing her the sunglasses, she stepped back and let Abby totter over to the full length mirror in the corner.

  The transformation was amazing. In the past when she’d tried to dress like an adult, she’d copied her mother’s style. But with Kali’s assistance, she looked like a pinup girl, the kind they used to paint on planes back in the 40’s. Grown up to be sure, but fun at the same time.

  As she practiced walking around the room in the wobbly high heels, Kali pulled yet another pink dress from the closet and pulled it over her head. It looked more like an oversized blouse to Abby. The long sleeves stood in sharp contrast to the hemline that barely made it midway down Kali’s tanned thighs. It wasn’t until Kali moved her arms that Abby saw the sleeves had a slit that ran from the shoulder all the way down to the elastic wristbands.

  “So this is playing dress up,” Abby mused as she watched Kali slip her feet into a pair of pink heels. “I thought—”

  “I know what you thought,” Kali said, cutting her off as she grabbed Abby’s jaw and quickly applied a light coat of red lipstick to her mouth. “But you look at everything backwards.”

  She left the room and Abby followed as quickly as she could on her unsteady feet.

  “Today I’m going to show you the right way to look at things.” Kali made a quick call to a cab company, then took a seat at the kitchen table and motioned for Abby to do the same. “When you were in high school, did you ever dress up like your mom and try to buy beer?”

  Abby laughed. “Who hasn’t?” Suddenly a light bulb went off in her head. “Sooo, we’re playing dress up so we can fool people into thinking we’re grownups?” The sly grin Kali flashed her told her she was finally catching on.

  “So we can have some coffee.”

  “Because coffee is for grownups, and we’re—”

  “Not supposed to have it. We’re too little. So we’ll have to fool everyone into thinking we’re grownups so they’ll let us have it.”

  Abby leaned back in her chair and laughed. Kali was right. She had been looking at everything backwards. Suddenly, the everyday, unremarkable task of buying a morning cup of coffee had become a risky, thrilling adventure.

  “You’re a bad influence!” Abby giggled, just as a car honked outside.

  “That’s for us,” Kali said, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the door. “Now remember, act like you do this every day.” She paused to lock the door behind them before heading for the cab. “Stand up straight, look people in the eye when you talk to them, and above all, act like you’re totally serious and bored!”

  They giggled the entire way to t
he coffee shop. Several times they caught the cab driver looking curiously back at them in his rearview mirror, and they’d try to settle down and behave, but as soon as his eyes returned to the road, they’d look at each other and start laughing again.

  At the coffee shop, Kali led the way while Abby focused on not falling over in her high heels and tried to look disinterested at everything around her, just as Kali had told her to do.

  As they stood in line, she tried to decide what to order. Normally she would have ordered a straight up coffee, black and strong, but now she found herself looking at the menu on the wall with new eyes. “What are you getting?” she whispered.

  “Caramel Flan Frappuccino. It’s really good!”

  When they finally reached the cashier, Abby did her best to sound nonchalant as she placed her order. “I’ll have a Venti iced Double Chocolaty Chip Frappuccino. Please.” she added quickly.

  Kali paid for both of them. When their drinks were finally ready, they took them and casually made their way to a corner table.

  “Piece of cake,” Kali grinned. “They never suspected.”

  Abby took a sip of her Frappuccino and closed her eyes in pure bliss. Why have I never tried one of these things before? The mixed flavors of chocolate, milk, and coffee were heaven on her tongue. Leaning back, she pushed her chair around to sit closer to Kali and watched as a trio of smartly dressed women came in and headed for the counter.

  “Do you know what the difference between them and us is?”

  Abby shook her head.

  “They forgot playing dress up was supposed to be fun.”

  Abby didn’t understand and said so.

  “When we’re home or with people we love and trust, we’re ourselves. We’re exactly the way we want to be, the way we were when we were little girls. We have fun, we play, and we enjoy ourselves. If we want to put on our big girl clothes and go do big girl things, we have as much fun doing that as we do playing games at home.” Kali waited until Abby nodded before going on. “But those women? They forgot playing dress up was supposed to be fun. They got everything backwards. They thought they were supposed to play grownup all the time, and then it stopped being fun. You had it backwards too,” she added, grabbing Abby’s hand. “But I won’t ever let you do that again.”

  Abby squeezed Kali’s hand and smiled gratefully. “Promise?”

  “Pinky swear.”

  * * *

  Chris came home at lunch to find Kali and Abby sprawled on the floor in front of the TV. Peas in a pod, he thought. In the few days they’d been together at the house, Abby had blossomed. He’d never seen her so relaxed, or so happy. The angry, hostile Abby he’d encountered at the hospital was just a distant memory now. He wondered if she’d looked like that after Amanda had dropped her off that Saturday. When he’d gone by her apartment to pick up some of her clothes, he’d found her beloved stuffed blue dog propped up on the dresser with his arm carefully taped back into place. For her to have savaged Mr. Jingles like that, he knew she must have been in an uncontrollable rage.

  “You two been watching TV all day?”

  The two girls shared a look and tried to muffle their giggles.

  Apparently not. “What did you do besides watch TV?”

  “Nothing,” Kali said sweetly.

  “Abby?” he asked. “What did you two do?” The sound of Kali trying to quietly shush Abby destroyed his attempt to look stern, and he had to look down at the mail on the counter to hide his smile. “I can hear you, Kali.”

  “We um… well, we went to get something to drink,” Abby finally admitted.

  “I called a cab,” Kali spoke up. “I wanted a Frappuccino.”

  “Ahh.”

  “You didn’t say we had to stay home.”

  “No,” he admitted. “I didn’t, and I’m not mad. I just wish you’d called to let me know where you were going, that’s all.”

  The relieved look that passed between them was comical. It was too bad Kali would be going back to college in a few weeks. The influence she had on Abby was better than he could have ever hoped for. He only hoped that by the time Kali left, the destructive voices in Abby’s head would be long gone.

  In the meantime, he had a surprise for her. All week she’d been pestering him about her car. He’d told her the guys at his shop were taking care of it, but the truth was her old Bug was beyond repair. Instead he’d done a little shopping around and located a replacement, a black convertible Beetle with less than a thousand miles on it. A call to his bank and some paperwork later, and the new Bug had been delivered to his shop, where his guys had spent the entire week giving it a more custom appearance to suit Abby’s personality.

  * * *

  Abby rolled over and sat up. “I’m sorry,” she said. She wanted to call him Daddy again but still felt a little weird doing it in front of Kali. “I’ll remember to next time.” She was relieved to see he didn’t look upset.

  “By the way, I brought your car home.”

  Squealing with surprised delight, she jumped up and ran to hug him. “You fixed it?”

  “In a manner of speaking,” he said with a sly grin.

  Abby ran outside and stared in shock at the gleaming black convertible in the driveway. The top was down and a huge silver ribbon had been wrapped around the middle and tied in a massive bow over the driver’s side door. All across the nose and down the sides were faint ghosts of purple and silver flames, and as she stepped closer, she could see the black leather seats had purple and silver stitching to match.

  “I know how you like purple and black,” Chris said from behind her.

  “This is mine?” Abby’s heart felt like it would burst through her chest with excitement. “You got this for me?”

  “I want you to be safe, babygirl.” Chris took her hand and led her around the car. “No more broken noses on the steering wheel now. This has airbags. Plus, I had the guys upgrade your braking system.” He pointed to the purple brake caliper covers just visible behind the custom wheels.

  “I can’t believe you did this for me,” she said softly as he opened the door and motioned for her to take a seat. The interior was black leather, with subtle touches of purple and silver throughout, and she ran her hand reverently across the smooth dash.

  “Oh my God!”

  Abby looked up to see Kali yank open the passenger door. “Did you know about this?” she demanded as Kali jumped into the seat.

  “I kept it a secret from both of you,” Chris said, smiling indulgently as the two explored every inch of the new car. “I knew there was no way Kali could keep her mouth shut about something like this.”

  Abby held her arms out, hugging Chris tightly when he leaned down. “Thank you, Daddy,” she whispered in his ear. “I love it so much.”

  “I love you so much,” he whispered back, brushing his lips across her cheek in a gentle kiss before standing back up. “Now, I have to get back to work. In the meantime, how about you two go inside, get dressed, and then take this thing for a spin.”

  “Can we have a party tonight?” Kali asked as she climbed out of the car. “Like a slumber party?”

  Abby’s eyes lit up as she looked hopefully at Chris. “Please?” she added. “I can invite Amanda.”

  Chris looked at the two girls’ pleading faces and raised both hands in defeat. “The things I do for my best girls,” he chuckled. “Okay, but keep the number of people down. I don’t know if I can handle a dozen pajama girls running wild in my house.”

  As Abby ran back inside to get changed, she said a silent prayer of thanks to whatever guardian angel had helped her get back to Chris.

  * * *

  The slumber party was a complete success, and it was close to four in the morning before the girls finally went to sleep sprawled about the den. All except for Abby, anyway. She lay silently on the couch, staring at the ceiling as she relived the evening.

  At first she hadn’t wanted to invite anyone, but eventually Kali convinced her to call Amanda a
nd Julia. To Abby’s amazement, Julia not only agreed but sounded excited. When she suggested Julia might think it stupid to have a slumber party, her little sister scoffed. “Are you kidding?” she’d laughed. “I’m a Mary Kay consultant, remember? I’ll bring the nail polish and face cream!”

  Of course she’d known Amanda would be up for it; Amanda lived for parties. She’d shown up in fuzzy bunny slippers and an oversized t-shirt, carrying a bag of games in one hand and a bottle of Vodka in the other.

  They’d played games and drank screwdrivers and painted each other’s toes a dozen different colors. Kali ordered pizza, and all four of them had their faces covered in different colored face creams and mud masks when the delivery boy arrived. The look on his face when they opened the door sent them all into fits of giggles. Later, after the pizza was gone and the vodka was starting to wear off, they told each other stories about past boyfriends and future hopes until they could no longer keep their eyes open.

  Abby had feared it would be awkward to have Amanda and Julia there, but Kali had been right, as usual. “Every girl loves a slumber party”, she’d insisted.

  And throughout it all, Chris had been wonderful, peeking in only once to see if they needed anything. The rest of the time he stayed out of sight.

  Thinking about him now, Abby suddenly felt bold. Quietly so as not to wake the others, she slipped off the couch and tiptoed down the hall to his room. Pressing her ear against the door, she could hear soft, rhythmic breathing and smiled slyly. Turning the knob as carefully as she could, she stepped into his room and eased the door shut behind her.

  The only light came from the digital alarm clock on the nightstand, so she waited until her eyes adjusted to the dark. The clock’s faint blue light was just enough to allow her to see him lying on his side in the middle of the bed. Moving stealthily, she reached the bed and eased herself up onto it, then pulled the sheet aside and stretched out against him. As she slid one hand over his hip to caress his rippled abdomen, he shifted in surprise and tried to roll over.