Competition

When I started writing this story, I thought it would be just a quick little tale of lust, but it grew to over fifteen-thousand-six hundred words. Please enjoy this slightly longer tale of lust and love. (Thank you to JeffreySutyla for the typo corrections)

Competition: A story by R.C.PeterGabriel: All rights reserved.

I sighed as I slipped my ID badge through the slot on the time clock. "At least it was Friday," I thought to myself. Just a few more hours and I could put my feet up and rest my aching knees. Not that I'm in bad shape. It's just that standing, mostly in one place, for forty hours a week takes its toll. I work out daily trying to keep my joints loose and muscles tight but at forty-three, my knees were starting to feel it.

I walked down the hall and punched in the code, allowing me access to the pharmacy.

"Hay, Boss!" was enthusiastically called by multiple voices as I entered. My name is Michael and I'm the pharmacy manager, but no one refers to me by either moniker except the customers.

I approached my station and began typing in my access codes and swiped my badge again before turning to my counterpart Howard, for a briefing. "No, issues, but I'm a bit backed up," stated the day shift pharmacist. "I'd hang out and help you catch up but I've got a date." With that, he quickly logged out and made a run for the exit.

I sighed again. He is always behind and he always had an excuse as to why he couldn't help clean up his own leavings. I wasn't sure if he had a date or not but I didn't really care. I glanced at the queue counter at the bottom of my screen and groaned inwardly. Three-hundred-seventeen scripts, forty-five of which were in the rush queue. I was going to need my runners today.

Not that I was surprised. He left me with a mess almost every night. At least the part-time pharmacist made an effort. I could pull rank and claim the day shift but I'd let my younger colleagues have days in exchange for a guarantee of getting the weekends off. I didn't really care which days I had off but I knew Howard wanted to be off on the weekends and I disliked him just enough to be petty.

There was one other benefit my younger and less wise underling hadn't noticed yet. The techs that staff the day shift are all working-class wives and moms. All of whom have been abused by the ravages of time. You know, frumpy, empty nesters. None of them wanted to do anything but complain about their husbands, or their inability to lose the 'baby weight'.

I wasn't about to tell them that what used to be 'baby weight' didn't count as such after two to three decades. Nor would I point out that it had multiplied by four or five times ... at least.

On the other hand, the evening shift was staffed with nubile young co-eds that couldn't work during the day because of their class schedules. I might have to take up someone else's slack but I had nice scenery to look at while I did.

We all worked well together and having spent a lot of time in close proximity, we know almost every detail of each other's lives. They also knew they'd have to step up their game as I started verifying scripts twice as fast as the day shift. Mostly because I didn't have to look up what the imprint codes stamped into most of the pills mean. With just shy of twenty years in, I can glance at almost any 'small, white, round, non-scored, numbered' tablet and tell you what the drug and dosage are. If you add color or shapes ... well that makes it too easy.

By the time my two hours of overlap with the midday techs came to an end, I had reduced the queue by a hundred-sixty and the drive time rush was trickling to a stop. As usual, we didn't let up and pushed hard so that we could coast through our post-meal time.

We're a small town pharmacy but owned by a major chain, so while we aren't 24 hours, we stay open until 10 pm. The rest of town on the other hand rolls up the sidewalks by 6. I put out the lunch sign at 6:30 and pulled down the security gates. We'd have 30 minutes to sit down and eat at the snack bar out in the main store. Occasionally we'd actually buy something there but we almost always brown bagged it. And almost always I'd be the one providing the food.

These were college kids on a ramen noodle budget and looked to me as their surrogate dad. They even started calling me Dad when no one else was around. And once the Dad title started being used, they started calling each other sisters. Needless to say, I try my best to take good care of them. It didn't hurt that I went to bat for them with corporate to keep their hours up as they weren't needed after lunch. I agreed to let them get paid out of the last three raises I didn't accept. They, of course, think it was the most selfless thing anyone could have done for them. In truth, it wasn't a big deal because I don't need the money.

My parents signed over the family house and lands when they abandoned me to my own devices at my high school graduation. They pushed me hard educationally so that they wouldn't feel guilty when they dropped their big reveal on me. Along with the keys to the house, and a college fund, they informed me that they had never wanted kids, that I had been holding them back, and that they were leaving to explore the world. Admittedly, it stung and I hated them for the first few years before I realized I hadn't been close to them anyway. They may have been cold-hearted and aloof but at least they took responsibility for me and raised me to be self-sufficient.

I received a total of three correspondences about their journeys. The first was an email about a year after they left, with photos and a 'we're having fun' letter. The second was two years after that with about the same letter. Neither asked about how I was doing. The third was from a lawyer about ten years ago. It was a notice explaining that they'd visited the wrong country at the wrong time, ending their travels. I was amazed at the size of the inheritance but just left it in the portfolio that it had been in. Since I have no expenses other than food and utilities, my one-hundred-twenty-thousand dollar-a-year salary is far more than I ever needed. Anyway, in exchange for the extra hours, the girls do their absolute best for me and we've all become very close.

In truth, only my ability to recognize how beautiful all three girls are had separated me from having a genuine father/daughter relationship with them. I love them as if they're my own and have often wished that I could have adopted them.

Of the three, I've known Eva the longest. She was barely two when I started working at the store. Her mom worked the snack counter and would bring her in to play in a pen tucked under a booth until she was old enough for school. (It's a small town. We can get away with certain things.) She always smiled when she saw me and we eventually became close after her father died when she was eleven.

After that, her mom sank into depression and quit the store. According to Eva, she lives off of the work comp settlement and never leaves her house. Supposedly surviving solely on food deliveries and soap operas.

Eva had to learn how to take care of herself but would come to me for advice. She started working as a cashier up front on her sixteenth birthday and moved into the pharmacy on her eighteenth.

Sakura and Ruby started directly in the pharmacy during their senior years of high school but I've known them since about middle school.

Sakura never knew her father. He was a thirty-something Caucasian American with dark hair and dark eyes and is all her mother knows about the man who raped her. Her mother and grandparents had emigrated from Japan when her mother was seventeen. She hadn't been here for two weeks when it happened.

Understandably, her mom doesn't trust men. I'm amazed that Sakura seems well-adjusted. She is a little shy around most men but she doesn't seem afraid.

Ruby knows all too much about her father. He's a former coal miner turned alcoholic that likes to beat her mother. He's never touched Ruby, but his refusal to fix either the bathroom or bedroom door locks left her feeling unsafe. The last straw was when she woke up with her nighty pulled up and her dad masturbating over her. She begged her mom to leave with her but couldn't convince her. She hasn't seen either parent since she was put into foster care at fourteen.

The store's night manager, David, is what the girls describe as "a little rapey" and usually comes by at some time during our meal to engage in what he thinks is flirting, and to suggest I share my harem. I think he's just awkward and is trying to be friendly without understanding how it comes across. They assume that he spends all of his time lusting for them, and always counter his offers by flirting with me. It got so bad a few times that at least one of them (usually Ruby) would shoot him down by implying that they were already sleeping with me and that I'm taking care of all of their needs. Although to their credit, they wouldn't come out and say anything specific. They're smart enough not to get us fired for violating company policies. Especially since I'm their boss.

Personally, I don't think he'd care. Nor do I think he's as bad as the girls believe. I just figure he's like any other overweight, fifty-something, divorcé that wishes he could turn back the clock. He is mostly a nice guy but I'll admit his normal expression is a bit creepy.

My life took a major turn the evening I've been describing. My girls had noticed that my knees were bothering me more than normal, so as we slid into our usual booth, Sakura, and Ruby, demanded I put my feet up between them. And as if they'd planned it they both slid their hands up the inside of my pant legs to pull down my elastic knee supports. I was shocked but not as much as when Eva reached under the table in order to massage my knees.

I should have put an immediate stop to it but "Sweet God in Heaven," it felt good! I rolled my head back and groaned in appreciation, causing all three to giggle.

"Careful, Eva," Sakura whispered, "You might make him cum."

My eyes flew open and I raised my head at her comment, just in time to see David come up behind her. "What exactly is going on?"

"...uhm" I managed as my eyes shot to Eva. She was leaning forward with her upper chest against the table top so you couldn't see what she was doing. That didn't mean you couldn't easily get the wrong idea as her arms continued to piston away.

She grinned and asked in a husky voice, "Why Dave? Does it look like I'm doing something wrong?"

His expression went from leering to lustful and back to his normal leer in about two heartbeats. He quickly glanced around the area to make sure no one else was observing the activity. "You can't do that here!", was stage whispered with near panic.

Eva sighed. "I'm just rubbing his knees is all. We could tell they were bothering him. What did you think I was doing?"

"Let's just say that it looks far more intimate than that. Can you at least wait until you get home to touch each other, please?" He spun around and left looking somewhat worried that a customer would associate him with the visual at the table. Not that there were any customers to see it.

We all laughed quietly while I got our lunches out of my cooler and started handing them out. The conversation quickly turned from making fun of David's assumption to the practicality of actually living together. All three girls lived separately in the only apartment complex in town. It's situated literally at the farthest point in town from their college. Their school is in the next town over but doesn't offer enough low-cost housing. I, on the other hand, live ten miles outside of town in the direction of the college.

My first thought was that there was zero chance that I'd allow them to move in. But as the evening progressed the girls continued to discuss it and practically begged me to take them in. They all agreed that it was more than fair for them to pay me almost the same rent that they'd been paying. Pointing out that I had been subsidizing their hours and the money should be mine anyway. Then they argued that A: It would help them out to save even a little on rent. B: I was already feeding them. C: They could save money on gas for school and to work by carpooling. And D: It would make getting together for study sessions easier, (even though they studied during most of the after-lunch work hours.)

They were all laying on the 'Dad' angle rather blatantly and I'll admit their puppy dog eyes were wearing me down. And like I said, I cared for all three of them as if they were my own girls. So, I relented enough to agree to continue the conversation after work.

They followed me home and stood gawking at the sight of my house. After breaking through an eighth of a mile of trees to the acre of landscaped lawn fronting the impressive façade they were barely able to get out of their cars.

Now, I'm not saying that it isn't a nice house. It's just that it isn't as big on the inside as you'd think it was from the outside. With four bedrooms and two full baths upstairs and a professional kitchen, pantry, dining room, living room, media room, and three lavatories downstairs, it's set up more for entertaining than actual living. The side-facing, four-car garage with a bay for a bus-sized RV, very deceptively adds to the façade. Most people would guess the house had at least eight or ten bedrooms.

I finally coaxed them in and gave them a quick tour. When we settled in the living room, Ruby made herself at home behind the wet bar as she commented that it was a shame I had converted one of the bedrooms into a workout room. I asked why before realizing they were hoping to get their own rooms.

She started loading the top of the bar with beer until she noticed a case of bourbon that my grandparents bought when they got married. "Wow!" she exclaimed holding up one of the bottles and blowing the dust off. "Nineteen fifty-seven, Woodford Reserve!"

The statement caused Eva and Sakura to hop back up and head to the bar. "It's a full case! Why haven't you opened any?"

"It belonged to my father. I remember it always being there with strict instructions to never touch it. I have no idea what they were saving it for, but even after they left, I never thought to touch it."

"Dad, they've been gone for more than ten years. Don't you think we should use this to toast to our new living arrangement?"

"I never agreed that you could move in! I agreed to discuss it. Besides, as you pointed out, there aren't enough bedrooms."

All three girls leaned their heads together holding the bottle up and gave me their puppy dog eyes while saying "Pleeeeeease!" at the same time.

"I would have been a lousy father," I thought to myself, as I sighed and nodded. "We can try some, I guess." Inwardly I was cringing at the thought that I could get at least ten grand at auction for it. Probably a lot more. If I'd been in want of money there would have been zero chance I'd open one.

All three girls bounced in glee as they lined up four highball glasses, dropped a single ice cube in each, and proceeded to fill them almost to the rim. They giggled at my wide-eyed expression as they brought me my glass and sat. "To our new home!" Eva toasted while the other two joined her but paused while looking at me.

I studied each one, finding myself liking the idea of having someone around. Especially people I loved. I'd been more or less alone my whole life and the idea was melting my closed-off heart.

They all started to look a bit worried as my pause began to draw itself out but that too was working against me and I suddenly just knew. I'd never be able to disappoint my daughters. Yes, I had just realized that I had already adopted them in my heart and wasn't about to turn them away. "To your new home!"

Squeals of joy went up, followed quickly by clinking glasses and the downing of too much liquor. I couldn't believe how smooth the sixty-five-year-old bourbon was and I found myself draining my glass. I looked around realizing the girls had all done the same!

"Oh my god! That is sooo good!" exclaimed Sakura while Ruby ran to retrieve the bottle.

I'm not much of a drinker and could feel the warmth quickly spreading throughout my system. The girls all had youth on their side and hit the collage bars semi-regularly but I had at least seventy pounds on them. If I felt it that quickly, I assumed they were feeling it too. "Easy girls. This isn't that watered-down stuff you get at a bar."

As our glasses were refilled I was given surprisingly loving expressions. "Ah, Dad. That's so sweet. Worried we'll get drunk?"

"Driving drunk isn't safe and you know it. I'm assuming you're going back to your apartments until you can move your things."

"Why? It's Friday," began Sakura. "We don't need to get up for school. Can't we enjoy the evening and just stay in our new rooms?"

I wasn't sure why I was suddenly worried about being alone with them. After all, I'd spent the last several years alone with some or all of them for hours at a time. It might have been the fact that we weren't in a public place. Or that we were drinking together for the first time and I didn't want to do something to embarrass myself. Maybe it was that as their 'father' and I was supposed to look out for them. But subconsciously I think I was worried that three strikingly beautiful young women with adoring expressions might stir up 'other' feelings.

"Which is another thing," I began. "I need to move all of my fitness equipment. There're only two extra rooms at the moment. You'd have to share if you don't wait?"

Eva grinned and edged closer to me while looking into my eyes. "That's easy, Dad. I get the single room because I'm your favorite. Everyone knows that."

"I'm his favorite!" exclaimed both Ruby and Sakura at the same time.

I knew I was in trouble when all three glared at the other two and then simultaneously turned back to me and asked, "Daddy, who's your favorite?"

I had to laugh! Not only were they acting like I imagined real sisters would act in the situation but they had all called me "Daddy" for the first time as a manipulative tool! I was not going to throw myself on that grenade. Nope, uh -uh, no way!

"I don't have a favorite, girls. This is something you're going to have to figure out on your own."

Again, all three whined as one, "But Daddy!"

I was laughing harder and shaking my head. The whole time trying not to spill my drink as I sipped it. "You three need to decide who gets the single room. The other two can move in next weekend and still get their own rooms. There's no need to get competitive."

As soon as I said the word "competitive", I knew I'd stepped in it. All three girls were competitive, physically and academically. Not necessarily with each other but they were always trading stories about winning everything from bike races to board games and from soccer to classroom debates. I recognized that they were of one mind and that 'the game was on'! They gave each other the stink eye, squared their shoulders, and chugged their drinks as if a verbal dare had been issued.

Within seconds the last of the bottle had been divided up between them and downed with the same determination as the prior glasses. They didn't like it much when I quickly jumped up to prevent the retrieval of a second ten-thousand-dollar bottle of liquor. Nor when I forbade them from drinking anything else the rest of the evening except water.

Maybe I was catching on to the whole father thing after all. But, then again maybe not, since my tongue and fingertips already seemed a little numb. At least my knees didn't hurt anymore.

Then it hit me that it had been a liter bottle! While I attempted to calculate how many equivalent drinks we had consumed in under five minutes, I tried to sound stern. "Find some other way to figure it out because I love you all equally and I won't pick a favorite."