Little Packages Ch. 08

I was tempted to wear my Red Sonja cosplay and see how he would react to that, but even I wasn't that bratty.

"I promise you'll have fun. How's that?" he said. Well, that was something at least. I didn't think he'd make me sit through a couple of hours of serious drama, but you never know.

He waved over the waitress and paid for the bill.

"Come on, Kitten. Time for some culture."

Oh my God, this was going to be a long day.

***

There's a lot of things I love about my Daddy and a few things that frustrate me. The one thing I never know which list to put him in is how observant he is. You would think that would be a good thing; a boyfriend that pays attention to you and knows you so well that he can tell when something is wrong. Or knows what you like and what you don't like.

The other side is I have to be careful what I say around him because I know he's making a mental note. Maybe it's for a gift later. Or maybe a particular surprise. Or maybe you mention that you've never been to a museum or art gallery before.

It was an innocent enough remark last summer. Meg was visiting and said something in French. I didn't know she was bilingual.

"Well, I learned in school, like all good Canadian kids, but my fluency was kind of crap. So after my undergrad, but before I started law school, I wanted to improve it so I went to France for the summer.

Daddy laughed.

"You mean you wanted to be able to tell your parents you were doing something productive instead of being drunk almost constantly for several months, along with hitting on every hot man and woman you could find in Paris," he said.

"I had many excellent...tutors," she said, almost managing to not blush.

I giggled. Daddy roared laughing.

"The only thing you perfected that summer was your walk of shame," he said, which provoked Meg into giving him the finger.

The conversation eventually switched over to a trip to the Louvre. Ben and Beth dragged Meg there even though she was hungover and operating on less than four hours sleep.

"I never thought looking at so much beautiful art would be hell," she said. "I nearly murdered that poor Japanese tourist. But his camera was so loud."

"I guess I'll have to go one of these days," I said without thinking.

"Yeah, we'll get to France sometime after you graduate if you want," he said. I loved how he casually dropped places we were going to visit one day as if just running off to France was no big deal.

"No, I mean to an art gallery...museum?" I said, shrugging my shoulders.

Meg and Daddy looked at me like I grew a new head.

"You've never been to an art gallery or museum?" Meg said.

"Nope."

"Look, I know you grew up in Saskatchewan, but they have art galleries and museums there," she said.

"Sure, but I never got into Regina or Saskatoon much and when I did I had other things to do than go to an art gallery. Besides, I can just look at all the pictures online anyway. Why do I need to go see them in person?" I said.

I could see the look of despair wash over Meg's face.

"You are dating a heathen," she said to Daddy.

"I know, I know," he said shaking his head.

"What? They're pictures. What difference does it make if I see them in person or on a computer screen?"

"Oh Kit, just stop. Ben, please, you have to fix this," Meg said.

"I'll take care of it. Don't worry," he said.

Which is how I found myself several months later at the Museum of Modern Art. Because I made an offhand comment about art galleries. I admit I had every intention of being a bratty little girl at the museum; the one who doesn't want to be there, but is being dragged there by her parents. That would have been ungrateful, but I didn't like being treated like an uncultured hick.

But to my surprise, I liked it. It wasn't just wall to wall of paintings and carvings. There were photography exhibits and some interpretive/interactive things that were weird, but kinda cool. I liked a crafts display and Daddy was perfectly happy to let me wander around and look at different things.

"Ok, ok," I said as we were going up to the fifth floor, "this is kinda cool and not something I could see online. You win."

"I always win, Kitten," he said. I stuck out my tongue, which seemed like a mature response.

"I don't know, maybe I was intimidated or something. I had opportunities in Montreal, but I was always busy studying, and it wasn't something I thought about much. And then you and Meg made fun of me about it, so it became a whole thing," I said.

"Sorry about that," he said, looking contrite.

"Eh, you and Meg were having fun. It's not like you were being mean or anything. And I tease you all the time," I said. "But as much as I'm enjoying myself, are we at risk of going off your elaborate schedule?"

"Just one more thing," he said, leading me across the fifth floor of the building. There was a ton of art on the walls. "Just wander around, take it in. We'll head out in 20 minutes if you're done."

I had a sneaking suspicion there was a plan or a piece of art he wanted me to see, but I played along. Besides, there was a lot of nice art on the wall. I would stop and look at a piece for a few moments and then moved along.

That's when I noticed a crowd of people around one piece in particular. A couple of girls my age were posing in front of it using selfie sticks, which even I had to roll my eyes at a bit. Getting a selfie in front of a piece of art just seemed dumb to me. But then they cleared out and I wandered over to see what the big deal was.

It was Van Gogh's "The Starry Night". I mean, I knew a limited bit about art, but even I could recognize that painting.

I just walked up to it and there it was. Right in front of me. I could touch it if I wasn't sure alarms would go off. I just stared at it for a few minutes. It was beautiful and it was...right there. I don't know why I was so surprised it was real, but it felt like a piece of magic was just conjured into existence.

I felt Daddy standing behind me. I turned around and I'm sure my eyes must have been wide open. He was smiling at me and I couldn't help it, I started to giggle.

"It's just....right there," I said, in-between giggles.

A crowd has started to build around the painting again and I could see a few people giving me dirty looks, not because of Daddy and I being affectionate, but because they wanted to get closer to the painting and I was in the way. I backed away and gave them space. Then I hugged Daddy.

"Ok, that's pretty cool," I said.

"I'm glad you liked it," he said.

We started to wander out of the gallery area. I was glad I saw the paintings, but I was starting to get a bit fidgety and I think Daddy could see that.

"So I guess this means you have to take me to Paris so I can see the Louvre and stuff now," I said, and then immediately kind of regretting it. I meant it as a tease, but for all I know, he was going to start booking tickets to Paris the instant had a free minute.

"It's on the list, Kitten," he said, taking my hand. "Remember, I was getting ready to do some travelling when we met. I put that on hold for very good reasons. But I still want to see some of the world. It would be nice to have company."

"You got it, Daddy," I said, as we headed downstairs.

***

We'd been lucky to get a pretty nice day for our New York adventure. It was in the low 20C range, so I wore a denim skirt, the strappy sandals that I liked, and, well, that Daddy liked a lot too, and a Hello Kitty t-shirt. I'd been tempted to put my hair in pigtails just to drive him nuts, but a hairband worked just fine and was slightly less cruel. My hair had slowly darkened back to my usual brassy red, which made me happy.

After MOMA we walked up 5th Avenue towards Central Park, pausing for a moment to make rude gestures at Trump Tower. Everyone was doing it and it felt like the New York thing to do.

I was skeptical of the park because it's not like I haven't been in them before. But so far, I hadn't been steered wrong yet. Daddy was looking for a restaurant for lunch, but I persuaded him take-out would ok so we grabbed some souvlaki from a food truck and then headed in. And he was right, again. It was beautiful. We just rambled around for an hour or so, people watching and chatting.

"You're going to become smug and unbearable being right like this all the time," I said as we sat on a bench to give my feet a bit of a break. I'd whined before starting our day's adventures about killing my feet before the con, so I was getting plenty of breaks.

"Wisdom is one of the benefits of my advanced age," he said. I rolled my eyes. A cute girl with pink hair burst past us on a skateboard while an older lady walking a poodle walked by in the opposite direction. I was content to just sit and watch the world go by.

Which is when, of course, Daddy did something weird.

"So, have you heard from your mom lately?" he asked.

I turned and looked at him like he suddenly grew three heads.

"Where did that come from?" I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"You haven't mentioned her in....I honestly couldn't say when was the last time you last mentioned her. I'm just curious if you'd heard from her or not," he said.

"Trust me, if I had heard from her, you'd know. I would be scowling and cursing."

I knew exactly the last time I heard from my mom. It was right towards the end of the last school year in April. Mom predicted our relationship wouldn't last six months. So a few days after six months, when I had just finished moving my stuff into Daddy's house, I snapped a selfie of the two of us. It wasn't pornographic or anything, but there was a high level of affection going on. I thought the most important thing was that we both looked happy.

"6 months+ and going strong," I sent to her.

I hadn't heard a word since. She didn't like to be shown she was wrong. Plus she was probably waiting for this to fall apart in the anticipation of me crawling home, sobbing that she was right. That was never happening. I'd be homeless, begging for change before that happened.

"You know you should..." he started. I put up a hand to stop him.

"I text her once a month, letting her know I'm alive and could she do me the courtesy of letting me know if she is. Nothing," I said. "I even reached out to a few people I know in town who assure me she still has a pulse and has been spotted around town. So it is her choice not to talk to me. I am ok with that. I have an amazing life, right here, right now, that does not require her one little bit.

"She made her choice, Daddy. She chooses to not be happy that I'm doing well. Her loss, not mine."

He nodded and leaned back on the bench, staring off at some kids running around and playing with their dog. It was the middle of the week, so I had no idea why they weren't in school, but their parents didn't seem to care very much.

"I'm sorry about that, Kitten. I know you don't care much, but I still am sorry about that."

Then I figured out what this was probably about.

"How're your parents?" I asked. I hadn't told him about the conversation his dad had with me, but I know he knew about it, and what the topic of conversation was. I didn't push him about his mom. He'd tell me when he was ready, although it broke my heart that he might lose his mom so soon after losing his wife.

"I never thought dad being a terrible liar would be so stressful," he said. "Whenever we talk and I ask how mom is doing, he says she's fine, or she's busy and can't come to the phone. I'm not sure how long he thinks he can go without telling me something is wrong, but he seems very determined to test the limit."

I snuggled back into him, and he hugged me a little bit harder.

"Are you going to have to go out to see them?" I asked.

"Yeah, probably. Not sure when I'm going to pull the trigger on that. I'm probably in some denial on this."

"I'm coming with you when you go," I said. This wasn't a request. I was going with him because there was no way he was seeing his mother...unwell without me there to support him.

"Ok, Kitten," he said. "I promise you'll come with me."

I nodded my head, satisfied now that he promised he wouldn't run off on some misguided solo trip to 'protect me.'

He glanced at his watch, slowly disentangled himself from me, and stood up. He held out his hand and I bounced up, wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. We stood like that for a few moments. I figured if there was a place where a girl could get away with making out with her much older boyfriend, it would be in New York.

And sure enough, when I came back for air and glanced around, not a single person was looking at us. Maybe Daddy was right about the whole New York thing.

"So, Macy's next?" he asked.

"I'm not really a Macy's girl. But I did find a bunch of vintage clothing stores that look more my speed. Can we go there instead?"

He smiled. "Whatever my princess wants."

Just what a girl wants to hear when she's about to go clothes shopping.

***

The next few hours were spent torturing him by hitting vintage clothing stores. I'd already ransacked all the ones in Kingston and Montreal, so this was new territory. Even if the outfit didn't work for me, I could always adjust it, or just use the fabric. And there were some seriously good finds. Too good, in some cases. I couldn't buy it all, no matter how good the deals were.

Because I'd been enjoying hitting these stores and wandering around neighbourhoods, I asked Daddy if it was ok to blow off going to the Empire State Building. It would be nice, but I was having way more fun hitting these stores and walking around New York neighbourhoods. It was better than standing on top of a tall building and fighting the hordes for a picture. I'd be going through enough of that at the con the next four days.

"This is your New York adventure, princess. Whatever you want to do for the rest of the afternoon, I'm happy with it," he said.

Daddy was patient as I oohed and aahed over different things. He also wasn't white knighting it and offering to buy me anything. I'd warned him not to before we even started hitting these places. He seemed content to just let me play and angst out over what to buy. I did take advantage of his offer to carry some of the bags, though.

That was until the last store when I came out of the change room in a little black dress. I mean, I'd packed a dress for tonight's show, but I wasn't 100% sold on it. But this....this was something else.

When I walked out of the change room and posed in front of the mirror the owner of the store said, "girl, you need to buy that dress."

Daddy looked up from his phone and whistled.

"We're going to see a Broadway show this evening," I said to the lady. "Is this appropriate?"

"That dress is appropriately inappropriate for many occasions, including Broadway," she said, making me giggle.

Then I looked at the price and I winced. I'd been doing so good not asking for Daddy's help so far on my shopping this afternoon. I was trying hard to keep my reaction from him, but he has a sixth sense for these kinds of things.

"I'll buy it for you," he said. Before I could protest added, "I have completely ulterior motives for wanting you to have that dress."

And that was that. The owner wasted little time taking the dress as I was getting changed and ringing it up. By the time I came out of the change room, he was waiting with me holding a little bag.

"I either need to get used to you doing that or you need to stop doing that," I said as we walked down the street looking for a taxi. I'd glanced at my phone in the change room and saw that it was 4:30. Daddy had said the show started at 7 pm. That didn't leave a lot of time for me to get back to the hotel and get changed.

"Hypnosis is the only option left for you," he said. "Because I'm not stopping."

"Ooooh, is that a new kink?" I asked, teasing him. "I'm already pretty submissive. I'm not sure you need to hypnotize me to make me more obedient."

He waved his hand and a taxi slowed down.

"I'll take all the help I can get," he said, opening the door.

Interestingly that wasn't a no, but that was something to think about later. Right now, I had an evening out to plan for.

By the time we got back to the hotel, it was almost 5 pm. The show began at 7, and we wanted to get there a bit early to take in Times Square. I had maybe an hour to get ready. I hated rushing these kinds of things, but now I had no choice.

"It's your fault if I'm not perfect," I yelled at him through the door. I could hear him laugh.

One quick shower, with a cap to keep my hair dry. I started on my make-up, although because of time constraints, I wasn't getting too fancy. The lingerie was going to be the tricky part. The dress I'd brought was going to be long enough for garters and stockings. The new dress was shorter, so this was going to require some additional fussing. If things got desperate I had a pair of emergency pantyhose, but I hated wearing them.

It took some fussing, but the stockings worked. I had a couple of inches of grace but bending over was going to be tricky. I was going to be clinging pretty hard to Daddy this evening. Like he was going to mind.

I did one last review in the mirror. My hair looked good, with a hairband keeping it off my face. Makeup could be better but was ok. My one concession to geekery was a set of Rebel Alliance earrings. My usual day collar was on with the lock resting squarely in my cleavage.

The dress itself was a miracle of infrastructure. Black, slim and accentuating all the right parts. It showed off my tits without being too slutty about it. All the curves were displayed in a flattering light and it was short, but not so short that I was in immediate danger of being arrested.

When I get back to Montreal I was going to have to take a serious look at this dress because it was a minor miracle. I slipped on a pair of three-inch heels and glanced at my phone. Almost 6 pm.

I opened the door to the bathroom and walked out, my heels clicking on the floor. Daddy had been looking out the window and turned around when he heard me. I did a little pose and spun around slowly. He whistled quietly.

"God damn, princess. You look spectacular."

I blushed. I mean, I knew it was true, but Daddy's praise was always going to make me blush.

"You want to skip the show, stay here, order some pizza and I can better appreciate that dress?" he said, stomping on the moment.

I huffed at him, but my hands in my hips and did my best annoyed little girl look.

"I was promised a show, dinner, and some spectacular fucking. And I'm going to get it. In that order," I said.

He threw his hands up in mock surrender and came over to hug me. He gently lifted me so only my toes were touching the floor.

"I keep all my promises, Kitten," he whispered in my ear and then gently nibbled on it.

It's not like the thong I was wearing was going to absorb much, but that act produced a reaction that overwhelmed the small amount of material there.

I pushed back gently to try and catch my breath. If he wasn't careful I was going to be jumping him in the bathroom at intermission.

"Come on. We only have an hour," I said, reaching for the trench coat and slipping it on. It had gotten colder so I did need the coat, but it had one additional benefit; I'd yet to find a heterosexual male who didn't get a little dumber looking at a cute girl wearing a short skirt and a long coat.

Daddy was no exception and I had to poke him to snap him out of it. I noticed that he was sporting an erection in the casual dress pants he was wearing. Good. If I was going to be wet and horny for the next five hours or so, he could be hard and uncomfortable. Fair play and all.

We arrived in Times Square and I spent a few minutes gawking like a tourist. How did I not come here last year? The stuff I missed because I was so focused on the con and the stupid drama with Heather and Lesley. Daddy was right; we were going to have to come back here and explore properly.