His little complication 18+ ddlb

Chapter 7

LUKE

It’s been three days since that incident outside the club, three days since I found Jack battered and beaten and left to die on that dark alleyway, three days since I brought him to a motel room, three days since I saw him wearing a diaper...

Three days since he broke down in the middle of his slumber and called me daddy.

Three days and I still couldn’t stop thinking about that night, about the things he revealed the morning after, about the time we spent together, about him...

Him...

I’ve spent the past three days willing myself to focus on work and Sarah and our upcoming wedding, but somehow, someway, thoughts of Jack kept crawling back in my head like some slug that was desperate to feed on my thoughts.

Lunch with Sarah went on as usual. She reminded me of the things that needed my attention - my immediate attention, according to her - regarding work and our wedding preparations. Usually, I’d fervently assure her that I was on top of things. Today, however, I just nodded every time she’d bring up something that she felt I had to attend to. I was too preoccupied with Jack and his situation that I couldn’t give her my complete heedfulness like I always did. I knew that I’d eventually feel guilty about it. But not at the moment. I was too busy ruminating on other matters.

Midway through our meal, though, she actually noticed how distant I was.

“What’s wrong?” she suddenly asked without even setting up her query.

“Eh? What’s wrong about what?” I feigned ignorance.

“Don’t act stupid,” she groaned. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know what you mean, hon.”

“You’ve been aloof. Why?”

“Oh... errr... I’m just... uhm... thinking...” I scampered for an answer. I wasn’t ready for her interrogation.

“Thinking about?” She actually stopped eating as she crossed her arms over her chest, a clear sign that she was taking this matter very seriously.

“Just... uhm... work,” I said. I don’t usually lie to her. I could count with one hand the number of times I had to hide the truth from her. Lying to her made me feel more than just remorseful... it made me feel dirty. But today, I had to do it. I couldn’t tell her what’s really on my mind. She wouldn’t be able to understand.

“What about work?” she pressed to know, sounding doubtful.

“Well, the month’s almost over. I’m just thinking about meeting the quota, you know. We’re a little off the mark and I’m trying to find ways not to fall off the chart.” I was amazed at the cop-out I came up with.

She gave me an icy glare before continuing with her meal. I felt huge relief. Somehow, I managed to pull it off.

“If your guy can close that Ascension account,” she stated in between her bites, “then your team will meet this month’s quota.”

“Yeah. Demont’s on it.”

“I told you to make sure that he is,” she reminded me. “That account’s very important. My father’s expecting it to get done and I don’t want him disappointed.”

“He won’t be,” I assured her.

“Maybe you can tell him that yourself,” she suddenly suggested.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“He wants to see you later. 3 P.M.”

“Why?”

“Gee, I don’t know,” she rebutted irately. “I’m not my father, Luke.”

“Yes. Sorry. I was just wondering why he wants to see me, s’all.”

“It’s been a while since you guys talked,” she stated. “Maybe he wants to discuss some company matters. Maybe he wants to be reassured about that Ascension account. Maybe he wants to talk to you about our wedding.”

I felt like my stomach turned upside down right there and then. It’s been months since I had a chat with Sarah’s dad, and conversations with him were never of the pleasant variety. And now, he wants to talk to me. I wasn’t really prepared for that, especially not today. I wasn’t in the right state of mind to deal with him.

Lunch break ended and we went back to the building. I stayed at my office for a while. I had to wait two more hours before I could go up to the fourteenth floor where the boss was, which was two stories above mine.

Around twenty minutes before three, however, and while I was busy booting up my laptop, someone came knocking at my door - a curly haired, middle-aged man with a cocky smile. It was Will Demont.

“Hey Luke!” he greeted me. “What’s up? You busy?”

“No, not really,” I told him.

“I got some good news for you,” he said as he entered my room. “That Ascension deal? I got it done!”

“You did?”

“Yes, Sir! It’s in the bag!” he confirmed very proudly.

“Great job, Will!” I congratulated him. I felt bad, though. I knew I should’ve shown more enthusiasm. He deserved it. But I could only pretend so much.

He placed his hand inside the chest pocket of his shirt in slow motion before dramatically pulling out what looked like a folded check while humming the chorus of Queen’s We Are The Champions. He then dropped the piece of paper on my desk.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“They issued a check to seal the deal, boss. Pay to cash. Those people aren’t stingy at all.”

“A check? For two hundred thousand?” I wondered aloud. It was rare for a client to pay in full immediately after signing us up.

“Nah. Just a quarter, boss,” Will clarified. “Fifty grand. They said it’s a show of good will. I didn’t argue.”

“Wow,” I muttered. It wasn’t the full amount but it was still a significant sum, a solid sign that Ascension was truly putting their full trust on our business.

“Does Accounting have to process this?” Will wanted to know.

“No, I’m giving this straight to Mr. Godfrey,” I told him, referring to my soon-to-be father-in-law. “He’ll want to hear about this amazing development.”

“That’s fantastic, boss!” Will enthused. “Hey... when you get to talk to him, can you put in a good word for me.”

I rested my hand over his shoulder and gave it a tight squeeze. “Of course, Will,” I guaranteed. “As I’ve said, you did a great job... and it won’t go unnoticed.”

Will Demont left my office brimming with excitement and hope, thinking, perhaps, that his most recent success would be rewarded with a promotion.

I went back to my computer as soon as he was gone, continuing what I was planning to do before he arrived.

I opened a browser and loaded up Google.

I’ve been thinking about this particular search phrase for the past three days and it was only now when I had the chance, and the courage, to actually type it on the query field.

adult fails to outgrow diapers

I was immediately taken to tons and tons of results. I scanned them as quickly as I could. Some of them weren’t what I was looking for. After a dozen pages of skimming, however, I chanced upon some terms which were very unfamiliar to me.

Paraphilic infantilism. ABDL. Age regression. Diaper fetishism. Infantile eroticism. Retro-erotic masochism. Age-driven auto-erotocism. Neo-pedophilic diversional intervention. Age play. Role play. Autonepophilia. Underdeveloped lovemap. Erroneous age imprinting. Erotic location target error.

None of these sounded normal!

Jack made it seem like his preference for diapers was merely something as simple as him failing to get past that phase in his life, but I doubted that such was the complete story. I didn’t tell him about that episode he had the previous night. I didn’t tell him how he responded to the nightmare that he was having... how he wailed like a child... how he talked like a child... how his body moved like a child’s...

How he called me daddy...

I had my suspicions that there was something deeper about Jack’s predicament, and my initial research apparently confirms them.

I didn’t have time to study the results, however. I checked my watch and it was almost three. Sarah’s dad has always been a person who never tolerated tardiness. I had to leave my post and proceed to his office.

I took the elevator to the fourteenth floor. That entire deck was practically a reception area for Mr. Godfrey’s office. I checked in with Martha, his long-time secretary. She smiled and told me to go straight to the boss’ room.

Mr. Godfrey was scribbling something on a piece of paper. He didn’t bother to stop when I entered his chamber. He just kept writing and writing as if I wasn’t there.

“Good afternoon, Sir,” I greeted him as I sat on the chair in front of his desk.

“Wait,” he inhospitably said as his pen continued to scrawl on the document beneath it.

I did what I was told. I waited.

Five minutes later, Mr. Godfrey finally put down his pen and sighed.

“What do you want, Galloway?” he asked me.

“Uhm... actually, Sir, you’re the one who sent for me.”

“What?!”

“Sarah told me that-”

“f*****g hell!” he interrupted me as he finally remembered. “Yeah, yeah, I did.” He gave me an icy stare that lasted for a few seconds. Then he opened his drawer and pulled out a cigar. He lit it up and took his time to savor the first drag.

That reminded me how much I needed a smoke right there and then.

“Wedding’s three Sundays from now,” he went on to say. “I guess none of you damn kids are gonna change your minds.”

“I guess not, Sir,” I answered with a half-laugh, one which was met with another cruel gaze from the man who was supposed to walk Sarah down the aisle. I immediately zipped my mouth.

“You sure she’s marrying you because she loves you?” he suddenly asked.

It was rude question. But rudeness wasn’t anything unexpected from him. He built this company through ruthlessness and aggression. He never took pity on anyone and he drove his employees hard.

“I’d want to think that she does, Sir,” I replied.

“Yeah whatever,” he dismissed my response. “Whether it’s for love or for something else, whether I like it or not, you’ll be part of the family in three weeks’ time and there’s nothing I can do about it. So, I just want to remind you of a few things and I want you to always keep these in your damn head. Understand?”

I just nodded.

“First, I’m old,” he proceeded. “I’m very old. I’m almost seventy. I’ll die soon. I’m not some stupid optimist. I don’t listen to Deepak Chopra or Tony Robbins or some other sweet-talking son of a gun. I know I won’t live forever, and I know I won’t live long. I’ll die soon and with Sarah being my only daughter and the majority shareholder of this company, she’s poised to take over the business.”

“I am aware of that, Sir,” I assured him.

“Oh shut the f**k up and let me finish,” he berated me. “Sarah’s gonna inherit this company. It won’t be easy for her and I don’t want her to suffer any more than she should. My point is... I don’t want you to weigh her down, Galloway.”

“Weigh her down, Sir?” His statement confounded me.

“For f**k’s sake! Do I have to spell it out for you? Galloway, when you started here, you were one of the worst salesman we’ve ever had. As in ever, in the history of this company! How many sales did you produce in your first two years again? Two?”

“Three actually, Sir,” I pointed out.

“And that makes it any better?! You were bad, Galloway. Worse than bad. You should’ve been fired back then.”

“I should’ve, Sir,” I agreed as I bowed my head, embarrassed by those shameful years.

“But you weren’t,” he went on. “You weren’t because my daughter... my sweet, precious daughter... chose to be with you. Hell, I don’t know what kind of spell you’ve cast on her, but she wanted to be with you and I didn’t want to ruin that. And so you stayed.”

“And I’ll forever be grateful for that, Sir.”

“Shut up! I’m not finished yet. As I was saying, you stayed because of her. I even promoted you, for crying out loud! I promoted you to positions you didn’t even deserve. I had to endure the bad rep I got from the people downstairs because of what I did. But I had to do it. I had to do it to keep my daughter content.”

His words shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me. I knew that my relationship with Sarah led to my current position in the company. But it was the first time that someone actually told that straight to my face... and that someone had to be the CEO of the company and my father-in-law to be.

So I just kept my head bowed down.

“Well, we’re here now,” he continued with a mellower voice. “You’re the VP of Sales. Not a day passes by that I don’t regret that decision, but I have to live with it. For my dear Sarah. But as I was saying, the time will come when she has to assume control of this company. And when that day arrives, I don’t want people thinking that she’s weak. I don’t want people taking advantage of her.”

“I’ll make sure that no one will take advantage of her, Sir,” I promised him.

“Will you now?” he asked, doubting what I just said. A dastardly smile formed on his face. “You and Sarah... you don’t talk much, do you?”

“We... We spend considerable time together, Sir,” I told him. “We’ve been together for five years...”

“Five years of what? Do you even talk about each other’s plans? About each other’s dreams? About what you mean to each other?”

I couldn’t reply.

His words struck me hard.

Mr. Godfrey was a cruel, heartless man. The things he says are, more often than not, meant to hurt.

But somehow, there was a semblance of truth in what he just told me.

Sarah and I... we do spend a lot of time together. But looking back, those moments did feel a bit empty... a bit unspectacular... a bit meaningless...

“Do you know why she chose you, Galloway?” he asked without even waiting for me to answer. “It’s because you’re weak. You’re weak and you can easily be controlled. And that’s what my daughter needs... a man who can be whatever she tells him to be. That’s what you are. That’s what you’ll always be. But that’s not what I want you to be when I’m gone. I want you to grow a spine, Galloway. I want you to be better. I want you to be a goddamn man!”

His words were becoming unbearable, and not because they were impudent and painful.

It was because, deep inside me, I knew they were spoken with full honesty.

“Sarah doesn’t think this way,” he proceeded to assert. “She doesn’t know what she really needs. But I do. When I’m gone, no one will protect her anymore. And if you don’t change who you are, you wouldn’t be able to protect her as well. So stop being feeble and indecisive and dense, Galloway, and start being someone who truly deserves my dear, dear daughter.”

What could I say to that?

How should I respond?

I just kept silent throughout the remainder of that meeting.

Eventually, he allowed me to leave. I went back to my office and locked the door. I stared out the window. I had a great view of downtown Northampton - the busy streets, the century-old facades of nicely maintained buildings, of Pulaski Park nearby - but at that moment, I realized that those sights were like mere pictures in a magazine to me... static... lifeless... unreal. For years I’ve marveled at the resplendence of that view. Now, I realized that I was only awed by the concept of its splendor.

And I wondered...

Was it the same with Sarah?

Have I always been blind to the reality of our relationship because I was in love with the notion of love... especially when falling in love with that notion enhanced my career?

Thinking about it made me feel sick. I began to have cold sweats. My stomach felt like it was being shredded by a blender. My knees started to get weak. My office seemed like it was getting smaller and smaller.

I had to get out.

I had to run away.

From this.

From all of this.

I had to be alone.

I had to clear my head.

I didn’t even wait for the elevator to reach our floor. I took the stairs and ran down as fast as I could. I exited the building, went straight to the back alley and lit up a cigarette. The nicotine calmed me down a bit, but I was still feeling bad.

I’ve never felt this miserable my entire life.

I needed help.

I needed someone.

Without even thinking, I grabbed my phone and looked for Jack’s number.

Then I started to type my message.