Chapter 9: Aly and Me

"Mornin', Matt," I spoke to the back of my manager's head.

He swiveled around to service my interrupt.

"Meet my daughter. Aly, this is Matt Grodin, he owns this thing he calls a business."

Matt wrinkled his brow as he glanced from me to Aly and back again.

"Daughter?" he questioned gruffly. "I didn't know you..."

Aly stepped forward, holding out her hand. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Grodin." Her firm voice indicated she was in alpha female mode. She waited patiently as he stared at her. He seemed a bit ill at ease.

"Um, yes. Nice to, um, meet you too." He bent slightly at the waist, and reached out to squeeze Aly's finger tips.

He brushed a palm over his thinning salt and pepper flattop, a carry over from his years at Hewlett Packard, looking at me in some confusion.

"Aly is helping me this morning. She'll be transcribing my flow charts."

"That's fine," he said, now giving Aly his total attention. "So, you're Rich's daughter?" He glanced at me. "You don't look..."

"I'm not his daughter yet. He has to adopt me first." Aly gave him her biggest smile which she turned on me after a moment. "You are going to adopt me, aren't you?"

"It's up to you, Sweetheart, and your mom. Ready to start your first job?"

"Yeah," she burst out, very enthusiastic. "It was nice talking with you, Mr. Grodin." She took my hand, and pulled me towards the doorway.

"If she likes the work, Matt, you'll have to put her on the payroll," I said over my shoulder. I couldn't make out his mumbled response.

"Where's your office, Rich?"

"Over there," I pointed to a grey door at the other end of the room. "And there's the restroom. If you want something to drink, there's soft drinks in the lunch room fridge." I pointed to the far corner. "Let me get a coffee, and we'll get to work."

One of the double E's and a draftsman were chatting as they fixed their coffees.

"Morning, Chad, Linda. I'd like you to meet my daughter." They turned in our direction. "Morning, Rich," they said in unison. "I didn't know you..." Chad tried to say, but Aly interupted him.

"Hi, I'm Aly." She held out her hand to Linda who took it while looking at me with a surprised expression on her face.

What a fun way to start the week, I thought.

Aly studied the whiteboards lining my office walls, her tongue tip peeping out from between her teeth.

I handed her a green plastic flow charting template. She studied it for a moment, and nodded her head.

"I can do this," she said as she folded into my visitor's chair. I put pencils and grid paper on the round table in front of her.

"I thought you could." I smiled down at her, resisting an urge to tousle her hair. "Put three or four symbols down the middle of each page. I'll show you how to tie the pages together when you've finished the first one. Okay?"

"Now here's my fun toy," I pointed to the gray Hewlett Packard 2116B sitting on my desk. "Look here, I tilted the large box onto it's front panel rack handles and pried a card out.

"This is its memory. See all those little toroids, um, donuts? They are actually magnets, and hold the bits I told you about last night."

Aly wrinkled her nose, and, peering closely at the brown plastic card, shrugged.

"This is fully loaded with sixty four kilobytes of memory," I said with some pride. I replaced the card, and pulled out the one next to it. "See all those chips," I held the densely packed card up for her. "It takes all that to just add a little bit. Look familiar?"

"Yeah, Mom's company makes those things. Integrated Circuits, IC's, right?" She grinned, proud of her knowledge.

"Mm, hm," I approved, "you got it, my smart girl." I diverted the urge to scoop her up for a hug by tickling her neck with a crooked finger. She raised her shoulder with giggle, and scrubbed my hand away.

"Don't," she complained, giggling louder.

"So those are the basic parts," I said, snapping the card back into its slot. "And all that stuff on the white boards is, basically, a diagram of what we want it to do."

"Okaay," Aly drawled, rolling her eyes a bit.

"When you finish the drawings, you'll have a better picture, and probably some questions. So, you get to it, I'm going to have to get some work done this morning or Matt will growl at me."

"Okay, but," she said softly, "I have a question." Aly's voice quavered.

"Mm?"

"Can I sit on your lap again?" Aly's voice so soft, I had to lean forward.

"Sit on my lap?" I asked.

"Yes, please."

She stood, hesitating, her eyes pleading.

I held out my arms to her.

"Rich, I'm, um." She buried her face into my neck.

"What is it, sweet peach?" I hugged her, and stroked her back.

"Paul wanted me to..." she sighed big. "let him..." she mumbled against my collar.

"Yes? What?"

"Put his thing in me," she blurted, "his erection, I mean. Do you think..."

"No, Aly, No. Not a good idea. What did you tell him?" My tone of voice a bit harsh, her body twitched as she leaned back to study my face.

"Maybe. I said he could, maybe. I wanted to talk to you about it first." Her eyes very wide. "And Momma too. You're not mad at me, are you? Your face is..."

"No, honey, I'm not mad at you." My brain a flurry, I tried to sort out my feelings, to find some logic. I hugged her close, feeling very protective.

"I think you are much too young to have intercourse. You know? Have sex."

"Why, Rick?"

Oh, shit, how in hell do I answer that question? I tried to quell my fluster and think straight.

"He might hurt you. You're not a very big girl. Did your mother explain about first times. How you might bleed?" Maybe that will scare her off, I hoped, prayed.

"Yes, but every girl has a first time. Why not now with Paul. He's not very big." She searched for my hand, and grasping my thumb, raised it to her face. "He's not even this big. Do you think your thumb would do much damage?"

That image I trashed very quickly.

"And," she said emphatically, "I can't get pregnant." Her face said she believed this to be the clinching arguement.

"Yet! Honey, I hate to say this, but don't. Okay? Just don't do it. Wait a few years. Maybe when you're in college, you'll fall in love with a very nice young man, and give him a gift of..." Why did I feel stupid saying that?

"Aly, please trust me. I love your mother and that love extends to you. It makes me want to protect you from being hurt. Sex is fun, it feels really good. You probably wouldn't be here otherwise. That's how our bodies work, but we must discipline ourselves, otherwise we'd see people doing it on the sidewalk. It's not that pretty a sight, you know?" How would she know? God, my brain is Swiss cheese, much like my arguments.

"But you guys do it all the time." She sounded annoyed then her frown changed to a big smile. "How old was Cleopatra when she married?"

"This is not about what other people did or do. It's not even logic, it's just how I feel. How everybody feels. Kids shouldn't have sex. I have no idea why the rules changed, why Cleopatra could get married at age twelve, but you can't."

"'Cause they didn't live very long back then."

"Like I said, it's not logic. It's rules we didn't make, but have to follow. I think your mother will agree with me."

"So you really don't want me to do it with Paul?"

"No, I don't." I couldn't be more emphatic if I'd screamed.

"Because you want me to do it with you?"

Her wide eyed expression seemed so innocent.

"No!" This I did scream.

"So you don't really love me. If you don't want to screw me, then you must not love me."

"Aly, you can sure twist things around." I bit my tongue hoping the pain would clear my churning brain. Aly seemed so calm, sitting sideways across my lap, her eyes locked onto her hands cupping her knees. She's up to something, I thought. My eyes narrowed as I continued to stare. As the silence stretched, she turned her head to read my face.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked innocently, sweetly.

"Is this another interview?" Reaching desparately for any new gambit.

"Interview?"

"Like last night. When you asked so many questions."

"Mm," she agreed. "Sort of." She squirmed a bit to twist her body around, trying to keep her eyes on mine. "I know all about sex. My girl friend, Lori, shows me her parents magazines, and I've heard them and you and Mom doing it. I just don't know what it feels like." She paused and dropped her eyes.

"Yes, I can understand that. So?" I prompted.

"I mean what sex feels like. I can have an orgasm any time I want, but I don't make noises like..." She brought her eyes back up to mine. "everybody else, and I want to know why." She lifted her arm and hooked her elbow behind my neck. "Is there something wrong with me?"

"No, not at all. Orgasms can be very intense when someone helps. Especially if you really like the person a lot. Maybe it's like you can't tickle yourself." Relief, at last a question I could answer somewhat.

"Last night when you kissed me..."

"When you kissed me," I corrected her.

"Okay. When I kissed you, it made me feel tingly, and I wanted to go rub my, um, self."

"Kissing can do that." Where in hell is she going now? I felt a trickle of fear.

"When I kiss Paul, that doesn't happen. Why?"

"That's a question for your mother. She'll have a much better answer." Off the hook? I crossed my fingers, trying to settle myself.

"You don't know?"

"Your mother understands women, I don't." That's no lie. "You'll have to ask her."

"You aren't getting a bo... an erection like Paul did last night." She squirmed her butt on me. "Why?"

"Are you going to be a scientist when you grow up?"

"Why?"

I grinned, she'd responded as expected. Now maybe I can get her off this topic.

"Why? Why? Why? Be careful or you'll end up a physicist." I smirked at her, or tried, her face took on such a serious look I had to chuckle.

"Sorry, that's a joke."

"I don't get it." She furrowed her eyebrows, wrinkled her nose.

"Look, my little cutie pie, I love you as much as I love your mother, just not the same way, so listen and believe. You are not sexually attractive to me. Your mother is, very much. You are just too young, and sweet, and lovely. My nature is to protect and nurture you, not..." I started rejecting possible words.

"Screw me?"

"Exactly." I hugged her. "In both senses of the word." I patted her butt. "Get up, I'm going to take a walk and try to unscramble the mess you've made of my brain."

She bounced to her feet, turning to ask, "Both senses?"

"As in screw up your life, child. It has happened." I nudged her waist. "It's time for you to get some work done."

I stood and moved to the doorway to watch Aly fold her legs under herself into the table chair.

"I'll be back soon. If you need anything, ask Linda. She's in the engineering section. Okay?"

"Sure. Say hello to Mom for me," she giggled.

I just shook my head. Scary child, she reads minds too.

I found Linda at her table, bent over, giving me a nice view of well rounded black lace.

"Hey, Linda. Could you do me a favor?" I called out before approaching, giving her a chance to straighten up.

She looked up with a nice smile on her face which I enjoyed for a moment, until my eyes were drawn back to her generous cleavage.

"I've got to go out for a few minutes. If Aly needs help with something, I told her to find you. Is that okay?"

"Sure. How long will you be gone?"

"Fifteen, twenty minutes. Half hour worst case." I glanced down to her chest again. "Nice black lace. Gotta hot date tonight?"

Linda's smile faded. "No," she said, rather quickly. "I just..." She forced a blank expression. "Behind on my laundry."

"Our good luck," I told her, turning away. "Thanks," I said stiffly, reacting to her obvious discomfort. I wondered what her problem was, she'd always accepted my teasing with good humor. "I'll be at AMD," I called back over my shoulder.

Moira seemed pleasantly happy to see me until I ratted out her daughter then she put on a serious face.