Chapter 4

Twenty four hours after Abbey had made it abundantly clear that she wanted her father to be her man in every way, Paul's head was still spinning. He continued to think of the conversation that had preceded her saying she wanted to be "fucked by the man I love more than anything else in the world." Paul kept going over the events in his head, and he continued to ask himself one thing: "What the hell happened?"

For the next several hours Paul went into his home office and did his best to concentrate on work that needed to be done. He was hardly at his best, but he managed to complete the tasks that most required completion. He looked at the clock and saw that it was nearly 4 pm ... the time he would normally have begun preparing dinner for himself and Abbey. He didn't care about eating in the least. But he did wonder, for what he figured must be the millionth time, "Where is Abbey, how is she, and what is she doing?"

At that moment the doorbell rang. Even though he knew Abbey had a key and would not ring the bell, he held some hope that she would be on his doorstep, wanting to come into his house and his arms, and wanting to explain what had gone wrong the day before. Paul recognized the face of the person who had rung the bell, but he was in a very confused state as he opened the door.

"Hi," the woman on the doorstep said as she flashed one of the most beautiful smiles Paul had ever seen, "I'm Callie."

"Uh... ," Paul grunted, maintaining the puzzled look on his face.

"I'm Abbey's friend, from California. You're Paul ... Abbey's dad, right?" Paul nodded dumbly. "Um ... can I come in and talk to you for a minute?"

A number of things were contributing to Paul's state of befuddlement. He hadn't heard Abbey talking specifically about her friend Callie, but he did remember Callie was the name his daughter used while talking on the phone the morning before.

More strange to him was the fact that Abbey's friend was knocking on his door. Didn't she just say she was from California? Paul assumed that this woman's presence at his home had something to do with what happened between himself and Abbey the previous day. But the thing that boggled Paul's mind the most was that he DID know this girl. Although, he didn't know her as Callie.

"Oh ... um ... of course uh ... Callie," Paul said haltingly. "Yes, of course you can come in. Please..."

He gestured her into the foyer, then into the adjacent living room.

"It's OK if I call you Paul, isn't it?" Callie said as she entered the room.

"Oh! Oh my ... I'm so sorry. I didn't even introduce myself to you. Please forgive me."

Another huge smile spread across Callie's face.

"Oh, please! Don't be silly! I know you're probably crazy curious about why I'm here. And I knew who you were. But, is it OK if I call you Paul?"

"Goodness, of course, yes of course Callie. Again, I'm sorry. I uh ... I guess I am in a bit of a state at the moment. Um ... please, sit."

Callie took a seat and Paul sat opposite her.

​"So, have you heard much from Abbey today?" Callie asked.

"I've gotten two text messages, one yesterday and one today. They said basically the same thing, which was that she was doing fine and that I shouldn't worry. Fat chance of that, I might add. Have you ... have you been in touch with Abbey? She is OK, isn't she?"

Callie made a face that showed how touched she was by Paul's concern for his daughter.

"Ohhhh, you are just as sweet as Abbey has always told me you were. No wonder she's so crazy about you, Paul."

"Well, thank you. But seriously, have you talked to Abbey?"

"Yes, I have. And she is doing fine. I know there's no way for you not to worry, but she sounded OK when I talked to her. I mean, I'm sure she's OK physically. But she is feeling badly about what happened with you yesterday."

"Callie, what DID happen? I mean, all of a sudden she just, got so upset and ... Well, I ... oh wait ... um ... well..."

Paul had suddenly realized that the incident they had begun discussing revolved around him moving toward having sex with his pregnant daughter. Did Callie know that? Was she completely disgusted with him, but just hiding it extremely well? He had no idea what to say next.

"Paul, it's OK. I think I know the basics of what's been happening between you and Abbey. She told me a little when we talked on the phone yesterday morning. And she filled me in on the background when we talked last night, and when we talked again this morning before I got on the plane."

"Did you come here just to check on Abbey?"

"Pretty much. I mean, my parents live like, an hour from here and I was due for a visit anyway. But yeah, my primary reason for coming was Abbey. She's really my best friend Paul. I don't know if she talked about me much."

"Well, she just said that she only had a few real friends in the ... in your ... um ... you know ... what I mean?"

"I think I do, Paul. But before we go any further, can we get something out of the way?"

"Of course, Callie. Yes, tell me, or ask me anything at all."

Callie's charming smile and the sparkle in her eyes took away most of the anxiety he was feeling.

"Paul, I can pretty much tell by the way you've been looking at me, that you know who I am and what I do."

"Hell ... is it that obvious? I mean, YEAH ... how could I not? I'm sorry, was I being rude, or weird or anything? Was I ... leering at you or something?"

"No! No, not at all, Paul. You've been as sweet as I thought you would be. It's extremely common for people who meet me for the first time to be a little weirded out, if they know what I do for a living, that is."

​"I'll be they do. Well, are there people who DON'T know you?"

"Of course! Not everyone is into what Abbey and I do. Millions of people are, but not everyone."

"Well, it's a strange thing to admit ... to ... to your face. But anyway ... I know very well who you are. You're Celeste Stearn. But I guess your real name is Callie, huh?"

"That's right. We pretty much all have our made up names. Some of the girls change 'em at different times in their career, but I never have. So, you're a fan, huh Paul?"

"Is it ... is it OK to admit that? I mean, do you look at all your fans and think of them as perverts or something?"

"Oh it's totally fine! Are you kidding? I love it! I mean come on, it's what I do, 'ya know? Of course there's always a certain number of fans who are crazies. But for the most part I'm totally flattered and honored that people enjoy what I do. And the money's not bad either."

"Phew. Well, this did take me by total surprise, obviously. Thanks for putting me at ease. But Callie, my biggest concern right now is Abbey. What can you tell me?"

"Don't freak out when you hear this, Paul. But she's with her mom."

"What? Abbey's with Angelina? How is that possible? I thought she must be in a hotel somewhere, or maybe that she had gone back to California ... although all of her stuff is here. How could she be with her mother?"

"She didn't explain too much to me. She just said that, after what happened with you, she thought her mother was the only one who understood who she really is, and she figured she should be with her for a while. I didn't really know what that meant. And I don't really know what happened between you that caused this to happen. I just know I was totally surprised too. I got the impression that Abbey's mom wanted nothing to do with her."

"She hasn't, for years. I don't know if Abb told you, but we ran into her Angelina and her twerp of a boyfriend Edward when we were out to dinner the other night."

"Yeah, she told me about that."

"Then she probably told you that her mother was an absolute witch to her face."

"She said something like that. And she also said you almost beat the crap out of the boyfriend."

"Well, I wasn't about to stand there and let that little shit say anything about my daughter. Not him OR Angelina."

"I see why Abbey feels so safe around you, and so loved by you, Paul."

"Thanks, Callie. I appreciate that. But nonetheless, I still can't believe she's with her mother."

"Do you know what she meant about her mother understanding who she is?"

"Unfortunately, I think I do. So, before I go any further, let me just make sure I'm clear ... Abbey told you what was happening ... between us ... and you have a basic picture of that ... and you don't want to string me up or anything."

​"Yes. We can talk about that more later, but I understand, and I'm cool. You should know that you and Abbey are hardly the first ones to go down the road, and you sure won't be the last. It happens, Paul."

"OK, thanks, Callie ... a lot. So anyway, what I think is that, somehow the stuff that Angelina said to Abbey sunk in yesterday. She said some pretty shitty things to her. And well..."

"Can you tell me what happened, Paul?"

"Sure, I'll try. Abbey and I were having a conversation, basically about ... well at first, what you guys do ... what you seem to call, 'the business.' I had told her the night before that that I had never really seen any of her pictures or videos ... at least, none with her naked, or doing anything. I've actually never seen her videos at all. But I told her that night, that if she wanted to show me some things, that I thought I'd be OK with it."

"That's a big deal, Paul ... in a good way. Believe me. Good for you. And what did she think about that?"

"She seemed to be completely thrilled. And the next morning ... yesterday morning ... she sat me down at my desk and took me to her website. I asked her to ease me into it, and she did."

"And were you OK with it?"

"It was challenging for me, I won't deny it. She's my daughter, 'ya know? But I've gotten so used to seeing her in the last month, not wearing very much and all..."

"Yeah, a lot of us who do what we do don't see the point in wearing too much at home."

"I figured. So anyway, I had become pretty comfortable with that. So, she showed me some things, and I was fine. Actually, I couldn't contain how much I thought she was incredibly beautiful."

"Did you tell her that?"

"Absolutely. I couldn't help it. I do think she's about the most gorgeous woman in the world."

"I think so too, Paul. So, then what happened?"

"Honestly, one thing sort of led to another. Like I said, she seemed to think it was wonderful that I thought she looked so great in her pictures. Then we started talking about ... the business. She told me about how some parents completely cut their kids off, how some tolerate it, how some people, usually mothers actually help with their daughters' careers."