Change of Perspective

Original chapter by Reyhani.

Broom accurst and mean,
Who will have his will,
Stick that you have been,
Once again stand still!

• From: The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Sina shows up at my study door.

“Hey, Dad, I'm going shopping with Dirk. He's paying. As compensation for letting him use my room. Nice, isn't it?!”

I look up from the screen and can't help but snort contemptuously. I've already heard that my ‘best friend’ is now playing the sugar daddy. With company money. Luckily, I don't have to process his expense reports.

Is Sina here to get my permission—her real daddy's permission? Nah, she's an adult and can go shopping with whomever she wants. Still, she looks uncertain. If I don't want to spoil her fun, I'll have to encourage her, for better or worse.

“He's always been like that. Money means nothing to him. Have fun, see you tonight.”

She's still standing there with a thoughtful look on her face, as if she wants to say something else. I can't exactly pull her onto my lap and assure her that she can talk to me about anything. So I have to wait patiently. Some things get more complicated as the kids get older.

“Hey, Dad, Dirk is your best friend... and I think it's totally okay that he slept in my room. But what does Mom say about him staying so long?” She grins apologetically. “I just got a vibe, I don't know.”

Now I really want to hug my girl. Mainly to comfort myself. Vibes! The whole house is full of them. I feel them all the time, especially at night. It's embarrassing when I think about how I react to these vibes between Dirk and Jessica. That's not me, I keep telling myself. But it doesn't help.

I should never have gotten involved in this. Scientifically speaking, it was an exciting approach and I could have worked with Lily. Officially, without any secrecy. Despite all the advantages, I should never have dragged my family into it. The only excuse I have for myself is that Lily emotionally blackmailed me. If it's even possible to **** someone who is addicted to you.

Now I have to pay for it, every night with my dick in my hand. I have to stop the whole experiment, finally let Lily in on the weird side effects of the prototype. She probably doesn't even care that I jerk off to my wife every night. But I don't wanna do that!

I thought I had buried my marriage long ago. But now it's coming back—as a horny zombie. Everyone helped dig her up, Lily, Dirk, and of course me. I should have made a clean break long ago, even though Lily would probably have rejected me anyway. I owed Jessica that much honesty. Instead, I'm trying to impress Lily by going along with this madness.

Did Sina notice something after all? She just got here and we were all so careful. She has to leave as quickly as possible before this stuff causes even more damage. I have to... first and foremost, I have to give her an answer, otherwise she'll really start to suspect something.

“Honey, don't worry about Mom. She's been under a lot of stress lately. Maybe I really did expect too much of her with Dirk's visit. But it'll all work out, I promise.”

Sina still looks thoughtful. But before she can reply, Dirk appears behind her. Always dynamic, always on the go. That show-off. He winks at me and pulls Sina along with him. Tonight I'll have to explain to him again that she's not part of the experiment. She's not really here. Private, restricted area, out of bounds.

I sigh. He won't accept it from me anyway. It has to come from the very top. I have to write to Lily and ask her to intervene and straighten things out, or better yet, to stop the experiment entirely. We should have collected enough samples by now to revise the prototype.