What I'm leading up to is, that Thursday night, Richie was being a brat again and wasn't going to go to bed unless we all went with him. Never before ...n my life had I shared a bed with my father, and yet I don't know why we were so apprehensive about it. Once Richie was curled up between my mom and dad like he was every night, he whined and whimpered until I did the same. Only then was he happy enough that he relaxed, and was out like a light when he finally closed his eyes.I admit I found it. A few late guests arrived. One of them was a tall guy in worn jeans anda tank top. He had jet black hair and a buzzed, sandpapery beard. Icouldn't resist stealing looks at him. And everyone could see what I wasdoing. I rubbed my palms on my hips and inched them toward my crotch.The guy got the signal but didn't respond. I moved closer to him.He was sizing me up when Alex came over and lightly touched my wrist,then said, "May I get you a refill, Mink?"I accepted, still speaking in that. She sat very unlike a lady with her plump legs extended in front of her. She wore red patterned stockings and a red above the knee dress, the type usually worn for a party. Her shoes were red-soled Christian Louboutin 5” heels, the open-toed strappy kind typically referred to as CFMH, ‘Come Fuck Me Heels.’She dabbed at her red, puffy eyes with a tattered Kleenex. She appeared to be in her late forties. It was hard to say with White women. The gold band on her third finger left hand said she was. Not at all.” I replied. I didn’t know why she would do something like this. “I don’t care whether you have something to do with this or not…” he started.“If you don’t care whether I had a role in this, then why did you bother asking?” I interrupted. I proceeded to leave, until he grabbed the back of my shirt, and dragged me to a different room. “Look. I’m gonna tell you this once, so listen.” He then pinned me to the wall. “There’s gonna be some big consequences if my daughter isn’t back here.