Clara heard the flat's front door open and she saw Chris wearily come in. "You look as though you've had a bad day, and it's only just Monday."
He said nothing but heavily sat down next to her on the sofa.
"Dad?" She inched up to him, placing a hand on his back. "You feeling ok?"
He found himself drift in and out of his perceptions, as if what had gone on between him and Karen was still on his mind. He couldn't understand how she could've behaved in such a way towards him – her lips on his, her tongue forcefully demanding access to his deeper, sweeter depths.
For some reason it made him feel slightly ill.
"You look so tired," Clara noted, her eyes immediately fixing themselves onto the very faint dark circles under his eyes, "you should go to bed and have an early night."
"Clara…" He weakly protested, knowing full well that she was right.
"You've done ever so well in looking after me." She caressed him down his back. "The least you could do is look after yourself."
Chris tiredly looked to her. "But you haven't eaten." He stated in a sleepy voice. "I don't want you to go without."
She wrapped her arms around him. "Please tell me what's made you so tired."
He shrugged. "Just working so hard. My job doestake it out of me sometimes."
"When you've had a whole weekend to recover?" She quipped, pulling him closer against her. "I think you're telling me porkies."
He drew in a small sigh. "You wouldn't understand."
"Come on, how old am I? I can take it, you should know that."
He cast his gaze down to the floor. Boy, did he feel bad. He felt dirty, ashamed, helpless…everything anyone could've felt after being treated in such a way.
"It's woman trouble, isn't it?"
He peered at her incredulously. "How did you know?"
Clara smiled softly. "I just know." She kept the rubbing going. "So who is the lucky lady?"
Chris smirked to himself wryly. The only way he could've considered Karen as being luckywas when she took advantage of him – touching areas that were forbidden between friends. "Clara, I don't wanna talk about this."
"Someone you don't like, isn't it?"
"No," he shook his head faintly, "no, not at all, I dolike her…but just not in that sort of way."
"It's not your mate that you've been going to see, is it?"
He couldn't help but find it unfortunate that she'd managed to twig who it was. The main thing to have come out of it however was that she didn't know her relationship to him. He closed his eyes and nodded.
"I thought it was a bit strange how you've got a female mate but nothing ever came out of it."
"I just wanted to help her, that was all." He explained. "But what she did to me back then tonight was just…"
Her eyes softened at the sound of his statement ending into a sob. She rubbed him down his back soothingly.
"I wish I never helped her in the first place."
She frowned in concern. "She did something to you?"
"Sh-she tried to kiss me."
Clara took hold of his hand, caressing the inside of his wrist with her thumb.
"And I feel so bad about it." Chris couldn't even stop the tears from springing from his eyes.
"I'm sure that when you think about it, it isn't so bad." She tried to reassure him. "Give it a few days and let the dust settle. You'll know when you feel ready."
He felt absolutely helpless and he didn't know why. It was almost as though he'd lost all feeling emotionally. "I can't exactly give it a few days either."
"Well why not?" She sat closer to him, trying to keep him as close to her as she could. He was breaking right in front of her – the one person who had taken her in and promised that he would look after her. It was unusual to see.
"I-I work with her."
She nodded slowly. Sure, that was going to be a problem, but how hard could it be to avoid a mate he worked with for a day or two?
"A-and all this time she'd been feeling that way towards me." He found her stroking soothing, almost to the point of sending him to sleep. "I didn't ask for it, so why do it?"
She took on a more sombre expression. "So she's fancied you for some time, I take it?"
"I just…don't know what I can do to avoid her. She knows that I can't do that, I work so closely with her day in and day out." He let off a small shiver. "She can do anything to me, at any time. That's the scary thing about it all."
"Tell you what," Clara started, "why don't you have a lie down and I'll get you something?"
He looked to her tiredly. "Like what?" He didn't feel like anything particularly rich or heavy, as that'd probably keep him awake all night. He knew he had to eat; it was the only way he could keep going.
She smiled softly. "Something that'll make you feel better."
Chris felt tired and exhausted, and he was sure it was due to the shock that was wearing him down so much. He started to feel hot, and so had stripped down to his boxers before sliding into bed. Not only that, but the realisation of wearing the clothes when she'd done all that to him made him feel unclean.
She came in with a small bowl a few minutes later. "Most of what you had was quite heavy, so I quickly went out and got you some soup."
He let his eyelids drop in mild displeasure. Soup was something that was good at making a cold feel more bearable, and he knew full well that he had no cold.
Clara noticed his action. "Now don't be like that." She teasingly chided. "You'll soon feel better once you have something inside you, you'll see."
"You sound like my mum."
She smirked at his comment. "Well, I'm obviously doing a very good job at it, aren't I?"
He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, slightly surprised at it already starting to gather at the corners of them and make them feel heavy.
"Now this," she pointed out, "is very good for you."
He felt like an invalid – how he could feel so awful was beyond him. He was just trying to change a light bulb. Karen must've been eyeing him up then while he was doing that.
He was confused as to why he wasn't aware of it – even sensing her gaze wandering down his body from behind. She had those thoughts within her at that time – dark, dirty, sexual thoughts. It made him break into a small chill.
"You wanna maybe talk to someone?" Clara's voice drifted back within earshot.
He wasn't even aware of zoning out like that. Talking to someone wasn't a bad idea, but who could he have turned to? A shrink would've just wanted him to talk about his feelings, which wouldn't really help. And what Karen had done wasn't abuse, but it was certainly uncalled-for.
"I think I should leave it for now." He said after some time.
She placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's not easy to admit to being made to do something you don't want to." She sounded very mature for her age, and he didn't even know where it was coming from. Maybe living with an abusive mother and her partner had toughened her up – although that sort of living would've made anyone toughen up the wrong way. Not so with her. "You don't deserve to be treated like that, so why are you letting her?"
"'Cause she's my boss." Chris retorted, prompting her to almost jump off the bed in shock.
She said nothing for some time, as he emptied the whole bowl and slid it onto the nightstand, which was within reach. She watched him nestle more comfortably in amongst the blankets, and she felt so guilty for making him talk when he clearly didn't want to.
"I'm sorry." She apologised eventually. "Dad, I am so sorry. I didn't realise how difficult this all is."
He shook his head faintly. "You weren't to know, it's fine." He cast his gaze to the blankets, deciding to focus on them than Clara's concerned expression. "But now you know how difficult it's going to be tomorrow…and the day after that, and so on. She will make things worse. Or they could carry on with the same intensity."
She squeezed him reassuringly at his shoulder.
"I used to like my job, Clara," he continued, "but since she did those things to me, I've hated it."
"You can't dislike your job just 'cause of her." She stated, making him gaze up into her blue eyes, which had hardened again. "I can always come to work with you and make sure she won't touch you."
He shook his head. "That won't work."
She frowned at his answer.
"What if she found out you were staying with me?" He peered up at her. "She would take that the wrong way, I know she would."
"You can't think that." She inched closer to him on the bed. "You're worrying yourself stupid and it's not going to make you feel any better."
"She's the head teacher." He shivered slightly. "And what is she going to make of the fact that I've got a young girl staying at my flat? She's going to think you and I are…you know…at it."
She smiled softly. Well, she wouldn't have said no, but Chris was her parent and there were probably plenty of women who would've gone for him. So he was a teacher…it all gelled into place for her.
Not a bad job for a very attractive person, she thought to herself. "Not if you tell her the real reason I'm staying with you."
"She won't believe me." He noted. "If I've refused to reciprocate any feelings towards her, is she likely to treat me the same way? I doubt very much that she will."
"Then smuggle me into your work."
"No." He sank further down into the blankets, already feeling the building warmth in his stomach start to send him to sleep. "I just can't allow that. I've worked so hard in getting you to stay and to make our relationship work. For someone to know us would wreck it all for us."
Clara couldn't understand why he was insistent on keeping their relationship pretty much under wraps. Did he work part-time as some sort of spy? Or maybe he was one of those who liked to keep themselves to themselves.
"Don't you see?" He leant up on his arm, reaching out and cupping her face softly. "I don't want anyone to know about us."
She wrapped her hand around his slender wrist, caressing the sleek contour of the joint.
"You're my little girl." He added, his bright blue eyes glowing softly in the dim light. "And it's better to keep work life and home life separate."
She nodded slowly. She knew that he was right about it. "You should get some sleep."
"But you haven't eaten anything." He noted.
She shrugged, smiling a little. "I'll be ok, I'll make it through the night. It's too late for me to eat and I'm not exactly empty. I'm just happy that you were able to eat. You needed it more than me."
It was his turn to smile. "I'm glad I've got you for a daughter." He wrapped his free arm around her, pulling her into a hug and planting a sugar-soft kiss on her forehead.
She kissed him back, wrapping an arm around his waist and working her fingers into his spine in a relaxing sort of way. "I love you."
"Love you too."