Junior Year

As the fall semester of their junior year progressed into its second half, twenty-year-old Taylor Serrano and Mary Kate Morgan found themselves buried in textbooks, preparing for their mid-term exams. Both were business majors, but while Mary Kate threw herself into the field with enthusiasm, Taylor had been harboring doubts for some time.

She was uncertain about a future in corporate America. She was considering a switch to pre-med, a decision she hoped to discuss with her father during the upcoming Christmas break. Her parents were expecting a welcome new addition to their family. Her dad, Gordon, was elated. He’d always wanted more kids and was looking forward to another edition of fatherhood.

Solana Jacobs, the third member of their ride-or-die trio, had a significant influence on Taylor’s decision. Solana was already in pre-med, and her enthusiasm for her studies made them seem more appealing. Additionally, Taylor didn't fully buy into the allure of a career climbing a corporate ladder. Taylor valued her father’s advice and was determined not to make a final decision before talking with him.

Already near midnight, the two friends had been studying for nearly three hours. Taylor, exhausted, realized she could no longer focus. Solana was conspicuously absent, likely out on another date. Taylor mused to herself that the word ‘Slut’ may have been too harsh, but ‘Man-eater’ seemed to fit their curvy, dark-haired friend. Solana, or ‘Lonnie,’ preferred dating professors from their college and the neighboring school rather than fellow students. Despite her busy social life, Solana’s grades remained at the highest level.

Shutting her book with a definitive thud, Mary Kate announced she was done for the night. Taylor protested, eager to continue, but Mary Kate insisted she was too tired to go on.

The door opened and a cheerful, “’Sup, girlies!” came from Solana as she breezed into the room.

“Hey, Lonnie,” answered Taylor. “How ‘dem grades? You out there doing some extra credit, gettin’ it up a coupl’a points?”

Lonnie scoffed, “Girl, please! My grades are just fine! And I don’t need extra credit.”

“Apparently,” said Mary Kate, sounding somewhat dismissive. “I guess you just turn in a different kind of extra credit. Some of us actually have to study.”

Solana’s eyes narrowed as she asked, “Is that what you think is going on here? I’m out there sucking dick for a passing grade?”

Mary Kate just shrugged and replied, “Well, yeah. I mean, just look at the facts… you have a great GPA, you never spend a minute cramming or studying, and you only date professors. What does that sound like to you?”

Solana looked like she was offended, but then her face softened. “Okay, fair enough,” she said. “I could see how you guys would think that, especially since you two sticks in the mud think studying and ‘fun’ are the same thing.”

“It is!” protested Taylor.

“It’s not,” continued Solana without missing a beat. “So, you boring ass old maids, let me set my record straight.”

“Alright,” said Taylor, closing her books and sitting up. “Set us straight.”

“My GPA right now is a solid 4.0. My entire time here at Collins, I’ve never had less than a 4.0. I don’t study and cram because I don’t have to. My grades are not rocking because I’m fucking my teachers. My grades rock because I’m brilliant. Literally a genius. Like beyond Einstein-level genius. And as far as those professors are concerned, I’ve never been with a teacher whose class I’m taking or know I might have to take. That’s a quick way to get a man fired, and that’s just wrong. I’m just having fun. I’m not trying to buy any bad Karma here. And Karma is real. I actually know her personally.”

Mary Kate looked at Taylor, confused. Then, to Solana, “So you’re out there banging these old dudes because, what, you want to?”

Solana sighed expressively and looked at her friend like a teacher dealing with a particularly slow student. “MK, did you see Jackson this weekend?” she asked.

Mary Kate nodded. “On Friday.”

“Did you guys hook up?” she asked.

“That’s not—” she began in protest.

“It’s a simple yes or no,” Solana interrupted. “Did you guys sleep together? I’m not asking you for details. You’ve been dating for months. Surely, the answer is yes.”

Mary Kate huffed and answered, “Fine! Yes, we spent time together.”

“And how many times did he really make you cum?”

“What?! That’s… I mean, it was good. Really good!”

“So… none, right?” Solana confirmed.

“I mean,” Mary Kate sputtered.

“I’ll bet he got his though, right? Probably more than once,” she continued, in full teacher mode.

Mary Kate was speechless and was beginning to feel attacked. But before she could speak, Solana added, “You know how many times Garrett got me off tonight?”

“Garrett?” asked Taylor. Unlike Solana, she wasn’t on a first-name basis with any of the faculty.

“Dr. Fallon, remember? The Art Professor? Anyway, four.”

They both gasped in disbelief.

“That’s right. Four. Once on his tongue, twice riding him, and a nice li’l bonus cum on his fingers as we kissed good night. And as good as it was, his performance was pretty much par for the course. Most of them are like that!”

She let that sink in for a moment. Taylor and Mary Kate were both speechless.

“You see, these older guys are more experienced. They’re not in a hurry, either. They’re not worried that they’re not gonna get laid, and they’re not in a hurry to stick it in before I change my mind and up come the panties. They know what they’re doing from years of experience with sometimes lots of women. And after all that, they’re totally discreet. You two know I date teachers because you’re my best friends and I trust you. But have you heard about me from anywhere else?”

Both of them shrugged and shook their heads. Mary Kate said, “Actually, you’re like the best kept secret at Collins. In fact, the other day, I was with a couple of classmates, and we saw you talking to a professor you yourself told me about, and they didn’t bat an eye. They had no idea.”

“Exactly,” said Solana. “These men are not running around bragging about banging a hot 21-year-old coed. While student-teacher sex isn’t technically illegal if everyone is a consenting adult, it’s still frowned on. They could get fired. It happens, and they’re expected to keep it quiet. What’s not to love?”

Mary Kate took her words in, but then blew out a breath saying, “Say what you want… you got some serious Daddy Issues.”

Solana looked at her friends for a moment before replying, “So? So, what if I do?”

Taylor regarded her friend and asked softly, “Lonnie, what are you saying?”

Lonnie shrugged and said, “I’m not saying anything. You guys accused me of having ‘Daddy Issues,’ and I’m just not denying it.”

Taylor was now surprisingly intrigued. She asked point-blank, “Solana, did you want to have sex with… well, with your own father? Is that what you’re saying?”

She didn’t answer immediately. She simply sat there regarding her two best friends, clearly weighing on just how much she was willing to share. Both girls waited, holding their breath. Finally, she shook her head slowly.

“No, I didn’t sleep with my dad.”

Both friends breathed out.

Then, “But it wasn’t from a lack of trying.”

 ******

Spring Break, Senior year

They’d been sitting in the same spot in traffic for almost a half hour. The Spring Break traffic was maddening as usual, and the road to Daytona Beach was effectively a parking lot. Mary Kate was driving her bright yellow Mini Cooper Convertible. It was a gorgeous spring day and the top was down.  Taylor was in the passenger seat and Lonnie was in the back seat, alternating between scrolling mindlessly and dozing.

“This is stupid,” complained Mary Kate. “If we even get to the beach, it’ll be so crowded it won’t be any fun.”

“What else can we do?” asked Lonnie from the back seat. “It’s too nice a day to be inside anywhere. I don’t need to shop right now.”

“This sucks,” complained Mary Kate again.

“We’re already in our swimsuits, and the traffic is crazy both ways,” added Taylor. “We can’t really go back and change.”

“Like I said, this sucks.”

Taylor looked at her friends and took a deep breath, as if resigning herself to something. “Fine,” she said, sighing as if in defeat. “I have an idea.”

“No!” said Mary Kate. “We’re not gonna go back and study! Our grades are great, we all crush the material, it’s the last weekend of Spring Break! You’re gonna have a good time if we have to tie your ass up and make you relax!”

Taylor remained quiet for a moment. “Well?” asked Mary Kate. “What’s your big idea?”

“We can go to my house,” said Taylor.

“Your house? Up north?” asked Mary Kate.

Taylor shook her head. “No, my dad bought a house not far from here. It’s maybe fifteen minutes from here.”

Solana had been half-listening from the back, but now they had her undivided attention. “Wait, I thought your dad lived up in Jersey or something.”

“He did,” said Taylor. “Like I told you guys when we first met, that’s where I grew up. Last year, in our junior year, there was serious family drama. I don’t talk about it.”

“I understand,” Mary Kate began. “If you don’t want to—”

“No, screw that,” said Solana. “You wouldn’t drop something like that unless you wanted to talk about it. ‘Family drama?’ Not last Christmas but the year before?”

Taylor simply nodded.

Solana continued, “That’s a long time, Tay. Have you ever talked to anybody? Maybe a therapist?”

Taylor rolled her eyes, clearly reluctant about therapy. While drama played a role, deeper reasons held her back—ones she wasn’t ready to discuss. “No. Look,” she said. “My dad has a house nearby, there’s a pool, do you want to go or not?”

Mary Kate glanced in the mirror at Solana who nodded in agreement. “Which way do we go?”

“Get on the shoulder and take that exit.”

As they traveled to her father’s new house, Taylor decided it was time to talk to someone about the painful subject. “You know how private I am, right? I’m only telling you this because you’re my best friends, I trust you, and honestly, I feel like I do finally need to talk to someone about it.”

They both nodded, waiting for her to continue.

“My dad always wanted more kids, but it just never happened. But then that year, Mom found out she was pregnant. They were both so happy, I was out of the nest, everything looked great. But when she had the baby, the baby was blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and lily white.”

“Isn’t your dad white?” asked Mary Kate.

“No, my dad is black. But his best friend Edwin is blond-haired, blue-eyed, and white. Just like my mother and my half-brother. His son.” Both girls gasped.

“Omigod,” said Solana. “That’s horrible! His best friend?!”

“Yeah,” said Taylor. “Dad was devastated. I worried about him, but he swore he would be okay. I guess he was.”

“What about your mom?” asked Mary Kate.

Taylor shook her head. “I haven’t spoken to her in over a year. I mean, she single-handedly blew up our family. Dad’s finally getting past it, but I still haven’t forgiven her.”

“Wow, that’s awful,” said Solana. “So how did he end up buying a house here?”

“Clearly it wasn’t my dad’s kid, but there was a kid. So, in the divorce the judge ordered that Mom would get the house. But he also ordered her to pay Dad half the market value for it. She always made the most money, plus her family always had money, so she had to dig deep and pay him. He took that money and moved down here to be close to me. I still had a year left of school, and I’d mentioned to him I might want to stay in Florida after I graduate. So, he bought a place in Cocoa and had enough to buy it outright.”

“Damn, girl,” said Mary Kate. “When you said drama, you weren’t kidding.”

“I know, right?” agreed Solana. “But Cocoa’s not that’s not that far from campus. Why are you still in the dorms? Is it a crappy house?”

“No, it’s a really nice house, and it has a pool.”

“Is it your dad? Are we heading into some kinda awkward… you know…”

“No,” said Taylor. “Dad’s great. It’ll be fun, I promise.” She continued with the directions and just a few minutes later they pulled onto a cul-de-sac with only two houses, both backed up to lots of trees. Based on the size of the lots, there was room for two more homes, but they had never been developed. As a result, the two homes there both possessed large yards surrounded by woods.

“This looks nice,” said Mary Kate as the approached the house. “Who wouldn’t want to live here?”

Taylor simply shrugged and said, “I don’t know… Dad and I…” It wasn’t that she was searching for the right words… she just didn’t know how to explain their… whatever the hell it was they’d shared. Finally, she blew an exasperated sigh and said, “Just let it go and try to enjoy yourself.” Mary Kate and Lonnie looked at each other. Something more was up, but so far Taylor wasn’t saying.

Taylor tried the door, but it was locked. There was a combination keypad on the door, and she entered the code (her birthday) and they went inside.

“Dad! It’s me, Taylor. I’m here with some friends. Are you home?” The house was silent, and the only motion was a large ceiling fan lazily revolving. “He’s not home.”

“You sure?” asked Solana.

“No music playing. He always has music on. Come on,” said Taylor. “The pool’s this way.”

She led them out of the main room through the kitchen and living room. There was a large flat screen on a modern-looking stand along with only a couple of tasteful decorative pieces. The only furniture was a leather sofa and a chair with a matching ottoman. The house was painstakingly neat, to the point that it barely looked lived-in. Outside the family room was a large in-ground pool with a square hot tub tucked away in the corner of the pool. Solana and Mary Kate rushed to the pool, shedding shorts and tops along the way.

“Dang, girl! This is nice,” exclaimed Solana, diving into the clear water. “And it’s heated!” she yelled as she resurfaced. “Why are you not living here? I’d love to live like this!”

“Yeah,” added Mary Kate as she walked into the shallow end towards deeper water. “I thought you were all worried about him, and he moved here to be close, and you abandoned him.”

“I didn’t abandon anybody. We talk all the time, and I see him… enough. I’m just not ready to… I just don’t wanna live here now, okay?”

“What the hell?! Is he some kinda weirdo?” laughed Mary Kate.

Taylor didn’t answer, instead just began to take a lazy lap across the pool. They splashed and played in the water for a while until Lonnie suggested the warmer water of the spa.

Taylor started the bubbles as her friends sank into the soothing froth.

“This is so much better than the beach,” sighed Solana, stretching out her arms and relaxing into the tub. “Amazing pool and hot tub all to ourselves, surrounded by my girls, and no idiot mouth-breathing boys hitting on us all day. It just couldn't get better!”

They were relaxing to the point of dozing off when they heard, “So three beautiful women break into your house and use the pool. Do you call the cops, or do you let it slide?”

Six eyes focused on the tall, brown-skinned man standing at the edge of the pool. He wasn’t overly huge, just well-toned from head to toe. The soft grey sweatpants he wore hinted at some impressive buried treasure beneath. Mary Kate and Solana did not fail to notice.

“Daddy!” shouted Taylor as she jumped up and climbed out of the spa. She ran straight to him, jumping up into his arms and plastering her wet body against him, drenching his shirt and pants. She squeezed him tightly as if she were afraid he’d leave her again.

“Hey, Pumpkin,” he answered, hugging her just as tightly. “This is great. I didn’t expect to see you.” As he let her down, he said softly, so only she could hear, “I thought you were mad at me.”

“Mad at you? Why would you think that?” she answered.

“You know, that one night right after I moved in here. I mean, you’ve been pretty scarce ever since. I figured you hated me.”

She looked into his eyes. She held his gaze meaningfully and finally said, “Yeah, I remember that night. But no, I’m not upset with you. And I certainly don’t hate you!” She brought her lips close to his ear and whispered, “Quite the opposite, actually.”

Gordon looked at her, surprised. “But I... I thought…”

“Shhh,” she soothed. “I know. Let’s talk later.” Louder, she said, “Anyway, these are my girls, Mary Kate and Solana. Guys, this is my dad, Gordon Serrano.”

“Mary Kate, Solana,” he said. Something about the way he said ‘Solana’ made her feel surprisingly tingly. She wasn’t sure what it was.

Both girls smiled and waved. “Hi, Mr. Serrano,” said Solana. “Most people call me Lonnie, but you can call me Solana.”

“You’d prefer Solana?” he asked.

There it was again! What was it about the way he said her name?! “From you? Ummm… yes,” she practically purred. Taylor, who had been relaxing with her eyes closed now glared at her friend. No one noticed the look she shot at her friend. Mary Kate was looking at Gordon, Solana had her eyes closed as she thought very naughty thoughts about her friend’s sexy father, and Gordon was momentarily transfixed by Solana.

Gordon had not been the only one surprised by Taylor’s reaction to seeing him. Mary Kate was also completely stunned by Taylor’s show of unabashed affection. On the ride over, she seemed noncommittal, as if her relationship with her dad was more of a ‘take it or leave it’ proposition. In fact, Taylor seemed so unenthused by seeing the man that Mary Kate thought she might even be hiding a history of some...