It was difficult for Steve to work out in his mind why he felt such a strength of feeling about Aleksandra. He searched his brain to figure it out. He felt sure that it was something about her story, and her willingness in that initial exchange of messages to reveal her first tattoo. He recognised in himself a need to show love and affection, and in Aleksandra he felt there was a young girl who needed him.
As much as she needed someone to care for her, Steve felt the need to care. He had been married and had a daughter, but his marriage had ended. It was not a bad split with his wife, but bringing up their daughter, Emma, had put an enormous strain on their relationship.
As a baby, toddler and little girl, Emma had been a daddy's girl. From the very beginning his wife resented the closeness she saw between them. Every time she went to pick Emma up for a cuddle she would scream until she was back in the arms of her daddy.
Steve had developed a bond with Emma that he felt was rooted deep into the earth below him. It was something he couldn't describe in words, but could only be felt. Every time he held Emma in his arms he would feel it - the closeness, the invisible thread of love connecting them. When she threw her arms around his neck and nearly strangled him he felt the luckiest man alive. He imagined himself into the future, driving her to university, waving her off at the airport terminal on her first holiday alone, giving her away on her wedding day. His whole future had Emma at the centre.
But Emma turned 13 and began to shut herself up in her room. She distanced herself from her mum and dad. She had once shared every thought with them, but now she held secrets. Steve would go into her room, put her arm around her shoulder and tell her he loved her, but she would pull away aggravated and annoyed.
Steve's heart felt heavy, and the distance between him and Emma grew as she grew older. At 16 she barely said a word to him. The sparkle of love he saw in her eyes when she threw her arms around his neck as a toddler had gone.
He consoled himself thinking it was just a phase she was going through, that she would grow out of it, that one day she would emerge from the fog of adolescence and the bond would form again.
It didn't.
She didn't emerge from the fog.
The fog became thicker.
Steve's heart grew heavier.
His daughter was lost.
YOU ARE READING
Daddy Issues
Storie brevi18 year old Aleksandra meets 50 year old Steve on Tinder. She has daddy issues, stemming from a traumatic past, and uses tattoes and piercings to deal with this. He has love and affection to give his babygirl, and begins to fetishise her tattooed an...
