That Familiar Aroma

Sarah flopped down on the couch and started scrolling on her phone. She knew she should be doing her homework, or some after workout stretches but she was in a bad mood tonight and wasn’t about to do anything productive. All the girls in her volleyball team had spent practice gossiping about their boyfriends or the boys that they were into while Sarah just had to smile and listen. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t interested in those types of things, but she could do without the snide remarks they made about her being the only one without a boyfriend or even having a crush yet. She’d watched porn and masturbated, but with the way the other girls talked about guys and sex, she couldn’t understand the hype. Whatever itch it scratched for them just didn’t exist the same way for her.

A thud and click came from the front door as her dad finally arrived home.

“Hey daddy,” she called out barely lifting her head from the couch.

“Hey Sare-Bear,” he called back with his cutesy nickname for her. “Just going to grab my dinner and I’ll be right with you.”

She heard her dad rummage around the kitchen, cutlery clanked together, and the microwave hummed for a minute or so before he collapsed onto the couch with the bowl of leftover lasagne steaming in his hands. Like muscle memory, he quickly switched on the TV and started wolfing down the food like a starving man. Only after demolishing half the bowl of pasta, barely paying attention to the random game show playing softly in the background did he turn to his daughter and notice the look on her face.

“Something wrong, hun?”

“Nothing really, dad,” She replied with a sigh.

Her dad had already taken another bite as she spoke, swallowing before continuing.

“Nothing, huh?” Though he didn’t sound convinced.

“I know a bit about nothing. Want to talk about it?” He asked tentatively.

Sarah didn’t want her dad to know about how sexless her life was compared to her friends. But she also didn’t want him to worry about her given how much he was already doing on his own.

“Just my friends. They were talking today during practice and were poking fun at me cause I’m not as into this random thing as they are.”

Her dad nodded to himself. He was pretty sure he knew what she was talking about. A bunch of 18-19 girls all doing a tonne of physical activity was going to lead to some high libidos. Add that to the fact he was pretty sure his daughter had yet to have a boyfriend and the sullen look on his girl’s face was making a lot of sense.

“Sorry to hear that, Sare-Bear,” he started as he put down the empty bowl he’d finished in about the same time it took to heat up.

“Kids, er- or I guess adults your age will poke about and tease the things your sensitive about. Doesn’t mean they don’t like you or they think you should change. If they’re actually your friends, you’d be surprised how being open and honest with them about your feelings will get you.”

Sarah’s phone clicked as she locked the screen and dropped it on the coffee table. “Yeah, and what if they aren’t really your friends?”

Her dad gave her a wicked smile back, “Then who cares what they think, screw ‘em!”

Despite her bad mood, that comment got her to exhale hard through her nose, almost a chuckle.

“Yeah, screw ‘em,” she agreed.

Her dad laughed, “That’s right, screw ‘em! But I think your friends from volleyball, at least the ones I met, do care about you. Just, sometimes people you care about can do cruel things to you without meaning to.”

Their smiles slowly faded away. It was clear her dad was talking about mom, who a year ago had decided to drop all social ties and go travelling around the world, leaving all this info in a letter that they only found and read a few days after she left. Neither of them had any idea how long she’d been planning it, why she would do it to them, or if she was even coming back.

With all that said without a word between them, Sarah slithered across the couch and cuddled up against him, happy at least she still had her dad. He was already working a tonne with his engineering job, but with mom gone, he now had to step up, organising meals, shopping, cleaning, and all the other little chores that he and mom were previously splitting.

Sarah wrapped her arms around his bicep, thick with muscle from lifting and working in his day-to-day job. She laced her fingers through the curly hairs on his arm, locking herself into her favourite position. Her face rested on the sleeve of his white work polo, the textured fabric rubbing against her cheek. She glanced up to her dad’s face, the light of the TV playing across his stubbled face and exhausted expression. He was barely paying attention, mostly zoning out after his long day. She nuzzled closer to him and breathed deeply. Besides being close to her dad, another reason Sarah loved these nightly cuddles was being able to smell her dad. Even after a long day of work, he never seemed to smell bad, and in fact it mostly enhanced his musk. It was hard to describe, but it was mostly smoky, with some savoury notes as well, something like a campfire meal she always thought. It was hearty and comforting to her and always made her feel better no matter what sort of day she had.

David’s head jerked up. That was bad, he almost fell asleep in front of the TV. He looked down and saw Sarah fast asleep wrapped around his arm, a bit drool dribbling down from her mouth and onto his shirt.

“Hey Sare-Bear,” he nudged her with his free hand. “Time for us to hit the hay.”

She moaned a bit in retaliation, but after a bit more prodding, she got to her feet and wobbled up the stairs to her room. Flicking the TV off and washing his bowl, David followed shortly after.

Sarah rolled about in her bed, unable to get to sleep. She’d woken up an hour after midnight. A nightmare where her friends niggling words tormented her in sleep as well. Sick of staring at the dark ceiling, she got up and tip-toed out of her room. Down the hall her dad’s door stood open, not bothering to close it as he always got up first in the mornings.

“Dad?” She quietly called as she peered around the door.

She knew she needn’t bother as her dad would be sleeping like a log. He had sleep apnea and used a CPAP machine to help him sleep and would also swallow a couple of tablets to help him get a good night’s rest. The whir of the machine sounded like a quiet vacuum, while her dad lay on his back like a hospital patient with the tube rigged up to his nose. She’d gotten a fright when she’d seen it the first time, but she’d gotten used to it by now.

As quietly as she could she made her way up to the bedside and slowly sat on the bed as it took her weight. Once she was sure her dad was still deep in his sleep, she wriggled under the sheet until she was next him. As usual he was arranged like a star fish with his arms and legs out to either side. To accommodate him she curled into a ball and put herself right by his side with his arm under her head like a pillow. Like most dads she’d heard about hers slept naked, but although all the other girls who mentioned this seemed grossed out, she didn’t mind. To be fair a lot of the of the other girl’s dads weren’t as handsome as hers, or in as good shape. A few years ago, she had to put up with a few friends who couldn’t stop gushing about her dad when they came over and saw him for the first time. Although she saw all the good features about him, to her he was always just her dad. How could she think about him that way?

She’d snuck into her parent’s bed a few times over the years, something she hadn’t grown out of since her childhood. But to her credit it always got her a good night’s sleep after a bad dream. After she hit puberty, she’d been told she had to go back to her own bed, but after giving her dad a sulking pout she was always allowed to stay until she calmed down.

Sarah’s hand rested on her dad’s stomach, firm with muscle but covered with a bit of body fat he couldn’t help with given his busy days. She slid her hand up and down, enjoying the feeling of his hair rubbing against her skin. Wriggling her face even closer she brought her head right up to his armpit, her nose a few inches away from the hair and sniffed. It was a bit tarter than his usual body odour from the sweat, but it was also a lot stronger which was what she really enjoyed. She dared to move her face even closer, until she was almost touching it and breathed deeply. Sarah was well on her way to forgetting that nasty dream as she inhaled her father’s scent, but on her next breath his hairs trembled and tickled her nose, causing her to pull back a bit. She didn’t want to risk sneezing and waking up her dad. He needed the sleep.

Sarah stayed in that same position for a while, curled in ball right by his side, playing with his body hair and breathing in his scent. As she was thinking about making her retreat her hand strayed a bit too far down his belly and hit something scratchy. Though about to fall asleep, this curious sensation brought her out of it. She had pulled her hand back as soon as she felt it, but she once again brough her hand out to her dad’s stomach, fingers on her outstretched hand trailing down his flat stomach and just above his pelvis. With her pinkie finger she pressed down and felt that same patch of scratchy hair. Her sleepy mind finally registered what it was. It was his pubes.

The thought popped into her mind that she should probably pull away and that sneaking into her dad’s bed and smelling him was already a bit off. But her mind was already beginning to ask some more questions.

Did it look like mine?

How much hair does he have?

What does it look like?

What does it feel like to rub my fingers through it?

What does it smell like?

That previous single thought of her own indecency was wiped out by the tidal wave of her curiosity. About the only thing that she was still aware of was her father’s steady breathing and making sure not to wake him. Taking care not to cause too much disturbance on the mattress, she gently shifted further down the bed. Her dad was still unfolded like starfish, so her legs had to slide out alongside them as she brought her face down to the level of his pelvis.

She enjoyed even this feeling as her dad’s leg hair rubbed against her shaved legs. She wore only a night shirt and a pair of panties, so she got to experience the warmth and feeling all the way up to her thighs. She raised one of her legs up and over his own without even thinking, hoping to wrap around his big tree trunk like leg. Doing it as carefully as possible so as not to wake him, she tilted on her side and got her right leg over his being careful not to put too much weight on him. Sarah wriggled in delight at the feeling, a big hot and hairy leg that tickled her every time she moved, from the tips of her toes to the inside of her thighs.

Once she’d finally found a good spot, she remembered what she was trying to do. Slowly and steadily, she brought her hand up and over his chest, the light sheet rippling above her the only thing keeping them from the warm autumn night. Again, she brought it down past the end of the hair on his belly and only stopped once she felt that rough patch of hair just above his groin. With only the moon filtering through the sheet above she could barely make it out as she peered over her dad’s waist. Short and curly, much curlier than his armpit hair, pitch-black, though most of his hair was with only a bit of grey poking through.

As carefully as she could and listening to her dads breathing above, she moved her hand through the patch of pubic hair, the thick hair rustling under her touch. She moved her hand back and forth enjoying the sound and feeling of it under her hand. Once she had given it a thorough tousling, she brought her hand back to her face and inhaled. It was like a lightning bolt shot through her from her head to her feet. The smell was much stronger than she was expecting, the same smoky familiarity to it, but like his underarm hair it had its own particular scent to it, and it was better than all the rest. Sarah trembled as she smelled it, her legs locking together around her dad’s, and though she panicked thinking it might wake him, she couldn’t help it.

Once the electricity coursing through her body had run its course, she waited a moment, just making sure her dad was still asleep. His breathing was still steady, loud yet muffled by the machine around his face. She was safe. Although she knew she should head back to bed after pushing her luck, she couldn’t get over her new discovery. She had to go back for another smell. A bit less careful now with her excitement, her hand quickly ventured back to her father’s patch of pubes, fingers running through it as if it where her own hair. Sarah propped herself on her elbow, and moved her head closer, chin rubbing gently against her dad’s thigh as she dared to take a direct whiff.

With her head now closer she realised what she had inadvertently been getting dangerously closer to. Right beneath his pubic hair her father’s penis lay across his thigh, the business end pointing right in her direction.