Page 56 of Obedience

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Instead of going home, Greta stopped at her parents’ house, not far from Dylan’s. She needed her family. Everything had been so strange, her world felt flipped. She needed the grounding words and reassuring love of her mum and dad.

‘Why do you look so dreadful?!’ Greta’s mum said, pulling her in for a hug.

‘Nice to see you too, Mum,’ Greta replied, catching the gaze of her dad who theatrically rolled his eyes.

Elaine held Greta out by the shoulders as though she were a map, her all-knowing eyes tracing every inch of her face.

‘Can I hug my daughter, please? Or are you going to burn her alive with your glare, Elaine?’ Edward said from behind them.

Elaine tutted, placing another kiss on Greta’s cheek.

‘Hi, Dad,’ Greta said warmly.

He scooped her into a hug that she completely melted into. ‘How’s my girl?’ Edward whispered in her ear. ‘Better?’ he continued, refusing to let her out of the embrace.

‘Getting there, I think,’ Greta replied. Her voice sounded strange as her dad’s tall shoulder pushed up against her chin.

Edward reluctantly let her go. ‘I’ll just get some wood for the burner,’ he said.

A smile tugged at the corners of Greta’s lips as Edward shot Elaine a look that told her to take it easy. He left the room as Greta busied herself making a pot of coffee.

Elaine took a steadying breath. Greta heard, her molars pushed together as she reflexively braced herself. ‘How are things with… Well, with that woman you were seeing?’

‘We weren’t seeing one another.’ She huffed out some air. ‘I wasn’t seeing her, Mum.’

‘Oh. Well, are you at least having some nice sex?’

‘Mum!’ Greta exclaimed, whipping her entire body around.

‘What?! Greta, it’s about bloody time. Would you not agree?!’

Greta did in fact agree, but this was not a conversation she was prepared to have with her mother. ‘I can’t believe you just asked me that.’

‘What? Five years is a long time to go without having those needs fulfilled. Your libido will crash soon, darling, with you being perimenopausal.’

‘I’m still very much menstrual, thank you, Mother.’

Edward appeared in the doorway, a basket of wood in his hands, spinning on his heels back into the garden at the words very much menstrual, as though he’d forgotten something incredibly important in the wood store.

‘Well, you’re lucky, but it won’t be long.’

‘Anyway, my needs really shouldn’t concern you, Mother.’

‘But they do, Greta,’ Elaine replied sarcastically. ‘I don’t want to know the bloody nitty-gritty, I just…what on earth is your father doing?’

They both turned to see Edward through the window, hovering in the garden, clutching his basket of wood as though it were a life raft.

Greta gave a throaty chuckle. ‘Come in, Dad.’

He tentatively walked back into the kitchen, his cautious steps giving him the appearance of someone dodging hidden land mines in the floor.

‘I was just telling Greta that we worry about her sexual needs.’

‘Mum!’

‘Lainey!’