Page 2 of The Regrettable Mistake

He nodded. “I have a four-year-old. His mother left when he was six-months.”

“Four is an amazing age. They’re so vibrant. At least, they are when they’re not picking up every germ known to man.” I smiled at him, suddenly far more forgiving than I had been before.

“I take it you like kids then. Do you have any?”

“No children for me yet, except the ones I work with.”

“You work with children?” Ollie’s interest picked up and for the first time, the conversation seemed to have a little bit of life instead of seeming like someone was reading a boring resume out loud.

“I have been interning in a preschool setting for the past semester. Before that, I worked with infants and toddlers in an after-hours daycare for parents who work evenings and nights. My degree, that I graduate with in less than a month, is in early childhood education.”

“Oh, I see. It’s one thing to work with other people’s children, but how do you feel about dating a single father?” He seemed almost nervous about my answer.

“Once we leave the high school days behind, everyone has some sort of past they bring into a relationship. Sometimes, that involves children. It wouldn’t bother me so long as you have a healthy coparenting relationship with your son’s mother and nothing else.”

It was my way of cautioning Ollie that I wouldn’t step into his sphere if there was still unfinished business between the two of them.

“Well, that would be hard to do since Julia left when Den was six months old to go try to make it in Hollywood. She’s never been back. So, I don’t even have a coparenting relationship with my son’s mother, or any kind of relationship at all.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, for your son’s sake. I can’t imagine ever willingly leaving my own child for something so…” I swallowed my words because even if he was angry with the woman for the choices she’d made, it wasn’t my place to label her actions for him.

“Selfish?” He asked.

I shrugged my shoulders sheepishly. “Sorry, I work with little ones every day whose parents would rather be home with them than having to work multiple jobs to survive.”

“It’s okay, trust me when I say, I get it. Over the past three and a half years since she took off, I have vacillated between angry, contemptuous, and thankful that at least she did it before he was old enough to really know and bond with her.”

“I’m sorry she did that to both of you.” He nodded his head and tucked into his food for a minute. “What do you hope to do with your degree?”

“I want to work in the school system, most likely with preschool or kindergarten-aged children.”

“Why that age?”

“I don’t know, they’re just so full of hope and it is the time in their life where they’re little explorers, ready to get into everything just for the experience. It’s something that gets stifled a bit with each year older we get and they’re at the prime age where most things are still new, but they’re old enough to form those core memories from everything they learn. It’s almost magical when you think about it.”

Ollie offered me the first full, real smile of our date at that point. “I love how you describe what I’ve failed to put into words more often than I can count. Everyone always wants to look to the future where their kids are concerned, but I wish I could freeze time for Denmark right where he is, at least for a little longer.”

“My mom always used to tell us that every time she turned around or blinked time had moved on and my brother and I were already older again.”

“Are you and your brother close?”

“As two people who shared a womb can be, I suppose.”

“You’re a twin?” He seemed shocked by that news.

“Yes, fraternal obviously, since we’re different genders.”

“Doesn’t that run in the family?”

“It can. Don’t worry, we haven’t even agreed to a second date yet. There’s no need to worry about twin toddler terrors in the future.” His laughter in response to me teasing him lit my heart on fire. It made him seem far more carefree and approachable than the Ollie I started my date with.

My phone rang and I glanced down to see it was my brother. “Speak of the devil,” I stated.

“You can get that, if you need to.”

I shook my head and shot a quick text to my brother telling him the crisis was averted.

“Can I be honest with you?”

---