Page 40 of Cougar Chronicles

MrsRobinson:You need to tell him.

HollyGolightly:It’s too late now. I hung on way too long without telling him. He has a son, you know. An adorable kid. Six years old. Was never married to the mom and she’s not in the picture. When I found out, I was ecstatic. I figured maybe he’d be okay with not having more kids. That’s not the case.

MrsRobinson:How did you find out?

HollyGolightly:Eating breakfast with his kid. He told me he really wanted a little brother, and that his dad had told him maybe someday. That pretty much takes me out of the picture. Which I knew from the beginning. This is my own fault for getting in so deep. But now…

She couldn’t finish the sentence so she hit enter. Tears had blurred the computer screen.

MrsRobinson:Now what, Holly?

Holly sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Where was her damned box of tissues?

HollyGolightly:Now I’ve involved his son. He’ll be hurt. His son will be hurt. And I’ll be hurt. I should have ended it before now. Then I’d be the only one hurting. God knows I’ve dealt with that before, and I could have dealt with it again.

MrsRobinson:There’s still time to salvage this, Holly. If this man loves you, he won’t care that you can’t give him another child.

HollyGolightly:He never said he loved me.

MrsRobinson:But you love him.

With all her heart.

HollyGolightly:Yes.

MrsRobinson:Then how can you give up? You have to try. Tell him the truth.

HollyGolightly:Can it work, Megan? This whole cougar thing? I don’t know. I mean, twenty years from now he’ll be in his prime, and I’ll be an old lady.

MrsRobinson:First of all, sixty is not an old lady. Not anymore. And yes, it can work. I’ll grant you that I got lucky, finding a cub who wasn’t interested in having children.

HollyGolightly:When I was in here the other night, Charlene’s relationship was ending because her cub wanted a family and she was done with that.

MrsRobinson:Yes, that does happen sometimes. I can’t lie to you. But you’re a little bit ahead of Charlene. Your Jack already has a child.

HollyGolightly:But he wants more.

MrsRobinson:Are you sure about that?”

HollyGolightly:That’s what his son said.

MrsRobinson:But you’ve never had this conversation with him?

HollyGolightly:No.

MrsRobinson:You need to. Talk to him. If he cares for you, he’ll listen. Maybe you can find a way to compromise.

HollyGolightly:How? I can’t give him a child.

MrsRobinson:It’s not all black and white, Holly. You can adopt. And you still have an ovary. If you really want a child of your own body, you can try in vitro fertilization with a surrogate. There are many ways to have children these days.

HollyGolightly:But I’m so old! I’d be sixty when the kid graduated high school.

MrsRobinson:Sounds like you already wrote the whole thing off.

HollyGolightly:I kind of had to, when I got my diagnosis. I had to accept that I’d never be a mother. Then Jack came along again, and I found myself wanting something that I thought I’d closed the door on.

MrsRobinson:Why didn’t you just tell him the truth from the beginning?

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