Chapter 7

Wednesday was another very pleasant evening. The weather was typical California spring sunshine, and with Helga aware I had a date and screening my calls, I’d gotten out of the office early enough to beat the rush.

There weren’t a whole load of people around at Corriganville, and the three dogs enjoyed being let off their leashes. I was amazed at how quickly Max had taken to Kara and Tara; although I’d carefully socialized him and we’d faithfully attended the training classes, he exceeded my expectations in accepting other dogs as playmates rather than potential enemies. Perhaps he just wasn’t aggressive after losing his nuts. Oh, he’d play chase after his new friends, and follow them to see what doggie delight they were sniffing out, but it was as one of the pack, not a rival. Play, not aggression. For an ‘only’ dog, he was doing okay.

Mel invited me to join her again at the quiet bar in Simi Valley for food and a drink; a suggestion I instantly accepted. We were greeted with a broad white-toothed smile of recognition by the waitress. Once we’d ordered, my date grinned relaxedly at me across the table as we sipped our glasses of wine. “Soooo, Mike, exactly how house-trained are you?”

I chuckled at the way she phrased that. The interrogation looked like it was going to be much less formal than the Interview when we’d been here last. “If I tell you that I’m better behaved than Max, you’re not going to accept that as an answer, are you?”

She tilted her head as she pretended to consider my plea, then hit me with a straight “Nope.” She even managed to control the slight quiver on her lips.

“Okay. Unlike Max, I can cook, wash dishes, launder clothes, vacuum and polish, clean up after myself AND put clothes away in closets and drawers.”

“Ironing?”

“Yup.”

“Lid up or down?”

I grinned. “Down, but ... you really need to know the back story or you’ll be thinking I’m just too perfect. We had a dog when I was a kid; one day he was thirsty and his water bowl was empty, so he put his head in the toilet bowl. Mom had one of those fragrant block things in baskets on the edge of the bowl; Sam licked it after he had drunk some water, didn’t enjoy the taste, and made a mess all over the bathroom floor. Not good. We all got very consistent at keeping the lid down after that.”

Mel grimaced at the thought. “Gross, but I can understand why you’d quickly get into the habit without needing remedial training. My mom never did get my brother to learn. He took after Dad, reckoned tidiness around the house was highly suspect in a real working class man. Any other childhood misdemeanors I should know about?”

“You got a week or three to spare? Are you sitting real comfortably?”

That got me a laugh. “Maybe we can get high one weekend and swap boasting stories. I’d bet that I can tell bigger lies than you can. You ever fished?”

“Not seriously. Dad and I tried it out when I was around six, but it didn’t do a lot for us. Maybe I was too young and didn’t have the patience to sit still and quiet for that long.”

“My dad used to take me sometimes, before he ran out on us, and I met a few of his fishing buddies and heard their tales. You don’t stand a chance!”

I held up my hands in mock surrender. “If you’ve been trained by a fisherman, then it’s gonna be no contest!”

She giggled, then put her glass down on the table. “Mike, there’s something else I wanted to ask you, a more serious question. Do you mind?”

“Of course not. Shoot.”

“Mike, I was talking to a girl I know on set today, and she’s just gotten together with a divorced guy who has two kids, so she’ll be their step-mom if it gets any more serious. She likes them so far, but deep down, she’s not at all sure about getting a ready-made family, and she shared her concerns with me. Like you, I’m single with no children, but I do want to have kids of my own. I decided from the start of signing up with this agency to only date childless single guys, which cut down the number of possibles one heck of a lot. Out of interest, did you meet up with anyone with kids yet?”

I smiled as I remembered my own internal discussion on this very subject. “No, and to be completely honest with you, I hadn’t even thought about the single moms or divorcees with kids who might be on the site, up until a few replied to me. I’ve never gone out with a lady who had children. I just assumed that there would be a whole lot of single ladies in the same position as me, not yet found the right person. I guess I was torn when I did get some replies; there seemed to be some very nice moms, but I don’t know how I’d handle being a stepfather.” I paused for a moment. I knew I was being unconsciously judgmental about single mothers, but ... oh hell, I hadn’t made my mind up quite yet. “I thought about that ready-made family thing, and ... I just don’t know. I guess I also want to get to know someone more thoroughly than I could if we have to work around babysitters. So, no, I haven’t dated anyone with kids yet, and I’m not sure how best to tackle it.” I paused, and had another awful thought, “I mean, what would I do if I really fell for a lady who’d already had her tubes tied, so I’d never father a child myself? That would be one heck of a difficult choice for me to make.”

She was nodding her head slowly in agreement as I expounded my thoughts. “Yeah, I know instinctively that I want to be a mother to my own kids instead of a stepmother to someone else’s. Don’t want to look after a child all week and then he goes off to his real mom for the weekend, gets spoiled rotten, and I have to pick up the pieces every Monday. Like you, I hadn’t thought that one through until I was faced with the choice. Damn, what you just said, I hadn’t considered that either – what if I find a great guy but he’s had a vasectomy that can’t be reversed? Jeez! This is so fricking difficult.”

We were both silent for a while. Damn, it had suddenly gotten serious again, just when we were loosening up. That reference to her finding a great guy hurt a little; I guess that I was already half in love with this woman – I wanted that ‘great guy’ to be me. From what I’d seen of her so far, I wanted my chance to win her for my own, and I most certainly didn’t want her to be getting close to other guys before I’d made my pitch. It did concern me that she might have asked because she was considering dating someone else who had kids. I hoped that I was wrong and that she was only bringing up the subject because she’d been talking to that girl that morning; I certainly hadn’t been looking at any more dating profiles since I’d met Mel, and I hoped that she hadn’t either.

On the other hand, at least she was living up to her promise of being up front and honest.

Then she startled me with a sudden “So, Mike, what’s your greatest fault?”

Oh boy. I hadn’t been asked THAT question since we’d done some practice job interviews with the faculty at college. Back then, I’d admitted to impetuosity. I knew that was no longer the case; if anything, I’d become too careful, too staid, too prone to considering the possible consequences. I told her that, and she probed a little. I thought aloud, “I guess I’m in danger of becoming an old man before my time. Too many years of all work and not a whole lot of play. Sometimes I feel I’m in my twenties, sometimes I’m so risk-averse that I might as well be in my fifties. Mom said at Thanksgiving that playing with the kids was good for me, making me human again. That was kinda a wake-up call.”

She was about to respond when our food order arrived. We were both quiet for a while as we ate. I know I was thinking that this whole finding a soulmate was a sight more complicated than it had originally seemed. I was pretty sure that her mind was running along similar lines. She broke the silence with a cheeky grin, “Mike, you’re getting behind on the tacos.”

I grabbed two together and put them on my plate, which gained me a chuckle. “That’s cheating!”

Our immediate hunger broken, she took a long sip of her wine. “Mike, thinking about what you just said, I can understand where your Mom was coming from. I’ve seen the fun side of you, so I know it’s there. Don’t take this the wrong way, but ... you can seem a little too serious, not quite preachy, but maybe a tad earnest at times? I’m not saying that’s a bad thing; heaven knows I could do with a responsible adult in my life, but ... How about a little mutual silliness? Friday ... There’s a screening of ‘Fort Apache’ on. It was filmed at Corriganville, but you probably already know that. I’ve never watched it on the big screen, as it should be seen. Interested?”