“How do they do that?”
“You actually listen and care.”
“So, I shouldn’t listen and care?”
“I’m just saying, that’s where the problem is. Maybe wear sunglasses to your next playdate.”
“There’s not going to be a next playdate.”
“We’ll see.” Lizzy shrugged as if my declaration meant nothing. “It also doesn’t help that you are such a great dad and that we have such a good relationship. Every time I mention a story about you and Hannah, or you and me, and the moms at school get wetter than a Slip ’N Slide.”
“Well then tell them I’m a bad dad and that I’m a dick to you. And how can I be a tech nerd and a bad boy?” I asked for clarification.
“Exactly!” she said, her arms flailing in the air. Lizzy talked with her hands a lot. “Those two things should be mutually exclusive and yet, you pull it off better than Will Hunting.”
Lizzy had always compared me to Matt Damon’s character inGood Will Hunting. I understood the comparison, we both had hard lives and intellectual gifts that were overlooked in our adolescence because no one paid attention to street kids.
“And you know, you could do worse than Adriana, or Sandy, or Nicole.”
I turned toward my ex, shooting her a look to communicate that she was out of her fucking mind. When I did, Lizzy’s sapphire eyes twinkled like stars in the sky as she leaned into me.
“All three women are smart. Divorced. Attractive andage-appropriate.”
“One time.” I lifted my pointer finger in the air. “I only went on one date with her.”
Clearly amused that she could push my buttons, Lizzy smiled and widened her eyes in faux innocence. “Was it to her prom?”
Even though I knewexactlywhat she was doing I still took the bait and explained the circumstances I’d explained at least a dozen times to her. “She was twenty. It was a blind date. I had no clue that Mrs. Johnson would set me up with her granddaughter who was a sophomore in college.”
My neighbor was well-meaning, but I seriously think she overestimated how much I, a thirty-four-year-old man at the time, would have in common with someone barely out of their teens.
“Oh right, I forgot,” Lizzy teased, feigning ignorance.
“Ha ha ha,” I stated flatly. “Not everyone has what you and Ryan do.”
Lizzy and her husband Ryan, who also resembled Lizzy’s sole hall pass Ryan Guzman—Lizzy had a type—had been college sweethearts. He’d gone into the military after graduating and they’d broken up because the long distance had been too hard on them. But he’d resigned his commission five years ago and returned to San Francisco and the first thing he did was reach out to Lizzy.
The two met for coffee and have been together ever since. I could not be happier for my baby mama. In fact, I walked Lizzy down the aisle when she and Ryan said “I do” since her father was not in the picture.
I loved Lizzy, but I’d never been in love with her. She was the mother of my child. My baby mama. Together we’d made the best thing in my life. Hannah.
Our almost six-year-old daughter was my entire world. We’d been casually seeing each other for a few years when she found out she was pregnant. Lizzy had been upfront from the beginning and told me there was a fifty-fifty chance that Hannah was mine, and I took the odds. I’d gone to every doctor’s appointment and was at the birth. The other guy opted to wait to be involved until the paternity results came in.
Luckily for me, the results came back in my favor.
I’d always wanted to be a father. I’d never imagined it would happen with Lizzy; but it worked out for the best.
“I’m serious Mad Max, when are you going to think about settling down? You’re not getting any younger.”
“I’m thirty-five.”
“You’re going to be thirty-six very soon,” Lizzy pointed out. “And Hannah keeps asking for a baby sister or brother.” I glanced over at Lizzy and saw the hint of defeat in her dropped shoulders. She and Ryan had been trying to conceive for a while; but it wasn’t happening as easily as they’d hoped. She put her hands over her stomach and sighed. “You might be the only way she’ll get one.”
I wrapped my arm around Lizzy’s shoulder and pulled her against me and kissed her on the top of the head. “It’ll happen for you guys.”
“Yeah. I know. Thanks.” She looked up at me, sniffing back emotion as she nodded and patted my chest. “And I’m not trying to give you a hard time. I just worry about you. I really want you to have what Ryan and I do. It’s the best and you deserve the best Maddox Anthony Cruz. You really do.”
“I don’t think that’s in the cards for me.”
