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“It says a group for single parents, with evenings out and babysitting services. Damn, I could do with one of those. Okay, so it’s on a Friday night. Not great, but I can try and make it.”
I blurted out, “It’s only for single parents. I thought that he was single.”
She laughed and then she handed it back to me, and he looked at me with a frown. Looks as if he wanted to be single.
An elderly lady walked up to me with glasses and tapped me on the arm, “Did you say that there’s a single group?”
I nodded, “Yes, you know for single parents so that we can all support each other, but..”
Before I could even say another word, she blurted out, as she looked out into the distance as if she was thinking about something. “Are there women there?”
“Yes, so far there’s..”
“And they’re looking for men.”
I nodded again because there was no point trying to say something.
“I’ve got a couple of men that would be perfect to join the group.”
Now, she’s got my attention.
“One’s my son, and the other’s my husband.”
She nodded and then started to walk away. I was confused until another couple of guys heard the conversation and said that they were willing to join.
One of them was a retired sportsman like me, but unlike him, I never had a knee injury. My plan w
as coming together even though I suspected that some, like the first guy, already had a wife, and he was planning to join the group, to find a bit on the side. If I found out the truth that he was already attached, Nia wouldn’t need to kick him out. I would do the deed. Either way, I was happy that the guys were talking about spreading the word.
“We’ll be there, Hunter.” Those were the reassuring words that I needed to hear. Nia wouldn’t kick me out if there were a few guys going through the same struggles. She would have to let them in. Maybe I should take them out for a drink? So that I could get to know them better before the first meeting. I would if I had time, which I didn't after spending the weekend doing the damn flyers instead of concentrating on work.
Either way, my plan was coming together, and I couldn’t be happier.
***
“Hey, mom, what’s up?”
She’d been my rock with looking after Gia. I didn’t know what I would have done if she hadn’t offered to help.
“You’ve got that smile on your face. The one that means you’re up to something.”
Mom knew me too well; there was no putting anything past her. It was a shame she didn’t think that way when dad ran off with his secretary. She didn’t see that signs that it was happening, but then again neither did I.
“I saw Nia today.”
All of a sudden her smile disappeared.
“Mom, don’t look like that.”
“Well, you know how I felt about that woman whenever you cried when you broke up for two seconds. Even though you claimed that she was the love of your life, you weren’t crying for that long.”
I relied on my mom to help me out with Gia. I talked to her about certain things, but not everything. That used to be what I did with dad until he walked out on her. There was a thin line between the relationship between a mother and her son which she always managed to cross it whenever it came to the topic of Nia.
“Mom, that was in the past. Why can’t you get over it?”
She made a face, something between a frown and moving her nose as if there was a bad smell in the kitchen. I just came in here to grab a beer and check what’s going on with the business. Luckily, since retiring early from football, my face still hit the headlines which made it quite easy for me to continue working in the sports industry. I hardly go to the office. Maybe once or twice a week. What’s the point of being the boss if I need to work every single second of the day? I make sure that my role as a dad required that type of dedication. I knew that Gia would leave home and then I would be alone. Until that day, I intended to spend as much time with her as possible. I did most of the kindergarten runs with Olivia helping me out once-in-a-while and mom being here whenever I got too involved with work and lost my way.
She handed me a bottle of beer. I knew that whatever she had to say, I wasn’t going to like it one bit. We never did agree when it came to Nia. Even dad didn’t like her. In fact, no one from my family liked her.
