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I shook my head again. “Nope.”
“So you really do just take a random woman up to your place at night. Every night?”
I didn’t think lying to her would be a good answer. “Most nights.”
“If we do this…co-parenting thing…that stops with the baby.” She crossed her arms under her ample chest. “I don’t care what you do in your free time, but you don’t bring women up when you have the baby.”
“I wouldn’t.” It was my turn to shift in my seat.
“How often are you willing to be away from the bar? You’re there all the time now, aren’t you?”
I nodded. “Usually, yeah, but I can take time off. What are you thinking? Do you need, want…someone to go to appointments with you?”
She shook her head. “Oh! No, not that. I was talking about when you’d have the baby.”
Again, I nodded. Made sense. “I would, you know, go to appointments with you, if you wanted.”
“No, that’s ok.” Mia’s smile was forced. “Um. So yeah. What do you… How do you want to do this, I guess?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do we do this civilly between us, do we get lawyers?” She scoffed to herself. “Well, lawyers are probably a good idea, regardless.”
“How about we just take it a day at a time?”
Mia swallowed and nodded. “Ok.” Her eyes widened briefly and she smiled. “Do you maybe, do you want to feel the baby?”
“Like, touch your stomach?”
“The baby’s really active right now. You might not be able to feel it as much as I can, but you might be able to. You know, if you wanted.”
Did I want to? Kind of, actually, yeah. It was some weird fucking shit, though.
But this was the most open Mia had been all night and I was going to grab on to that olive branch. I pulled to a stand, rubbing my suddenly wet palms on my pants, and walked the short distance to where she sat. I pushed the sleeves of my shirt up a little more just as I reached her.
Mia reached out a hand and grabbed my wrist. I had to refrain from jumping at the contact. It was electrical, and fuck if I knew what that was about.
She guided my hand to the swell of her stomach and my palm touched just as something pushed from the other side.
Well, not something. Our kid.
Our kid.
I just felt our kid.
And suddenly I wanted nothing more than to be in this kid’s life.
And in Mia’s.
I would find a way to be in Mia’s life, more than just as the father of her child.
For the first time, I found myself wanting forever.
