by Tara Brent
“Well, there you go. Cinderella has dropped her bag. You now have an excuse to track her down. Have you looked inside yet?”
“No, that’s a little too personal, who knows what might be in there? I thought you could do that for me,” I suggest, handing the purse over to Mia.
As Mia opens it up, we see it's almost empty. A lipstick, some tissues, and a brush. I take the brush and pull out a ginger hair. At the moment that's the closest I'm going to get to her. But at least I now have an excuse to go in search of her. I must return her bag.
Chapter 6
Bruised Ego
“I have no idea how I’m gonna get through my shift today,” I tell Ali over my cell phone. “To make it worse, I left that lovely little bag you gave me.”
“I don’t know why you don’t tell him everything, Tiffy,” Ali pleads with me. “It’s time little Callum knew who his daddy is anyway. You know now that he’s growing up, he’ll start asking questions sooner or later.”
“I can’t do that, Ali, you know that. What if he tries to get custody? Those courts will take into account that I never told him and it’ll look bad for me. I don’t want to go through anything like that. What am I going to do?”
“What's confusing me is that you still like the guy, Tiffy. Honestly, you're still in love with him,” her voice comes at me on the speaker. “Talk to him, he might feel the same way about you.”
“No! “ I snap back, I can’t take that risk, Ali. No way can I risk losing my son.”
“Come on Tiffy, you’re not going to lose him. He can’t walk off with him you know!”
“He can fight for him in court though.” I glance at the time and realize that I’m running late. “Look, I’ve gotta go, Ali. Duty calls.”
“I know you, Tiffy, you’re a fighter,” she says, encouragingly. “You’ll get through the day fine, and I’ll be at your house for the end of your shift.”
“Thanks, Ali. I don’t know what I would do without you,” I say before pushing the button to bring my two-hour call to an end.
Braving it, I get into my uniform and go downstairs to say my farewells to mom and Calvin. They're both oblivious to the knots in my belly, and I see they're enjoying their evening meal together. When I'm on nights, my meals are all over the place so I don't eat with them.
“Mommy, why can’t I come in your room,” Calvin says as he rushes into my arms.
Leaning down I hug him tight, and he stays in my arms.
“I kept him down here while you were so upset,” mom informs me.
“I got so tired after work, and it made me sad, so I needed to rest,” I lie. Clearly, I couldn’t tell him the truth; that his mommy had spent the night with his daddy. A daddy he doesn’t even know.
“I gather this blind date thing didn’t go down well?” Mom asks me quietly in my ear.
“Actually, I had a good time, mom,” I reply. “I've got some other stuff on my mind, that's all. Ali’s coming round tonight, is the guest room made up?”
“I’ll see to it. I wish you’d talk to me too,” mom says, looking concerned.
“I will, mom,” I tell her as I embrace her as well. “We’ll talk tonight.”
Less than 30 minutes later, Dora and I pull into the parking lot of the birthing clinic. It’s going to take an effort to switch off from my personal thoughts today. I'm sure I’ll manage it once I’m at work and I owe it to my clients. They expect the best from me, not a half broken-hearted attempt. As I go to push open the glass door to the building, a shadowy figure approaches from my left. When I turn to see who it is, Calvin is standing there looking rather sheepish. He has my bag in his hand.
“You...erm...left this behind, so I thought I’d better return it,” he says.
“Oh, yes, so I did,” I reply, actually putting on an act of looking shocked. Well, I was surprised that he’d gone to the trouble of bringing it to me.
“I knew where you worked, obviously, with Mia being your patient, but I...”
“That’s kind of you, thanks,” I say, swiftly taking the bag from his hand and getting ready to leave to enter the building.
“Tiffany?” He reaches out and takes a hold of my arm. “Look, I don’t know what upset you last night but, please, tell me what's wrong. Then I can make it up to you. I thought we were having a good time.”
“Upset? Me?” Okay, you can tell I haven’t rehearsed this one. “Nooo. I...I...wasn’t feeling well. All that rich food.”
“You hardly touched your food,” he says, knowing that's not the truth.
I look back at him and my heart sinks in my stomach. He looks amazing with a great lean and powerful frame. It's obvious that he works out. He’s matured well too, and I can see he’s a good catch for any girl. If only I hadn’t given birth to his son, I would love to pick up where we left things. But, I can’t. I have no idea what his response will be. For all I know he might disappear, or he might be angry that I never told him. Then again, he might want to take my child from me.
“I’d like for us to meet again,” he says. “That’s assuming you want to...”
“Look, I’m late for work so I’ll phone you,” I suggest as I turn and make to step inside before he can respond.
Problem is, in my haste I forgot to open the door and I walk right into the glass panel, making an absolute fool of myself. I’ve walked through these doors countless times. Why did this have to happen right at this particular moment in time? With my ego bruised, but nothing else seriously hurt, I push open the door without looking back.
“Hey Tiffany,” I hear his voice “Are you okay?"
“Oh, it’s nothing, I’m fine,” I manage and wave him away before I finally enter the clinic, letting the door shut behind me.
Thank goodness he doesn’t follow me inside. Fortunately, there’s no nose bleed but my eyes are watering a little. I’m feeling so embarrassed with my bruised ego. With a stinging nose, I take the elevator to my floor and hope to put this experience behind me.
Time to Leave
Once again I’m left standing alone. I sense that something’s not right between us but I have no idea why. One thing for sure, I’m not giving up that easy. Since our time together the other night, I want Tiffany Miller back in my life again. Breaking up with her is beginning to look like one of my biggest mistakes. I was very driven back then with only one goal in life, to be successful. It seems that purpose blinded me to love. Worse of it is, she is well aware that I chose my career over her. That must be why she’s brushing me off.
As I stand and watch her disappear through the door into the clinic, I’m at a loss. I fleetingly wonder if she’s playing hard, as some women do, but I soon dismiss the idea. No, it's nothing like that, something is wrong. Is she hiding something? Part of the challenge when Mia set up the blind date was that neither would know much about the other. That means that she doesn’t know I’m a wealthy person. Should I tell her? Would that make any difference anyway? No, I doubt it, knowing her as I do. She never cared about such things before.
What I do know is that she used to care about her career. That's why she studied so hard and it gave some justification for our break up. I thought she was also focused on her ambition too. She was going to become a doctor, or something similar, so how did she end up becoming a nurse? I’m not devaluing nurses but Tiffany’s ambition was much bigger than that. We weren’t together long enough for me to know much about her personal life outside of college. To be honest we spent most of our time together in bed!
Returning to my car, I sit in the driver’s seat awhile, contemplating my situation. Should I continue with this and end up making a fool of myself. Maybe it’s time to leave San Francisco and forget we ever bumped into each other.
Turning on the engine, I set off to visit my brother and his wife. He usually has good advice, and besides, Mia will want an update on today's events.
“How long are you staying in San Francisco then?” I ask my brother as we’re seated out on their huge balcony.
“What do you mean, we just bought this apartment,” he replies.
“Yeah, I know, but I thought it was for when Mia visits her restaurants?” I ask. "You’re not staying here, are you? I mean, where do you want to bring Lilly up? You going to live at the mansion in Palo Alto?”
“We haven’t decided yet. We’ve got family to visit. Mom’s giving us grief because we haven’t been there yet. I want to go to Italy and visit the vineyards with our uncles. I’m thinking of investing in a few more, what do you think?”
“Sure. We could move further south or even extend into France,” I suggest.
I never got too involved in our vineyards. We own quite a few but it’s mostly run by family who is still there.
“I like the idea of producing a bottle of wine and naming it after Lilly,” he tells me with a big grin.
“Sounds cool, I’d buy a bottle of that.”
“Oh, speaking of visiting relatives, we have to go to Hong Kong and visit Mia’s family too. So, we’re going to have a busy year traveling. For me, I’d like to settle in Italy at one of the vineyards, but Mia doesn’t agree. She doesn’t want our children brought up in Italy. She thinks they’ll have more opportunities here in the states,” he finishes.
“She’s right bro. You could try touring Europe then she might change her mind once she sees what it has to offer. We’ve got some amazing hotels in London and Paris,” I suggest. “Anyway, I’m leaving soon. I could meet up with you in Italy. Whenever I go there, I sort of feel like I’m home. I know what you mean about Italy. It’s our roots. Dad would move there tomorrow if mom would agree.”
“You’re leaving early, Calvin. I thought you wanted to keep your blind date going?” Mia says as she joins us. “Finally, Lilly's fast asleep. I'm like a zombie, if I knew what a zombie felt like.”
“Nah, Tiffany's not interested in me,” I admit to her. “Every time I see her, she runs away. I thought of using my charismatic charms on her or even telling her how rich I am now, but...”
“You need to give her time,” Mia says. “No way should you tell her about your wealth. For this girl, you might frighten her off. She’s like a little rare bird.”
“She was never delicate when we were together. Something's happened since then?” I muse over the thought, yet again. “I’m here a few more days to sign off that deal, so I’ll try texting but keep my distance. It seems that Cinderella doesn’t want the prince after all.”
Chapter 7
Texting
“Have you responded to his text yet?” Ali asks as soon as she comes through the door.
“Crap, Ali, you don’t waste any time,” I reply, on the hope that we can change the subject.
“Well?” She stands in front of me, eyes wide and hands raised as she awaits my reply.
“No, I haven’t,” I sigh and slip onto a kitchen chair because I know she’s about to give me a lecture.
“I’m not going to say anything to you, Tiffy,” she tells me. “I promised you a fun day out and that’s what we’ll have. Now, where’s my little man?”
No sooner had she asked, Callum came running into the kitchen to greet her. He loves his "Auntie Ali" and I’m glad because I want people to love my son, just not his father. Oh, my god, that sounds so mean.
We all pile into Ali’s car, which isn’t much bigger than mine, and set off for a day at the zoo. When I was younger I refused to go to zoos, I hated seeing all those wild animals in cages. But things have changed since then. These days they’re more about conservation, so I accept they’re doing their bit for the world. If my son knew I marched in big events trying to close zoos down, he’d be mighty cross with me. He absolutely loves a day at the zoo, so much so that we adopted an elephant, which he'll visit today.
A day out with my son and best friend will be so good for me right now. I need to switch off from the emotional rollercoaster I've been through since Calvin and I made love. I knew it was a big mistake at the time but I was so entranced with him. He’s always had that effect on me but things have changed since then. Life is so very different when you have children, and I must think about Callum. How would he feel about a strange man turning up in his life? Even worse, how will he feel when he finds out that strange man is his father?
Once at the zoo, Ali and Callum run on ahead towards the meerkats when my cell phone vibrates in my purse. I know who it's from without having to look. I’ve had a steady stream of text messages from Calvin all morning. For one mad moment, I'm almost tempted to reply and tell him how much I love him and want to be with him. Instead, I ignore it.
“I’m not a stalker," his message reads. "Why can't we meet up again?”
I smile at the reference to a stalker. Not that it’s funny, but I know it’s not in his nature to be a bad person in any way. Okay, he’s a little selfish, or at least he used to be, but that’s about it. Then again, I don’t really know him that well, do I?
I hear a shout of warning from Ali, and as I look up I see her waving frantically at me. What’s wrong with her? As I'm squinting back at her, a dark shadow looms over me and my sunhat is lifted clean off my head. I'd become so engrossed in my dilemma that I hadn’t realized I'd gotten too close to one of the animal enclosures. Looking up, I see a huge giraffe towering over me and munching on my sunhat in its mouth.
“Oh my!” I cry out and burst into laughter.
“Mommy, mommy, he’s got your hat!” Callum comes running at me in hysterical giggles.
I take his hand and move us both away. “Let’s go before we get into trouble. Pretend it’s not my hat and run.”
Callum and I run back over to Ali, who’s holding three ice cream tubs. We look back and see the giraffe has dropped my hat onto the grass around the outside of the enclosure. No way am I going to retrieve it, so I look away, laughing.
“Mommy can always buy a new hat, honey, don’t worry,” I tell Callum as he looks somewhat worried. “It was my own fault so don’t blame the giraffe. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
“No, you were too engrossed in your phone. I saw you,” Ali accuses as she hands over my chocolate ice cream tub.
“Come on, let’s find somewhere to sit while we eat these,” I say, quick to change the subject.
“We haven’t seen the gorillas yet and I think they’re the next enclosure along,” I say, watching Callum eat his strawberry delight.
“Yes, and can we go see the anteaters, and let's not forget Freda my elephant, mommy.” Callum gets excited again and the hat incident is soon forgotten.
We spend the next three hours touring the zoo. Callum becomes more and more excited at every animal we see. By the time we finish, the poor little soul is shattered and rests in my arms as we return to the car.
“How many?” Ali asks me as I'm strapping him into his child seat at the back.
Of course, I know what she’s asking about, so I tell her the truth.
“About a half-a-dozen times," I tell her. "For some reason, he wants to talk to me. I'm not replying so you’d think he’d have got the hint by now.”
“Have you ever thought that he might like you as much as you like him?” She asks, joining the long line of traffic to get out of this place.
“Did everyone leave at once?” I say with surprise at how busy the road is.
“They all followed us, mommy,” Callum's sleepy voice pipes up from the back.
I turn around to see his head lolling to one side in his seat. His heavy tired eyes are soon closed. I have a sudden and almost overwhelming sense of love for my son. Never could I do anything that would risk me losing him.
“I can’t take that risk, Ali,” I tell her, putting on my serious face. “Under no circumstances can I take the chance that he might want his son.
“I don’t think he would do that, Tiffy, not after what you’ve told me about him. He doesn't sound like a family man,” Ali says. “Anyway, what does he do for a living? He most likely doesn’t have time to look after a kid. Or, he could
be outta work, then the courts wouldn’t look favorably on a custody request, would they?”
“I don’t know what he does because I avoided talking about us,” I realize that I know nothing of his life these days. “He wears classy clothes and the hotel he was at is one of the best in San Francisco, so I doubt he’s a lazy layabout.”
“Why not reply the next time he sends you a message? Find out more about his life over the phone. Even better, let me contact him and I’ll give him the third degree." Ali offers, and she means it too. "After all, isn’t that what friends are for?”
I smile at a vision of Ali interrogating Calvin. Looming over him and shining a light into his face as she questions him. Out of nowhere, a naughty thought appears in my mind, and instead of Ali interrogating him, it's me, and he’s naked!
“What're you grinning at, girl?” Ali asks, flicking her eyes between me and the slow moving traffic.
“Nothing,” I say, hiding my wicked smile. No way am I telling her about my randy thoughts. “We’d better be quiet now, Callum’s asleep.”
That does the trick and we’re soon home and safely tucked up in bed. Before settling down myself, I peek over Calvin's texts and wistfully recall my sexy thoughts from earlier.
Tale of Woe
It’s been two weeks since I last saw Tiffany, and despite my dilemma life must continue. I owe it to my brothers and the shareholders of our companies to get my mind back on track. So, I accept an invitation to a cocktail party. It's only a business one but there will be many financiers and captains of industry attending.
Once there, I do my best to socialize. That even stretched to picking up a date and we spent the night together. There I was with a beautiful woman. Her darkened skin was like a creamy coffee and she had big brown eyes that lit up her whole face when she laughed. Her high cheekbones gave her a sophisticated appearance and she was indeed a young, educated woman. We were keen on each other and spent the entire night enjoying one another’s company. I’m very good at playing the role of a charming gentleman. Women are a weakness of mine and I love them all. We made love and as soon as we’d finished, I did the stupidest thing on earth. I checked my phone to see if Tiffany had messaged me. She asked me what was so important and it all came out. Would you believe, I told her my tale of woe. Needless to say, she felt very sorry for me but she left before breakfast. To make matters worse, while we were making love I had imagined she was Tiffany, of course, I didn’t tell her that! I believed that if I got back to my normal life, surrounded myself with attractive women and business deals, I’d be able to put Tiffany behind me.