by Kendra Riley
“Your daughter,” she repeated, tight-lipped. “You don’t deserve her, you don’t deserve to see her, or know her.”
“If what you say is true--”
“I don’t need your money,” she snapped at him, turning to face him once more. “I thought I’d never see you again, you idiot. I thought the moment I walked out of that restaurant was the last of you.”
***
“I know we’ve been enjoying the last few months and all, I mean I’ve had fun, you’ve had fun, so it’s kind of fair. But what wouldn’t be fair would be you just going all clingy-“
“Clingy?” she had repeated. “What?”
“That text earlier. You clearly wanted to see me, and frankly, I don’t work that way, at least not in relationships. I mean, we’re just casually dating, you remember that, right-“
“You’ve been seeing other people while you’re seeing me now?”
Jose closed his eyes and took a breath. “I wasn’t seeing them per se-“
“Them. Not just one person. Them,” she said blankly, the fool that she was.
“I already told you,” he sighed and it was a sigh that bordered on pity., “You knew for a fact that I wasn’t serious with this whole dating thing. Come on, Aniya, we’re both young-”
“You told me, but you didn’t tell me you’d just go sleeping around.”
***
Recalling that conversation of long ago, disgust ran through her again, and she shook her head. “I don’t need your money,” she repeated again.
“Why?” Jose said. “Because you’ve been cozying up to Dante Santoro?” He gave a hollow laugh.
“That is none of your business,” she said, her eyes darkening. “You know nothing about what I went through, you have no idea what it took for me to have Isabella alone.”
“Then let me correct my mistakes,” he said, interrupting her.
Aniya shook her head, ready to walk out on him.
“Let’s discuss this like civilized people, huh?” he continued. “Pick a coffee shop, somewhere quiet, where we can talk this out. So I’ll know what I have to do next.”
Aniya sighed, wanting to kick herself for relenting. Isabella was his child after all, but she didn’t want anything to do with him, and she didn’t want Isabella acknowledging her irresponsible biological father as a good example. Dante was -- she stopped herself. Dante wasn’t here. And it was clear he didn’t intend to stick around, not after that night.
“Fine,” she said, “but I decide when I want to stop talking to you.”
***
It was strange, sitting across Jose Aguirre in a coffee shop. It was empty, save for them. It was quiet, just for them. She chose to sit in a corner, away from the large windows. Had this happened many years ago, Aniya knew she’d have fallen head over heels with him. Conversations in a coffee shop were romantic to her twenty-two year old self….
The smell of roasted beans wafted in the air, and she found herself staring at her cup of coffee, with latte art on it, saying nothing to Jose at first.
He cleared his throat. “Aniya, I’d like to say that I’m sorry, for what happened last Friday.”
She stared at him, her eyes betraying nothing, nothing except contempt for him. He looked away from her, and then he cleared his throat again.
“I had a little too much to drink,” he continued. “The moment I saw you, well, blurry things surfaced in my mind. We’d dated briefly, we had fun.”
Too much fun, she thought, too much fun I’d gotten myself pregnant. “Sure,” she said, unable to say anything.
“I- I didn’t want to admit it at that time, but I’d begun to have feelings for you, but my priorities that time were different. I was at my prime, I mean, I still am single and all, but I was there to have fun, as you were.”
“And your point is?”
“I was feeling things that were getting too much for me to handle. I just wanted to have fun, and not fall in love or anything.”
“That was three years ago.”
“Yes, but I want to make up for all those lost years. If you say Isabella is my child, then-”
“She is, but you don’t have to take it as truth. Believe what you want to believe.”
“My legal counsel would like to have a DNA test, to prove my paternity. Then, I can provide Isabella with all that she needs. She’ll never have to want for anything, anymore.”
“We’re happy the way we are,” she told him. “And I don’t want anything touching my daughter like that. If you can’t take my word for it—”
“I’m doing this so I can make things legal, I want everything to be legal for her. I mean, if she really is my daughter, then that means she’s the first granddaughter my parents will ever have. She can carry our family name, Isabella Aguirre sounds perfect, doesn’t it?”
She bit her lower lip. “It may sound nice, but Compton stays.”
“It doesn’t have a good ring to her name, not like my family name, does,” he grinned. “I mean, even Isabella Santoro sounds off.”
“Isabella decides her family name when she is of age, and I don’t want tests done on my daughter, even if they’re painless.”
“You shouldn’t have told me I had a child,” he said, his tone rising. “I deserve to see her, DNA test, or no DNA test.”
“It was something I said out of spite,” she told him, “You have no idea how much I regret telling you that.”
“And what? You’re just going to let her grow up without a father? She’ll look for one, and she won’t stop asking about her real father, and it’s going to get to you.”
“Who the hell do you think you are? You don’t know anything about me, apart from us having shared a bed. It was irresponsible on my part, but I told myself I’d be a good parent, if not, the best.”
“I think you are the best parent.”
“That’s because she only has one,” she retorted, hating his displays of empathy. What did he know about burping, and changing diapers? He knew how to get women out of their panties, that was for sure.
“I’d like her to have two parents. Please, agree to the test.”
“I’ll have to ask a lawyer about this,” she replied, not wanting to be bullied, not wanting to be manipulated. Could she even afford a lawyer? She could go to the public attorney’s office -- would that work?
“Alright,” he conceded, “go ahead. I just want you to know how much this means to me, so go on right ahead.”
“Can I leave now?”
“I’d like to see her, please,” he added as an afterthought.
She shook her head. “Not now. Not until we’ve settled things my way.”
“Don’t turn me into the villain here, Aniya.”
“I wanted to tell you, the night you told me you were seeing someone else, while you were sleeping with me, I wanted to tell you I was pregnant. I had assumed we’d work on it together.”
“It’s not too late,” he insisted, suddenly holding her hand in his.
Aniya took it away from him, feeling a tremble of revulsion.
She was having second thoughts, third thoughts, and fourth thoughts. But everything that came out of his mouth wasn’t meant to be believed, no matter the empathy he was trying to show.
How would Dante have reacted to this? She looked at Jose’s face, and she wished she was looking at Dante right now.
“Give me a chance to prove myself, Aniya,” he begged. “Isabella deserves to know her real father.”
“After the DNA test?”
“Legalities, that’s all there is to it,” he told her. “Please, give me this chance, give me a chance to change for the better. Little girls deserve fathers, and she deserves all the best, she deserves all that money can buy.”
Aniya shook her head. “I have to go.”
“How will I hear from you?”
She wanted to curse. Moments later, she found herself giving away her number, and in turn, she received his business card.
“Please,
call me if you need anything,” he insisted, before she left.
Aniya thanked him for the coffee, and she walked away with a strange feeling in her chest. She felt burdened, and she felt relieved at the same time. He was right. Isabella would need her real father, but Aniya knew she couldn’t completely trust him, yet. The look in Dante’s eyes had said it all. Perhaps, their rivalry had gone deep, deeper now that they were connected once more because of her.
This was her choice, to give him some time to talk to her, this was her choice, giving away her number, and maybe, possibly consenting to a DNA test. Of course, she couldn’t make everyone believe it was Jose’s. If media portrayed her as someone who slept around, his family and his legal counsel would naturally demand those paternity tests. What in the hell have I gotten myself into, again?
She only wanted some peace and quiet, more time with her daughter, maybe a manicure and pedicure one every few months… but no, it just had to be the tabloids. It just had to be a fight between Jose and Dante. They just had to know each other, huh? Is that what I get for being a needy, horny little- she stopped herself. It wasn’t going to do her any good, beating herself down.
She knew she had to be strong for Isabella, and that included strength whenever Isabella asked where her daddy was, where Dante was. How was she going to explain to a three year old that they weren’t really together?
Isabella had to hear it from her, before she heard it from other people. Scenarios began to run through her mind. How was she going to protect her daughter’s feelings? You can’t, right? Kids needed to go through heartbreak sometimes, to understand that it was part of growing up.
What kind of mother am I to break my daughter’s heart?
***
Dante woke up with a slight hangover. He hadn’t drunk that much in a while. The moment office hours ended, he found himself on a night out with old college classmates, ones he trusted. They drank the night away, and while he knew he was going to regret it in the morning, he still went on with it, some sad, pathetic effort to mask his emotions, that tide of anger and pain.
His college friends didn’t ask why he wanted to binge drink, and he assumed they simply knew. Wasn’t that a fun night?
The trigger was seeing the media surrounding Isabella’s daycare center. He had half the mind to march up there and tell them to leave. What did the child know about it? What was wrong with them? She was a child, for crying out loud, a helpless child! In the end, he knew there were bigger things to fix, than to check on Isabella, and probably break a camera or two.
He had been itching to call Aniya, to check on Isabella. Was that a good excuse to call her? It would be obvious he had gotten too attached. So he did the lamest thing he could, and that was to drink.
The conversation with his mother hadn’t ended well. He had to excuse himself from his own office, and he took a walk in the park near his building, just to clear his head for a bit. He was half-glad he didn’t see Aniya or Isabella anywhere. Perhaps, they too were avoiding the media circus. It wasn’t even that extensive of a media coverage, he knew, but their circles were in uproar over it -- how Jose Aguirre, perennial playboy, had fathered a daughter with Dante Santoro’s current girlfriend. His mother disliked the Aguirre family, calling them nouveau riche, and a slew of other subtle, yet insulting names. It was how things were in their circle, and that was why he had thought Aniya had been such a fresh breath of air the first time he saw her.
I should really stop thinking about her, he told himself, heading to the toilet to throw up. So much for a slight hangover, huh? He checked his phone and saw five missed calls from Pilar, and three from Catalina. What did they want?
He texted Catalina he wasn’t feeling well, sending the same to Pilar. Please, leave me alone, he thought, hating how he didn’t have any control over the situation.
His phone rang, and he saw it was Pilar.
“What?” he snapped.
“Someone said you were really drunk last night,” she told him, sounding cross.
“Was.”
“How’s the hangover?”
“Terrible.”
“When are you seeing Aniya?”
“I’m not interested in seeing her,” he replied, walking for his kitchen to grab a glass of water.
“I don’t think this is good for you.”
“Right, cause you’re on her side, if I remember you saying specifically. Do not forget the fact that she got pregnant with Aguirre.”
“It’s not the child’s fault.”
“Of course it isn’t,” he snapped at her. “Look, if this is your form of intervention, can we do this some other time?”
“Dante, this isn’t something you should take lightly.”
“I’m hungover. I’ll call you back,” he told her, ending the call and tossing his phone casually on a couch. He drank more water, wondering if he should just go on and destroy his kidneys, or was it liver, by taking aspirin. Why did he feel so defeated? It was just a woman, it was just a woman who had dated Jose, it was just a woman who had gotten pregnant by him, and Isabella was just Jose’s daughter, not his. He would have liked that Isabella’s father remain anonymous, and that he was just some faceless douchebag who had left a woman pregnant and all alone, that would have been a fine scenario.
He took a deep breath, and he looked at the ceiling. He was going to gather enough courage, and he was going to lower his pride. A talk was needed. How else did businesses and people survive for thousands of years? He was going to get his practicality back, his sense of purpose, he was going to get back to that place he had enjoyed as a comfort zone, he needed his tact, his stoic face- he needed his heart just a little bit cold to survive the harshness of the business world, and to survive this attachment to Aniya and Isabella.
***
Two days later
“I’d like to see her,” Jose’s voice said from the end of the other line.
Aniya bit her lower lip, knowing full well how annoying and persistent Jose was going to be. There was no subtlety with him, even when they were ‘dating’. She wanted to kick herself for giving her number. Was this a bad decision? It was, another voice said.
“No, not yet.”
“She is my daughter.”
“Not without your DNA test, she isn’t.”
“You said-“
“I said,” she repeated. “I have to work.” She ended the call, and it felt oddly satisfying. She wished they had spoken on an old school phone, just so she could slam the phone on him.
Aniya had gotten back to work the previous day, and her colleagues (thank god they weren’t that many) were quiet around her. Only Anna remained her usual self, with her usual rejections and comments laden with sarcasm. Two hours later, Aniya was ready to take her quick lunch, when she heard noises coming from the entrance of the gallery.
“Sir, please, that area is off limits.”
“I need to see her!” the man’s voice insisted. “Aniya!”
Aniya paused from opening the bag that contained her lunch. She shook her head, knowing whose voice it was. How in the hell did he know-? She quickly walked down, seeing the other gallery workmates of hers surrounding the lone security man at the entrance, with Jose Aguirre in the middle.
“Sir, this is private property,” the guard repeated, losing his temper.
“Don’t you know who I am?” Aniya heard Jose snap.
“Sorry, sir, I don’t,” the security man replied with a raised tone.
“What’s going on?” Anna’s voice interrupted everything.
Aniya felt Anna beside her, as they watched from the foot of the stairs.
“I wanted to have a good and quiet lunch,” Anna continued. “How may we be of assistance, Mr.-?” she looked at him quizzically. “I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are.”
Jose looked livid. “Aniya, I want to talk to Aniya.”
“You may come back after office hours to converse with my manager, Mr.-?” Anna looked at him, with her eyes narrowed.<
br />
“Jose Aguirre,” he said again, irritated.
“Right. Mr. Aguirre, you may return after six in the evening. We have things to do around here,” Anna told him.
“She’s already right in front of me,” he said, eyeing Aniya.
Aniya did her best not to tremble. She knew this was getting out of hand, no matter how much Anna tried to control him. She said nothing.
“Aunt Anna, what’s going on-?” someone else interrupted, and the man stopped in his tracks, seeing Jose inside the building, his family’s building. “What the hell?”
“Ah, Dante. Do you two know each other?” Anna said, eyeing her nephew.
Aniya took one step down, ready to run to Dante. Dante didn’t look at her.
“He was my college schoolmate,” Dante said coolly. “Are you here to buy a painting, Jose?”
Jose walked up to him. “I’m actually here to talk to Aniya.”
Aniya looked at Dante, and his face showed no interest in what Jose had said. Dante shrugged, and he walked up to his aunt to give her a peck on the cheek.
“Aniya, we have to talk, now,” Jose continued.
Aniya closed her eyes momentarily, not wanting to make a mess of things, not wanting to create a scene. It was the last thing she needed now, some conflict in the office, where everyone could see what was going on with her personal life.
She took a step closer, wanting to end it as amicably as she could. Everyone was agitated, waiting for the next happening. “Can we talk outside?” she said, her voice strangely hollow. It didn’t quiver, but it sounded hollow, and uninviting- she was being as civil as possible.
She saw Jose nod, much to her relief. He steered her away from the steps, grabbing her arm with surprising force. She tried to shrug his hand away. “I can walk by myself,” she hissed.
***
“Jose Aguirre,” the intruder said again, irritated. Dante stopped in his tracks, just by the door. He felt his blood boil, just hearing Jose talk. What in the hell was he doing here? And then it dawned on him…