Single Parent

Chapter 9

"Hang on, so you had sex with a damn hot woman and you both spilled your guts about the crap in your life, and then she walked out?"

"More like ran out, crying." I snapped and put the coffee on the table in front of the guys, and Meg. "And it pissed me off. I mean, honestly, she started the whole thing and then she just walked out. I felt cheap after that, like she'd just used me to prove a point to herself."

"You want to know what I think as a fellow female?" I turned to look at Meg and gestured for her to enlighten us. "She's flipping scared Nate. I mean, firstly the man who is supposed to be every girl's idol, her father, rapes her and sells her for sex, and kills her brother, the only person in her life who loves her after making him watch her get raped, and then the guy she thought was saving her from all of it, turns out to be just as bad by getting drunk and demeaning her and getting high and abusive and raping her even more, for another four years? Think about it, everyone she is supposed to trust, went beyond hurting her, and then you walk into her life, Mr Perfect, and not only save her from the boyfriend, but show her that she can be loved and is special and that scares her, because in her experience, that's just a bigger height from which she has to fall and you have to sink."

"See I think it's Sophia. I mean, for the reasons Meg just said, I think she'd be scared of taking you away from Sophia. It's pretty clear how much you love your kid, so I think she'd be freaked out, because of what she's been through that if she's in your life, you might neglect Sophia, and she is trying to protect Sophia from having a life like hers."

"I would never-" I started to scream at Mark and he held his hands up defensively. 

"I never said you would. I'm just saying that might be how Rosie was thinking. So you really felt something for her then?"

"As stupid as it sounds, I definitely think there is something worth giving a shot between us. She's amazing, she really is, and who couldn't be attracted to her? But she's right, when would I see Sophia and her? My evenings are for Sophia, so I couldn't see her then, and days are for work."

"You could see her after Sophia's bedtime. I mean, half seven isn't late really, Nate. Go for it. Damn, if any of us deserve to have a girl, it's you. Definitely not me." Mark laughed and I gave him a small smile. "I'm going to play on your Xbox." He walked off and Chris and Tom followed, already arguing over the other remote. Meg moved and sat in my lap, hugging me tightly. 

"You're hooked aren't you? One night of sex and you are completely hooked on her?"

"It wasn't like that. I just know that there is something there that is worth my time. God Meg, it felt more right than with Jamie. I never realized just how childish Jamie and I were, and how stupid one-night-stands are."

"I can't help you there. I've been with Chris since I was a kid, and I've never been with anyone else, so can't have had a one-night stand."

"Have you seriously never had sex with anyone but Chris?"

"Yeah, and I made him wait until I was seventeen too. We were getting pretty addicted to the physical side to our relationship and then you dragged him off to Texas which was probably why he was so grumpy all the time. I know that even at fifteen, he had been with quite a few girls, but I'm fine with that, he's never cheated on me, has he?"

"Never. I would be the first to tell you, and he'd be buried in the ground seconds after he did it, thanks to Tom."

"Yeah I know, I just wanted to reassure myself. I've been with one guy in my life. We were kids when we started, and as we've grown up we've changed. Most people would drift apart, but it made us closer, and when you all moved away I realized what it would be like to not have him in my life and I missed him so much that I knew I wasn't going to let him go, no matter what. So when he started getting distant and wouldn't take the next step recently, it did upset me, because all i wanted from him was some reassurance that he felt the same way, that he was as devoted to me as I am to him, and then he proposed."