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-Chapter Three-
(Catching Young Daddy)
"So it's like a babysitting center?" Andy grunted, "Tina, can you stop moving?"
"No!" Tina, one of the children Andrea's class was currently babysitting, had declared Andy to be her new best friend as he was the only one here who wore a purple shirt. Apparently for a kid, it's a good enough reason to be friend with a total stranger, although Andy wouldn't kidnap her but still. Tina jumped into his arms the second he was inside the napping room and refused to let him go, so for the past forty minutes Andy had been supporting Tina under her bottom while Andrea giving him the grand tour of her little house of babysitting.
Andy had a hard time hearing the words coming out from his sister's mouth when she was giving him the essentials of how the whole programme ran. They passed from room to room, without pausing for a moment to allow Andy to take in what's going on, he felt like Andrea was way too excited of him working here.
After Andy had signed the paper and Sandy ran for her life, Andrea gestured the big room in front of them was the waiting area, thus the four rows of colorful chairs. His eyes lingered on the hand-carved molding and sponge-painted walls. Andrea then brought him to the first room behind the front counter. Andy recalled it was the emergency room, he barely noticed the heap of medical supplies stacking in boxes on the floor and the single white bed in the middle as he was dragged by the arm. They moved along to the pink door right next to the emergency room, the name of Andrienne Walker in italic engraved on the door explained everything.
Next was the dining room, Andrea called it the Wonderland. Inside, thousands of sugarcane lamps were hanging down from the ceiling and underneath all that was a pile of lollipop-shaped chairs and chocolate chips tables. The brightly colored kitchen at the back of the room was where Sandy prepared the food of the day. The napping room where Tina attacked Andy was situated between Wonderland and the playroom. It was painted in black velvety like the night and Andy gaped at how perfectly arranged the glow-in-the-dark wall stickers of planets and stars were.
And finally, finally, the playroom.
"Tina always naps longer than the others, the rest are already in the playroom," Andy moved forward but Andrea held a hand out to stop him, "I have to warn you that some of the kids were... special."
Andy rolled his eyes and put Tina down on the ground as she quickly scurried off into the playroom.
"What? They fly and spit fire?" When Andrea didn't bat an eye at him, he quickly shut up and nodded curtly. They were about to open the door when a loud screaming pierced through the air and like a switch had been set off, more wailing broke out in agony and some of them were really deafening. Andrea rushed in with Andy following her from behind, he didn't see anything until Andrea dodged to the left.
Andy didn't have good reflex, so when he saw Transformer flying at him, he just stood there as if he had accepted his fate. Pain exploded at the corner of his right eyes and Andy's hand was already there to ease the throbbing ache away. The screaming didn't help with the pain a bit, causing his headache to amplify ten folds.
"Don't throw Snow White!" Andy picked up Tina's cry among the noise, thanking Tina's warning mentally, Andy quickly moved out the doorway just as Snow White smashed her head on the wall. Andy was moving to his far right when he stumbled, his left leg suddenly trapped in the arms of legs of a boy, this one not crying but looking at him with his teary eyes. To avoid the outburst Andy knew he would cause, he plucked the boy off his leg and wrapped his small body with his arms. He hugged him tight as the boy sobbed softly into his ear. Andy rubbed his hand down the boy's back, rocking him and finally registering the scene in front of him.
Andrea was standing in front of a girl, she looked around three and she was throwing a tantrum on one of the plastic tables. She had swiped everything off in a clatter of crayons and papers. Two kids, two girls, both of them were busy wailing at the edge of the table. There're a boy cowering in the corner with his hands over his head, and Andy was glad that at least he weren't crying.
"Stop acting like a baby, Alex!" Tina, obviously the big sister of all, was standing next to Andrea with her little fists sticking to her sides. The thing about Alex that questioned Andy was she had a buzz cut and not a pixie cut like Tina or long hair like the rest of the girls. The blue tutu she was wearing was messy like someone had cut it, leaving her tight jeans exposed.
"I hate this!" Andy was taken aback when Alex started to tear up the tutu on her own until Andrea held a grip on the two little hands. She was fighting against Andrea's hands, wanting to yank back her own hands. Andrea was whispering too softy for Andy to hear, gently releasing her hands on Alex's.
Alex's head snapped up, eyes wide and cheek ruddy as she stared up at her. "Really?" she whispered, as if afraid Andrea was lying. Andrea reassured her with a nod and Alex sniffed again with a moan of, "okay." To Andy's surprise, Andrea helped Alex to get down from the table and Alex was asking the two crying girls if she wanted to accompany her to Wonderland. Instantly the wailing stopped to just a few hiccups of sobs and the three of them were already walking out of the door.
Andrea kneeled down next to Tina, "wanna help them out?" Andy smirked at Tina's serious face, guessing Tina was having a battle inside of her small head. Undoubtedly, Tina followed Alex and the two girls to Wonderland and she didn't forget to give a scandalized look at Andy that might have said 'you wait here, this is the job for a woman'.
"I wawt'na to go too," Andy almost forgot about the boy in his arms if he didn't whine out a protest.
"You wanna go too, buddy?" A pair of bright emerald eyes stared back at him, sniffing and whining with a small yes. Andrea walked to him and took the boy into her arms, facing directly at the forgotten boy in the corner.
"I'll take Danny, could you go talk to Leo for me? Be gentle, Andy. Don't be loud and stupid, especially stupid."
With that out of her mind, she took Danny to Wonderland and left Andy dealing with a sobbing two-year-old.
Andy headed to him and squatted in front of him, Andy swore he saw Leo cringed at his presence and the whimpering was getting louder. Dread filling Andy's stomach as he thought he had done something bad to make a kid afraid of him. He wanted to touch Leo but decided to go against it, the way Leo was inching away from him was clear as crystal he wasn't comfortable around stranger. Andy was debating what to say when Leo's hands remove from his head.
"I di'in't do it," Leo proclaimed softly, finally looking up at Andy with the pair of most beautiful eyes had ever seen. They had two mismatched colors, one green and one blue. Other people might freak out a little bit but Andy actually found them very enchanting. Leo has a mop of golden hair that hid away his eyes but Andy couldn't contain himself as he brushed away the fallen hair to reveal them.
"Come here, buddy," Andy said and sat back on the ground, sitting in Indian style and motioning Leo to jump into his arms. Leo was wary but Andy soon found Leo heading his way, he got a hand under Leo's arm to lift into his crossed legs and set him on his thigh. Andy wiped the tears on Leo's cheeks with his thumbs, rocking her slightly and saying, "I know you didn't do it. But what happened?"
Leo fidgeted, pouting and huffing like he was trying to remember the incident earlier or rather on how to explain to Andy. After a second, he whined and rubbed his face at Andy's shoulder before resting his head completely on it, "Tina says Alex has pretty dress. Tina's bad. Alex's dress not pretty. Alex angry and dun wan dress anymore. A-and..."
Leo yawned and quickly fell asleep on Andy's shoulder, two tiny hands clutching at Andy's shirt. Andy was getting a headache from the mind-gearing he was having, either Leo was lying or Alex really hated the dress. Moaning at the ringing of his ears, Andy decided to let it go and enjoyed the snoring of a two-year-old.
Andy might be clueless in Child Care 101, but he always had been family-oriented. He dreamt of having one or two children of his own, living in a nice suburban house with the love of his life. He always wanted to have kids in the future, he thought of taking them out shopping for toys or having a squeaky bath with them. Even though taking care of a child meant a lot more than just shopping for toys, Andy knew he could it if he put his heart on it. With Leo being the living proof of his good skill, his parenthood dream might not be a complete failure yet.
"Alex is going through a phase."
Andrea entered the room alone, closing the door quietly behind her she made a beeline toward the mess on the floor, cleaning everything up and put them back on the table. For Andy, it's rare to see his sister to be this tired and emotional, she's always this fun chick that liked to invite herself in people's houses. Andrea was different here and it worried Andy if it was a good idea to start this center the first place.
Andrea tucked a loose strand over her ear, caressing Leo's hair while sitting in front of them.
"Alex," Andrea began awkwardly, "when her father brought her over she was quiet. She didn't talk, eat or nap until one day Tina caught her cutting up her skirt, Alex was crying at that time. I didn't have any sharp objects that might harm the kids but seeing the scissors on her hand terrified me. She kept screaming, kicking and punching and when she finally settled down, she told me she didn't want to be a girl. I talked about it with her father but he just told me that Alex did it for attention and the behavior was not encouraged in any way, that it's a phase. Everytime her father dresses her, she would tear them apart here."
In that moment, Andy caught a glimpse of the Andrea two years ago, the mother who lost her daughter. Andy rather not said anything because it was still too vivid and it pained him just thinking about it.
"And you don't think it's a phase."
"No, I really don't." Andrea
Before Andy could try to reassure she was right, the kids were coming back. He took a look at Alex, the skirt was gone and she looked completely like a boy now. He doubted that Alex was really acting out for attention. Andy had seen enough articles about this kind of stuff to know that the way Alex's behaving, it's definitely not a phase. Andy had gone through his fair share of bullshit, having people telling him that being gay was a phase, that's wrong to begin with.
How Andy despised narrow-minded people.
Andy stood up abruptly, making sure he didn't move too quickly to wake Leo up. The kids were heading for the toy bins when Andy announced they're going to play a game. Andrea was surprised to see his brother walking to the toy bin and picking up crowns and swords. Andy kneeled down next to Alex, handing him the sword.
"Wanna be the prince?"
Alex's face lit up with excitement, looking like her world had been lifted. Alex squeaked incredulously, jumping up and down so fast she nearly knocked Andy on the chin. Andy laughed, nodding and then handing the blue sword to her. Then he turned to Danny, "and you would be the knight, do you want to Danny?" Danny took the red sword in his hands shyly, running away with Alex to Andrea as he watched Alex talked about how she was going to be the bravest prince and Danny's going to her trusty knight.
"Girls," Andy held out the pinks crowns at each of the three girls, "do me a favor and be beautiful princesses?"
"I guess so," Tina rolled her eyes, taking the first one in his hands, "only because I would be the best princess there is."
"Yes, your majesty." Andy snickered and handed the rest to the other girls (later Andy learned the shorter one was Amy and the blonde one was Patricia.)
"And what you gonna be?" Leo spoke up near his ear, he stared up at Andy with wide, curious mismatched eyes.
Andy shot a wicked grin at all of them, with Andrea laughing at the back of the room.
"I'm the dragon."
And everybody started screaming.
So that's how, three hours later, Andy found himself playing castle in the playroom with a fort made out pillows (from the napping room) with three princesses flailing in despair, one prince and one knight battling the dragon and she-beast (Andrea was not happy about that.) As for young Leo, he was the sleeping prince in the clutches of the dragon while Alex swung around the sword at the dragon trying to rescue Prince Leo with a battle cry fierce enough to rival Xena herself.
And, obviously, the prince and the knight won and the young prince and the princesses were finally rescued. It was 7 in the evening and way past their nap time, Andre had to bribe everyone -except Leo- to nap before the night class.
"What night class? It's that what the door for?" Andy had noticed a bright green door during the tour, the only one Andrea didn't bother to tell him.
"You'll see." Andy scrutinized his sister, he didn't like the sound of that. Andy didn't like this mystery vibe he was feeling, that right there was a big ball of suspense. Mystery sucked, Andy hated mystery. He definitely hated all of these unknowns his sister had been keeping from him until today, if he didn't lose his job he wouldn't have realized his sister was this mysterious.
"So what gives? The kids, this building." They were now sitting in Andrea's office. The room was what Andy had expected, he knew his sister too much that it scared him. It was painted in light pink with a dash of glitters here and there, old Victorian style windows and curtains with pots of cactuses lining along the edges. The table looked expensive, the chair looked even more expensive, the damned lamp definitely the most expensive. Andy slid his finger over the surface, making a face when there's not even a hint of dust in this old building.
Neat freak.
"I'm afraid I do not know what you're talking about." Andrea opened up a few documents in front of her and started to write, from the look of it Andrea must be doing her taxes.
"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. This," Andy gestured wildly around him, "this old building, the kids, this babysitting center-"
"Bad word choice."
"Which one? Old? Kids? Babysitting?"
"That one," Andrea gave up fiddling the pen and looked up, raising a brow at Andy. Andy scoffed and leaned back against the chair, it's very uncomfortable because of the weird pointy ends near the shoulders.
"This feels like a babysitting center. The kids arrive here, you take care of them, you feed them, you nap them, you play with them, then they go home to their parents and you get paid. The only question is I don't know how a babysitting center helps you to pay for your Chanel and Gucci. Oh god, is that my baby picture?" Andy sat up and snatched the metal frama on the table, completely horrified at his own naked youth looking right back at him with his eyes. He couldn't believe his sister would put this in his office where everyone would have seen it, Andy glared at her when Andrea took it back.
"Because it's not a babysitting center, haven't you seen the sign?"
"Yeah, even the irony behind. Why daddy though and not Hey, Parents who work too much to take care of their own kids and decide to I don't know let a total stranger to do it for you. Yeah, peachy fine sign you got there. And what's with the Cheer Up, it sounds extremely British if you ask me."
"No wonder you got fired, you're too sarcastic for your own good."
"What can I say, I'm an one hit wonder."
"Just read your pamphlet, I'm going to check on the kids." Andrea closed all of her documents and put them back inside the metal box beside her, messing up Andy's hair when she walked past him. Andy forgot about the pink pamphlet Sandy had given him earlier, he shoved a hand inside his back pocket and retrieved the crumpled paper, using the edge of the table to smoothen the pamphlet, Andy started to read.
"Cheer Up, Daddy!" is a daddy programme that helps single fathers who didn't know they have a very productive one-night-stand until the mothers left the babies on their doormats. We are not a babysitting center but a respected service to help daddies to learn more about their children and the proper way of taking care of them.
Children are to love and every child deserves a beautiful home. If you're looking for a way to redeem yourself as a father for your child/children, we would very like to assist you on that journey.
If interest, please call 1 488-654-1155 to book a walk-in interview, do bring along your child/children. We accept calls at any hour and we would like to see you soon.
Please note that we only give out unmarried daddy's training and not parents' training, if you're looking for that, you two are really messed up.
Andy cracked up at the last part, he was betting his money on Sandy's words but until he saw the bit, he pretty sure Andrea was the one who typed this. Andy stood up quickly and headed out the office, he needed to hug Andrea for having such brilliant idea.
"So you're telling me, out of any possible business you can open in New York City, you started a programme to help single horny fathers of all ages to learn how to take care of their children by charging them insanely amouth of cash. Woah, you are one nasty-"
That, of course, was when the fathers had already arrived for the night class and all Andy could do was gape and listen to the increasing thumps of his heart.
Sweet baby Jesus.
"Andy, these are the fathers of the kids. This is Andy, my brother and also the new daddy counselor I've told you guys about. Don't worry, the kids like him very much."
Andy knew a lot of hot guys, he had slept with a bunch of them actually. But this was different, it was a whole new territory and he felt like he was steppping into a mine field. The guys he knew from the loungue was gay hot, Andy himself was considered as gay hot. Here, right here in this sudden airless waiting area was a whole lot of straight hot. He could handle one hot straight man, but not a bunch of very straight and single men. He tried not to stare, but it was difficult when everyone of them were staring at him.
Shuddering, Andy bit back the urge to dry heave and run the hell away, pulling an awkward grin on his face. Just when he thought he's going to die, it was like a sudden surround sound when all of the kids screamed, "Daddy!" at the tops of their lungs. Their tiny feet thundered across the waiting room towards their fathers.
Andy stood here and thought, what could possibly be more embarassing than freezing in front of a couple of straight guys? Having a boner at the image of fathers hugging their children like they were the most precious thing ever. Thanking God Andrea was now standing beside him, he tugged his hem of his jacket over his embarassing boner. Andrea gave a scandalized look like Tina gave earlier, knowing exactly what Andy was thinking about.
"I know right? It always feels like Christmas had been brought months early, and you wonder why I started this programme." Andrea scoffed and cat-grinned at Andy, "you want me to tell you about these fine gentlemen?"
"God yes, my body is so ready."
Andrea pointed at Tina's father first, obviously his sister knew him better than anyone. The man was exactly Alex's type, young and adorable. He was blowing rasberry at Tina's belly even though she was doing her best not to laugh, cooing at her and treating her like a baby. He had a mop of black curly hair sprouting out under his NYC cap, his brown eyes seemed to be sparkling too when he laughed at Tina's joke. With his sun-kissed tan exposed by his green singlet and short beach shorts, his arms were as muscular as his legs. Andy was feeling a tingle in his heart.
"Ryan Pascal, twenty-year-old, signed up last year after the girl he knocked up in a frat party showed up with Tina. Part-time bartender in MacJournal's pub, part-time student in Brookyln College. He has everything you want in a man, aside of the looks, his personality is the golden ticket. He's utterly hilarious, nice and very flirty."
"And very straight," Andy frowned, he fitted the role of a ladies man.
"Continue," Andrea switched Andy's focus on Amy's dad and Patrica's dad. Both of them were dressed in the same green uniforms. Tall, dark and handsome like your typical romance novel's hero, they were talking at each other with their daughters sitting on their laps. Amy's dad looked younger with his black hair brushed away from his face to reveal a pair of blue eyes. Patrica's dad looked at lot older, maybe over thirty. He had the same blonde hair as Patrica's, a tiniest bit hunkier than Amy's dad too.
"Paul and George Simmons. Brothers and divorced twice each, both of them share the same bad luck with women. Paul is the youngest and George is the oldest, they have a family business uptown, an Italian restaurant. Paul mumbles a lot when he's nervous, his brother on the other hand, a complete asshole. Boring and normal-ish, move along."
Andy was taking a liking in George but when he heard the word 'asshole', his desire diminished to zero. Andrea introduced Danny's dad next, he's the type of people that looked like he cooped up in the house with no social life, at least for Andy's opinion. He wore a plaid button-down tucked inside a dark brown trousers, he didn't even bother to match it up with something nicer but a pair of white sneakers. His hair was sticking out everywhere in a mess and he looked like he forgot to shave in the morning, a frameless glasses balancing on his nose. Danny was whispering something in his ear, but he just nodded along. Still, he's crazily good-looking, especially with the glasses.
"Randy Stone. A 32-year-old freelance writer, he always looks this tired by the way. It's weird to actually look this good in such dull clothings, besides, he's a real romantic. His books are the dreams of every woman. Sadly, even though he writes like he knows us, he can't date one without boring them to death. Don't touch this one though, he's mine."
Andy pouted, he liked some nerdy love. He always fancied sexy nerds, they reminded him of Superman. Andy would like the sound of that.
"Up next was Leo's father, and you probably know him already."
One of the reasons why Andy was gaping earlier because he was shock to see the famous actor, Nick Josse in the room. Nick Josse starred in the most badass movies like Reload Gun and Transcript, he just won an Oscar a year ago and Andy couldn't believe he's breathing the same air as Nick Josse. The son of an Oscar-winning actor had slept on his shoulder and he simply couldn't control his urge to ask for an autograph. He's a 6'1 Adonis with porcelain skin, electrifying blue eyes, chiseled body, pillow-top lips and legs for arms. Andy swore his heart was going to jump put from his ribcage because the image of Leo sleeping in his arms was beautiful.
"Stop drooling, he's just an actor."
"Oscar-winning actor." Andy wanted to shake Andrea to emphasize his point, she was actually just excited as Andy though, but she was used to Nick Josse coming to her class.
"Last but not least, Finn Trevon. The douche I was talking about."
Andy actually recognized Finn Trevon, he met him in one of his coference meeting. He was the head director of his Marketing department, and from Andy heard from the others, Finn was a very mysterious and cool person. He dressed in his usual sharp black suit, briefcase near his feet while he was holding Alex in a way like she weighed nothing. His deep blue eyes was fixated on Alex, responsing absolutely nothing but a few of his occasional nods. Even his face was unexpressive, he did listen to Alex's whines about having to nap twice in a day when she could be playing more games. Andy wasn't sure if Finn recognized him from work, he's just a young worker who never seemed to get the right meeting room.
"So that's that, what do you think?" Andrea asked and smoothen the wrinkles of her flower-printed dress.
"It's like a reality game of catching the hot daddy."
"Yup, sexy, single and definitely vulnerable. Pick one, Andy. The frat boy, the shy one, the asshole, the romantic writer, the Oscar-winning actor, and the cold-hearted one, everyone of them is ready to mingle and try something new."
"You sound thirsty and I thought the writer's yours."
"I'm willing to share." Andrea winked and moved away to talk to the fathers about starting the class now.
Andy knew this was crazy, picking up straight guys like they were groceries. Andy had never fallen in love with a straight guy ever, he'd seen those hopeless cases of gay men falling in love with straight men, blaming on the unrequited love shit. Andy barely could keep a relationship with a gay guy and what stood the chance of him being with a straight guy? A bigger part of him wanted to take the risk, take the leap of faith and pick one, Andy thought what else could he lose to? A slap across the face that's what, but it might be worth the try. Nah, Andy decided not to jump into Andrea's trap.
But what if you could, Andy's devil whispered mentally to himself, let's say you could to pick one, just out of curiousity, who would you choose?'
I guess I have to choose...
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Cliffhanger or is it moving too fast?
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