“Man, I can’t freakin’ believe this,” John said, rather sternly. “You cannot be serious, man. You banged some bartender one of the nights you were in town and got her pregnant? Didn’t ever find out about it. Then you move there, adopt a kid, then hire a nanny and it happens to be her.” He groaned. “And now, come to find out by some freaky coincidence, she happens to be the mother who gave the kid up and you’re the dad? Man, am I getting this right?”
Darren stood just inside of the kitchen and stared off into the distance, blankly. Gabriel, who’d been making laughing noises while smearing some kind of sauce around on his high-chair table, faded into the background. The positivity Darren had been riding on since he and Sherry came back from getting the results suddenly dimmed. He picked up on his brother’s discontent. “John, man… What are you saying? What are you trying to say?”
“I’m not trying to say anything,” John said. “I’m only saying that it sounds like you’ve gone off and done some dumb stuff….like you always have. It would always be you. You know after a while, that chick is going to start thinking and probably take you for everything you got.”
Darren’s heart thumped in his chest as he took in his brother’s words. In some ways, it was hard to believe and to hear coming from him. After all, his very own brother had been the main person saying that considering marriage wasn’t a bad thing. Instantly, Darren recalled sitting across from his brother in the winery and how much of their conversation centered around the idea of getting married. And now he was talking like this? Sure, his relationship with Sherry hadn’t exactly started off in the most conventional way, but he certainly didn’t have any regrets about it. Darren approached the high chair and forced a smile at Gabriel, sticking his finger into the baby’s tiny fist.
“Man, you know that’s how I was thinking,” Darren said. “But this...this...man, this is something different.”
“You don’t even know her like that,” John scolded. “So now what? You think you’re going to go and have a nice little family with this woman. Is that what you’re thinking, Darren? Really, man, I hope you’re not that stupid. Look at why she’s there...how she even came across her son to begin with.”
“Huh? What do you mean, John?” Darren asked. “Man, why don’t you just come out and say what you have to say.”
“What I’m saying is,” John started, “that I think you’re crazy if you think this is the woman you’re going to marry. Did she even try to reach out to you when she found out she was pregnant? You said that she admitted to getting pregnant shortly after you guys hooked up.”
Darren resented John’s insinuations toward Sherry, who he didn’t even know himself. “Man, well, no. I know I gave her my card and stuff, but maybe she lost it. She went through some hard times and has been trying to get back on her feet.”
“Hmm, hmm,” John said. “Well, now she’s definitely found her meal ticket. Look man, I don’t think you should be trying to go any further with this chick and build anything with her. I mean, look at the situation. She gave up her child for adoption, to wind up only God knows where, and didn’t even bother to try to get in touch with any of the possible fathers, it sounds like. Then, she applies for a job as a nanny and just so happens to find her child. Before this job, was she even looking for him?”
“Man, Sherry’s really been through a lot,” Darren said to his brother. “I know she’s made some mistakes, but man, when I look at her everyday with Gabriel, I know how she feels. You should see the way she looks into his eyes. You should’ve seen the way she came to me and confessed that for days she’d been thinking Gabriel could be the baby boy she’d given up for adoption. It eats her heart up, trust me.”
“Darren, see here you go,” John said. “Making excuses again about somebody who clearly isn’t in your best interest.”
“In my best interest?” Darren asked. His nostrils flared. “Man, I’m an adult and just because you’re finally happily married after two failed attempts,” he coughed, “doesn’t suddenly make you some kind of relationship guru, man. Seriously, I was just thinking that I should let my big brother know.”
“Man, you need to be careful,” John warned. “Sometimes, you do things like you’re not a man of means. You know women target us more. And now that she knows she is the mother, she might start playing certain games. Darren, it’s not like this chick has anything to lose.”
Darren balled his fist and paced around the kitchen. He’d done practically three laps around the island. At times, he looked up toward the ceiling while presenting his defense; other times he leaned over the island, struggling to believe the level of anxiety and suspicion his brother John threw over Sherry’s name. Darren had just been about to open his mouth when he heard Sherry step off of the last step in the foyer. Tonight would be their first official date night...and Darren wasn’t going to let his judgmental brother ruin it. The bond between he and Sherry was something probably nobody else in the world would ever understand. After all, the circumstances under which the two met one another were unlike any to probably ever happen anywhere in the world.
“So, have you told Mom and Dad, Darren?” John asked after finishing part of his rant. “You know Mom is going to flip. You have a...a baby-mama.”
Darren slammed his palm onto the kitchen counter, grinding his teeth. Soon enough, he realized he had nothing more to say to John. He held the phone away from his face, looked at the screen, then pressed END CALL. The screen went dark as he pressed the phone down into his pocket.
Sherry approached the kitchen doorway. “Everything okay?” She noticed Darren looked a bit flustered.
Darren nodded then smiled. He looked into Sherry’s eyes – into the eyes of the first woman in a long time to really steal his heart and hold it delicately in her hands. “Yeah, everything is just fine.” He walked over to her and kissed her softly on her lips. “Really, just fine.”
Together, they pulled Gabriel out of his seat. Darren carried the bag and called the daycare to make sure the staff would be ready for Gabriel when they arrived as they headed out the door. Within twenty minutes, they had dropped Gabriel off. Fifteen minutes after that, Darren pulled his MKZ up in front of Valentina’s, an Italian restaurant in a hip, cultural neighborhood. Little did his brother John know, much less Sherry, Darren had been giving some serious thought to his relationship with Sherry since finding out the results. Whatever it was about her laid his anxieties about marriage to rest. Taking the risks that come with marriage? Sherry sure seemed like a good bet.
Sherry glanced over at Darren when he pulled into the parking spot. Life seemed so different now...in ways she just couldn’t come to grips with and understand. The way Darren looked at her made her heart melt. Even though they came from two different worlds, their souls seemed to beat to the same music. There were moments Sherry would have to sit in the small sitting room attached to the master bedroom and think about what kind of dream she’d been living in. Now, she had the chance to be with the baby she gave up for adoption and look into his eyes everyday. Darren, his father and her boss, strangely, turned out to be everything she ever wanted in a man.
As they walked down the block to the restaurant, Sherry’s glanced at her reflection in closed-up, dark storefront windows. She couldn’t help but to smile. Who would’ve thought this would ever be me? Walking down the street, going to some Italian restaurant, arm in arm with a man like Darren with Gabriel being presented with a life that would’ve been out of reach for herself. Pushing through emotions only a woman wasn’t easy, but she was moving passed it. Sherry held her head high as she stepped into the restaurant, Darren holding the door. I just gotta focus on looking forward...not behind.
***
“Oh God, you cannot be serious,” Darren said, shaking his head as he and Sherry stepped back out into the night air. “Sherry, I don’t know about that.”
“No, seriously, Darren,” Sherry said, wishing Darren would take her seriously. “That’s something I really wanna do. Seriously. Ever since I was like a teenager, I wanted to drive all the way to Alaska.”
Darren rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Yeah, well, not me. I didn’t even like driving from Chicago to here. It was so flat and boring. So many corn fields. It’s amazing corn isn’t free in Indiana. There’s so much of it.”
Sherry playfully shoved Darren toward the curb and laughed.
“Hold up, are you trying to kill me?” Darren asked, smiling. “Look at how women treat men. I take you out to a nice dinner then we get outside and you’re trying to push me out into the street.”
“Oh calm down,” Sherry said, wrapping her arm around Darren’s arm. “And don’t go trying to change the subject. Seriously, you asked me what is one thing I’ve always wanted to do...and that one this is drive to Alaska.” She took a deep breath and smiled, tilting her eyes up toward the starry night sky. “Just imagine what you would see. The different cities you would pass through...the mountains, the lakes. Maybe even stop by Yellow Stone or Mount Rushmore or something like that.”
“You’re crazy,” Darren said. “When I think about a drive like that, I think about all the dead zones where you won’t be able to use your cell phone. Going through all those areas of nothing...just nothing and nothing and nothing and more nothing, mile after mile after mile.”