The One who got Away

Sherry nodded and smiled. Suddenly, for a variety of reasons, the guilt she felt from giving Gabriel up for adoption was masked by the ultimate outcome. “Yeah, I am too.” She giggled. “Who would've thought applying for a job would lead to this?”

Darren chuckled. I have a child and didn’t even know it. “Yeah...and who thought one night of hot sex would lead to this? I’m a father… a father.”

“I have my son,” Sherry said, glancing down at the floor. A stray tear rolled down her cheek. “And didn’t even know it.”

***

Darren and Sherry went upstairs and enjoyed a nap in Darren’s bed. She was pleasantly awoken by his head as he wedged it between her legs. His tongue thrashed about, making Sherry to wake up and look down with confusion. She too wanted to take part in the festivities. As the sun descended out of the sky for the late afternoon, Sherry sat on Darren’s face. She then leaned forward and orally pleased him.

Sherry lay in bed for nearly twenty minutes after their post-nap foreplay. Darren’s phone rang, him hearing it all the way from downstairs. He rushed to answer it, held a conversation, then climbed the steps looking down into his phone’s screen. Sherry watched him approach the bedroom doorway and pause.

“Everything alright?” Sherry asked.

Darren looked up at Sherry and smiled. “Yeah, I guess.” He bit his bottom lip in thought. “You know what we could do?”

Sherry listened as Darren explained he was invited to a charity fundraiser up at the Wayne Banquet Hall and Conference Center. He knew it was a last-minute invitation, but he certainly wouldn’t mind going. Today’s events were so impacting that both he and Sherry admitted they would need time to process it – to come to grips with it being so real even though everything seemed so unreal. Darren proposed that he arrange for Gabriel to have have daycare this evening. He wanted to take Sherry to get a dress then they attend the event...as a couple. Sherry’s eyes bulged as Darren described what kind of shindig to expect. She quickly slid out of the bed then rushed into her room so she could throw on some clothes. “Sure, I’ll go… I’ll go.”

Within less than thirty minutes, Darren held the door open at Vivian’s for Sherry as they walked inside. Like most men, he gave his quick input on what he would like to see his woman wearing. He then stood back and checked over emails while Sherry worked with the staff to get the perfect dress. Price limit? There wasn’t one. Sherry stood in front of the mirror as one woman measured her waist then another one her shoulders. Watching them pull out color pallets to see what hues went best with her specific skin tone seemed unreal. Having six dresses all worth more than $2,000 each laid out in front of her and being asked, “Which one do you think you would like the most, Sherry?” wound up being liberating in ways Sherry would’ve never imagined. Usually, her budget determined what she wore. Going purely off of her preferences was something she’d never done.

Sherry almost teared up when she tried on the first dress then stood in front of the mirror. Darren had successfully arranged for the daycare to watch Gabriel into the night, so her mind could rest at ease. The two women frantically fluffed the small frills at the bottom of the dress. Not having changed anything else but how she was dressed, she looked like a totally different woman. Through the mirror, Sherry watched Darren step up behind her. He looked her up and down as if she were the Queen. Sherry smiled then her eyebrows dipped. Today had been a day that she would forever remember for the rest of her life.

Darren stood back as Sherry tried on all six dresses. He stomped his foot playfully, playing up on the stereotype that men hated to wait for a woman to try on clothes. Sherry giggled and sped up a bit to figure out which dress she wanted more. Once she finally made up her mind, Darren paid then they stepped back out into the night air. Luckily, Sherry had some white heels she’d only worn once, back before giving birth to Gabriel. Tonight, with this dress, would be a perfect time to wear them. Darren made sure Sherry knew he didn’t plan on being there into the night. “I want to get home to my family,” he said as he pulled into a parking spot downtown.

Sherry’s heart swelled with love as she unfastened her seat belt. She looked over at Darren, who finished parking, put the car into PARK, then gathered up his phone and wallet. He just said that without even thinking, Sherry thought. Suddenly, Darren’s eyes turned to Sherry’s. Sherry grabbed his baby blue tie and pulled his head over to her. They kissed, the street curving beyond a cluster of houses in the distance. The moon set in the sky, it’s glow penetrating the windows. A strong wind rushed down the narrow street as Sherry stepped out onto the sidewalk. For the rest of the block, she walked carefully with her arm wrapped around Darren’s as they pressed against the wind, laughing from the struggle but feeling like there was nobody else they would rather do it with than the other.

***

As Darren said, they didn’t spend too long at the event. He introduced Sherry to a few people then cordially played the part while being introduced to other people through Charles. The night turned out to be a blast for the both of them. Darren joked about how he should get ass-kissing lessons from his mother; Sherry’s sarcastic puns made the event all the more enjoyable. She said a few things only Darren could pick up on. Some of her eye contact said it all without having to say anything at all.

Walking back in through the foyer at home, with Gabriel in Sherry’s arms, Darren pushed the door closed. They then stepped into the living room. Darren turned on the lamp light. Gabriel had woken up during the car ride, but somehow refrained from crying. His mother and father – Sherry still teared up from just thinking about it – walked on egg shells anticipating that any moment Gabriel would start screaming at the top of his lungs. Darren joined Sherry on the couch. They looked at one another then down into Gabriel’s smiling face. Neither of them ever thought this would happen to them. And neither of them were mad it did.

Chapter 13

“Darren, really,” Sherry said, getting Gabriel’s bottle out of the microwave, “we don’t have to go anywhere. Seriously. You said you were tired, and I might be too. Gabriel was a handful today. You know he’s up more and anxious to get out of the crib. Really, we don’t have to do it tonight.”

“Yes we do, yes we do,” Darren said, nodding his head. He placed his hands on Sherry’s shoulder. “I know I had some stuff come up suddenly and all that, but when I get done with this little meeting, I still want to go out to eat then to the movies.”

Sherry smiled. She admitted to herself she had been looking forward to her first official “date” with Darren. Since finding out the DNA results a month ago, their relationship flourished even more – like flowers anxious to thrive again after a strong Spring frost. “Okay, okay,” she said, rushing back over to the high chair in the dining room. “Just let me know when you’re done. I’m about to give Gabriel this bottle then I’ll start to getting dressed.”

Darren quickly kissed Sherry on her forehead then turned around and headed for the foyer, where the head of the property management company waited. She and Darren discussed local regulations that would be changing how they handled certain disputes with tenants. Shortly after Darren saw Ms. Newman out then closed the door, his phone rang. Sherry had just gotten to the top of the steps. He stepped back into the foyer to take the call. It was his brother John – a call which coincidentally came on the same day Darren and Sherry had been talking about ways to go about telling their families. They both anticipated different reactions, and neither of them were anxious to see them. They were rather content with their secret relationship since finding out the results. Darren knew, though, that sooner or later, he would definitely have to tell his family. His mother Joan was already planning another trip down to Ft. Wayne. And this time she would be bringing his father, who still hadn’t seen Gabriel.

“Hey, wassup man?” Darren asked.

“Hey, Darren,” John said. “What you up to tonight? I was texting you yesterday, but you got busy or something.”

“Yeah,” Darren said, looking up the steps. He specifically remembered that he hadn’t been answering John’s texts was because he and Sherry had a picnic out in the backyard with Gabriel. Time slipped away; Darren enjoyed not being accessible to the outside world even if only for a few hours out of the day. “Yeah, we were out back having a picnic kind of thing, man. Sorry, but I wasn’t trying to ignore you or anything like that.”

“Oh, okay,” John said, as if he were confused. “Having a picnic out back? Who is we? You and Gabriel?”

Darren glanced back up the stairs, knowing that since sooner or later he would have to tell somebody in his family, he might as well start off by telling his brother John. Whatever his reaction was, his father’s would be twice the force; his mother ten times. “Me, Sherry, and Gabriel. Man, me and Sherry have a thing going. Well, it’s more than the thing. We found out that Gabriel is actually our child from the night be hooked up after meeting at that bar downtown.”

“What?” John said. “Dude, what the hell are you saying? It’s you all’s child? You went and adopted that child, Darren. And you hired her as a nanny. She was a bartender before this, you said.”

Darren paced around the open space in his living room as he explained the sequence of events leading up to finding out such a thing. He started with the one-night stand, which John had already been let in on, then continued on to hiring her as a nanny. He revealed the words of their mother and Aunt Carol; he talked about Sherry’s seemingly natural bond with Gabriel had his mind going crazy. “I even pulled out a picture from the photo album and Mom was right. Gabriel really does look like me...but definitely has some of Sherry in him. Dude, I can’t believe this stuff.”

Darren finished up by talking about how he and Sherry had gone to get DNA testing done. He was the father to Gabriel, and Sherry was the birth mother. By the time he finished with the story, he’d been sitting down in the foyer. Sherry called down saying that she was getting dressed. Gabriel’s baby bag was already prepared, sitting at the bottom of the steps. Darren got up to pull the bag closer to the door. Dressed in brown pants and a button-up w

hite shirt, he made his way down the hallway and turned into the kitchen. John opened up about how he felt about the situation.