“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said. “I think you’re getting a little far ahead of yourself here. School? After school activities? This is years down the road. Even birthday parties. Kids don’t remember their parties till they’re at least five, maybe six. And I never had a big birthday party growing up, and I turned out fine.”
She gave me a look that strongly suggested she thought otherwise.
“You asked me what I was hoping for, and I’m telling you.”
“Okay,” I said. “So that’s co-parenting. What’s parallel parenting?”
“That’s basically where we both do our own thing. We may communicate once in a while, but when the child is with you, he’s with you, when he’s with me, he’s with me.”
“He? Did the doctor tell you it’s going to be a boy, too?”
“It’s still too early to tell. Though I did find out they can tell you at around ten weeks, if you do this blood test. Do you want to find out?”
“No,” I said.
And I didn’t want to be a parent, either. Not a co-parent, not a parallel parent, not any parent. Parents might be the ones to give you life, but they could also royally fuck you over. My mother had by marrying Pete; then Pete had by being such a dick.
“I wouldn’t mind if you came to some of the doctor appointments,” Annie said. “It might help, especially if you had any questions.”
“The only question I have is why this is happening, but I suppose I already know the answer to that,” I said. I rubbed my hand over my eyes. “And you had mentioned something about child support. I’d actually rather avoid having to go to court. It’d be nice if we could handle things ourselves, don’t you think?”
“Of course I do. That’s what I’ve been hoping for.”
“Okay. Well. I don’t know what the going rate for child support is, but I’m sure we can figure something out.” I was trying to sound as upbeat as I could, though the whole thing was really making me feel a little nauseous.
“We can figure that out,” Annie said. “As the time gets closer.”
“Right. I mean, you probably don’t need much right away, when it’s so tiny and everything.”
“I won’
t be working.”
“You mean at first?”
“Yeah, at first. Who is going to take care of the baby? You? Are you going to be here to get up in the middle of the night with it to feed it and change diapers? No, I highly doubt it. So yes, of course I’m going to be taking time off.”
“Isn’t that what they have daycares for?”
“Do you know how expensive daycare is?”
“I have no clue.”
“It’s probably a lot more than I would ever ask of you. Maybe you should look into it.”
“I really have no desire to look into how much daycare costs.” I stood up. “I’ve got to get going. I’m supposed to meet someone, and I’m already late as it is.”
She gave me a poisonous look. “Who? Your new secretary?”
I tried to keep my face impassive. “It’s not really any of your concern.”
“I knew it. You’re probably banging her, too, aren’t you? Well, there’s no way in hell she fucks you as good as I did, I know that. Are you going to get her pregnant too? You’re going to go bankrupt with all of the child support you’re going to have to pay.”
“I’ll see you later,” I said, walking out of the living room. Christ, I couldn’t get out of their fast enough. Part of me was expecting her to come running down the hall after me, but she didn’t. I made it out of the apartment and pulled the door shut firmly behind me, letting out a breath as I did so.
Still, I was fucked, that much was clear. It seemed pretty messed up to be bringing a child into the world when the parents disliked each other this much already, but there were probably plenty of people who had been born to parents who weren’t each other’s biggest fans, yours truly included. And I supposed I turned out okay.
It was a lot later than I wanted it to be when I finally got to Failte. All I wanted was to see Daisy; I knew that getting to see her smiling face would be the one thing that would help melt some of this stress away. The bar was pretty crowded when I got there, and I scanned the room, looking for her. I didn’t see her, but my eyes landed on Billy McAllister, of course. He waved and signaled for me to come over. I walked over, but only because I was hoping he’d be able to tell me if he’d seen Daisy or not.