“I’m giving him as much of a proper life as I can”, Dante says. “He’s got everything he needs. I pay for the house, his education, your health care. He’s got toys, clothes, safety and security. You wouldn’t be able to provide any of that for him on your own.”
“He doesn’t have a father”, Tess says, as though the point is so obvious she shouldn’t have to mention it to him.
“That’s not my role anymore”, Dante says.
Tess is shocked. “Not your role? That’s your two year old boy lying there on the ground in front of you and you’re telling me that’s not your role. Please.”
“It’s not my role”, Dante says again.
“Why are you here then?” Tess asks. “To say goodbye?”
“No”, Dante says. “I don’t want that.”
“Then what. You can’t have your cake and eat it, Dante.”
“I’ve moved on Tess, I think you should too.”
“This is a goodbye isn’t it?”
“It’s not a goodbye”, Dante says.
“Six months ago, when I last saw you, you said things were going to change. You said you’d make more time. You said, you’d be here for him.”
“I am here for him.”
“Here, Dante”, Tess says, raising her voice now. “Here in LA. Here by his side. Here like a father should be.”
Dante takes a moment to sip his coffee. Tess hasn’t carried motherhood well and in the harsh artificial light of the coffee shop, he notices it now. She’s still beautiful, of course, but she looks tired, as though exhausted just by her daily life requirements. Dante finds himself thinking about Sash. He knows what she is doing, because he’s paid someone to watch her. He knows how much she’s spending, and what she’s spending it on, because every evening in his hotel room, he double checks the account. Everything is under control, and that pleases him greatly. She’s passing the test. She’s proving she’s capable of fulfilling her role. If Oliver had her genes, he’d be even more handsome than he is now. He’d be theirs.
“Are you dating?” Dante asks.
“Dating? Are you serious?”
“I can’t be the person you want me to be, Tess. I love Oliver and I want to be part of his life, but I can’t be here with you, not in the way you want me to.”
“I’m giving you a chance, Dante. I’m giving you an opportunity to make amends, before he gets too old and before you regret it.”
Dante sighs, “And you and me?”
“We had something, we still can”, Tess says.
“We had a month together”, Dante says. “Not even that. You said it yourself, we were never together properly.”
“I still have feelings for you”, Tess confesses. “We can make it work.”
“I’ve moved on, Tess”, Dante says. “I thought you knew that.”
“From your boy? From your own flesh and blood?”
They pause while a waiter picks an inappropriate moment to clear the empty cups and saucers from the table, taking a ridiculously long time to do so. When he has finally finished, taking specific care to ask if they might care for anything else while they are here, listing today’s specials as per the requirement of his job, Tess sits back in her seat, exhausted by the conversation.
When she looks over to the floor again, Oliver is no longer lying there. She panics, her heart leaping in her chest, as she twists in her seat to scan the cafe, desperate to find him. Unable to see him, she rising quickly and calls out.
“Oliver.”
“Tess”, Dante says, but she’s already on her feet.
“Oliver!”
Bemused dinners watch her with suspicious concern. She goes to the counter to look behind it. She drops to her knees to check under the tables. She rushes to the restrooms and pushes the cubicle doors and finally, when she still hasn’t located him, she runs outside and stands in the middle of the pavement, looking hurriedly left and right.
When she gets back to her table, ready to phone the police, Oliver is there and in Dante’s arms. She breathes a huge sigh of relief, and then can’t help but break down into tears. She sweeps the boys hair from his eyes and kisses his forehead. Oliver has no idea what’s just happened. In his hands, he plays with an expensive toy car, trying to open the doors and get inside it.
“Where was he?” Tess says, as though accusing Dante of hiding him in the first place.
“Behind my chair apparently”, Dante says calmly. “I guess he was playing a game.”
Tess sits down with the boy and hugs him tightly. “Losing a child is not a game”, Tess says angrily.
“Tess, calm down. He’s here now. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Never hide from Mommy”, Tess says to the boy. “Do you understand?” Mommy was worried, she didn’t know where you were.”
Oliver nods, the look on his face an indication he knows he’s done something wrong.
Dante wants to say something but he thinks better of it. When Tess’s pulse has slowed sufficiently, she regards Dante again.
“I’ll fight you Dante”, she says, “you know I will. You turn your back on him now, don’t expect to be able to come back whenever you feel like it.”
“You think that’s necessary, Tess?” Dante asks.
“I’m not the one doing it, you are”, she says. “I’m giving you a chance to be part of this boy’s life. It’s all or nothing.”
“All or nothing?” Dante repeats.
“He deserves better”, Tess says, “And you don’t deserve him at all.”
“That’s not for you to decide”, Dante says.
“No?”, Tess says bitterly. “I guess we’ll see won’t we, when someone else comes along and that person fits so perfectly into our lives that Oliver forgets about who his real father is. What are you going to do then, huh? Because there is no way I’m letting you sweep in like this and expect to see him at a moment’s notice. Over my dead body.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that”, Dante says, and it’s unclear what he’s referring to.
Tess shakes her head. “I should never have come.”
“Why did you?”
“For Oliver, why do you think?”
“Yeah, right”, Tess says. “This isn’t a goodbye for you? Well maybe it is for me.”
“You think that’s what Oliver wants?”
“Don’t emotionally blackmail me”, Tess says. “I’ve had enough of it.”
“The clothes, the presents, the house, the car, the insurance, the medical bills, the holidays.”
“I never asked for any of that”, Tess points out. “The only thing I ever did ask for, was something you’ve still failed to give me.”
She’s already gathering up her things. Dante sighs. There is nothing more he can do here. Tess is powerless to cut him out of Oliver’s life and they both know it. If it went to the courts she’d lose, simply because she doesn’t have enough money to win. This is just a desperate stance to make him feel guilty about something that happened as a reaction to Sash’s inability to satisfy him sexually, all those years ago. He was just unlucky that it ended up like this. A two year old boy and a clingy, unsatisfied mother.
With Oliver in her arms, and the stroller unfolded and ready to go, Tess makes a last ditch attempt to win him over.
“You could be happy with us, Dante”, she says. “We could make a family together. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?”
“Tess”, Dante says, trying to reason with her.
The tone of his voice tells her everything she needs to know. Enough is enough. Even though Oliver explodes in a fit of ear-splitting wailing when he realizes that they are leaving his brand new toys behind, she has no intention of letting Dante get his way by taking them along with her. She also has no intention of letting Dante say goodbye to the boy she now considers solely her own.
“If you thought for once about someone else but yourself, none of us would be in this mess”, she says, and with that, and the attention of all the
other diners, who first watch her leave and then look over to the man she’s left behind, sat there alone amongst a stack of bags and toys, she turns the stroller, holds her wailing boy to her chest and storms off with no intention of ever looking back.