Babysitting

Chapter 1

Diane paced her living room, trying to calm down the infant in her arms. After only an hour, she was ready to return her niece. Babysitting was more difficult than she remembered. The baby would not stop crying, and Diane could not figure out what was wrong. A bottle only made her cry more, putting something on TV would work for a few minutes, but then it was back to tears, and Diane stop counting how many times she changed the baby's diaper. Diane was almost ready to cry herself. And now, she stood in her living room rocking the child, unsure what to do next and hoping the baby would fall asleep or at least stop making so much noise. It was going to be a long weekend. Just when Diane was about to crack, the doorbell rang. She placed the unhappy child in her playpen and rushed to the door.

"Coming," Diane called out and unlocked her door, then opened it, only to feel even worse about her day. "We had reservations," she said aloud and ran a hand through her hair, "I completely forgot..."

"It's fine," Kurt smiled a bit, "should I be worrying about that noise?" he asked and walked into the apartment after Diane invited him inside.

"That's my niece, Lily," Diane shut the door and leaned against it. "Five months old...my brother conned me into babysitting this weekend."

"You're not very good at it," Kurt remarked as he started for the child. Diane decided to let that one go.

"She hasn't stopped for an hour." Diane watched as Kurt picked up Lily and held her in his arms. She smiled slightly, but then her jaw almost dropped when the little girl's cries faded as she fell asleep. "How did you...?"

"Experience," Kurt smiled and sat down on Diane's couch, "I've had two daughters...and a grandson."

"Really?" Diane sat down next to him and took Lily into her arms, "you never told me that."

"You never asked," Kurt leaned back against the couch. Diane let out a laugh and looked at her niece.

"I haven't done this since college...I'm not the maternal type if you couldn't tell."

"I don't think anyone really is." Kurt stood up and left to her kitchen. Diane watched him, wondering what he was doing. After a few minutes, she placed the sleeping baby in the playpen and went to find him. Kurt was taking a few things out of her refrigerator.

"Looking for something?"

"No, I'm making us dinner."

"You don't have to do that."

"We have to eat."

"Can I help?" she asked and came closer to him. Diane could not believe how lucky she was to have Kurt. He always found a way to impress her or surprise her, not many men could do that anymore.

"Can you spare a bottle of white wine?" He turned to face her.

"Top shelf on your left," Diane smiled and sat down. "Two daughters?"

"Yes," Kurt nodded as he retrieved the wine. "Brooke and Jane. The youngest is twenty five, my oldest just turned thirty."
"And a grandson?"

"Charles. He's a little of one now."

Diane watched him cook and asked more questions about his family. They never talked like this before, of course Kurt never made dinner for her either. When Kurt talked about his daughters, he seemed to open up much more than usual, which only made Diane like him even more. As they continued to talk, Diane set the table and poured them both a glass of wine. He placed a bowl linguini in front of her. Kurt served them both and sat down, then waited to see what Diane had to say. She took a bit of the dish and smiled.

"How on earth can you cook?" Diane laughed, "is there something you can't do?" Kurt thought about it for a moment.

"I could never ride a bike," he smiled. Diane laughed again and drank some of her wine.