Garret stopped his car in front Renee's building and turned to his daughter.
"Call me when you need me to pick you up," he instructed, waiting for her to exit his vehicle.
"Dad, do you think I'm stupid?" Abby asked frankly.
"What?"
"I know you're going out with Renee tonight," Garret was stunned. It wasn't as if this meeting was a state secret, but he nonetheless didn't want to give Abby any wrong impressions about his relationship with Renee.
"How'd you know?" He asked innocently. Abby reached out and placed a patronizing hand on her father's shoulder.
"Dad, I'm eighteen. I know everything," she joked. Garret laughed. She was right; everyday he was shocked that his daughter knew more than he did.
"Get outta here," he said, playfully swatting her hand away. Abby leaned across the car and kissed Garret's whiskered cheek.
"Good luck," she smiled and left him alone.
Garret did as he'd been asked. He drove his car around the corner and parked in front of the coffee shop. He waited a long time for Renee to arrive. Or a least it felt like a long time. He gave up looking at his watch as it only served to make him increasingly anxious. Instead he looked around the room, searching the faces in case perhaps Renee had slipped in without him noticing. There were three men in business suits in one corner. They talked in hushed tones and sipped elaborate coffee drinks with names Garret probably couldn't pronounce. A young girl about Abby's age, surrounded in warm lights and coffee beans, wiped down the counter in front of her. She glanced up and immediately noticed Garret looking at her. She held up a steaming black pot as an offer of another coffee. Garret raised his palm ever so slightly from the table and shook his head, no. He had barely touched the coffee in from him. He didn't want it, but had ordered it to keep himself busy as he waited. It wasn't working. Sitting by the window he could feel the September chill, trying to get through. He pulled his jacket around himself a little tighter and sighed, wondering what was taking Renee so long to walk around the corner. No sooner had the thought crossed his mind did he hear the piercing click of high heels on a tile floor. He looked up and there she was standing before, him. Her hair was down and by all appearances she had just come from work. He stood to greet her and he noticed that something was different. She was different. She sat down across from him and watched as she twisted her hands around her fingers as if she were trying to warm them.
"You want a coffee?" Garret offered.
"No," Renee said quickly, "I just want to get this over with." Garret sighed. He still had no idea what this meeting was about, but rather than tell him, Renee stared down at the table for a few seconds longer.
"Are you going to tell me what's up or am I going to have to guess?" Garret asked impatiently. Renee finally looked up and met Garret's eyes.
"I had this whole speech planed out," she said with a nervous laugh, "but I think if I say it, I might throw up before I get to the important part, so I'm just going to come out and say it, okay?" Garret nodded, suddenly worried that what Renee had to say might hurt him as much as it was obviously torturing her. "Okay, here's the thing," she said cautiously, "you're Jake's father." Garret's heart skipped a beat. For a moment all he could hear was the rush of blood to his brain. He felt light headed and dizzy and absolutely bewildered.
"Excuse me?" he asked, making sure he had heard her correctly.
"Jake's yours Garret," Renee said quietly. Her voice had regained its usual confidence now that her secret had been revealed. Garret stuttered, still trying to make sense of what she had said.
"B-b-But you said, you said that- your ex husband, you said," Renee, cut him off before he finished. She knew what he was talking about even though he couldn't articulate it.
"At first I thought it was his. And with the dates my doctor gave me, it made sense that it was Eddie's. But then I went in to labour two weeks early. Except, I knew it wasn't early. Jake was right on time. My doctor was wrong. Two weeks earlier meant Jake was yours. I just knew it. And when I saw him…that was it. I was sure. He looks so much like you that sometimes…"
"So I've had a son for three years," Garret interrupted, finally putting the pieces of the story together. His voice rose steadily as he spoke, "and it never crossed your mind that I might like to know."
"I couldn't tell you," Renee said quietly, her eyes, again finding purchase on the cracked white of the table. "You were so mad at me and I had hurt you so bad by sleeping with Eddie." Garret laughed a shallow laugh through his nose.
"Don't flatter yourself Renee," Garret said, angrily now, "we were done before, Eddie, and you know it." Renee sighed, choosing to ignore his hostility.
"Anyways," she said, "the longer I left it, the harder it was for me to tell you."
"So why are you telling me now?"
"I need your help," Renee said earnestly, "since my mom's been gone, I can't work and take care of him on my own. I pick him up late everyday and I can't be there for him as much as he needs. I can't leave my job…"
Garret interrupted her with a snap, "What so, you want money or something?"
"Garret I don't want your money. He needs his father. He needs to have you there."
Garret had yet to look Renee in the eye since she made her revelation. She reached out for him, to make sure she was getting through to him. As soon her fingers touched his he jerked his hand away. He felt like he was going to jump out of his own skin. Everything suddenly felt foreign to him. He didn't know who he was. He had had a son for three years and he had no idea. He didn't know the woman sitting across from him. She had lied to him and the Renee he knew would never keep a secret this big. His brain throbbed in his head and his heart was doing somersaults in the pit of his stomach.
"I gotta go Renee," he said suddenly, "I gotta go." He threw down a few bills on the table to cover his still untouched coffee and walked out of the coffee shop. He was dizzy and he couldn't see properly, but he somehow made it to his car. Slamming the door behind him and staring up the engine, Garret sat for a moment and regained his composure. Through his windshield he could see Renee in the window of the coffee shop. Her head was down and he watched as she ran a self-conscious hand through her hair. He saw the girl from the counter approach the table and offer Renee a coffee. Garret turned away, he couldn't watch anymore. He had to put distance between himself and Renee, between himself and his son. He needed some perspective. He put the car in gear and drove. He didn't know where he was going. He didn't much care. He drove straight for miles and when the road could take him no further he turned left and drove as far as he could in that direction.