8 AND A HALF MONTHS LATER
Louise was in her apartment in San Francisco she was just back from a photo shoot. Her phone started to ring, she picked up.
"Hello"
"Hi, Lou it's Katie"
"Hi, how are you? Sorry I didn't call last night, I was exhausted," said Louise taking the phone and flopping down on the couch.
"It's not about that. I was wondering if you could do me a favour"
"Sure. What is it?"
"Come home for a few days"
"Why"
"Cindi had the baby"
"I really don't want to. I'm sure it's adorable you must be so proud of your little niece or nephew but I don't think it would be a good idea for me to…"
"It wasn't his"
"What do you mean?"
"The baby is, how do I put this, African American"
"What? You mean it's…"
"Yup"
"Oh god. What does this have to do with me coming back? We agreed that we weren't meant to be and I'm not going back on that"
"It's not that, well not exactly you two back together would be a plus"
"Katie get to the point"
"Darren, he's a mess"
"I bet, it must have been such a shock"
"Yeah it was. But I'm worried about him. He's staying with me and he hasn't come out his room for 6 days, not even to see Jack,"
"And let me guess you want me to come and try to talk him out of it"
"Please, he's really freaking us out. You always could knock some sense into him"
"Alright"
"You'll come"
"Yes, I'll go online and book a flight right now"
"You're the best"
"But you owe me"
"I know, thank you so much. Are you sure about you two…."
"I'm going to hang up on you now"
"Fine, you're a little touchy today. PMS?"
"Bye"
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TWO DAYS LATER
Louise had arrived home the night before. She was just about to go over to Katie's. She would see Darren, she hadn't seen him since that night. She'd thought about him though, that was all she seemed to think about these days. She had gone on dates since she'd been back in San Francisco but they never got further than a fourth date.
Louise had decided it would be better if she spoke to him in a public place, so they couldn't talk about anything too emotional. So she was taking Kyle with her to Katie's, they could take him and Jack to Chuck-E-Cheese or something.
She pulled up outside Katie's house and let Kyle out the car, he immediately ran over to Jack who was playing on the porch. Louise went inside and found Katie swallowing an aspirin.
"Things that bad?" said Louise letting her presence be known.
"Lou, oh thank god I'm going out of my mind. Being a full time auntie is not easy, I mean he's a great kid, but he keeps asking where Mommy and Daddy are? Why the new baby isn't here? I can't take it anymore. Remind me never to have kids," ranted Katie so glad to talk to someone over the age 5.
"Well I'm here. I'll knock some sense into your brother. Why don't you go shopping or something?"
"But Jack?"
"He's outside playing with Kyle. Go you need to relax you look a mess"
"Gee thanks"
"Your welcome, so are you goin' to go before I change my mind?"
"Yeah I'm going. Thank you so much for this, I know how hard it was the last time for you, but I couldn't think of anyone else, I've tried everything"
"It's fine"
"Okay bye," said Katie grabbing her coat and rushing out.
Louise took a deep breath, 'This is it'. First she checked on Kyle and Jack and then she went down the hall to the spare room.
"OPEN UP RIGHT NOW OR SO HELP ME I WILL KICK YOUR ASS FROM HERE TO…" shouted Louise but she didn't get to finish because as soon as Darren heard her voice he flung open the door.
Louise looked at him, she was shocked he hadn't shaven in about a week and he just looked so miserable, it also looked like he'd slept in the clothes he was wearing.
"Lou," was all he said before he hugged her.
"Yes it's me. Who the hell did you think it was?" said Louise pushing Darren off her, "Now, you're are going to go for a shower and a shave and then you're coming with me. Understand?"
Darren just nodded, still shocked to see her. He was surprised she was shouting at him, ever since the baby was born everyone had been tip toeing around him as if he would break.
"Okay, then go. We don't have all day"
"We?"
"Yes, your sister needed a break since she's been looking after your son all week, and I said I'd watch Kyle, so all four of us are going out. Now go and shave right now!"
Darren did as he was told.
Twenty minutes later Darren went out to the porch freshly shaven and with clean clothes on. He saw Kyle playing with Jack while Louise watched.
"Daddy," said Jack excitedly running up to him.
"Hey little guy," said Darren picking him up, "I've missed you"
"I missed you. Why wouldn't you come out and play with me? Where's Mommy? Auntie Katie gave me beer," said Jack all in one breath like a typical 3 year old.
"She what? How much?" said Darren
"Just a little sip. It was kinda yucky"
"Yeah, just you remember that it doesn't get any better," said Darren putting Jack down, the he turned to Louise, "Better?"
"Much," she replied.
"So where are we going?" he asked
"Well we were just talking about that and we can't decide between McDonalds and Chuck-E-Cheese," said Louise.
"Chuck-E-Cheese, Chuck-E-Cheese, please please," said Jack jumping up and down.
"Chuck-E-Cheese it is," smiled Louise.
"Daddy," said Jack
"What?"
"Know what I can do?"
"What?"
"This, Kyle come and help me," demanded Jack.
Kyle went over to Jack and got him in a headlock. Darren looked over to Louise, she gave him a reassuring nod. Then Jack took Kyle's hand flipped him over his shoulder catching his head so he wouldn't hit the ground.
"Wow, that's great. I wonder who taught you that," said Darren amused.
"Louise did. She said that if I know stuff like that then I will never be picked on at school," said Jack.
"Did she?"
"Yup. Can we go now? I've starving Auntie Katie made me have soy milk with my cereal," said Jack screwing up his face.
"Oh you poor child, come on we'll get you a huge pizza to make up for it," laughed Louise.
"The uh car seat?" said Darren.
"Well lucky for us, I rented a car with two of them," said Louise putting Kyle in the car.
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LATER AT CHUCK-E-CHEESE
"Alright go and play, but be careful. We'll call you when lunch comes. And no picking on people Kyle," said Louise before she let Kyle and Jack go and play on the soft play.
"You're worse than my mother, they're boys, you can't stop them getting hurt," said Darren.
"I was only telling them to be careful," said Louise.
"I assume my darling sister called you to come and get me out of her spare room," said Darren.
"Yeah she did, she thought I could talk to you"
"I thought so. You really didn't have to come, if you didn't want to…"
"And what leave you in that state, god knows when you would have shaved if I hadn't turned up when I did"
"Yeah I did have quite a beard," laughed Darren.
"Do you want to talk about you know…"
"What? My soon-to-be ex-wife having Bo Soreeli's baby,"
"It was Bo's," exclaimed Louise the she added, "but that's not the point I'm here to talk about you"
"It's fine, almost the whole town knows," Darren laughed softly.
"I'm sorry"
"Yeah it was quite a shock in the delivery room to see that"
"I'll bet"
"I just wanted to be by myself for a while,"
"You were in that room for over a week"
"So it took me longer than most people"
"And…"
"And I'll file for divorce first thing in the morning"
"Are you sure? I mean you were together a long time, maybe you could still work things out," said Louise, who couldn't actually believe the words were coming out of her mouth.
"She had someone else's baby,"
"Yeah but you weren't exactly innocent though yourself"
"It's different"
"How?"
"I didn't get you pregnant"
"True, she made a mistake. You could just have easily gotten me pregnant"
"Yeah and I wish I had," said Darren raising his voice.
"Look I'm just saying, don't rush into things. You've got Jack to think of, he should have both his parents," said Louise.
"I'm not. This is what's best, it should have happened years ago," sighed Darren.
"If you're sure"
"I am and there is no way I'm letting her take Jack, he's living with me. She already cost me y… she's not taking my son as well," said Darren determinedly, "anyway let's talk about something else"
"Okay, what?"
"You. What have you been up to?"
"Not much just working mostly"
"Have a special someone in your life?"
"I have recently discovered pilates, so I would have to say my pilate ball"
"I meant a person"
"Oh then no, not at the moment. How sad is that, the most important thing in my life is a big rubber ball?"
"So you're single and I'm…"
"Don't even go there," said Louise sharply
"But…"
"No we learned our lesson the last time"
"I'm just…"
"We're friends, it's better that way"
"Okay, fine," said Darren deciding it was better to drop the subject, "So are you sticking around this time?"
"I dunno, I've got a few months off. So yeah I'll probably be here, maybe off and on. I bought the old farmhouse, so I'll probably oversee the renovation,"
"That's good, you finally bought a place here, now we might see you more often"
"Don't now you sound like my mother."