Chapter 3

It was eight o'clock on the dot as Finn and Chris made their way up the stairs to the girls' apartment. Finn inhaled deeply as he looked down at his son, "This is it little man!"

Christopher laughed as he watched his dad get nervous, "She'll like you dad. Don't worry."

"I hope you're right. Thanks kid." He tapped lightly on the door and within a matter of seconds..

"Hi. Wow, Finn, you look.. very handsome." She blushed a little, he looked more than handsome, he looked sexy. Control yourself Rachel, she thought to her self quite a few times.

"Thanks. You look beautiful." Rachel smiled as she motioned for them to come in.

"Chris, Alyssa is on the couch watching movies if you'd like to join her." Chris gave his dad a big hug before running towards the living room.

Finn waved at him before looking over at Rachel, "Are you sure its okay to leave him here?"

"Oh yea, not a problem. My sitter should be here any minute and she loves kids. I already asked too and she said that was fine… do you want something to drink, I'm gonna go grab my coat and purse and then we can go."

Finn shook his head and smiled, "Oh no, I'm fine thanks. You go." She smiled before walking away towards her bedroom. Finn looked around at the things in her apartment. It was cute and cozy. He looked up at all of the pictures on her wall, so many of Alyssa. Just then another knocking on the door filled the room.

"Hey Finn, can you get that, its probably the sitter."

"Uh, yea. Sure." Finn walked over to the door opening it.

On the other side stood a young girl, maybe eighteen or so, "Hi, I'm Gema, I'm the sitter.. You must be Finn."

Finn smiled as he let her in, "Yea, I'm Christopher's dad. Rachel's friend."

She smiled laughing a bit, "So you're the hot date? Nicely done on Ms. Berry's part…." Finn laughed a little as he swallowed deeply.

Gema laughed a little when she noticed the awkwardness growing, "And as far as your son goes, Alyssa talks about him non stop."

"Oh yea. They're good friends." He smiled as he impatiently waited for Rachel to come back out.

"Hey Gema, thanks for coming! The kids are in the living room watching TV and I went ahead and started some dinner."

Gema smiled, "Perfect, now you two get going, we'll be fine."

"Alright, thanks so much." She smiled as she looked over at Finn, "You ready?"

"Yea, lets go… Nice meeting you Gema."

"You too." ….

They sat across from each other at the restaurant laughing over drinks. They talked about so many different things. How they both ended up in the city as single parents, where it all started.

"Well when my wife passed away. I wanted to crawl in a hole, but I had to be there for Chris, and even though my parents begged me to go back home, I couldn't leave. This was home now."Rachel sighed. She felt so comfortable with him, and she felt special that he was sharing all of these things with her. "So yea, now its just us."

She placed her hand gently over his, "I'm sorry about your wife. I bet she was lovely."

He smiled as he looked down at her hands and then back up to her, "Thanks. She was, incredible. You kind of remind me of her in a way." Rachel blushed a bit as she took a sip of her water.

"So what about you?" Rachel rolled her eyes, "He's an ass. And that's about it."

Finn laughed a bit, "Seriously?"

"Alright, well, we'd been dating for a while, and then we were engaged. And I knew I was pregnant, but the wedding was only days away and I just thought it would be best to keep quiet until after. For sake of stress and panic."

Finn sat up, "What happened?"

"Well, on the day before the wedding, at our rehearsal dinner, I found him. Having sex, with his ex girlfriend.. in my car." Finn's heart broke to pieces for her in that moment. "So I never made it to the alter the next day… I actually don't know how I made it back to my apartment that night, I was furious and I just wanted to kick his ass right then and there, and hers too."

"I'm so sorry Rachel, that must have been awful."

"Its fine. In someways I'm thankful that I found out when I did. I can't imagine having been married and then finding out. Having been married and then sharing that we were starting our family…"

"So he doesn't know about her?"

"Oh no. I'm not the mean." She laughed a bit at his assumption… "I told him, and like I assumed, he wanted nothing to do with her. He told me, in a letter that he was moving to LA with her, to start her modeling career and a child would just ruin that. So I burned everything that he owned and cut him out of my life for good. Haven't heard from or about him since. So yea."

Finn was raging with fury, how could anybody do any of that to this perfect girl. She was smart, successful, beautiful, amazing and so much more. "What do you tell Alyssa when she asks why her dad isn't around?"

Rachel smiled a bit when she thought of her beautiful little girl, "Well, I tell her the truth. I haven't found the perfect daddy for her yet. And a beautiful perfect girl like her deserves the best."

"You're amazing, you know that Rachel, any guy would be lucky to have two beautiful girls like you and Alyssa in his life."

Rachel smiled as she looked over at Finn, if only he knew, that from the moment she met him, he seemed to fit the part perfectly. "Thank you Finn."