Page 33 of Samuel

“Both?” I asked. “Wow that’s some breakfast.”

“Yeah well,” he said, looking at me as though I was stupid. “I need my energy for when you take me swimming.”

“Swimming?”

“Yes, Mum, swimming. I didn’t get to go to my lesson yesterday, so Sam can take me today. Can’t you Sam?”

He looked at me with his head tilted to one side and the look on his face was pretty much daring me to say no. My gaze turned to Maisie who shrugged.

“It’s up to you, but we’ve really taken up enough of your time.”

Ah, fuck it.

“Yeah, of course I’ll take you buddy. Eat your breakfast and then we can go, with a quick detour to my place to pick my gear up. That okay?”

I asked Frankie, but looked at Maisie who gave me a small smile.

“Hey, I know,” Frankie cried. “Mummy can come too. It’ll be great, she can do laps while you teach me how to do the crawl.”

Maisie’s eyes widened and a blush touched her cheeks. I on the other hand, couldn’t help but wonder whether she’d wear a bikini or an all in one swimsuit.

Samuel

the past

It didn’t matter how often I tried not to, my thoughts were constantly on Maisie, wondering how she was doing, was everything okay with the baby, how much of a twat was I being by letting her do it all alone?

The trouble was, I still hadn’t changed my mind. I didn’t want to be a father, so why I kept thinking about her, I had no idea.

We hadn’t seen each other for months and had only had contact via a couple of text messages, but she seemed fine with the way things had ended up. Okay, it probably wasn’t what she had planned for her first kid and maybe deep down she hated me, but all in all she seemed pretty amiable and now only had a couple of weeks left before the baby arrived – boy or girl I had no clue. I’d chosen not to ask and Maisie hadn’t volunteered the information.

Trying to clear my head, I had decided to nip into town and get myself a couple of new shirts. I hoped some retail shopping would distract me for an hour at least. Throwing my sandwich wrapper into a bin, I turned to make my way over to my favourite menswear shop. It was then that I spotted her and my mouth went dry. She was just three feet away from me and everything I’d thought I’d feel didn’t happen.

My heart didn’t pound.

My mouth wasn’t dry.

My legs didn’t feel like jelly.

The world hadn’t stopped turning.

“Sam,” Alison gasped as she saw me.

I looked beyond her to see Roger holding hands with a little girl with tight ringlets of curls and cute pink glasses on the end of an upturned nose – Abigail.

“Oh my god,” Roger cried, stooping to pick up his daughter. “Sam, how you doing man?”

I allowed him a small smile and looked between him and Alison.

“Great. How about you two – sorry, three?” I asked, choking back the venom which I really wanted to spit out.

Alison shifted from one foot to another and nodded. “Yeah, we’re great too.”

Abigail stared at me over her glasses and I could see her striking resemblance to her mum. Apart from the skin tones, they were practically identical.

“So, what you up to man? Roger asked, running a hand over Abigail’s head.

“I, um, I work for a recruitment company. Hoping to buy it actually,” I replied, avoiding Alison’s gaze. I knew they probably weren’t interested in my plans, but I wanted her to know that she hadn’t left me broken and pathetic – well not in every sense at least.