Page 1 of Single Daddy To Go

1

Ally

Ihave an awesome job, and today is another beautiful day. I work with children, which is all I’ve wanted to do since I was a child myself because I’ve always loved taking care of kids. Right now, I work with two and three-year-olds at Ladybug Tots in NYC, which is a cheery yellow building smack dab in the middle of the city.

The main room of the day care center is a happy place decorated with cartoon ladybugs and charts about letters and numbers. Here and there, kids’ art pieces are tacked up on the brightly painted walls. A set of cubbies take up one side, filled with the children’s belongings and marked with their names.

Right now, the tots are engaged in free play, amusing themselves with blocks and dolls and playing all sorts of different games with each other. I’m keeping a watchful eye, making sure no one hurts anyone else or gets into trouble, but this part of the day gives me and my co-worker a rare moment to catch up.

We both crouch on tiny, bright-colored plastic stools. Emma and I have worked together here for about a year. She’s a blonde with a perky bob and round cheeks. When she smiles, two dimples form above the corners of her smile, and wrinkles show up beside the corners of her big hazel eyes. Right now, she’s giggling like one of the kids, her dimples in full effect.

“OMG, Ally,” she whispers. “My date last night wassoooogood. My boyfriend Justin came over and we were supposed to watch Planet Earth on Netflix, but he was so handsy! I just didn’t know what to do.”

It’s not exactly my area of expertise, but I smile and nod. The expression I’m going for is knowing conspirator, but I’m not sure if it comes through or not.

“Is that so?” I ask her.

She giggles even harder.

“Justin has these really big hands. I’d tell him to stop, but I didn’t really want him to stop, and I guess he could tell. I’d push him off and he’d pause for a while and then go back to it, you know? Eventually I couldn’t resist anymore. He wanted mesobad. Who was I to say no? I guess you could say we were the subject of our own nature documentary. Mmmm Justin, he’s an animal but I love it!”

She flashes me what is definitely a conspiratorial smirk. I laugh in response, perhaps a little weakly.He’s an animal but I love itisn’t something I’ve ever felt about anyone.

“So,” Emma goes on, her fit of giggles subsiding. “Tell me about your last date.”

I suck my teeth. It’s not a good story.

Emma gives me a poke in the ribs.

“Come on, dish it, girl!”

I can feel my face turning red. I really don’t want to talk about this, but here I am anyway.

“The guy stood me up,” I finally admit with a sigh.

Emma’s pretty mouth drops open.

“What? Really? What an asshole!”

The expression I’m going for is nonchalance. I shrug.

“Yeah. Whatever. It’s O.K. These things happen.”

I’m only pretending because it wasn’t O.K. at all. I can feel a pit opening in my stomach as I remember the evening.

It’s embarrassing because this was actually an old-fashioned set up. My mom set me up with my date, which means that people actually know us. So how could he no-show? It’s humiliating.

After all, if you’re dating on-line, at least a no-show is anonymous. I understand some of the sites will ding your user profile if you’re reported for a lot of no-shows, but still. I was stood up inreal life.

It’s my mom’s fault. She’s always trying to set me up with what she thinks are “good guys.” I usually tell her no, but Clarence actually sounded kind of awesome. He was the son of one of her friends from Bridge Club. My mom told me he was a medical student who wanted to focus on building artificial limbs for children disabled by land mines. The pictures she showed me revealed a handsome man with wavy brown hair and a winning smile. He looked a little short, but sweet anyways.

“He seems too good to be true,” I told my mom as she excitedly relayed how Clarence wanted to take me out on a date. My mom isn’t the most practical woman. She buys tickets to the lottery and is always dreaming about me getting married to some doctor or lawyer. I tell her that things are different now, and guys don’t really want that sort of old fashioned romance, but she always tells me she knows better.

“Why not, darling? You’re a beautiful woman with a heart of gold. Any man with half a brain can tell you’re a catch!” Bernice tapped her red lacquered nails on her wine glass.

Of courseshethinks I’m a catch. She’s my mother, after all. She’s almost constitutionally obligated to have such an opinion. Still, it made me smile.

“I love you,” I told her. “Tell you what? If Clarence is really serious, I’ll go on a date with him.”