118. Got any bail?
118
GOT ANY BAIL?
Martin
When Neil first brought up couples’ counseling, my gut reaction was that he was trying to set me up—to make me sit down with someone so that they could tell me I was wrong and he was right and that was that.
Which was dumb. Of course that wasn’t what it was like, not with a decent therapist anyway. And even if we got there and they told me it was all my fault, they’d be right because it was. Deep down I knew this. I also knew Neil wouldn’t set me up. He wasn’t like that. He’d gone to therapy and it helped and now he wanted that for us.
I did too. But also I was scared. Scared they’d say we were too broken, too wrong for each other.
I stared at my phone a full minute and finally hit the call button.
“Hello?” At least he picked up.
“Hi, Neil, I was wondering if maybe Charlie could come with Toby and me today?” I was taking him to one of those places with food and games and Fun for all . It had been Toby’s idea and he’d asked me on the way to school yesterday if his brother could come. I didn’t see any reason why not, but I gave him no promises, instead saying TD and I would discuss it. I wasn’t going to make things worse by doing the “I’m the cool dad” competition where there were no winners.
“Thank gods.” He let out a long sigh. “Toby mentioned it, but when you didn’t ask I was… never mind. Of course he can come.”
It hurt hearing his doubt, thinking I wouldn’t give Charlie all he needed because we weren’t together. Or maybe I was reading too much into that. I knew one thing, I wasn’t going to start anything by asking. Not now, not when every little thing seemed to lead us into a fight.
“I’ll be by in an hour.”
“Or you could come earlier and help me get Charlie ready.”
It felt like I’d just won the lottery.
We hung up and I got dressed as quickly as I could and went on over. It wasn’t the same as living there, but there was a sense of normalcy as I packed the diaper bag and folded a load of warm towels. I missed this—so much. But like the chicken that I was, I didn’t say anything to Neil, instead just savoring the moment.
Toby was thrilled that Charlie was coming with us and spent the entire car ride telling his brother about all the cool things there, including prizes and the coin fall machine. I wasn’t sure what that even was, but to hear the animation in Toby’s voice had me wanting to race there first. Apparently at a birthday party he saw someone win a tower of quarters. Given a roll of quarters was ten dollars, I could only imagine how much a tower was worth.
“It looks empty,” Toby said as I turned into the lot. “Are you sure it’s open?”
Shit. It better be.
“Yeah, pretty sure.” Another car pulled into the lot as we parked and another after them. “I think we’re just earlier than most people eat lunch.”
We got Charlie out of his seat and walked inside.
“Lunch or play?” the hostess asked with a fake smile plastered across her face.
“We’re here for the Grand Combo,” Toby announced proudly.
“Excellent choice. Follow me and I’ll take you to your seat and get the little one their high chair.” She grabbed some menus and headed into the dining area.
The Grand Combo was basically kids’ food served family style with enough tokens to keep you playing games all afternoon. Toby had been wanting to do it since he first discovered it but we rarely had time together. Sometimes life sucked like that.
We sat down and when the hostess returned with both the highchair and a bucket of tokens, Toby wanted to hit the games. We told her we weren’t quite ready to put in our food order yet and she laughed knowingly and said she’d be back when we were at our table again.
We spent the next hour playing skee ball, dropping coins into a slot with the intention of knocking over a tower until Toby was bored and figured out that tower wasn’t going anywhere, hit all the different creatures in the whack-a-games including the moles, monsters, and birds, and even did something where we had to shoot water into the mouth of a blowfish until it popped.
My theory that we had enough tokens to last all afternoon was proved wrong, but we had fun while they lasted.
“Let’s count our tickets while we wait for lunch.” Toby held up his bucket of tickets. According to Toby, at one point they did away with the tickets, but people got mad and wanted them back and now they are quote “old school.”
We counted and counted, not even halfway done when baskets of chicken fingers and fries, and about six other fried things all arrived along with our drinks.
“We can finish after we eat,” I promised.
“Do you think I have enough to get the remote controlled airplane?” he asked hopefully.
“If not, we can save them for when we come again.”
His face lit up at that.
Charlie reached out for a fry, grumpy it was just out of reach.
“Here you are.” I grabbed one, making sure it wasn’t too hot before handing it to him.
“Hey Martin, room for a few more?” I looked up to see some of the guys from my agency. This was a kids’ place, and they didn’t have any children with them. Also it was kinda early for adults to be eating.
“Really,—”
Toby cut me off. “You’re Dad’s friends.” He smiled at them. “Just make sure you leave enough fries for Charlie. He loves them best.”
I wanted to tell them to go away, but I wasn’t sure how to do that without pissing off everyone there and instead just hoped they left as quickly as they came.
“Love this place,” Javier said. “It makes me feel less like an old man.” And given he was barely old enough to order a beer, I doubted that he felt old.
“You look marvelous,” Pete, one of the other guys said. “Say cheese.”
He snapped the picture before I could tell him not to.
“Not the kids, okay,” I told him.
“Yeah no. Of course not the kids,” he replied a little too quickly.
Fifteen minutes later when Neil showed up, I discovered why.
“I thought we had a “no pictures of the kids” rule for social media.” He was livid and frankly so was I.
“I told you no,” I snapped at Pete, the rest of the guys laughing.
“Yes, Daddy,” he snapped right back.
Neil picked up Charlie. “If you didn’t turn your days with our children into time with your friends, you wouldn’t have had to tell them not to photograph the kids. At least they tagged you so that Archer saw it and I could come get them. Let’s go Toby.”
“Snap.” Pete stood up. “I didn’t peg you as the type to let a nobody treat you like a kid.”
“Let’s go, Pete,” Tyler, who had just been sitting next to him, insisted. “We should go play more games.”
“Yes. Do that.” I too was now out of my seat. They needed to be gone. “And next time you see me out with my family, maybe don’t stop over.” I was so getting fired over this, especially if someone was catching it on film. Fuck it. Sometimes family came first.
“This may be your family, but it’s not his .” Pete jerked his head at Neil. He was aware Neil wasn’t Toby’s biological father and I might have let slip that he wasn't Charlie’s either. Our little boy wasn’t my biological son but it made no difference. They were our children. Neil’s and mine. We were their dads. Pete needed to learn to shut up.
“I heard about him.” Again he was talking about Neil. My mate. “He’s the guy latching onto a model and playing dad.”
I sucked in a breath. I needed to let it go, to just make them all go away.
Tyler tried to talk some sense into him, when Neil said, his voice quaking, “Is that what you think of me?”
And my heart shattered into a thousand pieces and Toby, dear sweet Toby ran to his side to reassure him.
Before I could formulate an answer, Pete decided it was a good time to answer for me. “That’s what everyone knows.”
And my fist took the opportunity to answer for Neil, punching Pete square in the jaw, blood already pooling in the corner of his lips by the time he straightened himself up.
Yep. I was getting fired. I just ruined the agency’s fresh new face and at that moment I couldn’t give a shit.
In the next moment I gave a lot of shits as the police came and decided to escort me home by way of handcuffs and the police station.
I had officially ruined everything.
“Sure you don’t want to use your phone call,” the officer asked for the fifth time after I was arraigned and given bail.
“There’s no one to come get me.” I sat on the bench wondering how things managed to go so wrong so quickly.
Fifteen minutes later I was proved wrong when Daire and Archer showed up to bail my sorry ass out after Neil asked them to.
Maybe he didn’t hate me after all.