Single - With Kids

After the morning drop off, Tom was taking Brooke home when Talia, one of the other parents from the school, and her youngest boy Aiyden walked up beside them.

“Hey there” she said.

“Oh hi” Tom replied in surprise. Talia had three children. Brayden was in the same year as Rock, Tom’s other child, Kayla who was in grade 5 and young Aiyden who was Brooke’s age. As far as he knew she was a single mum but he hadn’t really spoken to her as their children where in different classes, so the chance hadn’t really come up but she seemed like a happy, as well as attractive, young woman. “Are you heading my way?”

“I could be” she replied mysteriously with a smile. “I was wondering if we could have a play date?”

“Do you mean Brooke and Aiyden?”

“Well, them too.” Tom wondered if Talia was blushing but it was hard for him to tell with her dark skin but her nose and ears definitely seemed to have turned pink.

“Oh, I see”. Since his divorce from Sylvia, he had been on a few dates with some of the single mothers at the school (and a few that weren’t single) so it was well known that he was available. “That sounds like a good idea. During the day or an evening ‘play date’?” Tom smiled.

“Oh, I think during the day would be a nice place to start” she replied demurely.

“OK, what about Monday morning, after drop off, at the Kinder Café on Walnut Street? They do great coffee, some good cakes and there is lots for the kids to do, so we could chat in peace.”

“Oh, yeah. That sounds great. OK. I’ll see you there Tom” but before she turned to head to her car Tom reached out and held her arm.

“Do you have your phone on you? I’ll give you my number in case you can’t make it. Send me a message so I have yours ok?” Talia put Tom’s number into her phone.

“Cool. See you Monday” and she gave him an air kiss, close enough to his cheek for him to feel the heat off of her skin.

Over the weekend Tom took the children to stay with their mother, as was their arrangement, and he went out with some groups of friends, but come Monday morning he was back on the school run taking Rock into school and then bundling Brooke into the car and heading to the Kinder Café.

When he got there he put a nappy bag over his shoulder and took Brooke out of her car seat and as he turned he saw Talia parking a few cars down. He waited for her with Brooke in his arms.

“Look Brooke. There’s Aiyden and his mummy. They’re coming to play with you.” She looked at him confused "Yeah, we’ll go in here, have carrot sticks and strawberries and play, yeah. OK?” She perked up at the mention of strawberries. Talia walked over to Tom with Aiyden in her arms “Morning. Howya doing?”

“Exhausted” Talia replied with a big exhale of breath

“Oh, long weekend?”

“You wouldn’t believe.”

“Well let’s go inside and you can tell me about it over a coffee or three.”

“Good plan.” She smiled and then she stopped “Oh, no.”

“What?”

“I saw your baby bag and realised I left Aiyden’s in the car. I’ve got to go back for it.”

“No problem. Give Aiyden to me, I’ll take them in and you go get what you need to get, ok?”

“Um, are you sure?” Talia was not sure if Aiyden would go with someone he didn’t know.

“You open the door for us, I’ll carry them in and then he won’t know you’re not there when he sees all the stuff inside. It’s like an Aladdin’s cave for kids.”

“Ok, we can try” she said uneasily. “OK baby, go to Tom for mummy” and she handed Aiyden up to Tom. Tom started to make silly faces and noises towards Aiyden and then Brooke and as he poked his tongue out, Brooke grabbed it and that made Aiyden laugh. Talia opened the door and Tom and the kids went in, with them still giggling.

When Talia returned from the car with her baby bag full of ‘just in case’ items and her phone that she had also left behind, Aiyden and Brooke were both in a soft play area with dolls and toys that they were investigating rather vigorously and Tom was sitting at a table next to them watching them play. Talia put the bag down under the table and slumped down.

“Thank you” she said.

“You’re welcome” Tom replied. “I don’t think they know we are here anymore so we could sneak off to a bar if you want? he laughed.

“Oh, that would be great. A nice glass of Merlot would go down a treat but I guess I’ll have to settle for a coffee right now.” As they waited for their drinks and snacks, they began to chat.

“So, what happened over the weekend?” Tom asked looking at Talia and glancing at the kids from time to time to make sure they were ok. There were only a couple of other kids and mothers in that morning so they had the place basically to themselves.

“Kayla was just a nightmare all weekend. She just wanted to play computer games all the time and I needed her to help out with the other two so I could get some work done around the house. We just ended up shouting at each other, Aiyden started crying and Brayden started throwing rocks over the fence at the neighbour’s dog so they came round and I had to have ‘words’ with them too!” Talia sounded like she hadn’t slept at all that weekend. The coffees arrived with a platter of fruit, cut vegetables and dips. When the waitress had gone Talia asked Tom “And how was your weekend?”

“Well, I feel a bit guilty as I had a great weekend as the kids were with their mother and I went out with some old friends.” Talia’s jaw dropped.

“I know, I know, I’m sorry!”

“I can’t believe I went through that and you are partying.” She pretends to be really put out and then laughed slapping him on the arm.

“Well yeah, it’s the arrangement I have with their mother, I look after them during the week and three weekends out of four they stay with her. She gets to see them but doesn’t have to do anything to look after them.”

“Wow! I wish I had that arrangement with their dads” Talia motioned to Aiyden. “But they’re a couple of layabouts and can’t look after themselves never mind their kids for a weekend.”

“Yeah, it must be hard bringing up three on your own. Two is enough for me and I get weekends off. Do you have family around to help out or some friends to lend a hand?”

“My mum’s about an hour’s drive away so we sometimes spend a weekend with her, then I at least get a little break while they visit with their grandma and all my friends have their hands full with their families so can’t really help out, so it’s basically down to me.”

“Are you part of any mothers groups, where they have group get-togethers at parks or cafes? They mainly bitch about their husbands and boyfriends but it’s a good place to unload worries. I’ve been to a few and its helped Brooke play with new kids and accepting new ways of doing things.”

“No, I don’t think I’m really an ‘air all my dirty laundry’ to others kind of girl.”

“But you just told me how your weekend was. Why couldn’t you tell others?”

“Well, that’s different” She says coyly “It’s easy talking to you.”

“How come? Before last week I don’t think we had said more than ‘Hi’ to each other but then you come and asked me out.”

“I didn’t ask you out” Talia retorts quickly.

“Then what did you do?” Tom asked laughing.

“I asked if our kids could play together that’s all.” She looks down at her coffee and played around with the saucer.

“That’s not quite true, but I’ll let it go.” He sipped on his coffee. “You need to look after yourself as well as your kids. If you get run down it just gets harder and harder to function properly. And then everything gets on top of you and you feel you can’t breathe. I know I’m in a good place where I get some leisure time, but if I can help you in any way I will.”

“That would be really nice, but I can’t ask that of you.”

“You’re right, you can’t, but I can offer and you can accept the help because it would be rude not to!” Talia looks up at Tom.

“That would be really nice. Thanks Tom.”

“You’re welcome. Now, this weekend I have my kids, so why don’t I come round to yours, let our kids play together and see how that goes? If they get on, maybe at some point I could take them all out together and let you have a break from them. What do you think?”

“That sounds too good, so probably won’t work at all” She laughs. “But I appreciate the sentiment.”

“OK, then it’s a date!” Tom smiled at Talia and she smiled back.

That weekend, Tom, Rock and Brooke went to Talia’s house and met Kayla, Brayden and of course Aiyden. Rock and Brayden paired off and went and played some war game in the garden. Brooke and Aiyden sat and played with each other like they were old friends and Tom sat down and got to know Kayla. They talked about school and dad’s and computer games. Talia cleaned up the house around them, half listening to her eldest daughter talk about things she hadn’t mentioned to her own mum. They ordered in pizza so no one had to do any washing up and as it was getting late, Tom and his kids packed up to go home. Talia and her kids saw them to the door.

“Thank you, Tom. This was a great day. I hope we can do it again sometime soon.”

“Me too. Next time at my place yeah?”

“Absolutely!” Tom and Talia gave each other a lingering kiss on the cheek.

“Oooooohhhhh! Mummies got a boyfriend” Kayla sung. Talia’s nose went pink. Tom could spot it this time.

A few weeks later, on a weekend that Tom had passed his children to their mother, Talia delivered her children to their grandmother for a sleepover and was ringing the doorbell at Tom’s house. He opened the door.

“Hi there” he said with a grin and held the door open wide for her to enter. As she did she gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Head in to the kitchen, I have something for you.” Tom passed her as they went through the open plan living room to the kitchen island.

“Wow. What a lovely house!” Talia looked around the open space of the living area, dining area and kitchen that opened up at the back of the house to the garden and pool. Tom took a bottle of red wine out of an ice bucket.

“Something for you. Slightly chilled, just needs to be left to breathe and then we can try some.”

“Oh a Merlot. That is just what I need!”

“But what do we do while waiting for it to breathe?” Tom asked innocently.

“I have an idea” Talia replied and pulled Tom towards her for a long, deep kiss.