“Do you want to eat some candy?”

The grey haired lady smiled. “No I’m okay, dear.”

“Travis, put that candy away! You’ve had enough sugar for today.” I snatched the Snickers bar from my son’s hand and lifted him into my arms. I navigated to the other end of the couch where the lady was sitting and held him in my lap. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s quite alright. So let’s continue on… How many people live here?”

The lady was from the Census, and I had somehow missed my survey in the mail. Or maybe I just threw it away—I wasn’t sure. But I had no idea that they would show up at your doorstep if you didn’t mail the forms back.

“I want some candyyyyyyy,” Travis whined and leaned his head against my chest, flailing his arms out like he was 1-year-old rather than 3. He was generally really well-behaved but had the habit of being a bit of a brat when there were unexpected visitors.

“Just me and my son.” I rubbed my hand through Travis’ thick brown locks. “I’ll give you a piece of candy after Mommy finishes with… I’m sorry. What was your name again?”

“Sandra.”

“After Mommy finishes with Sandra, I’ll give you a piece of candy, okay?”

Travis immediately started grinning and whipped his head around like he had just won the lottery. “Otay!”

“And how long have you lived here?”

“About 3 years now.”

“Are you single?”

“Yeah, I’m single.”

Sandra’s chest heaved, and I could tell from the air that she wanted to give me sad eyes, or ask me questions about where Travis’s father was, but I’m sure she had been trained not to show any emotion.

“Your profession?”

“Customer Service right now, but I’ll be working as a Pharmacist as soon as I put the little one in Preschool.”

“Oh, so you’re a college graduate?”

“Yeah, I just finished this year.” I bet she wasn’t expecting that one. It might have been hell trying to work, raise a child, and go to school all at the same time, but I trudged through it. I mean, I got lucky too. My father bought me a car and he paid for the first 6 months of my rent until I found my Customer Service job that allowed me to take phone calls from home. It also turned out that a lot of colleges in Florida had programs that allowed you to take all of your courses online. I might have missed out on the traditional college experience, but at least I managed to get a degree.

It was tough, but I fucking did it.

The lady continued asking me a slew of questions to add to her statistics, such as income and ethnicity, and we finished up about 10 minutes later. By that time, Travis had forgotten about the candy he was promised and was preoccupied with pushing a plastic toy car over every surface of the living room.

He was obsessed with cars, even at such a young age. Every time I took him with me to a store he practically demanded that I buy him a Hot Wheels, and he could spend hours in the toy section gawking at the remote controlled vehicles. Thankfully, he wasn’t throwing a fit over those yet, but I promised him that if he was a good boy, I’d buy him one as soon as he started kindergarten.

I guess he got the passion from his father.

“Be careful, Travis,” I said as he started running the car up the screen of the TV. The boy was always full of energy, and I had given up on trying to get him to settle down. I often wondered if it was because he was a boy, and needed a man to take him out and let loose, do boy things that I didn’t know how to do. He loved seeing his Grandpa, and every time we went over to the beach house, his eyes lit up and they’d bond in a different way than he and I ever did.

My phone rang, and it was Amanda.

“Hey, bitch,” I answered, nothing seemingly changing since High School… except me becoming a mom and moving away, of course.

“Hey, slut. What are you doing?”

“I’m just watching Travis. The Census lady just left my apartment.”

“Pfffft. I don’t answer the door if they come to my house.”

I laughed. “Really? You can do that?”

“They harass you for a month and then they go away.”

“I’ll take the 15-minute survey over getting harassed for a month. I don’t have time for that.”

“What about time to bring Travis over to see Aunt Amanda? I would loveeeee to see his little face.”

I sighed. “I don’t know. Travis will be starting Preschool in a few weeks, and I’ll be working outside of the house. I’ve got a lot coming up on my plate.”

“Come on, Layla. Don’t you miss it here? I’m a busy girl too, but I still flew out there to see you too.”

“Once. And it’s been almost two years now.”

“Once is better than never.”

“And what are you busy with anyway? Don’t you just lounge around and look pretty?”

“Hey, we’ve talked about this before. Modeling isn’t easy, and I’ve got to take care of the old man too.”

“The old man… How’s that working out for you?” Amanda had ended up shacking up with a guy who was almost 20 years her senior. He was handsome in an older gentleman sort of way, but she never denied (or admitted) that his money and the fact that he had connections in the modeling world were the main reason she was dating him.

“I get what I need, and he gets what he needs. We don’t have any problems, so I guess it is what it is.”

“Yeah…” I groaned. Her relationship with the guy almost made me ill, but I couldn’t tell if it was because she was in it for the money or if I was just jealous. Being with an older, rich guy had to be better than being a single mom going against the world alone.

“Oh, you won’t believe who I saw the other day.”

“Who?”

“Caleb Green…”

A lump immediately formed in my throat. “Caleb, huh?”

“Yeah, I was pumping gas at this place in Studio City, and he rolls up in this insane looking car. It must have cost at least 1 or $200,000. And he looked really, really hot. He looks a lot like Mason now.”

“And you talked to him?”

“No. What would I say to him? ‘Sorry about the Prom?’ And he was with some girl anyway. I felt a little jealous to be honest. Who would’ve thought he’d turn into a rich hunk so soon after High School?”

“Was Mason with him?”

“No, I didn’t see him.” Amanda took a deep breath. “You know, it’s none of my business, but when are you going to tell him about Travis? I mean, you’re going to, aren’t you?”

“No, I … I can’t.”

“Why not? I mean, don’t you think he has the right to know?”

“Amanda, think about it. If I tell Mason that he has a son, and he wants nothing to do with Travis, it’ll break his heart and mine. But then there’s also the risk that he would do something crazy like sue me for custody. I can’t throw Travis’s life into that kind of jeopardy right now.”

“I understand, but once you put Travis in school and he starts seeing other kids’ families, he’s going to start asking questions.” She sighed. “I don’t want to sound like I know everything, because I don’t, but when he gets older he’s going to want to know his father, and the longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be. What if Travis holds it against you or something?”

I looked over to Travis, still running around the room, whipping his car across every surface. He looked so much like Mason. And he was a damn good kid with such a big heart. It would tear me apart if one day he felt like I betrayed him by holding him back from his father. That idea made my skin crawl.

“Maybe you’re right…”

“And maybe I’m wrong? Maybe you can hide Travis forever, but… I don’t think so.”

“It’s not my fault, you know? Mason cheated on me.”

“I know, but that was 4 years ago. Hell, what if Travis has brothers and sisters now that you don’t know about?”

That made me jolt back in my seat. I hadn’t even thought about that, and my stomach turned at the idea. But it was entirely possible. Mason was handsome, and the idea that he hadn’t found a new girl was actually a little bit preposterous. And he was obviously very fertile, being that he knocked me up on the first try.

“I don’t even know how to contact Mason.”

“Facebook.”

“He’s not on Facebook. Trust me, I’ve searched over the years.”

“Phone number lookup?”

“I’m snoopy, Amanda. If there was anywhere online where I could get dirt on Mason, I wouldn’t have been able to help myself.”

“Well, I know Caleb is around, so his brother is probably around here somewhere too. Why don’t you just come here and visit? I don’t think it’s the type of thing you should do online anyway. It might upset him.”

“He’s going to be upset either way…”

“Hey, wait. Doesn’t Mason work at that auto shop near the High School? Have you tried there?”

“Hmm... I didn’t think about that. Maybe I’ll give it a try. I’ve really got to do some thinking.” Suddenly, the phone beside my computer started to ring. “Hey, I’ve got a customer calling. I’ll talk to you later okay?”

“Okay, Layla,” Amanda said. “And please think about coming back to visit. California misses you.”

“I’ll think about it.” We ended the call, and I ran over to my computer to answer my work phone. “Thank you for calling Sunray Apparel. How may I help you?”

To be honest, I sort of missed California too.

Travis started crawling under the coffee table with the car and bumped his head when he was standing back up, sending him into a fit of tears. I had to put my customer on hold to run over and comfort him.

Yeah… things were a whole lot easier back in California.