“Holy Fuck!” I said when Em picked up the phone.

“What? Was it your meeting thing? Did it go bad?” She asked from the other end of the phone.

I could make out the sound of something crinkling in the background.

“Those better not be chips. You promised you were going to go on this diet with me to help me lose the last of my baby weight.”

“Truth bomb my love,” she said as she crunched chips into the phone, “if you haven’t lost it yet, you might just be stuck with it.”

“Shut up,” I responded.

It wasn’t like I had blown up or anything. It was just this pesky extra thickness around my hips that never seemed to go away no matter how much I dieted.

“So what is the holy fuck about?” Em said ignoring me.

“You are never going to guess who I saw today, Dr. Barrett Harris.”

“Sounds hot. Was he your lady doctor? Did he rub you all nice,” she said sarcastically.

I didn’t answer because it was actually true.

“Holy Fuck,” Em took a turn saying now. “Did he rub you all nice?”

“No,” I winced back into my phone. “He was my doctor today at the appointment. But that isn’t what I meant.”

“Well then what?”

“He wasn’t just my super hunky gyno, I am also pretty sure that he is Aria’s biological father.”

“Seriously?” I heard Em spit her chips out at the other end of the line.

“I mean I don’t know for sure. But it looked like him. The guy did say he was going to be a doctor.”

“Did it feel like him?” Em asked.

“I am not answering that question,” I said.

I pulled up in the line of cars waiting to pick up kids from school. I looked at my watch. The bell would be ringing any minute and I would need to wrap up this call before Aria got here.

“So what happened when you told him? Did he remember you too?”

“Uh, no! I didn’t say anything to him. I got out of there as fast as I could.”

“Why? If a hunky doctor gave me a baby I would be screaming it from the rooftops!”

“Yeah because mentioning that the dusty old hole you are peering into gave birth to your kid a few years ago, is great conversation in a doctor’s office.”

“It can't be that dusty,” Emma retorted.

“You are the only one who has ever babysat Aria for me. You tell me how dusty you think it is?”

“Oh, hell. That is pretty bad then. Do you even remember the last time you got laid?”

“I can’t even remember my last date,” I said as the cars slowly started to move forward.

“I got to go though. Aria's bell just rang and she is going to be here any sec.”

“Are you going to tell her,” Em said from the other end of the line.

“I don’t know,” I said softly before hanging up the phone.

It was the one thing I truly had been dreading all afternoon. Could I look my daughter in the eyes knowing who her father was and not tell her. It wasn’t like she hadn’t asked in the past. I knew she was dying to know the other half of her creation.

I’d never felt guilty before, making up my lie to appease her. It wasn’t like I could tell her something better like a name. Now I had a name, and even worse had seen him face to face. I wasn’t sure I could keep up the story that had kept her satisfied in the past knowing that the truth was walking around Chicago.

“Hi honey, how was your day,” I called when Aria slipped into the back seat.

I looked at her through the rear view mirror. She looked more like a spitting image of her father today than ever before. Of course her dark eyes and black hair had matched his since the day she was born, but now after seeing him again, I saw so much of Barrett in her face.

“It was fine, mom. Why are you looking at me like that?” She asked back.

“I missed you today,” I responded quickly.

“Don’t forget I have dance class tonight,” she reminded me before rummaging through her bag for something.

We spent the remainder of the short drive home talking about her day. It was easy to forget the events of earlier as we got into our normal routine.

Parking my old jeep in the apartment garage, we made our way home. Aria started her homework while I whipped up a quick dinner before a night of dance class.

It was a pretty regular occurrence in out house. Aria was obsessed with ballet and took class twice a week and also was on a competitive team with their own practices.

“Is Grandma and Grandpa coming to my competition next week? I have to tell Madame how many tickets to get.”

“Yes,” I called the short distance from the stove where I was sautéing our dinner to the breakfast nook where she was doing her work.

“And one for Aunt Emma too. She said she could make it.”

Aria’s eyes lite up at the news. Even though Emma was no relation to her, Aria had called her Auntie from the day she could speak. It probably didn’t help that Em liked to spoil her rotten.

“I’ll be able to stick it to Penelope then,” Aria said.

“What does that mean?”

“Well Madame said we each only get a certain number of tickets. Penelope wanted to take mine because both her grandparents want to come. I told her she couldn’t though. Now at least Auntie will take one of the seats.”

I knew Aria always struggled with us having such a small family. I was an only child and with no other side to speak of, it had made me think we were close knit. For Aria I suspected it felt empty.

It was strange in that moment, for the first time since picking up Aria from school, my mind went to Dr. Barrett Harris again.