CHAPTER 9
Sean
The next day
“I’m really sorry about yesterday,” I say as I pull out the chair for Brittney.
“No problem,” she says, but I can tell it definitely is or at least it’s lingering, slowing our forward progress.
“Drinks, sir? Madame?”
“Bottle of white, please,” I say.
“Coming right up,” the waiter says.
“This place has the best fish.”
“So the white,” she says.
“Their chicken and pork are also excellent,” I say. “Do you like seafood?”
“Sometimes, but I’m not sure I’m up for it at the moment.”
“Chicken salad?”
“Sounds perfect.”
I shut the menus and the waiter’s already back with our wine. He pours our glasses and I put in our meal requests.
“To bumping into you again after so many years,” I say.
“Cheers to that,” she says.
We clink glasses, and the wine hits my palette.
“A lot has happened in the last few years.”
“For both of us,” she says.
“After yesterday’s surprise I think I should go first. I need to set the record straight.”
She brings her wine glass in closer to her chest, holding it with two hands. She says nothing, which tells me she’s waiting for me to proceed.
“My wife and I split right about the time you saw me last. We didn’t tell anyone at first.” I pause. “What I do was very taxing to her. Here today, gone tomorrow. Never knowing for sure when I’d come home, or even if I’d come home. After so many years I think worrying about me outweighed the good times we had together.”
I take a drink.
“Anyways, so we break up, and she’s off doing her thing and I’m doing mine. A few months later I get a call…find out she’s pregnant. She’s pretty far along, not that there was ever a conversation of terminating the pregnancy. It wasn’t convenient, to say the least, but it is what it is. She had always wanted a baby. We even took some measures to increase the chances of a pregnancy, but they never worked. Strangely enough, we had stopped about a year prior, and then all the sudden a baby arrives out of nowhere. Two divorced old people having a kid,” I say, trying to lighten the mood a bit. I don’t consider my ex and I old, but I’m trying to look at things through Brittney’s eyes.
Brittney’s body language hasn’t changed one bit since I began the story. I’m actually glad. Normally a conversation is a bit more of a two-way street, animated on both sides. Not with her. I can see she’s really soaking in what I’m telling her. That’s exactly what I want. I want to lay my life out there on the table so she can decide if it’s something she wants to be a part of. She’s got a bright future in front of her. I’m a single parent who’s always on the go.
“Once the Marines found out I had a child on the way, they rotated me back stateside and put me in increasingly more parent-friendly positions…hence the stint with the NCIS.”
“I thought NCIS positions were usually filled by civilians.”
“You’ve done your homework. They are. I got lucky. I got to do something most Navy personnel don’t, and especially not Marines. I’m on loan, so to speak, to the NCIS. I work with a lot of civilians.”
“How is it, after all these years?”
“It’s nice to try something different, and my experiences battling terrorism overseas help a lot, especially getting into the mind of the enemy. There are some things you can only learn by having had boots on the ground, and that’s where I come in.”
“Is that why you’re here?”
“I keep an apartment in New York. I’ve had it for years. Got lucky and bought it years and years ago, before the area got cleaned up and took off. It was about as close to a teardown as you can get, but with a little sweat equity I turned it into what it is today. Now I wouldn’t sell it for the world.”
“But your daughter? She’s also here?”
“Her mom and I are trying to do as best we can to both influence her upbringing in a positive way. The strange thing is her mother got a job at the Pentagon and now she’s the one who’s always on the go. I’m mostly stuck behind a desk in Quantico, where I live in military housing with my daughter. I brought her with me this time so she could spend some time with her mom. That and she loves coming to my place here in New York.”
“Is that where she is right now? With her mom?”
“Yes. Her mom took her to the Children’s Museum earlier and now they’re off to the Toys R Us flagship store in Times Square.”
“Awww. She must be loving it.”
“To tell you the truth, she probably loved the museum even more. Somehow the idea of wanting a lot of material things never really struck her as important.”
“She probably just wants time with her parents.”
“That’s exactly what she wants.”
Brittney gets it. Thanks to having a dad who serves she knows what it’s like. There’s nothing more valuable for a child than time together with their mom and dad. No amount of toys, or iPhones, or money even comes close.
Brittney leans forward in her chair a bit and sets her glass of wine down.
“I’m sorry to have to ask you this, but since we’re on the same subject I have to.”
“Ask. Nothing is off limits tonight.”
“Is there a chance of a reconciliation with your wife?”
“Ex-wife, and definitely not. We’re better off how we are now. It’s a lot better for both of us. We’re both career driven, or at least I used to be, so it’s important for her to be able to devote so much time to her work. That means I get a lot more of the parenting duties, but I enjoy every minute of it. Being a father to Isabella has brought me an incredible amount of happiness. My ex is focused on her career now and for the foreseeable future.”
“But if she suddenly changed her mind and decided she wanted a reconciliation?”
“Still no. The feelings just aren’t there anymore, from either side. We both love Isabella, but not each other. And that’s the truth.”
Brittney nods and takes a sip of her wine.
“What about you?” I ask.
“I’m not that complicated. Since we last saw each other I just finished high school, applied for college, got in, and here I am.”
“I’m sure a few more things than just that happened.”
“Okay, okay. You got me. I got my braces taken off.”
“Very funny,” I say.
“Not really though. I mean I’ve just been so focused on moving my life forward that I haven’t had time for much else.”
“Another career woman,” I say. “You ladies are giving us men a real run for our money these days.”
“Well, that’s the thing. We outnumber you in the workforce, but not when it comes to our bank accounts.”
“It’s changing. Slowly, but it’s changing.”
“I wish it would happen faster.”
“Me too, believe it or not. It’s a generational thing though. The men are trying to hold on, so to speak, when they’re better off just letting go and letting the women do what they do. It would advance us all forward, and equal pay for equal work is a big part of that.”
“So you support a career woman?”
“Absolutely.”
“But what about you?”
“What about me?”
“Do you see yourself with someone again?”
“If you asked me before this weekend, I would have said no.”
“And now?”
“My head tells me it’s too early to tell.”
“And your heart?”
“The rest of me is acting like a Marine ready to charge in head first.”
“So there’s a game of tug-of-war going on inside you?”
“Not really.”
“How so?”
“Because when it comes to matters like this I don’t listen to my mind. I listen to what’s inside…what I feel…the way you make me feel, and there’s no amount of pretending to reason with myself, or logic, and analyzing that can stop me from wanting what I want. You.”