Stuck With You: A Sweet Romantic Comedy

Part 12

Timo

"Those are my boys," I said as I picked up the picture of the twins in their caps and gowns.

"Your boys?"

"My sons: Ricky and Ronny. They just turned twenty."

"What? How?"

I think that question came out considerably more surprised than she'd intended. I'm thirty-four. It may not be biologically impossible, but it is highly unusual to have kids old enough to have already flown the coop at my age.

"I should explain," I said. "Honestly, I figured Rob and Camille would have told you more about me. I assumed you already knew. I got married early. I was twenty-two, and Misha was twenty-eight. Misha already had the twins. They were seven when we got married."

"Oh." Bianca looked stunned by this revelation.

"I adopted Ricky and Ronny shortly after we got married."

"I see."

"Misha and I split up four years later," I said. "But the adoption stuck."

"Does the adoption have anything to do with why you have two different last names?"

"Yes. The boys last name is Porter, so I hyphenated my last name not long after I adopted the boys. It just made things easier. I still use Franco for business purposes."

"Where are Ricky and Ronny now?"

"USC."

"And Misha?"

"She—"

Just then, the intercom buzzed. The delivery guy was in the lobby with dinner.

It was a welcome interruption. I was feeling happy that evening, and talking about Misha always makes me sad.

"Did Rob and Camille tell you nothing at all about me?" I asked as I took plates out of the cupboard.

"They talk about you all the time," Bianca said. "So do the kids. According to Rob and Camille, about the only thing you can't do is walk on water."

Rob and Camille had clearly not told Bianca any of my unusual back story on purpose. My question was, why?

"How did you end up working for Rob and Camille," Bianca asked.

"After I sold my startup, I did a little consulting for a while. I had a lot of time on my hands. Their last two years of high school, the twins went to live with Misha's parents so they could go to a private school in Malibu, and—"

The doorbell rang, and I opened it to collect the takeout.

"Back to your story," Bianca said, as she spooned fettuccini out onto plates, "how did you end up as Rob and Camille's nanny?"

"Rob hired me as a business consultant, but I found that work less than satisfying."

"So, you decided to become a nanny, instead."

"Something like that."

"Rob and Camille were really struggling to balance work, parenting, and Rob starting his own business."

"But what's in it for you?" Bianca asked.

"Meaning. Family. A reason to get up in the morning."

"Did Misha have anything to do with your decision?"

Bianca was asking me to tell a story that I'd rather not rehash, and apparently it showed because Bianca hastily said, "Never mind. Let's talk about something else."

"No," I insisted. I was serious about Bianca. There was no reason not to be honest with her. "I'll answer your question, but I'll have to back up."

"How far?"

"Back to when Misha and I got married."

"Oh?"

"I know I said Misha had struggles with her mental health, but that was only part of it. I had plenty of problems of my own. I was working eighty hours a week. Misha couldn't handle that, and I shouldn't have expected her to. I knew on some level that I wasn't being a good husband, but I kept telling myself that after the next deal, the next project, then I'd stop working so hard and spend more time with her and the boys."

"But you never did."

"I finally did, but by then it was too late. Misha was depressed and lonely. She started partying all the time. She'd drop the twins off with friends or family and then stay out all night—"

I paused so long that Bianca stood up to clear the plates, but I cut her off.

"I married Misha because I truly loved her," I said, "and I thought the twins would be better off with me in their life, but I wasn't much of a support to Misha or the kids, other than making a lot of money. They never lacked for material things, but I left Misha to handle everything else, including parenting, on her own. That wouldn't have been fair to any wife, but in Misha's fragile mental state, it was just too much. It didn't end well."

Bianca looked like she wanted to ask more about Misha, but instead she said, "What about the twins' bio dad?"

"Never met the man, neither have the boys. When I wanted to adopt the twins, he relinquished his parental rights without hesitation. He failed his kids in the most fundamental way possible, and I very nearly did the same by working all the time when they were younger."

"So, you're working as a nanny as sort of a penance?"

"Think of it more as making up for my own failures as a father."

Bianca

"Do you ever think of having more kids?" I asked. As I heard the words come out of my mouth, I wished I could take them back. People are always asking me when I'm going to have kids, and I hate it.

My reasons for not wanting to get married are complicated, and a little hidden corner of my heart sometimes isn't so sure I'll hold firm to that decision should I ever fall hard for someone again.

My reasons for not wanting kids are not nearly so complicated. I just don't want to be a mother. I never have. I never will. No little part of me wonders if I'll some day regret it, although I constantly have well-meaning but clueless people—mostly other women who are mothers—tell me I will.

I feel like living a childfree life should be a noncontroversial personal choice, but lots of other people don't seem to see it that way.

Apparently, for Timo, this question about having more kids was no big deal.

"Nope," he said, making the motion of scissors cutting through the air as he said it. "I got the snip."

"The snip?"

"You know. Misha didn't want any more kids, and I was fine with that, so—"

And here I had been, not wanting to kiss the man because, if I fell for him, I'd eventually have to break it to him kids were not in my future. All along, they hadn't been in his future, either.

"Camille said you plan to be childfree," said Timo.

And permanently unmarried, but I was wavering on that lately.

"Yep, no kids for me." I tried to sound bright and breezy but missed by a mile.

What were Rob and Camille doing, telling me nothing about Timo except that he was "a wonderful guy," all the while exposing my most personal life choices to scorn and ridicule.

To be fair, though, Timo wasn't scorning or ridiculing my choices. He didn't seem the least bit bothered by my childfree-by-choice stance.

"What else did Camille and Rob tell you about me?" I asked.