***
At six o'clock I knocked on Claire’s door. I heard footsteps pounding against the floor and suddenly the door was flung open.
I looked down at the little man that stood there staring at me and I couldn't help but smile. Jesus he looked so much like Claire. But his eyes…wow they were exactly the same as mine.
"Hi there Gavin," I said as I pulled a wrapped present out from behind my back and handed it to him. "I got this for you."
Gavin snatched it out of my hand, turned and ran away from the door screaming for Claire.
"MOOOOOOOM! That guy bought me sumfin!"
I laughed and stepped into the house, closing the door behind me.
Claire lived in a small, Cape Cod bungalow and the first thing I noticed when I walked into the living room was how homey it was. There were candles lit on the coffee table and the mantle of the fireplace and the smell of dinner coming from the kitchen was mouth watering. I walked around the room looking at all of the pictures she had on practically every surface: pictures of her when she was little, pictures of her with her dad, pictures of her friends and pictures of Gavin. My heart clenched when I saw a picture of Claire, her belly round with our son. She looked so young. I lifted the picture off of the mantle to get a better look. This was how she looked when I met her, minus the pregnant belly. Looking at this picture made me sad and angry - not with her. I could never be angry with her for anything. We were both young and stupid and neither one of us used any brains that night. I was just upset that I had missed this. I had missed watching her stomach grow, I missed being able to put my hand on her and feel him kick.
“OWWWW!” I yelped as I felt a foot connect with my shin.
I looked down to see Gavin standing there staring at me.
So much for missing out on feeling him kick. I think my shin will remember that forever.
“Hey, I forgotted your name. Can I just call you dog poop?”
Before I could formulate any type of response to that request, I heard Claire’s voice from behind me.
“Gavin!”
“I didn’t do it!” he swore, with a panicked look on his face.
“Yeah, right,” she deadpanned. “This nice man’s name is Carter, remember? Stop trying to call everything dog poop.”
I turned to find her leaning against the doorframe leading into the kitchen given Carter the evil eye.
“Don’t take offense,” she said, turning her gaze to me. “Last week, every time you asked him a question he replied “stupid fat cows are stupid” no matter what the question was.”
I laughed, grateful that the whole dog poop thing wasn’t just because he already decided he hated me. Claire made her way across the room to where I was and glanced down at the picture still in my hand.
"Oh my God, please don't look at that picture. I look like I have a giant tumor growing out of me. A tumor that kicked the shit out of my vagina and made me pee myself when I sneezed," she said with a groan. "I just told you I peed my pants didn't I?" she asked.
"Yeah, you kind of did. It's okay, I’ll only send a text to four of my contacts about it instead of my whole phone book."
I suddenly realized we were toe-to-toe and I was close enough to kiss her. I leaned forward to do just that, completely forgetting that we weren’t alone in the room.
"Mo-om, can I open my pwesent now?"
We stopped inches from each other's mouths and looked down next to us.
Claire sighed and leaned back away from me.
"Yes, you can open your present now," she replied.
He plopped down on the floor right where he was and started tearing into the paper, pieces of it flying in every direction.
"You didn't have to get him anything," she said softly to me.
I shrugged. "It's no big deal, just something little."
"Mommy, look! It's crayons and markers and paint and wow I can color stuffs and make pictures!" Gavin said excitedly, holding everything up for Claire to see.
"That's awesome, baby. Can you go put them in Mommy's room on my bed and we'll play with them later?"
"But I wanna paint now," Gavin complained, dropping the box of crayons on his foot. "Shit!"
"Gavin Allen!" Claire yelled.
I knew I shouldn't laugh, so I looked away and thought of dead puppies and that scene from "Field of Dreams" where Kevin Costner's character got to play catch with his dad. God dammed scene got me every time.
"The next bad word that comes out of your mouth is going to get you a spanking, do you understand me? Tell Carter thank you for the present and go in your room until it's time for dinner."
"Thanks, Carter," Gavin mumbled as he trudged down the hall.
When he was out of earshot I started laughing, and Claire smacked me in the arm.
"Sorry, but he is funny as hell."