All That Is Left Behind

I took my dog in my arms, and I made my way to the boy. I was no older than four of five, and there was absolute distress written all over his face.I made sure to have a good grip on my dog as he could get exited easily, and I knew a lot of people, including children, are easily intimidated by dogs, especially the overly expressive ones.“Hey there,” I said.The boy didn’t even look at me.

“I’m really sorry about that,” said Xander a little uncomfortable.“I think I have a screwdriver somewhere, small enough to fit in the hole there,” I said pointing at the little hole in the bathroom doorknob. “We should be able to open it this way.”I went into the entryway closet and rummaged in there until I found my little toolbox that my father bought me when I moved into my first apartment. I haven’t used it often since, but he had said it was an essential in any household and he had been right. It had saved my ass a few times already.

In was early Sunday morning, I’d changed shift with a colleague and ended up with my first free day in ages. Xander had been up since the wee hours because of work and had set up shop on the dining table since, so not to awaken Eloim who was sleeping in as his father had allowed him to stay up a little later than usual to finish up a movie—which the kid enjoyed doing—because he had been so nice all day. I guessed he would probably grow into a cinephile.I got up, poured myself a cup of coffee, and went digging for some breakfast.“Have you eaten already?” I asked Xander.

I tried to think about Xander’s proposition, but it was so out there, that I found it hard to wrap my mind around it at all. Logic failed me, but my hormones didn’t. I had thought I’d grown to control them pretty well, but when I went to bed that night, that is not what my lady parts had in mind. So sleep came in slow.I couldn’t say that I was not attracted to Xander, because I clearly was. And I must admit that like many others before me, seeing a man being a good father made my ovaries insta-ovulate. I don’t know what’s going on with that, or why it’s so effective. Maybe it’s the fact that we are so easily surrounded by men-child that seeing someone capable of responsibilities had a deep biological effect. Maybe it&rsqu

It turns up, moving abroad is a lot more complicated than it seems, there was no way I could do everything necessary in a couple of weeks. Xander helped me, but he had a very taking job too, and that’s on top of being a single father of a child who is dealing with a lot more than most children his age.Could I deal with this? Was I good enough to take care of Eloim?When he was around, I thought so, but now that I had a lot of time to think about it, I started to doubt myself.“D