Chapter Eight

Valentine

The day had quickly bled into nightfall, and I found myself drinking at an acoustic bar with all of my friends gathered up. I am astonished to see all three of us here tonight when we couldn't even make a decent plan to meet up and have some bro time without someone cancelling out the last minute. This time, there is no plan made. I totally want to have a drink and have some time to burn all of this stress that I'm getting from work. I just texted both Aldrin and Jack last minute. Whoever shows up, I'll deal with it and, apparently, they both showed up. Many things had changed between the three of us except that we are still tight, but most of it, life had just forced us to evolve. Aldrin is already married and has two children, while Jack is doing a lot of travelling with her girlfriend.

“How was it going with the restaurant?” Playing with the beer cap, Aldrin began opening the floor of conversation.

“It's fucking boring, man,” I answered him in an idly manner while focusing on opening the bottle of beer on hand before gulping all half of it to quench my growing thirst. “I wake up early in the morning, go to work, go home late, and then repeat.”

“Damn man, I can't seem to live with that” I heard Jack, who’s sitting just across me, blabber his reaction to how boring my life is.

“Well, I'm trying to,” I said, giving Jack a grave smirk. He changed his hairstyle; he's now rocking a regular haircut. He's not Mr Clean anymore.

“Well, at least you don't have a wife and two children to think of,” Aldrin trailed.

“You say that like you're already exhausted just a few years into your marriage,” I snarled.

“Don't get me wrong, I love my wife and my kids to death, but I just wish that I at least spent a year being like both of you guys. I mean, I kind of rushed into this. Look at me now. I already look like I'm in my thirties, and you still both look like your exact age,” Aldrin said, giving me a funny look. I tried figuring him out for a few seconds, but I immediately gave up.

“Well, we all make choices,” I said.

We finished a bucket of beer and enjoyed catching up with each when it's time for Aldrin to go home. We can't do anything about it. He got some family to go home to, and soon after drinking half of the second bucket, it was time for Jack to go. And then I was alone again. I wanted to call Ivana, but she's a busy mother.

The next morning, I did not actually think that after babysitting Ivana's baby once last week that I'd be doing it again. Here I am for the second fucking time struggling to change baby Axelle's diapers with my bare hands. Jesus, the smell of his feces, makes me want to puke precisely like the first time I did it. This time though, I kind of know what I'm doing already. I changed it quicker, which is quite an improvement so that I won't puke all over the baby. The baby doesn't even eat that much, but it poops too much that it grossly spreads from his butt going down to his tiny thighs and his back just like butter, and I totally hate that his poop looks like a mustard sauce. After changing the diapers, I successfully put the baby to sleep. It forced me to do an impromptu lullaby, which is totally out of my alley, but I did it anyway, and now I finally have some private me time. I gravely wanted to smoke to relieve this babysitting anxiety, but I'm thinking about the baby's welfare, so I just tried my best not to touch a stick of cigarette for the whole day.

My day off went exactly like what happened last week when I babysit this little ball of life the first time. I struggled real hard at calming down baby Axelle, and in my mind, I'm cursing that spineless guy who can't even take responsibility for his own actions. He thinks he can pull his dick out and stick it to some pussy, release his spawn inside, and then run away just like that. The baby wouldn't stop crying that it almost makes me want to cry as well. I gave him some toys to play with, but he just threw them away. I tried to entertain him, make him laugh instead by making weird faces and stuff that actually temporarily made the baby laugh, but it ultimately got boring that he started crying again. This time it was even louder. I was so fucking frustrated that I just want to throw the baby out of the window, but I've got to keep it together. It took me almost half an hour until I figured out that he may be hungry, and as soon as I gave him some food to chomp to, he stopped crying. It's challenging to understand a baby's language.

"And look who's doing great at being a father," Ivana's voice echoed throughout the house, signalling his wonderful arrival. "Damn, if you were straight, I would totally love to marry you."

"Shut the fuck up, Ivana. I don't even believe in marriage," I growled at Ivana, who was slowly strutting her way to where I was standing with the baby clutched in my arm.

"Come here, my baby love, mommy is here now. Mommy missed you so much," Ivana trailed as she took baby Axelle away from me. "How did Uncle Val treat you today, huh? Did you behave like I told you to behave?"

"Yow, I'm really telling you, this is the last time that I will do the babysitting for you. I'm already beating myself up by doing the cooking and the cleaning in this big ass house."

"Why? You're actually doing great at it, Val. Who knows, you might actually want to have a baby sometime in the future"

"Hell no. Taking care of a baby is far worse than having a hangover. I'd rather have a hangover than have a baby."

"Well, I can't speak for your future, but you know, a lot of things happen that is not in our total control, just like what happened to me this morning."

"What happened to you?"

"Well, I did not get much sleep last night, so while I was driving your car, I got a bit sleepy, and you know, the next thing I know, I thought I bumped into someone."

I realized that Ivana is actually confessing about bumping the car towards someone and to even think that the car she bumped it is actually my car that she borrowed to run some of her errands.

"What did you just say? Did you bump into someone? With my car?" My voice is rising. Of course, I love that car.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry, Valentine. I did not............... it was just an accident, I didn't mean to. It was just a scratch, though, and Katya did not let me pay or whatever."

"Who's Katya?" I asked immediately.

"The lady I bumped into. She's with her daughter, and they were rushing to the airport to pick up her son, who will be coming from Singapore or maybe Australia. I forgot what she said, but since it's only just a scratch, they did not want to make a fuss about it."

I went silent for a long moment. My mind went somewhere else at this instant. I totally remembered Dominic going to Singapore to study, and that is.......this is too much to bear. My heart skipped a bit, and I don't know for what reason it is. I'm pretty sure that I've already moved on from him.

"Hey, Val, are you okay?" Ivana waved her hands in front of my face to check if I'm still with her in this world.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay."

"You totally froze"

"I'm okay."

"I'm really sorry, Val. I will pay you to fix the scratch on your car, it will take some time, but I will pay you."

"No, it's fine. I'll handle it."

"Are you sure? You've already done a lot of things for me, Val. I can't just let you do this to me again."

"Do you know who Katya is?" I spat at Ivana.

"Uhm, she's the lady that I.............."

"She's Dominic's mother."

"No shit, for real?" Ivana was gagged. I mean, she did not know this, so it seemed that I dropped a bomb in front of her. "So this means Dominic is the son that she's talking about."

"Yeah."

"You've already moved on from him, right?"

"Yeah, I have. You don't need to worry."