single dad: v.h

chapter seven

"Hello Vinnie, how are you?" Aaliyah asked politely as she approached him at the coffee shop they agreed to meet at.

It had been 3 days since everything happened with Emily and he felt that if him and Aaliyah were going to have a relationship of any kind then he needed to be open and honest with her.

"I'm good. How are you?" Vinnie stood and gave her a hug.

"Pretty good. You said you wanted to talk? Is everything okay?" Aaliyah asked as she sat down.

"Everything is fine now. I just feel if we're going to move forward with a relationship then I should be honest about some things." Vinnie said, handing her a coffee he had ordered her.

"Thanks and of course! I appreciate you setting this up, it seems serious and what you're doing takes a lot of courage." Aaliyah expressed.

Vinnie smiled softly and looked at the table. He was nervous as hell to tell her what happened. How he had slept with him ex-girlfriend and then let her borrow money. This wasn't gonna be easy.

"I don't want to lose what he have so far. I feel really guilty." Vinnie said, he could feel the tears coming to his water line but he kept them back as best he could.

"Whatever it is, I promise to keep an open mind." Aaliyah said, placing her hand on his.

"Thank you." Vinnie answered.

It got quiet as Vinnie tried to think of how he wanted to word it. This was gonna make or break what they had going on between them.

"You remember Emily?" Vinnie asked.

"Yes."

"Okay well, the morning you left my house I took Bear to school and went to work. When I got there she was there. We got into an argument, not screaming or anything, but more like a calm disagreement. I don't know how it happened and I regret it so much. Her and I did some things in the back seat of my car." Vinnie said, peaking up through his eyelashes to see her reaction.

"Well thank you for being honest. I'm not angry. We aren't officially together, in all honesty we don't know each other that well. But I'd love to continue to get to know you." Aaliyah answered.

"That's not all. But thank you so much for understanding!" Vinnie said.

"No problem."

"Anyway, I went to my moms after that because I ended up not going to work, I quit that job the next day. I picked up Kai and I went home. Emily showed up like an hour later. She looked horrible and she had told me about someone who tried to do things to her but she had managed to get away and ran to my house. She asked to take a shower and borrow some money and I let her. She was gone before Bear got home. I can't stand her and I despise her for what she did to my kids but I couldn't stand by and watch her crumble. The good news is, she left town and hopefully she won't be back." Vinnie said.

"Oh wow, that's horrible. Did she contact the police?" Aaliyah asked.

"I'm not sure if she did or not." Vinnie answered.

"I hope she did. But thank you for telling me all of this. I really appreciate it and I want you to know that I'd still love to get to know you and see where things take us." Aaliyah smiled.

Vinnie smiled back at her, wondering how he'd been so blessed to have met her. There was no one in this world like Aaliyah. They talked for awhile longer, about much more light hearted topics before they said there goodbyes and went separate ways.

——

"How did it go?" Maria asked as Vinnie walked in the door.

"Great. I didn't scare her away." Vinnie answered causing his mother to chuckle.

"Good." Maria responded.

"Thanks for watching them mom. How were they?" Vinnie asked as Bear ran up to him to hug him.

"They were good. Kai ate and he's asleep in the bassinet. Bear was good for the most part, except for when she threw a fit because she didn't wanna eat her corn for dinner." Maria said, sticking her tongue out at her granddaughter.

"You have to eat your vegetables goofball." Vinnie picked her up and tickled her sides.

"But daddy, you know I hate corn." Bear whined as she shoved her face in his neck.

"Well it's good for you and if grandma makes it for dinner you eat it." Vinnie said, tossing her gently on the couch.

Bear nodded but not before secretly rolling her eyes and laying her head on Maria's lap.

"Grandma you're not allowed to leave. We're having a sleepover." Bear said, crawling into her lap and hugging her.

"How about this weekend we have a sleepover when you don't have school? You can come to me and Papa Nate's and watch movies." Maria said.

"Nooooo, Papa will only watch stupid baseball and then make fun of me for not liking baseball like my daddy." Bear whined.

"I won't let him watch baseball." Maria answered.

"You promise?"

"Promise."

"Okay, then I'll come over. But I swear if I have to hear him call daddy a mini Babe Ruth, I'm running away." Bear laughed along with Maria.

"I'll run away with you. Now go get ready for bed, daddy's tired." Maria said and smiled when Bear ran up the stairs yelling out that she loved her along the way.

"Hush, your putting Kai back to sleep if you wake him." Vinnie said.

He said goodbye to his mom and locked the door. He turned the lights out downstairs and went upstairs to get Bear.

"Bear. Come to my room. I wanna have a sleepover in my bed." Vinnie said, smiling when Bear squealed in excitement and ran to his room.