Raising Echo

03

"How'd you do that?" Chris questioned as Desiré sat, carefully rocking Aeko.

"A womanly touch can do the trick, which brings me into the next question..." Chris scratched his beard as he sat back down, watching her easily open her laptop while holding Aeko on her chest.

"Do you have kids or something?" Chris asked.

"No, I've been working with them for so many years that I've just picked some things up," she looked at him, "but this is about you Mr.Brown."

"Yeah, my bad Ms. Jones."

Desiré cleared her throat after nodding to him. "Are you married, dating, or single?"

Chris raised his eyebrow, "why? Are you interested?" She looked up at him, unimpressed by his childish comments.

"Mr. Brown that's highly inappropriate, I'm asking a standard question."

"Okay, Okay relax, I was just messing with you," he put his hands up in defense.

"No, your inability to understand that the custody of your son is nothing to be messed with baffles me. I'm gonna let you in on something your probably already know. The court isn't necessarily on your side. In fact, they're against you. I advise you to take this a lot more seriously. This child's fate is in your hands."

Chris looked at his son, regretting not taking the matter as seriously as he should. "I apologize, Ms. Jones. It won't happen again,I promise. Even though it's tough for me to... adjust to being the father of a new born baby, he's all I have now. My flesh and blood and we already have this connection.."

"It's fine. I get it. And don't worry, the court may not be on your side but I am. You just have to work with me, okay?" Desiré smiled as she placed Aeko in Chris' arms. Aeko looked up at his father and their eyes met causing A wide smile to tug at Chris's lips.

It even pulled Desiré's heart strings as she gushed at the small moment. "To answer your question I'm single. Not seeing anyone, and I don't really need to. It's just Aeko and me and I'm okay with that. Plus my mom and Aunt are a huge help,"

Desiré nodded as she typed away into the document and not even seconds later, the lights and the hushed whir of the central air conditioning came back on. "Hm, well that was quick." She said as she finished typing. "So what are your financial plans? Of course you have the means to care for your son but with no tours and albums coming any time soon are you afraid that later on down the line... you know?"

"I have many investments," Chris said in a matter of fact tone, "more than people think, actually. But I'm not worried about money because I have it. But my main financial concern right now is my house over in Tarzana. I'm thinking about selling it but there's too much sentimental value. I had to leave though."

"You shouldn't sell it if you don't need it. Plus don't you have lots of artwork of yours? It's worth something now but just imagine how much it'll be worth later on down the line. It could be little Echo's first investment property," Desiré suggested.

"See, I like you. You think like me."

"Uh, I wouldn't say all that, Mr. Brown." She laughed.

Chris chuckled, slightly sitting back, feeling a lot more comfortable. Desiré had lost her stickler vibe that she had yesterday he'd concluded that she was actually pretty out going and it made him feel a certain way about her, though he attempted to not think about it.

For the time being.

_

The storm had finally cleared and as Desiré was heading out as Joyce was walking in. "Oh," she said, "I thought you'd have been gone by now. How are you Ms. Jones?"

"Hello Ms. Hawkins, I'm well thank you for asking," Desiré smiles genuinely.

"It took so long because the storm had her stuck here for a while," Chris said.

"Storm? What storm?" Joyce's eyes darted between the two.

"There was a bad thunder storm, power outage and everything," Chris shook his head.

"That's funny. I mean I was out all day and it didn't but so much drizzle out."

Chris unnoticeably looked over at his son who was fast asleep, sucking on his pacifier, automatically tying the two "coincidences" together.

"That is strange, huh?" Chris said, trying to convince himself that he isn't losing his mind.