Page 1 of The Six-Week Single Dad
Chapter One
Hayden
“What the actual fuck? You have got to be kidding me.”
I stared at Maddison Welsh, deliberately ignoring the dirty looks I was getting after my outburst. It was Sunday and we were in the pub garden, having lunch as we had done for the past sixty Sundays since Alfie had been born.
But this was the first time that Maddy had told me she was going to Paris.
“Come on, Hayden, you always knew I was going back to work once I finished my maternity leave. You shouldn’t be surprised about that.”
She was right. It hadn’t come as a surprise, more as a ten-ton shock.
We were both executive recruiters, who worked in a global organisation, and it wasn’t unusual for staff to get postings to other countries. I just hadn’t expected that Maddy would want to take one of them.
I pushed the vegetables around my plate, watching them wilt. “Yes, I knew that. You never mentioned Paris though.”
Maddy huffed. “Robert thought it was a great opportunity for me. He’s going out there for a while and suggested I go with him.”
“Mmm, I bet.” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Robert Macmillan, the Practice Manager for our company, had been following Maddy’s career with interest, particularly after she and I split up. It wasn’t a secret that the two of them had been spending more and more time together in the recent past, and it wouldn’t come as a total shock if they outed themselves as a couple.
“It’s only for six weeks; that’s barely any time at all.”
Alfie stirred in his buggy and I looked down at him. Six weeks felt like such a long time to be away from the little one. Still, I would have to suck it up and deal with it.
“I’ll miss Alfie while you’re both away.”
Maddy went quiet and fiddled with the stem of her gin glass. “Um, no you won’t because you’ll be looking after him.”
It was as if the whole of the rest of the punters in the pub had gone quiet at the same time as Maddy spoke, her voice carrying across the air.
“Sorry, what? Did you just say I was going to be looking after him?”
Since Alfie had been born, I’d minded him barely a handful of times. The odd overnight here and there. Whole days, yes, but never longer than that. Now suddenly, six whole weeks were being thrust in my direction with no warning. I took a swig of my pint, trying to process what Maddy proposed. How the hell was I supposed to look after a baby when I had a full-time job? And no help? I couldn’t simply ask for six weeks holiday. Or could I? What with companies looking to support fathers more, and be flexible and all that. Historically, our company tended to be as flexible as an iron bar.
“Was this Robert’s suggestion too?” I had to ask. It seemed too convenient otherwise.
“He might have sown the seed.”
I bet he did.
I didn’t want to think about any other seeds he might have sown though.
“When are you going?”
“Next Friday.”
“That soon?” Nothing like preparing me for the bombshell and then expecting me to accept it.
“I thought we might go back to your flat and check out what you need to do to make it Alfie-proof.”
This was already a done deal. I clearly didn’t have a say.
Not that it was anything new.
Maddy and I had been together for about fourteen months before we split up. It was the typical it’s-not-you-it’s-me conversation, when we realised we preferred hanging out with our other friends more than we did with each other. There was nothing malicious or shady about our break-up—we drifted apart.
When she contacted me three months after that with the news that she was pregnant and the baby was mine, to say it came as a shock was an understatement of massive proportions.
