Page 25 of Single Omega Dad
“Yes,” said Mathias. He looked up at me. “Have a seat.” He gestured across from me. “Tybor can sit next to me.”
“Is that okay, Daddy?” Tybor asked.
My mouth had dried. “Uh, okay.” I stammered my words.
I moved into the booth and sat with Luke beside me on the outside.
“Can I open it?” Luke asked.
“Yes.” I nodded, looking from him to Tybor. Tybor’s book showed pages of cars, all different, from fire engines to Ferraris. Luke’s had sailboats and ocean liners.
The boys unwrapped their presents and immediately began to color.
“That was kind of you,” I said softly, moving my tote bag with their other coloring supplies onto the floor by my feet.
I realized the gesture meant that Mathias had thought ahead, and had considered the fact of my boys tagging along for this meeting. He’d gone out of his way to buy them these gifts.
I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Maybe he simply wanted them occupied, out of the way. Or maybe he actually felt something.
I didn’t know. I didn’t want to presume.
The waiter came by and took our drink orders.
“Milk for the boys, please.”
Mathias looked at me. “Would you like some wine?”
Wow. I hadn’t expected that. This was about some financial prospect for me, wasn’t it?
“I can’t. Pregnant, remember?”
“Of course,” Mathias said. He looked at the waiter. “I’ll have a glass. White. Sauvignon Blanc if you have it.”
“Uh, we have a house white chardonnay,” the waiter said, looking a little confused. It was a cheap diner, after all.
“That’s fine,” Mathias said, turning away as if he couldn’t be bothered to waste his time over the matter.
“I’ll have some water, please. And water for the boys in addition to the milk,” I added.
“Daddy, can I have a cherry soda?”
“No, Tybor,” I replied softly. “Not tonight. That’s a special dessert treat, remember?”
The boys were already coloring, rapidly filling in blank spaces of shapes with bright greens, purples and reds, their attentions fixated. I had raised them to be polite and not too disturbing in public, but one never had guarantees with five year olds, let alone two of them.
I was used to the energy of just me and the boys. They were like a high pitched hum always running through my body, always present. But now the energy at the table included a rather glowering, heavier presence, unpredictable, impossible to ignore.
Mathias’s attention was now on the open screen of his laptop, but his aura was almost visceral in the air about me. Beyond the high-end perfume of him, he had the scent of electricity zinging across open wires. Hot and sharp. Opening a craving inside of me I did not wish to admit.
I hadn’t realized how mundane and routine my life had become until now, faced with this newness, having dinner with an Alpha who was still a stranger to me. It stirred things up. My mind and body craved the stimulus, surprising me.
For years I’d been fine with just the boys, and recently preparing for my later months in pregnancy. Maintaining a household cool and peace. Planning on chores such as getting the storage room ready for the babies, unpacking what baby things I could find in the garage of Tybor and Luke’s that had not been sold or thrown out. Boxes of onesies. Two bassinets taken apart and stored against one wall. I had a list of things I needed: cribs for one thing, and new bedding for them, diapers, pacifiers, bottles. Little stuffed dogs, lambs, frogs. Rattles and teething rings. It was such a long list and I quite couldn’t remember how I’d handled it all so smoothly the first time around.
It was overwhelming. Exhausting to think about. Almost boring when I should have been excited, or at the very least, somewhat enlivened.
Then enter: Mathias. I didn’t want to think about how my feelings of loneliness surfaced pretty much from the moment I’d laid eyes on him.
Now he sat across from me, all dark and powerful like a storm on a horizon I could not take my eyes from.
