Title: Fatherhood

Series: Part of my Strokes series

Rating: G

Summary: Olly and Sam discuss fatherhood and Olly recounts a recent experience

Writing Prompt 183: What if you’re going to write a story about fatherhood with a florist as the main character and a new dress as the key object? Set your story in a restaurant.

Notes: I must thank my family (not that they’d ever read this, but who knows), especially my sister who is far cooler than I could ever be but who I based MayLyn on a little bit.

Fatherhood

Olly sat down at the table and relaxed into his chair after having been on his feet all morning. He checked his watch and a smile stretched across his face. He quickly zipped open his bag and pulled out his laptop. It took only a few moments to boot up and detect that café’s wireless network.

But before he could even glance at his body list, an AIM window popped up in the middle of his screen, silently as he had the computer muted.

LuvRRR: Hi Olly. How are you today?

DrMovie: just fine Sam- you?

LuvRRR: 3:00

Olly checked his watch, confused.

DrMovie: no It’s 11:40 actually

LuvRRR: LOL! No, I mean check your 3:00.

Olly looked to his right and broke out in a wide grin. Sam peeked out from behind his laptop at the table by the far wall and grinned back at him. Sam raised a hand and wiggled his fingers in greeting. He typed with his other hand at the same time, however, and a second later more appeared on Olly’s screen.

LuvRRR: Waiting for your lunch bunch I presume?

DrMovie: correct as usual… and you? want to join?

LuvRRR: Just finishing up here. I’ve got work in about twenty minutes. I was just waiting around here in hopes of seeing you.

DrMovie: Awwww aren’t you sweet!!! Youd better get a good look then

Olly looked up again, letting Sam get a good look at him, turning in profile, gesturing to himself as though he were a prize on a game show.

LuvRRR: Handsome as always.

DrMovie: LOL! Clearly you haven’t seen me after a double shift:

DrMovie: bloodshot eyes…

DrMovie: mussed hair…

LuvRRR: Are you trying to turn me on?

DrMovie: LOL so apart from getting to see me how’s your day been?

LuvRRR: Just fine, really. I received an invitation to a friend’s wedding in the mail this morning. Don’t suppose you’re free on the twenty-eighth of next month?

Olly opened up his scheduler program and scrolled through it until he got to the right date. It was completely blank with no events or obligations and no work yet as shifts were reassigned and reshuffled monthly.

DrMovie: I can make myself available. It’s local?

LuvRRR: Just south of DC actually. A good day trip.

DrMovie: or perhaps weekend

LuvRRR::) Perhaps. We’ll see where we are then.

DrMovie: sounds good to me

LuvRRR: The thing is, my friends know I’m gay and that I might bring someone along but they won’t be expecting me to need a hotel room.

DrMovie: expectations- I know what that’s like

LuvRRR: It’s like the moment people know you’re gay they completely dismiss things like marriage and kids. Though I’ve got to admit I felt the same way for a while. Do you ever think about those things, Olly?

DrMovie: Sure I do but the marriage thing’s pretty far into my future still and as for kids… of course Id love some but I’ve got my hands full right now. Take this last weekend for example…

*

“But you know I’m no good at this sort of thing…” Olly said, trying to reason with his sister.

“Shopping?” she said with a laugh. “You’re gay. It’s in your blood! Please take her. I’ve got three full orders to get through before six and I haven’t been riding in days.”

With the diaper bag already slung over his shoulder, he stretched his arms out. “Of course I’ll take her. I’ll see you at eight-thirty?”

“You’re a saint, Rence.” She kissed his cheek then handed over Maylyn. The little girl clung to Olly’s side and he held onto her as he balanced her on his hip. Unfortunately, being gay did not mean having hips like a woman. So Olly had to lean to the side a little to support her weight. He looked down at his niece and smiled. “I’m going to take you shopping for your new dress while Mommy works, okay?”

She nodded and giggled excitedly. “Unkey Olly!”

Swan laughed as Olly beamed. “I think she loves her uncle more than her parents.”

Looking at Maylyn while he spoke to his sister, “That’s just because I spoil her when you’re not around.”

“Lawrence Preston!” she exclaimed, one hand on a hip.

He laughed, shaking his head. “Just kidding.” At Olly’s prompt, they waved goodbye to Swan then headed to the shopping mall.

Dress shopping for a little girl would probably have been infinitely easier without the little girl. Maylyn couldn’t decide whether or not she wanted to walk or be carried and was restless in both positions. She had always been a bit clingier than normal children, but that was to be expected. On a whole, considering where she had come from, she had made the transition to a new country and home much more seamlessly than expected. Of course having an incredibly loving family helped a lot in that department.

“Pink!” she shrieked, throwing her body forward, lunging at a dress on the rack. Olly held her tightly as she squirmed in his arms, desperately trying to get to the dress. He set her down and she hopped up and down, grabbing at it though she was a foot too short.

“Okay, okay,” Olly said resignedly, flipping through the small group of pink dresses. He was somewhat colorblind, another reason he had been a little reluctant to go shopping. But even he could see how incredibly bright pink this particular group of dresses were. He flipped through, looking for the least objectionable one in Maylyn’s size.

As she whined to get at the dresses, he selected one with a minimal amount of lace in a less-shocking shade of pink. Then came the part he’d been dreading: trying the dress on.

“So sweet of your mommy to let me take you shopping,” Olly muttered as he headed into the dressing room with her still in his arms. Getting the dress on Maylyn was not the hard part; the hard part was getting it off again.

Having lived in an orphanage for the first year of her life, Maylyn was not fond of having things taken away from her. She had a hard time grasping concepts like borrowing and buying. If she was wearing something, it made sense to her that it was hers. So to take it off again and- worse yet- leave the store without the items tried on, were causes for a complete meltdown.

After parading the bright pink number up and down the walkway in-between rows of fitting rooms and twirling in front of the mirror so much she made herself dizzy and wobbly, they both decided the dress was a good match. And Olly wasn’t just thinking so because it meant a shorter shopping trip.

The dress was a gentle pink with a darker pink satin sash around her waist. The skirt portion was padded with material that made it poof out nicely, but the material was lined on the inside so as not to itch or irritate her legs. The sleeves were long but there were bits of elastic on the insides of the cuffs, ensuring that they stay in place. At the cuffs, as around the neck, there were small, tasteful ruffles. And on the right side there was an embroidered blue and purple butterfly.

“You’re sure you like it enough to buy it and take it home?” Olly said, squatting down in front of her and taking her small hands in his. She tried to look around him to keep her eyes on her reflection in the dressing room mirrors, but he anticipated this and leaned to position himself to be in the way. Then he squeezed her hands to keep her attention on him. She nodded. “Okay. Then you need to take it off so we can pay for it and go.”

She shook her head and cried as he reasoned with her to take it off. She screamed when he went to take it off her himself, startling him and garnering the attention of a sales clerk who looked at them strangely. A small, screaming and crying Asian girl and a young man… Olly couldn’t exactly blame anyone for giving them suspicious looks. “She doesn’t like the taking it off part,” he explained, gesturing at the dress, glad the price tag was quite visible just in case the clerk didn’t recognize it right away as belonging to the store.

“We get that a lot,” the sales clerk said, smiling now at Olly and flipping her hair back to catch his eye in what she didn’t know was a fruitless effort. The woman bent down and picked up Maylyn’s clothes. “What a beautiful sweater. What a beautiful outfit!” she said. “I wonder who it belongs to…” She looked around, pretending to be confused.

“Me!” Maylyn said, freeing her hands and making a grab for it.

“You?” the woman asked, holding it where Maylyn couldn’t quite reach it. “You look beautiful in that dress, but I bet you look even lovelier in these. Could you be a big girl and show me what you look like in them? And then your daddy can buy you a dress.”

“Not daddy,” she giggled, tugging at the dress to take it off. Olly swooped in quickly to help before she ripped it. He avoided the sales clerk’s eyes purposefully. But, luckily, Maylyn explained. “Unkey Olly!”

“She’s my niece,” he confirmed, nodding. He was amazed boy how fast Maylyn was when changing into her own clothes again. He’d have to remember this trick next time.

“Oh,” said the sales clerk, eyes smiling and sparkling. “Then I’ll just give this dress to Uncle Olly.” She leaned closer to him and Olly tensed up.

Olly cleared his throat. “And I’ll pay for it at the register. Thank you.” He knew he sounded cold, but he wasn’t good at this whole pushing women away thing. No matter what he did, they always thought he was cute. Would that he had such problems with men.

“Pretty?” Maylyn asked, modeling her regular clothes in the mirror for the sales clerk.

“Stunningly beautiful,” the sales clerk said, nodding. She gave Maylyn’s head a pat. Then she patted Olly’s arm. “If you two are ready, I’ll show you to the register.”

There was a short line at the register, so Olly and Maylyn took their place at the back. They were only there for a few minutes, having moved up a few places, when Olly felt a tug. He looked down to see Maylyn tugging his pants leg, her little hand tightly holding a bunch of his slacks in her little fist. “What is it?” he asked, reaching down and ruffling her hair. He knew she did not like lines or waiting but usually she had a little more patience than this. “Want me to pick you up again?”

She shook her head but did not answer better than that. Her face was growing red. Then she looked worried, confused, and fidgeting about a little. When they went to move up, Olly set his credit card and the dress on the counter to get rung up. Then he bent down on one knee. He took Maylyn’s hands again, squeezing reassuringly and making eye contact. “It’s all right,” he whispered. “I’ll take you to the bathroom as soon as we finish buying your pretty dress. And we won’t tell Mommy you had an accident, okay?” Shyly, she nodded. She bit her lip and clung to his leg.

Maylyn’s toilet training had only just begun, but hadn’t been going particularly well. Luckily she was wearing training pants, but they let her feel when she was going.

The store they were in did not have bathrooms, so Olly took her into the mall bathroom off the food court. He had never been too fond of mall bathrooms, having been scared by his big sister’s “I swear they’re true” stories of perverts abducting little boys from the seemingly endless long hallways where there was nowhere to run except the exit to the outside. Even now, walking down the bare, narrow, long stretch towards the restroom, he felt nervous. He scooped Maylyn up in his arms and held her tightly just in case. She squirmed uncomfortably.

For all the stereotypes in movies of guys not wanting to change diapers, Olly honestly didn’t mind it one bit. In truth, he’d been through a hell of a lot worse as a doctor, especially when it came to visits to the AIDS hospice. What he did hate, however, were public men’s restrooms. With the exception of the bathrooms at Strokes, that is, but he wouldn’t have wanted to change a diaper in one of those either.

Olly made Maylyn shut her eyes tightly as they went into the men’s room. As a sometimes optimist, he was really hoping for some clean space somewhere on a counter, but the bathroom was terribly dirty with toilet paper and puddles all over the floor and at least one sink stopped up with paper towels and overflowing. He was glad he had made her close her eyes, as it only got worse from there by the look of the urinals and stalls. Quickly, he headed back out with her and waited until a woman came out of the bathroom.

They did not have to wait too long. “Excuse me,” he said, trying to sound as desperate as possible without seeming creepy. “My niece here needs a changing and the men’s room is a pit, to put it nicely. Could you please tell me if there is anyone else in the woman’s room?”

She narrowed her eyes at him, called him a few names he wished he could have held his hands over Maylyn’s ears for, then stormed off. Olly thought of calling after her that if he wanted to ogle cute asses the ladies’ room would be the last place he would go, but he was too nice to say anything like that. He tried to comfort Maylyn with a few reassuring words, but she was not at all comfortable right now and needed badly to be changed.

After a few minutes, a woman came down the hall towards him. He repeated his request as politely as possible with a squirming child in his arms.

“I’ve really got to pee,” said the brown-haired woman in the denim jumper. Olly was betting on her being a school teacher. “But if you give me three minutes I’ll do you one better and stand guard for you out here, too.”

“Oh, thank you!” he sighed in relief. Three minutes felt more like two, and Olly was quite glad for that.

“The bathroom’s empty and there’s a changing station,” she told him, drying her hands with a paper towel as she exited.

He thanked her profusely then took Maylyn inside. She apologized to him when he changed her and he insisted everything was all right. “Next time you’ll know what it feels like and use the toilet, I know you will,” he said reassuringly as he wiped her off thoroughly and pulled a clean pair of disposable training pants from the bag. She wiggled into them. “You’ll get it next time.” He hurried through cleanup and folded the table back up against the wall.

When he emerged, there were several women waiting outside. He apologized and got a few frustrated looks as the women passed on their way inside. Then he turned to the woman who had stood guard for him. “Thank you very much. That was very kind of you.” He didn’t sound quite as grateful as he felt, for fear that she might get the idea he liked her. He was never good at this sort of thing.

“My pleasure. Must be tough taking care of her on your own.”

He nodded but hugged Maylyn tightly against his side. She was leaning over, trying to reach down and get at her dress in the shopping bag Olly was holding. “Believe me, the benefits outweigh the problems,” he said. “I just wish they put changing stations in men’s rooms, too.”

“It’ll get easier once she’s out of diapers,” the woman reassured him as they headed down the hall towards the food court.

He nodded, but wasn’t convinced. He was pretty protective when it came to Maylyn. He didn’t like the idea of her disappearing into the ladies’ room when he couldn’t watch her every second. But soon she’d be old enough to use the bathroom by herself. She hadn’t been with them a year yet and already she was growing up too fast. And though he was constantly concerned for her future, he really did look forward to being in her life as she grew up and helping face whatever new problems might arise.

*

DrMovie: So you see- I’ve got as much as I can handle right now

LuvRRR: Guess so… but, hopefully, you’ll be able to squeeze me in there somewhere, too?

DrMovie: U bet baby! :D

LuvRRR: I see your friends outside. And I should be heading to work, myself

DrMovie: right- can I get a kiss at least?

LuvRRR: *kiss*

DrMovie: Thax but…

LuvRRR has signed off

Immediately, Olly looked up to see Sam up and heading straight for him. They exchanged a quick, conservative kiss just in time for Sam to head out of the café as Sweetie, Nik and Turbo headed in.