Julie folded her arms and pursed her lips. “Are you threatening me?” she said, a snarl in her voice.
“All I want,” he said slowly, “is for her to know me, an’ know my partner.”
“Wait just a minute,” she said, and put her coffee cup down. “I won’t have her calling anyone else ‘mama’.”
“She won’ be.”
Julie was silent, as she thought what that meant. A partner. A partner. It meant – “You’re gay?”
“Bi. So?” He sipped his coffee and glared at her.
“You’re…you’re…” She tried to imagine this big strong hulking man and another man, and couldn’t wrap her head around it. He was probably the instigator. That had to be it. “I just…never imagined.”
“It don’ make a difference,” he said, setting the coffee cup down hard. “I wan’ Rosie -” he held up his hand as Julie opened her mouth to say something. “I wan’ Rosie t’ know me. I don’ wan’ you t’ hide me. I wanna be part of her life.”
“Do you? Do you really?” Julie motioned to the house. “Do you want to take care of the mortgage, and the food, and the upkeep of this house? Do you want to be here for every bump and scrape and every time she cries or laughs? Do you want to be here for every birthday, every day she comes home from school? Do you want to be worried sick if you don’t see her out of the corner of your eye when you go to the store, and she’s playing hide-and-seek in the clothes racks? Do you? Do you really?”
Knight said nothing, but Julie had worked herself up.
“No. No you want to be the mysterious benefactor, the one who shows up every so often with maybe a few hundred dollars or money for college, or money every year for her to get clothes for school. You might send her a Christmas card, or a birthday card, pictures of you and your partner having a grand old time wherever it is you are, while I’m here, I’m raising her, comforting her when she’s sad, rejoicing with her when she’s happy, every moment of every day. You don’t want to be the father, or the husband, or not even an uncle.”
Julie walked over and snatched the coffee cup away from Knight and held it tightly in her hand. “You know what you are to me? A sperm donor. Now get out of my house, or I will call the police and have a restraining order placed against you.” Then she grinned, ferally. “Two can play at your game.”
Knight slowly got up, very slowly, but gracefully. “I din’t want it to end this way.”
“You’ve done your duty. You’re done.” She leaned forward. “Your name isn’t even on the birth certificate so she will never know you. Ever.”
Knight walked around the table, heading back toward the living room. He stopped, took one last look at Rosie.
“Keep walking,” Julie said. Knight looked away, heading to the front door.
He put his hand on the handle and bent his head. “Someday,” he said, his voice low and angry, “you will regret what you did.”
“It’s been three years, and I haven’t yet. Goodbye, Knight.”
Knight wrenched the door open, yanking it so hard that the top hinge popped out of the doorframe. He stormed out of the house, leaving the door to hang on its two hinges, and he went across the lawn to his bike. Julie tried to shut the door, but had to lift it to get it to close.
She heard the roar of the bike, and then there was blessed silence until…
“The cat says…Meow!”