Chapter Two

I didn’t think I could be this happy for M’s new baby. Little Julien’s profile looks just like his daddy-o. But the picture I like best doesn’t show Julien’s face at all ― only his father’s adoring smile. That face of excitement of all the things he’s got mapped out for the first 20 years of this kid’s life, the face of apprehension of screwing him up, the face of realization of the miracle.

M was even bigger a mess than I was when we first met a couple of years ago. The heartbreaker met the heartbroken and we became each other’s best listeners for a good while. I remember wondering how anyone could ever come back from the fucked up place he was in.

Turns out he wasn’t that fucked up after all. In fact, he’s always known what he wanted, and he’s one of the rare species of men who realize that their clocks are ticking too. When we reunited he’d already gotten married and the missus pregnant. Though it wasn’t till a few days ago when he told me he would start being a better man so his kid could look up to him that I realized what a long way he’d really come.

We’re all children until we have children. Sadly, only some of us are eager to grow up.

Thanks, sexy boy, for giving me hope.