Play Date

It's kind of funny how it all started out. An innocent invitation for a play date from one of the moms at Harry's preschool.

It seems that Harry had been spending a lot of time with a particular little girl in his class named Penny. Their teacher Cindy said that they were inseparable, and it was absolutely adorable. When they were separated they both tended to poor behavior, Harry would sulk, and Penny would get stubborn and argumentative, when together, they were perfectly well behaved. The story must have expanded from there. One day their teacher asked me if it would be okay to give my number to Penny's mother Michelle. She had asked for it one day to see if I would like to set up a play date for the kids outside of school. I said sure, that Harry would love that.

I hadn't thought about it much when on the following Tuesday, after we'd just finished dinner, the phone rang. Marta hustled Harry off to his bath while I answered it. Michelle introduced herself and mentioned that Cindy had said it was alright to call about setting up a play date for the kids. We soon nailed down a time to meet on Sunday to hit the local zoo before it closed for the season, one of the downsides of living in a northern climate.

Friday I was picking up Harry after work and Cindy was helping him gather his pack and coat. She said to Harry, "You and Penny are going to have a lot of fun at the zoo. You'll get to see a lot of the animals from your books." I looked askance at the group of parents that had descended on the place trying to see if I could spot a likely candidate for Michelle. Cindy looked up at me and smirked. "They're already gone." I just raised my eyebrows in question. "Michelle gets here early, she gets out of work at four so she and Penny are gone before you get here."

"Oh." I nodded. I glanced at Cindy for a moment wondering what wasn't being said. I shrugged it off and bundled Harry out into the chilly fall air. Colorful leaves swirled around us as I walked him to the car. "Are you excited to be going to the zoo with Penny on Sunday?" He looked at me with a big grin and nodded. He was a quiet child by nature, and circumstance. It was just over two years ago that his mother died in a car accident on her way to pick him up from day care. The drunk driver had been celebrating since lunch and rolled through a red light, he walked away with cuts and bruises. I still withdrew every time I thought about it. "When we get home you have to be quiet, Marta is studying." He just nodded and climbed into his car seat. I have no idea why I said that, he never made a lot of noise. Marta helped with that. She always made sure to engage him when he was in the room, getting him to talk to her and tell her how he felt.

Marta was a student au pair that I'd found through an agency in Boston. She was here, from her native Denmark, studying for a degree in child psychology. The fact that she was twenty-two and European had some of my buddies thinking that I was hitting on the babysitter. The truth couldn't be further from that. She had only moved in a couple months prior and kept to herself when she wasn't watching Harry. We shared time in the kitchen, but didn't socialize much, she kept to her room studying or was plopped down in the den reading. When Harry was around she was much more animated, she drew him out, asked him about his day and would teach him some Danish. She also kept me from falling into a funk. Even after two years I would sulk and she would talk to me, and I would be reminded that I still have people to look after in this world even if my wife was gone.

We did the grocery shopping on Saturday, I asked Marta come along at first so we could make sure she was getting things she would eat as well. She tended to the organic, whole foods rather than prepared foods. She ate like a college student though and pizza night became a regular occurrence on Saturdays. She and Harry would debate toppings for an hour, and we'd often end up making two. When we sat down to dinner she started asking Harry if he was excited about his trip to the zoo tomorrow, with his girlfriend. I just smirked because he was too young to be embarrassed by having his friend referred to as his girlfriend.

She added in her sing song accent. "You remember to be a gentleman tomorrow. You hold her hand, and if it's crowded you let her stand in front so she can see the animals too. Will you look for a red panda for me? They're about the size of a raccoon," she held her hands out about the width of the large cat, "with red hair, a cute little face, and short little ears." She added tickling him behind the ear eliciting a giggle.

The next morning we had a quick breakfast before the doorbell rang. I opened the door to a tall, blond beauty who was smiling broadly back at me. In front of her was a pretty little blond haired girl about Harry's age. I caught myself staring and shook my head. "What ever your selling, I'll take a dozen." I said laughing through the screen.

"Well I'm about to give you a day off, but not a dozen though, I'm Michelle Grant, this is my daughter Penny, who I don't believe you've met." I ushered them both inside and as soon as Penny said hello, I heard Harry tear into the room to greet her. Penny was taller than Harry but not by much, she was going to be a tall girl like her mother. I looked up at Michelle and I was struck by a wave of deja vu. She was close to my six feet height, with a fit, athletic build, and was dressed in faded jeans and a college sweatshirt. If I were to guess I'd put her at a few years younger than my age of thirty four.

"Would you like a cup of coffee?" I ask, my thumb pointing back over my shoulder towards the kitchen.

"I think we should get going to beat the traffic. If I've planned this out, we'll be coming out of the city when everybody else is headed back into it. Do you have Harry's car seat, we'll get it into my car." Her voice was deep and silky and it gave me a bit of a chill.

"Sure, give me a second I'll grab my keys." I said, trying hard not to sound disappointed. I asked Marta to keep an ear out for the kids while we moved things around. We went out and got the seat out of my car. She let out a low whistle at my car. I told her that business has been good and shrugged. We put it into the back of her SUV and I began the buckling and tightening process as she opened the other door and moved a backpack out of the way and tossed it over the backseat. She swept her hair behind her ear, and again the feeling of deja vu struck me. I had no idea how I could know someone this beautiful and not remember her, it just didn't make sense.

"So..." She began and let it trail off.

I just raised my eyebrows at her as I tugged the last strap tight. "So?"

She just grinned and shook her head not meeting my gaze.

"What?" I asked chuckling.

"I was going to ask you to join us, but I don't think your wife would approve." She said laughing.

A thousand emotions ran through me at that, humor at first for her thinking that Marta was my wife, sadness at the thought that my wife would have loved to be taking Harry to the zoo.

"Shit," she said softly, "did I put my foot in my mouth?" She said standing there, her mouth hanging open slightly in shock.

I just shook my head. "No, Marta is our nanny, helps me keep an eye on Harry. She's an exchange student going for her degree at the university." I looked down. "His mother died a little over two years ago."

She stepped forward and grabbed my arm gently. "I'm so sorry." I just nodded. She didn't let go of my arm. She leaned down to look up into my eyes, I looked into her light brown eyes and saw in them that they weren't just words to her, she meant it.

"Car accident on her way to pick Harry up from day care." I replied looking back towards the house.

"Then you should join us." She said, a smile spreading across her full lips. Her mouth was wide and friendly, and her smile sweet.

I smiled at her. "You wouldn't mind?"

"An extra pair of eyes and hands to wrangle two kids at the zoo? Of course I won't mind." She said with a chuckle.

"What makes you think you won't be wrangling three?" I said with a grin. We walked towards the house to get the kids. I introduced her to Marta letting her know I'd be going along as well, we gathered the kids, I grabbed my camera and we were off for the day.

Michelle argued that the play date was her idea and insisted on paying for the entrance to the zoo for us all. I relented with a little grumbling about getting the next one hoping that there would be another.

We wandered through the exhibits, the kids tearing ahead of us towards the barrier of an exhibit of meerkats, the kids pointed and danced excitedly as the they ran around and stood up looking around at all the noise made by the kids. I crouched down and got a picture of the two of them bouncing on their toes and pretending they were meerkats too. Michelle swept a lock of hair behind her ear and again that sense of deja vu hit me as I snapped a picture of the three of them.

"I'm impressed," she said quietly as we walked towards another exhibit, "you haven't asked where Penny's father is yet."

"Why does that impress you?" I chuckled.

She shrugged. "If past experience has proven anything, it's one of the first things guys ask me."

"I'm sure if you want me to know you'll tell me." That got a grin. As we wandered through the zoo, giving the kids a little leg room ahead of us we exchanged stories. Michelle was a partner in a small marketing firm where she specialized in graphic design. I told her that I was in finance as an investment planner. We stopped at the food shack for lunch, the kids ended up with pizza, Michelle and I opting for sandwiches.

She reached over and brushed Penny's hair out of the way. "It's funny, this pizza reminds me of those awful little box mixes they used to sell years ago." She said. "My mother wasn't much of a cook, and the pizza delivery boom hadn't begun yet where we lived. So on Friday nights our treat was homemade pizza. My brother Matt and I got to choose the toppings and always fought over them. He always wanted pepperoni, I wanted black olives." She said with a grin.

"That's funny. When I was a kid my older sister used to babysit the neighbors kids. I distinctly remember this girl used to stick canned olives on her fingers and eat them off one at a time."

"I used to do that!" She shot back laughing. I looked at her wide-eyed.

"Michelle..." I said softly. "Michelle Hollings? My sister Anne babysat a couple kids down the street from us named Michelle and Matthew Hollings."

Michelle's face fell, her mouth wide open, she sat there staring at me stunned. I looked down at Penny, then up at her. "She always said she love the names Penny and Judy, characters from her favorite TV show." I said, the light finally coming on.

"Lost In Space." We said together.

"Your mother's name is Gail, your father and I have the same name, Pete." I added quickly.

"You had the huge yard with the swing set, and the chestnut tree." She said, her shocked expression softening into one of amazement. I just nodded.

"You moved away after our first year of school." I said my shock giving way to nostalgia.

"What are the chances?" She said shaking her head. We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on each others lives. We made it back to the house and set the kids loose in the house where they bombarded Marta with everything they saw, including a red panda with a little white bandit mask. They showed her their new stuffed toys, a red panda and a river otter.

I was unbuckling the car seat from Michelle's Jeep. "I've been having this weird sense of deja vu since you got here. Now I realize why. You look like your mother. She used to brush her hair behind her ear like you do."

"You were a pretty observant five year old." She looked at me shrewdly. I just laughed.

"You weren't privy to the talk of the neighborhood for quite a few years after you moved. Your mother was a knock-out to hear the stories. Something I wouldn't have been aware of at five. I remember one story, from years later, where Mr. Perkins across the street remarked about her sunbathing in a purple bikini on the front lawn. He didn't remember a single yard that wasn't immaculate that summer with all the guys out tending their yards." I said chuckling.

She blushed. "You know she was a model before we were born. Back in the days of the huge glossy catalogs the chain stores used to put out."

"More than once it was remarked your dad was a lucky man." I said.

Her smile faded. "You wouldn't think so the way they fought. They divorced a few years after we moved. Matt and I stayed with Mom. What about you? Is your family still there?"

"My folks are, the rest have scattered all over the country."

She grinned. "This is really weird."

"You know, to tell the truth I had a crush on you back then. I was heart broken when you moved." I said with a smile.

She rolled her eyes. "We were five! Heart broken? We knew each other for what, a year?"

"Yea but you were the only kid in that neighborhood who didn't challenge me to a fight to establish the pecking order." I said with a laugh.

"Tell me about it, Matt came home with more scrapes and bruises to those idiots across the street, though he gave more than his share too. A crush on me?"

"I think it might be genetic."

She squinted at me. I beckoned with my finger and walked quietly down the hall to where Harry's room was. He and Penny were playing with their stuffed animals making up a little story as they went along. They looked adorable together. Michelle watched them for a minute then looked up at me her eyes widening. I pointed back to the living room, and we went and sat down.

"Okay they get along. How weird is it that we both have kids the same age, who ended up meeting at about the same age we did, and they only get along with each other, and barely tolerate any of the other kids in class?"

"On top of the fact that we ended up in the same place again almost thirty years later? Our kids get along like we did. It would only be freakier if you lived two doors down the street." I said with a laugh.

"No, I live about a mile or so away, off Davis Road." She said with a laugh. "It's too close to Halloween for this kind of weirdness."

I watched as she stared off into space for a moment. I couldn't tell what she was thinking, her face was frozen in an odd smirk.

"I had fun today. Thank you for inviting me along." I said, breaking the silence. She beamed up at me.

"I did too." She added, "it wasn't the harrowing experience I'd prepared myself for at all."

Without forethought I blurted out. "So what are we doing next weekend?" Her smile widened.

"The zoo was my idea, it's your turn to come up with something." It was my turn to grin because I had an idea.

The week wouldn't pass fast enough. I talked to Marta about how Michelle and I knew each other as children, and she gushed about how wonderfully romantic it all was. I shrugged it off. She pointed out that I'd be crazy not to be attracted to Michelle. I told her that was a non-issue with a laugh. She then brought up the look on Michelle's face when I introduced her. When I asked her to explain.

"When she found out I was not your wife or girlfriend she practically cheered." She said looking at me with raised eyebrows. "You hadn't noticed?" I just shook my head. "I think this is fate, the two of you meeting again." She smiled. "Just give me a little notice if I'm watching both of them." She added with a wink and went to her room down the hall.

Michelle called me Wednesday evening to find out if I was working in the city the next day. I let her know I was and she invited me to lunch. She had to be in the city for a presentation to a client and wanted to see me again. My heart nearly burst since I wanted the same, but had no idea how to go about it. I honestly thought this was too good to be true.

When I arrived at my office I made sure I blocked out any appointments giving me plenty of time for a long lunch and worked on my quarterly earnings report. My phone rang bringing me out of a daze of spreadsheets and calculations.

"Hey, are you hungry yet?" Michelle responded.

"I am. Is your presentation finished?"

"It is, and I'm overdressed for the drive-through. Where would you like to eat?" We estimated our time to meet and chose an upscale pub a few blocks from my office. She said she'd pick me up so we wouldn't both have to find somewhere to park. I headed for the elevator, and walked out of the lobby door to see her Jeep sitting at the curb. She was watching me walk out of the bank and I buttoned my jacket against the cold blast of air. I could see her smiling as I reached for the door handle.

"Hi!" I said as I climbed into the passenger seat.

"Hi." My mouth hung open as I looked at her. She had pulled her hair back in a neat ponytail with a gold clasp, her face flushed from the cool air. Her lips were a deep shade of plum nearly matching the silk blouse she wore with her gray flannel suit. "Are you okay?" She said as a few moments passed.

"Uh yea, I mean you look terrific." I stammered. She smiled.

"Thank you. You clean up nice yourself. Where is this place again?" I directed her down two blocks and to the right. We found a parking spot and began the walk to the restaurant. Her heels clicked along the pavement as she talked about the presentation she and her partner had made. A chain of restaurants needed a refresher on their design and her firm was one of the few to get an appointment to see the owners. I opened the door of the pub and ushered her in. The warm food scented air washed over us and I thought I heard her growl.

"Been a while since breakfast?" I chuckled.

"Too long, I'm starving."

The place was busy but I'd called ahead and held up two fingers and gave my name to the hostess who walked us to a booth. The narrow aisle meant Michelle walked in front of me and I got a moment to look at her unguarded. I knew she was in shape from what I'd seen on Sunday. I followed the lines of her coat noting it dipped into a narrow waist before flaring out to hug her hips. We thanked the hostess and as Michelle shrugged out of her coat I found myself taking it from her to hang it up on the hook next to the booth. She slid into the seat and smiled at me as I sat across from her.

"I've never been here, I hope the food is good."

"Trust me, it is." The waiter popped by for a drink order, Michelle raised an eyebrow at me and ordered a glass of the house Cabernet, I ordered the same.

"That way if I spill any it blends in with this top." She said with a laugh. I took a moment to look at the color again it complimented her wonderfully. I also took quick note that the deep V shape of the front showed a little cleavage. I looked quickly down at my blue tie.

"I'd better be good or this tie is a goner."

She looked over the menu and we ordered.

"The weather looks like it's going to hold, I was thinking we could take the kids apple picking this weekend. I know an orchard that does hayrides, the works." She seemed pleased by the idea. We shared our adventures in child rearing stories, laughing at each others tales. I ordered us two mulled ciders, a specialty of the pub. Michelle's eyes opened wide at the first sip.

"Holy mackerel, I still have to drive you know!" She said before her cheeks flushed from the warmth. "How much rum is in this?"

"I know that's why you only get one, and after the meal you just ate you should be safe." I laughed. She nodded in resignation at the thought. "It's not just the rum, they use hard cider too." We finished our lunch and I got the feeling that I wasn't the only one reluctant to leave. I glanced at the time and realized we'd been there nearly two hours.