14. Damon

It was date night, and I could hardly wait. Being a single dad meant that I couldn't be spontaneous and just go out willy-nilly. I needed to plan, and this time, I was planning the entire day.

I'd made a reservation at the barbecue place closest to me. They'd just won a big award for being the "best barbecue in the state," and while I doubted anything would be as good as the meal Nicholas took me to, I thought it would be fun. Plus it was on the fancier side, if barbeque could be fancy.

Maybe it could be our thing. We could try out different barbecue places and compare them all to the wonderful dinner we had that first time. Sure, after a couple tries, we might be disappointed because none compared to that deliciousness. Or the possibility was there that we'd keep finding better and better barbecue until we became the barbeque experts.

I was excited for our date. It was great that we sometimes got to spend time together, the three of us forming a family bond. But this was going to be great too—just the two of us. There were things that we needed to talk about as far as logistics went as our relationship grew, and that was best without little ears.

After giving myself a once-over in the mirror, I checked the clock on the wall. My brother Sandy was going to be here in an hour to watch George, Nicholas probably fifteen minutes earlier. He, unlike my brother, liked to be early. Or maybe he was like me, and missed me when we were apart and didn't want to miss a single second of our together time.

"Daddy." George came into my bedroom. "What time is Uncle Sandy getting here? He promised me he'd be early."

I wished my brother wouldn't do that. I loved him to pieces, but he wasn't the best at being organized. Sandy was also not the best with time. Some might say he stank at it.

It was me. I was some. His "early" was probably going to be close to just on time, and I hated that for George, but it was better than being late.

"He'll be here, sweetie, don't worry about it. You know how he is… always running late."

He nodded. "My teacher says being tardy is a sign you don't care, but I think it's a sign you are busy." Smart kid.

"Yeah, that sounds like Uncle Sandy, all right. Is there something I can help you with instead?"

"He's going to help me design a cat house for Fluffy FooFoo with the box that we got with the new airfryer."

It had been a present from my mate. He said they were a game changer and it really had been. The box it came in was deceptively huge. Fluffy FooFoo instantly fell in love with it, in the way that cats do.

"Well, I can call him if you want, but you know how he is. He'll be here, though." He always came, just not always on our timeline.

That was good enough for George, who went back into the other room. I glanced at the mirror to make sure I didn't miss anything out of place and thought it was probably best to double-check with my brother. I took out my phone and sent a message to Sandy who immediately replied: Shit. That was today?

I started to type and decided to hit the call button before I sent the message. We were going to be going back and forth, and that was not helpful for either of us. A call was easier.

"I am so sorry." He didn't even bother with a simple hello. "I got called into work and said I'd go. I did check my calendar, though. I wrote it down wrong." Sometimes my brother was an old man, but I long ago gave up on getting him to use his cell phone for a date book. "Can we switch days out? I can come tomorrow like I had accidentally planned to."

I had two choices. I could get mad at my brother for being… well, my brother, or I could be flexible. I chose the latter. I assured him everything would be okay and that I hoped he had a good shift. Then I called the restaurant. They didn't have any reservations for the next day, but that was okay. We'd figure out something else to do.

Change of plans, I typed into my phone. My brother flaked. Want to hang here? I hit send.

Absolutely. He punctuated it with a smiley face. Should I bring pizza and a movie?

I called to George, who came running in. "Uncle Sandy has to work and is coming tomorrow instead of today. Nicholas is coming over to spend the evening with us and wants to know if we should have pizza and a movie today."

He shook his head. "Can we do pizza and a cat house?"

"Do you want to call him and ask?" I was sure he'd be fine with it, but again, it was going to be a bunch of back and forths, and this was easier.

"Yeah."

I hit call, put it on speaker, and handed him the phone, which was now ringing.

"Hey, you."

"It's George, silly. Don't dragons know anything?"

George was really into the dragon thing, and I didn't feel great about him not fully knowing about Nicholas. But also… something he needed to be older for. Every time he made a comment, I let it be. The time would come, hopefully sooner rather than later, when he would be told and shown everything. Today was not that day.

"I know a few things." Nicholas chuckled. "How are you, George, and what can I do for you?"

"My uncle was going to help me make a cat house with that cardboard box that the air fryer came in. Do you want to do that with me? Uncle Sandy was only doing it to be nice. He won't mind."

"Depends. Are we eating pizza?"

"Yeah, we can eat pizza, but no pepperonis. They're too spicy."

I agreed with my son on that.

"Got it. No pepperoni. Mushrooms?"

"Okay." George was so going to be picking them off one at a time.

"Oh, I'll take that as a no." Nicholas was so observant. "Can you put your dad back on? I'll see you soon."

I got on the phone with him and explained everything, including about the house, and he said he'd be over in about an hour with a cheese pizza. And true to his word, he was there in an hour with not only a pizza but a box of boxes and random fasteners he thought would work well on their project.

"Do I want to know why there are so many boxes?" I took the pizza from him, and he came in with a stack of boxes.

George ran up to him and hugged him. "I had a box, silly."

"Yes, but why have a cat house when we could build a cat mansion for Fluffy FooFoo?"

We ate dinner, and the entire time, George was itching to get to the project. The two of them discussed plans for construction domination as they scarfed down their meal, and the second it was done, they were off.

It was fun watching the two of them so deeply involved in a shared activity like this.

I put on music, and the three of us built a monstrosity of a cat condo out of boxes, or a cat mansion. And three of us was a stretch. I shared conversation, danced to silly songs, and handed them things when they needed it. They did all of the building.

We made plans to paint it another day, unsure what kind of paint was best, given that it was for a cat. The boxes were definitely going to be scratched to smithereens, the way cats did. I had a feeling research was going to tell us to leave it plain, which was fine. It wasn't like the cat could read.

Fluffy FooFoo wasn't really sure about any of it, sitting in the original box George had found for him and watching as piece after piece went together. Not once did he get up, not even to go over to Nicholas, who he adored. I crossed my fingers that once we went to bed, our little fur baby was going to do some exploring.

After it was done, we did end up turning on a movie. I wasn't sure who fell asleep first, but when I woke up, the movie was over and it was time to get everyone to bed.

"George, it's bedtime." He didn't stir, but Nicholas did.

"I'll carry him." He scooped him up and brought him to his room. It wasn't the first time I looked at him and saw a father. I'd never put that on him, but seeing him take it up all on his own… that was everything.