The Perfect Father

Sylvie felt strange as she skimmed over the finer points of the contract. She had wanted for so long to find the perfect father for her child, had spent so many weeks searching for just the right candidate. Now that she had him, she was suddenly uncertain what to do next.

“Can you think of anything else?” she asked, indicating the legal pad as she reached for her glass.

Chase shook his head. “No, I think this about covers everything. I’ll have my attorney draw up the contract, and you can have your attorney look it over before you sign.”

Sylvie was reluctant to tell him that she didn’t have an attorney, so matter-of-fact was Chase in his announcement—as if everybody in the world kept a lawyer on retainer all the time. It occurred to her again what vastly differing life-styles they led. He was a man who was wildly successful in the cutthroat world of business, a man who seemed to have limitless funds and opportunities, a man who was completely in command of his destiny. His was a definite A-type personality, displaying all the characteristics of someone who took charge of a situation without being asked, who never questioned his own judgment, who worked from sunup to sundown to make sure the job was done right.

She, on the other hand, acted compulsively and spontaneously much of the time—her reasoning often based on nothing more than whimsy or intuition at that—and until deciding she wanted a baby, had seldom given much thought to where the future might take her. Certainly she was responsible enough—she was actively cultivating a decent savings account, lived within a monthly budget and had modest needs—but she didn’t want to be the kind of person whose responsibilities extended beyond her own immediate experience. And having untold, very heavy responsibilities was something upon which Chase clearly thrived.

They simply came from and existed in two entirely different worlds. It was something that should comfort her, she tried to tell herself, something that should reinforce the fact that Chase would want no part of her life once he had completed the task she’d asked him to perform. Unfortunately, faced with their obvious differences and incompatibility, Sylvie found herself suddenly wondering if her maternity plan was such a good one after all.

“Sylvie?” she heard him ask, the mention of her name bringing her out of her reverie.

“What?” she replied, realizing he had been speaking at length and she had heard not a word of what he’d said. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening. I was thinking about something else.”

She wasn’t sure, but she thought he paused for just the tiniest moment before asking, “What were you thinking about?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. Nothing important. What was it you were saying?”

He seemed to want to hedge. “I was talking about... What I was leading up to was... We haven’t really...”