“Your imagination is limitless. I look like a cyborg, but this design gives me better movement.”
“You know the fashionista in me would need a new leg for a new season,” I tease.
“I could just imagine yours would be designer.” He laughs.
“You think Chanel would?” My fashion mind is lost in the possibilities.
“You’ve always been a fashion girlie, then?”
“All my life. I grew up in the middle of nowhere in what most would probably describe as a religious cult, but it’s not technically a cult according to the law, although messed-up stuff happened. The fashion magazines I looked at with the girls from school took me away from my horrible childhood and transported me into a life I knew I should be living. I used to pray that I was the real child of Karl Lagerfeld, and someone kidnapped me at birth, and he had been looking for me all my life.”
“I remember you saying you don’t have contact with your parents.”
“None. Not since I was eighteen. Those first years were rough because I thought, what did I do wrong other than be born? But once I realized what real family was, thanks to Sienna’s and Vanessa’s amazing parents, who took me in as if I were one of their own. I knew how shitty my parents truly were. It’s not their fault they were brainwashed. Now they are who I pity because they are missing out on my fabulous self as their child.”
“You think they will ever reach out?” he asks.
I shrug. “Doubtful. They haven’t in all these years, can’t see why they suddenly would. I know when my time comes to have kids, I am going to love them so much, I’ll probably overcompensate and be a helicopter dad because of my shitty upbringing, but they will always know they are loved.”
“You want kids?” he asks.
“Yes. Loads of them. I’m lucky I’m uncle to all those gorgeous Dirty Texas babies. But I want more than anything to be a dad. Even thought about maybe talking to professionals about adopting or going the surrogacy route once award season is done for me.”
“That soon?”
“It’s not like I’d get a baby the next day. It’s a long, slow process, but I want to know what my options are while I wait for Prince Charming. What about you? Do you want kids?”
“Before the accident, I would have been like you, give me all the babies, but now … I don’t know if I’m ready, mentally,” he confesses.
“That’s understandable. How long ago was the accident?” I ask.
“Celebrated two years in January.”
“That is fresh. Yeah, you don’t need to worry about a family yet. You have plenty of time, you’re still young. Actually, how old are you?”
“I turn thirty next year,” he explains.
“That’s not too bad. I’m thirty-one and I can tell you I feel the biological clock ticking. I want to be a young, fun Dad, and I want my kids to grow up with the Dirty Texas babies, but the way those guys fuck like rabbits, there will be a million and one kids before I get my own.” I sigh.
“You’re great with those kids. They love you.” He nudges my shoulder.
“Aw. Thanks. I aim to please, and I would do anything for those babies. Wow, we are really having an interesting first date. Talked about our traumas and already asked the‘how many kids do you want’question.”
“Is this a date? We’re just talking in my bed,” he states.
“It’s a friend date. Honestly, it’s better than some of the dates I have been on recently. I’m giving up, the men in LA are horrid and vapid.”
“Maybe you need a change of scenery.” He smirks.
“Are you inviting me to Montana,cowboy?”
“Maybe I am.”
Wait. My heart thumps wildly in my chest.
“It’s a completely different world from LA. The mountains, the prairies, the openness.”
“The bears?” I question him.
