Lisa sat and waited for George to show up in the front of the restaurant opposite of the hostess booth. There was a moderate crowd for a Saturday afternoon, but more people were starting to show up. He finally entered Olive Garden a few minutes later and knew who Lisa was immediately. He was a physically imposing man, standing about six feet with large hands and feet, and he had a smooth, dark brown complexion.
“Lisa?” he went in for a hug, and she reluctantly received his embrace without reciprocating. “It’s so good to meet you, sweetheart. You are a spitting image of your mother.”
“Hi, George,” she said reluctantly.
“Can we get a table?” George asked the hostess.
“Sure, what’s your last name?” the hostess asked.
“Townsend,” he answered.
Interesting, Lisa thought. She shook it off as a coincidence that George’s last name was Townsend and didn’t give it a second thought at the time.
“There’s going to be a fifteen-minute wait,” the hostess said.
“Okay, that’s fine,” George said.
They sat down in the front of the restaurant and waited. There was awkward silence for a couple of minutes before George attempted to break the ice.
“Thanks for meeting me here,” George said.
“You’re welcome,” Lisa said coldly.
“Do you come here often?”
“No, I’m really not a fan of Italian food.”
“We can go somewhere else if you want…”
“It’s okay…we can stay here.”
Lisa paused momentarily and asked, “What’s so urgent that you had to see me today?”
“Tomorrow’s not promised, Lisa, and bumping into your mother a few weeks ago reminded me of that fact,” George answered. “A day hasn’t gone by without me thinking about you.”
“Come on, George, save it. It’s only been twenty-seven years since you’d last seen me…you can miss me with your fake concern.”
“Don’t judge me until you know the whole story, Lisa…”
“This was a bad idea…I’m out.”
She abruptly left the restaurant, and George quickly followed her outside.
“Lisa, wait.”
“What?!”
“I’ll explain everything to you if you just give me a chance, okay?”
“I don’t want to hear anything else that you have to say, George…”
“Look, we don’t have to eat. Just take a ride with me and hear me out. If you don’t want to have anything to do with me afterwards, I’ll never contact you again.”
She pondered on what he said, and she said, “Okay. I’ll go with you, but if you say anything that’s out of pocket, I’m gone.”
“That’s fair.”
She followed him to his car, a silver 2019 Cadillac Escalade, and he opened the car door for her before he got in. He then left the parking lot and headed north on Torrence Avenue.
“Wow, a gentleman,” she said sarcastically.
“Chivalry still exists, you know,” he said.
She sighed and said, “You wanted to talk, so talk.”
“What has your mother told you about me?”
“Come on, don’t do that.”
“Do what? I need to know what she has said about me before I begin.”
“Only that you promised her the world, but you ended up breaking her heart instead.”
“Okay, I deserve that. I admit that I’m no saint.”
“No, you’re definitely not that.”
George took a breath and said, “Yes, I broke your mom’s heart, but that wasn’t my intention…”
“Men never intend on breaking a woman’s heart, but it usually happens more often than not.”
There was brief silence, and George made a left turn on 159th Street. He continued westward for a half-mile, and she said, “You can make a right on Paxton and let me out.”
“Do you live around here?” he asked.
“Yes, I do.”
“A deal is a deal, Lisa. I’ll park in front of your apartment complex and finish my story. After that, if you don’t want to be bothered, you’ll never hear from me or see me again.”
“Park in the strip mall to the left at the next light.”
“Okay.”
He got in the left turning lane and waited for the arrow, and he proceeded to enter the lot of the Chase Bank. He then turned off the engine and said, “I met your mom at the Mount Sinai Hospital on the westside. She was a beautiful young nurse there, and I was the head of security for twenty-five years before I retired ten years ago.”
“So, you and my mom were coworkers?”
“Yes, we were. We became fast friends, and I would confide in her when my wife and I were having problems. We would eventually develop deep feelings for one another that we fought hard to conceal. However, we gave in to our desires and began an affair that lasted two years.”
“And I was born during that time, right?”
“Yes, you were. My wife found out that Annamarie and I were carrying on and that she was three months pregnant at the time, and we had separated for a year afterwards.”
“Carrying on? So, all that my mom was to you was a jump off…”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Lisa…we were going to get married once I found out that she was pregnant with you. My wife was set to file the divorce papers, but she also found out that she was pregnant with our fifth child a few months later…”
“So, you decided to go back to your wife and left my mom in the cold.”
“Not exactly…”
“I’ve heard enough, George,” she angrily said as she reached for the door. “It was nice meeting you…”
“Wait…”
“What?!”
“Just let me finish, Lisa.”
“You have sixty seconds.”
George sighed and continued, “I told Annamarie that my wife was also pregnant, and that I couldn’t divorce her yet. Weeks had turned into months, and before I knew it, a year had passed. She then gave me an ultimatum, and needless to say, I hadn’t seen or heard from her since, until our meeting at the grocery store.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you never tried to be a part of my life or help my mom with child support…”
“But I did, Lisa. Your mom moved away and left Mount Sinai without so much as a goodbye, and your grandparents wouldn’t give me her new address, either. I sent child support checks to your grandparents’ house for a year straight, but your mom never cashed them.”
Tears began to stream down her face as she allowed what he had just said to sink in. He grabbed her hand and said, “I’m sorry that I abandoned you, and I know all of this is ultimately my fault. I never should’ve crossed the line with your mother and made promises to her that I couldn’t keep, and I never meant to hurt her or you.”
“As angry as I am with you right now, I can’t bring myself to hate you, George.”
“Can you ever forgive me, Lisa?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll try.”
“That’s all I can ask for.”
She wiped the tears from her eyes and asked, “So, what do you do with yourself now that you’re retired?”
“Well, technically I’m not…I’ve been a pastor at a church for over ten years. I’m not the man I once was.”
“Does your wife know that you reached out to me?”
“Yes, she does. We don’t keep secrets from one another anymore, but we have to tell our children that they have another sister.”
“How many brothers and sisters do I have?”
“You have three brothers and two sisters. My oldest son John is thirty-three, my oldest daughter Jerrica is thirty-one…”
“Did you say John and Jerrica?” Lisa asked curiously.
“Yes, why?”
“Do you have pictures of them?
“Sure.”
He pulled out his phone from his pocket to open up the camera and began scrolling pictures. He came across a picture of Jerrica and Jillian at Jillian’s graduation from law school.
“These are your two sisters Jerrica and Jillian,” he said, and she felt a chill come over her body.
“They’re beautiful,” she said nervously.
“Thank you.”
He then scrolled more pictures until he got to the family portrait and said, “And this is my wife Joyce, your brother Jerome, and the youngest is Jalen…”
She suddenly felt queasy and quickly opened the passengers side door.
“Blarg!” she barfed alongside George’s truck. “Ughhh.”
“Are you alright, sweetheart?” he asked.
“No,” she answered. “Can you take me home, please?”
“Okay. Do you want me to drop you off on Paxton?”
“No, I’ll direct you,” she coughed.
He left the lot abruptly and made a left before stopping at the light.
“Keep straight on Paxton,” she instructed.
“Okay.”
The light turned green, and he crossed the intersection and continued on Paxton Avenue for a half-block before she said, “Make a left at the entrance and make another left on Hickory.”
He found a vacant space in the middle of the lot and parked. He turned to her and asked, “Do you need anything? Money?”
“No, I’m good, George. Thank you.”
“When will I see you again?”
“I don’t know…I’ll call you soon, okay?”
“Okay, Lisa. Take care.”
“You, too. Bye.”
“Bye.”
She got out, and he watched her go inside before he pulled off. She plopped on her living room sofa once she got inside and began to wail uncontrollably.
“Why is this happening to me?!” she cried.