The following days I went to the supermarket just to see if I could see the ‘you F****** it up’ girl. I never saw her again, and I’m glad I didn’t because later on lots of random things happened to me that made me really happy. Regardless of that, many things were getting kind of funky at the house with the kids.
Every Monday we used to go to the kids' gym, Ana, Luca, Didi and I. It was cool to watch mums and kids interacting, running everywhere, senseless, pretending they were enjoying it for about an hour. Not many men used to go there with their kids, as I said before, only mums go there, and when I went the first time I got lots of ‘what are you doing here’ looks from them. Eventually, these amazons accepted me in their tribe, so I was allowed to hang out. However, sometimes other men will substitute their wives and got to hang out there as well. One time, one of these dads came for a visit, as usual I was taking care of Didi, having a conversation about life and Greek ancient history, she was delighted. I did notice that this guy was looking at me in a ‘what are you doing here?’ kind of way, however, so used by then to those looks I didn’t care that much. I walked around with Didi in my arms interacting with Ana and Luca while they exercised. The gym session ended, we packed our stuff, said goodbye to the tribe and went back to Ana’s home.
On Wednesday Ana went with the kids to the coffee group while I was minding my own business at my own flat (in case you thought I lived with Ana and Laurence), when she came back she had something to tell me. This guy’s wife, the one he replaced that day, told Ana something interesting. The conversation went like this:
Dad: Darling I went to the gym today
Mum: How did it go, did our kid have fun?
Dad: Pretty much, but you know Ana, the Mexican woman?
Mum: Yes
Dad: Isn’t her husband white and bald?
Mum: Yes, Laurence is white and bald, why?
Dad: Well... I saw her with this other brown and bald guy, he was taking care of Ana's baby girl, I think she is having an affair with this guy.
Ana did one thing: she laughed.
When Ana finished laughing she managed to say:
‘My husband is a wonderful man, first, and second, do you think that if I'm having an affair I’d bring him to my kid’s gym session to take care of my baby????? Of course not!
End of the story. I realized then, that I should set my boundaries more clearly to the external audiences. This is how we came up with the idea of printing a couple of t shirts that would read: ‘I’m just the uncle’, on the front and ‘... and I’m single’ on the back.
Also, I realized that men are bigger gossipers than women.
