If Not for My Baby

by Kate Golden

I like a clean-cut, American boy. Like Aaron Tveit or Jonathan Groff, or Mike.

@Maggie Aaron Tveit mention

Those are the sorts of things my mom still says about my dad—If he wasn’t at the party, it wasn’t a party worth being at—all these years later. I cannot fathom a fate worse than hers.

“I’m not great at this, if you couldn’t tell. So you’ll have to be patient with me.” “You’re in luck. I’m a very patient man.”

I’ve never thought myself exceptionally small, but from the floor, sandwiched between his humongous knees, I am a Tiny Girl™.

Jail

Tom tips his head back in that exhilarating laugh. “I can’t bowl for shite,” he says. “I don’t exercise. I’ve the social battery of a Nokia from two thousand and ten.”