There was this awkward silence after my last question to Michelle.

She said, “Actually, I don’t think my daughter’s father knows.”

“He doesn’t know? Why not? I mean, how old is your daughter?”

“She turned three in the spring.”

All of a sudden, I stopped and starting counting back. I had been dealing with Michelle around that time; three to four years ago. Maybe it was even five years. I remember it was well after my breakup with Andrea. But it didn’t last long. None of my relationships lasted that long. My thing with Andrea was just more intense.

I said, “Are you trying to tell me something?” My heart started racing inside my chest again. What kind of fucking night was I having? It just never seemed to end.

“Well, I just want you to meet her,” Michelle responded to me. “I’ll pay for your airline ticket, hotel room and everything.”

I said, “You want me to meet her? For what?”

There was an awkward silence again.

“I’m not trying to make this difficult,” she told me. “I just want you to meet her, and that’ll be it.”

“That’ll be it? Are you trying to see if I’m the father?”

I couldn’t believe this shit! She was doing it smooth, too, even offering to pay for my plane ticket and hotel.

I asked her, “Why wouldn’t you say something about that years ago? That’s crazy! You wait for three years to bring this up?”

“Actually, it’s been four years.”

“Whatever! Why didn’t you bring it up then?”

Boy, she was getting me on the wrong damn night. But no night or day would have been good for something like that.

“If you don’t want to see her, then I understand,” she told me. But she still didn’t answer my question.

I said, “But why would you wait like this?”

I reflected again on one of the nights we had sex. Michelle got so wet and excited that the condom slid off inside of her. I was nervous for a bit, but she had told me afterward that everything was okay. Condoms had slid off inside of women before. It was a nuisance, but no one had ever gotten pregnant from it. It had always captured the semen before it slipped.

Michelle answered, “Well, I just…time just got away from me, and before long I felt connected to her.”

“You felt connected to her? And you didn’t even bother to tell the father? Well, why do it now?”

At least my sister was giving the guy an opportunity to fight it, and to let her know how things were gonna be. But to not even be told that a woman is pregnant by you is the ultimate sucker punch.

“Because she’s been asking about her daddy,” Michelle answered me.

I froze. I just held the phone and froze. My lifestyle had finally caught up with me. Then I tried to shake it off in denial.

She might not even be mine, I told myself.