● We met in 2002 in a bar. Classy, I know.

● A whirlwind romance was had and about 3 months in, I found out I was pregnant. Oops.

● Soon after, he got stationed across the country and in the meantime forgot my number, got married to another girl and had another baby who happens to be 6 weeks younger than our daughter. Fascinating.

● I didn’t hear from him again until we had to set up child support in 2003.

● His wife told him if he contacted me again concerning our daughter, she would divorce him. He disappeared…again. Asshole.

● I contacted him in 2013. My daughter had questions and so did I.

● Apologies were made by him and finally we were on the same page or at least in the same

book.

Until I opened that letter.

“Jen, what am I supposed to do??”

And in typical Christin and Jen fashion…we hatched a plan.

“Don’t text him back when he texts”

“If he calls, just ignore it”

“Don’t say anything to him about it. You never know what he’s capable of”

Our plan was fool- proof. Jen always had good advice. Well, maybe that’s going too far but her intentions are good…I think.

Just like clockwork, he began texting and calling me. Nothing out of the ordinary except I KNEW what he had done.

Just ignore him, I told myself.

I texted him and told him I didn’t want to talk about “the issue”.

“Christin, what are you talking about?” he responded.

This guy is good. He’s playing dumb but I’m not falling into his trap.

“You know what I’m talking about!”

“I really have no idea…you are scaring me. What’s going on??”

And just like that the elaborate plan that Jen and I had mapped out was thrown out the window.

I spend the next two hours talking about “the issue” with my daughters’ father. He didn’t know anything about “the issue” and I looked like an asshole for thinking he did. After hanging up with him, I reflected on a couple things and this is what I came up with.

1. Our fool-proof plans never work. Jen and I have been perfecting them for close to 2 decades and still they always fail. Well, maybe not always but most of the time.

2. I have trust issues. If I think you crossed me, there has to be sufficient evidence for me to think otherwise. I know what you are thinking and don’t worry, I already made an

appointment with my therapist for next week.