"Mags, hello."
"Kip? Calling me in the middle of the day? What's the occasion?"
"Yeah, well, nice to talk to you too. I need some help."
"With what? It's Thursday at 10 AM. And you are calling from your cell phone."
"What is a good toy for an eight year old boy?" There was a long pause. His patience with this shopping experience was running thin. "Come on. Please help me here?"
"I'd love too. But there is a burning question on my mind. It's making it impossible to think."
His sister was hilarious. He bit back his clever retort. Biting back wasn't going to get him any further in the buying process. "Okay, look. Don't tell anyone, because it doesn't mean anything. I'm having dinner with Mandy Green and she has an eight year old son. And I thought a gift, would be, y'know a nice thing to do." He regretted calling anyone related to him. His mother was going to be calling him tonight, asking about Mandy.
"I heard she had a kid. In Alberta. Huh?" No one in his family had moved outside Saskatchewan, except for him. It was unheard of. "Lego."
"What?"
"Lego. It's always a good present for a boy. Get him one of those sets they have. He can build and shit. It's great for their imaginations."
He nodded. Wow, his sister hadn't grilled him on Mandy. Not yet. "Lego.
Thanks. You aren't going to tell Mom are you?"
Maggie laughed in his ear. "You are still afraid of her?"
"I'm 30. Unmarried and childless. I'm afraid of all female relatives, especially those over 50. They seem to think I'm bringing the wrath of God on my head by not being married."
"Well, hurry up then. Get married. You still love Mandy and if she has a kid already, well, you don't even have to have one of your own if you don't want to."
What the hell? What the hell did Maggie know about how he felt about Mandy? "We are just friends. We were just going to meet for coffee and then her car broke down, so I rented her one. And she wanted to thank me with supper." Yes, that was casual. Car rentals and thank you suppers. Pre-dawn kisses in the kitchen which could have led to sex on the floor. Friends.
"And now your buying her kid a toy. Then you'll get her flowers." Well, yeah, he couldn't send them to her work since he didn't know which school she taught at.