"Don’t apologize for that,” Jodi replied with a reassuring smile, truthfully adding, “I think it’s very cute… I mean, if you had seen your face. It lit up, you know?"

Visibly relaxed, Mary replied. "What can I say? I am very proud of my boy."

Jodi tried to weight the pros and cons of this conversation. The truth was Mary didn’t seem to be uncomfortable with the artist’s questions, and this may be the last chance Jodi will get to learn more about this captivating woman. "Was this a… planned pregnancy?"

"Oh no! It was…” Mary seemed to search for the most appropriate word to describe it “…a complete surprise.”

“It’s the father still in the picture?”

“No. He’s never been.” Mary paused for a moment, seemingly in deep thought. Jodi was just about to tell her that they could change the subject if Mary was getting uncomfortable when the young woman continued.

“Okay. Here’s what happened… I aced all my midterms on my first semester in college… and I went out to celebrate with my roommate. We went to O’Malley’s on 54^th Street. Have you been there?”

Jodi shook her head.

“Well, anyway… as soon as I went into the pub, I saw him standing on a corner with a bunch of his friends. He was… oh god… he was the most handsome man I had ever set eyes on. Dark haired, blue-eyed, very fit… and that smile! It made my knees weak. Apparently, he also liked what he saw, because he pretty much zoomed in on me as soon I came through the door.”

“And he turned on the charm, giving me his full attention. He kept on pushing drinks in front of me and – like an idiot – I kept on piling them down. I had no reason to distrust him. You see? He was Irish. He was catholic. And he was a med student. In my ignorance, that’s all it took for me to trust him implicitly.”

The smile tugging at the corners of Mary’s lips was an amalgamation of shame and bitterness, even four years after the fact. “I don’t remember leaving the bar… I don’t remember getting to his apartment… I just remember waking up with a massive headache… on his bed… with him passed out next to me… I was so embarrassed and hung over that I just left him a note with my number, sure I was going to get a call later in the day. He didn’t call.”