‘Way too late,’ Eileen told him, unwavering in her demand for some kind of reasonable excuse for putting her in this position.
‘Thought so. All right, so at my wedding, before the whole desertion-broken-heart bit, I was bugged by the fact that you two don’t get along.’
‘There are good reasons for that,’ Eileen heard herself say and she wasn’t proud, but it was the truth.
Still, Gary the Gob was keeping that gob shut. And was it just her, or had it suddenly got really hot in here? If she had a heart attack brought on by unexpected exposure to an ex-husband, she was going to be even more raging than she was now. She had just about managed to stomach that they were going to Vegas and that she’d be setting foot in that city thirty years after she last went there, but to be going with her bloody lump of an ex in tow? No. No way. She loved her son, but this was too much.
‘I don’t doubt that, Mom. I know you both have your reasons. But the thing is, they’re nothing to do with me…’
‘Exactly!’ she agreed, then realised that he wasn’t finished.
‘Yet I’m the one who always has to deal with it.’
Oh.
He was on a roll now.
‘It’s a nightmare. My wedding was supposed to be the happiest day of my life, until, you know… the bit where she didn’t show. And all I was worried about was whether you two were going to get in a fight, or ignore each other all day, or just generally hate every minute of it because you were both in the same place at the same time. It’s an impossible situation to be in.’
Eileen felt a minor twinge of guilt. She could see what he was saying, and she hadn’t realised it had affected him quite as much as it clearly had. They’d divorced after he left for college, so he’d never actually lived with them as two single people, or – maybe more accurately – two warring factions. He’d just got on with his life and split his time, his birthdays, his Christmas, between the two of them and he’d done it all without complaint, so she’d had no idea that their aversion to each other bothered him.
‘And the thing is…’ He was still going and Eileen could see the cool, articulate professional lawyer coming out in him. No wonder he was so good at his job. ‘It made me think about the future and the fact that if we don’t change something, then it’s always going to be like this.’
The bar was filling up now and she was embarrassingly aware that the couple at the next table were listening in on their conversation, riveted to the drama.
‘How’s that going to look? If I ever get someone to actually show up when they’re supposed to be marrying me…’
Ouch, that stung.
‘And if we have kids, then what’s that going to be like? Every family event and occasion, are we going to have to deal with you two avoiding each other and throwing daggers across the room?Sorry, honey, you can’t have both Grandma and Grandad at your fifth birthday, because your friends might get in the way of their passive-aggressive disdain for each other? I’m not having it, so you two need to sort it out and get over it.’
Eileen still resolutely stared straight ahead, but in her peripheral vision she could see Gary glance at her with an edge of uncertainty in that way too handsome face. If only he didn’t look like that, his life would have been very different. There was no way he’d have got the attention that followed him everywhere if he didn’t give off ‘older but still irresistibly attractive dad in a romcom’ vibes.
That thought, however, was being pushed out of the way by her son’s very pertinent and beautifully articulated point. She felt a wave of guilt make her flush in a way that hadn’t happened since the menopause. Or perhaps she’d just downed her gin and tonic too quickly? No, it was definitely guilt. And a little bit of shame thrown in for good measure.
‘Do I need to keep going, because I was only at my imaginary kid’s fifth birthday. I have a whole load more birthdays, first days at school, proms and graduations still to pull out of the bag.’
Eileen sighed. ‘Dear God, no, make it stop. We hear you. And I don’t know about your father…’
Aiden gestured to his dad. ‘He’s right there – you can include him in the conversation.’
‘Baby steps, son. Don’t push it,’ she cautioned him. He might have a point, but she wasn’t going to back down completely just yet. ‘I was going to say, I don’t know about your father, but for my part in this, I apologise. I suppose I hadn’t really thought about it from your perspective because you were already an adult when we split, and you’ve never shown that it bothered you before now.’
Eileen had a small suspicion that he was slightly milking it, but at the end of the day, he was right. Also, it was more than a little embarrassing that he was, in effect, pointing out that the only adult in this conversation was the one she’d given birth to.
‘But I can see what you’re saying. Much as it pains me. Although there might have been better ways to handle this. You know, maybe a coffee in a random Starbucks. Or a walk in the park.’ She wasn’t letting him off too easy. ‘Five days in Vegas could be construed by some as being a tad excessive.’
‘We’re going to Vegas? Shit, if you’d told me that I’d have brought better suits,’ was her ex-husband’s intellectual, erudite response.
‘If it helps, we’re staying at the Bellagio. And yes, I realise I’m trying to sway you with that.’
It wasn’t working. Eileen really needed another gin and tonic. Vegas. This was all kinds of wrong. Their history with that place. Everything that had happened there. The effects that it had had on their relationship and on…
Nope. Not going back there. What mattered was that it was probably the worst place on earth that Aiden could have chosen to reunite his parents. Especially as one of them would undoubtedly run wild and spend the whole five days in casinos and clubs, trying to recapture his youth with women who’d yet to experience the joys of a hot flush or a stretch mark. Yep, even in her head that sounded toe-curlingly bitter. Time for an internal pep talk.Come on, Eileen, you’re better than this.
‘Okay,’ she said.
The couple at the next table gave away their serial eavesdropping when her agreement elicited simultaneous air punches and a silently mouthed, ‘Yes!’ She chose to ignore it.
