His mum sighed long and hard before shrugging. ‘Fate, I guess. That night, we waited for Colin and Brenda to come back, but there was no sign of them. We searched everywhere we could think of the next day, still nothing. We went back to the club your dad had played at, hoping they’d show up there, but of course they didn’t. Then the owner asked your dad to do a set…’
‘I wasn’t going to turn that down. The place was jumping,’ his dad mumbled.
Aiden’s inner soul was shaking his head. It was getting tougher by the minute to have any sympathy for this guy.
The expression of shade that his mom threw to her ex-husband suggested she felt the same. There was no way on earth these two were ever going to find a way to come back together, especially now that their worst secrets were out and they were reliving them. His mum’s disgust for his dad and for herself was in every word she spoke.
‘Turns out, the guy had a load of venues and a new club opening in South Carolina. Asked your dad to do a gig there, said he’d pay for the flights. When the time came for our return flights to Scotland, we were going to go to the airport and beg Colin and Brenda to forgive us, but we changed our minds. Couldn’t face it. We were such cowards. Instead, we flew to South Carolina the next day and never left.’
‘And you stayed together.’
It was a statement, not a question.
‘Yeah. Probably shouldn’t have,’ his mom conceded. ‘But then you came along – we were pretty sure you were conceived that first night here. Maybe in another world we wouldn’t have made it in those early years, but it was just the two of us with this perfect little guy, so we stuck together, and—’
‘Wait, what?’ That came from his dad, who winced as he pushed himself up on one shoulder and now looked even more pissed off. ‘You don’t think we’d have stayed together if we didn’t have Aiden?’
Aiden was already regretting raising the subject.
His mom shook her head. ‘Come on, Gary, you know it. I fell madly in love with you, convinced myself we would make it work, but you were never deserving of that because look how you behaved. Do you honestly think I’d have put up with how you treated me if I didn’t have the best reason in the world to stay? Look, I’m not going to drag everything back up – no point now and Aiden has heard enough about his imperfect sodding parents for one day – but we both know it’s true. We weren’t right for each other, not then, not now, not ever. I just wish I’d found that out sooner than I did.’
‘Ah, fuck this,’ Gary exclaimed, pushing himself up off the bed. ‘I’m out of here. No point staying now.’
‘Woah, Dad. Wait a minute. You’re in no state to fly.’
‘Couldn’t give a toss, I’m going. Not exactly the boys’ trip you promised, son, is it?’
‘What? Are you kidding me?’ Aiden rarely got angry. Rarely lashed out. Rarely disrespected his parents. But, right now, he was building up to all three of those things in his father’s direction. ‘So because you’re pissed off, you’re just going to bail?’
‘What’s the point of staying?’
‘Because maybe we can spend time as a family. Talk. Work out how to move forward, make this better?’
For a moment, he thought his dad was going to see his point, then…
‘Look, son, I appreciate the thought, but this isn’t working for me.’ He headed over to the wardrobe, pulled his suitcase out from the bottom and opened it on the bed, talking while he threw things inside. ‘When you called me about this trip, I agreed to come because I thought we could spend time together. Hit some bars. Do a bit of gambling. See where the night took us. Then you ambushed me with your mother…’
‘Nice,’ Eileen mumbled, but Gary ignored her.
“…but I still thought, ok, maybe we can work some stuff out and still have a good time. I don’t want to sit and talk about my feelings. I’m too fucking old for that. I am who I am.’
Trousers in. Shoes in. Shirts off hanger and in. And still he was talking.
‘Eileen, I love you. I do. I love what we had and I love our boy. But I’m not going to beg you to forgive me, or to love me back, and I’m not going to live my life trying to get your approval because I’m too fucking old for that too.’
Into the bathroom and then back out. Toiletries in.
‘I understand I’ve been a dick, and a disappointment to you both. Eileen, I’m sorry, truly, for everything I did. You didn’t deserve that and I’ll always regret it. From now on, I’ll be more respectful and I won’t be an asshole when we meet. I hope that’s good enough for you because it’s all I’ve got.’
Case closed, zipped up. Pulled off the bed.
‘Son, I apologise to you too. This was a good thing you tried to do this week and you’re a credit to your mom, because I’m telling you, she’s the one who raised you this way.’
Aiden unclenched his jaw. ‘You don’t need to tell me that.’
‘You’re right, but I want to, because your mom deserves to hear me say it. She’s earned that. I’m proud of you, son. You’re the best thing in my life and a better man than I’ll ever be. Oh, and this face. I had that coming. But I’m not gonna cry over it, and I’m not going to sit here doing a post-mortem on everyone’s feelings.’
‘You don’t want to go speak to Colin? Try to sort things out?’
