“Aiden…” Before I could say anything more, he was gone. I was furious with him, and embarrassed by the fact that he would virtually call me a bad mother in front of all of these people. Is that what he really thought?
Rose watched him leave. She looked shocked and said, “I see what you mean about his absenteeism.”
Chapter Five
~
AIDEN
Cecile couldn’t have worse timing. She’d called me as soon as I walked into the room to see Eric to say that she was hung up at her doctor’s appointment in the city and asked if I could “send a car” to pick Mark up from school in an hour. Mark was in a private school in Scarsdale and it would take just about an hour to get there from where I was right now. I thought about how frightened he’d been of me that first day and I couldn’t bear the thought of sending a stranger to pick him up. Eric was okay, no thanks to his mother who I really thought should have been paying closer attention. I decided that I’d run out and pick up Mark and take him home. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too long before Cecile got there because I still had a lot to do at the office.
I told her to let the school office know that I’d be picking him up, just in case I hit a lot of traffic and was a few minutes late.
“Oh, thank you, Aiden. I guess I never realized how tough these sorts of things can be when you’re a single parent.” Cecile’s parents lived on the West Coast. I knew that she didn’t have any family that lived close by, and I believed her when she said I was the only one she trusted with her son. I was actually glad she felt that way. I liked knowing that if I couldn’t be there, Mark was at least being taken care of very well and not being left alone with strangers.
“It’s not a problem,” I told her. “I’ll take him for an ice cream or something.”
Mark was surprised to see me when he came out of his class, but he looked happy about it. We went for an ice cream and took a walk in the park while we ate it.
As we walked, he said, “Aiden, why aren’t you and my mom still married?”
That was one of those questions kids asked that you hoped you’d never have to answer.
“Um, well, sometimes people fall out of love, Buddy. We both love you very much though.”
“I didn’t see you for a long time. Why?”
“Ah, that’s a hard one, Buddy. I wanted to see you, every day I thought about you. Sometimes grown-ups forget to act like grown-ups though and your mother and I made some bad decisions along the way. She thought it would be better for Jake to raise you since he’s your real father.”
“Yeah, I don’t really understand how that happened,” he said. I was holding my breath, hoping he wasn’t going to ask me. Luckily he changed tracks a bit and said, “I don’t see my dad anymore either.”
“Do you miss him?” I asked him. It was the first time I’d heard Mark mention Jake.
“Yeah,” he said. “He was teaching me how to play baseball…” I was trying to reconcile the image of that with the one Cecile had put in my head about Jake being abusive when Mark said, “Maybe you could teach me?”
My heart was touched that he would ask me and I said, “Of course. One of these days when we get together, we’ll work on it.” He seemed satisfied with that answer and moved on to talk about some of his friends at school and what he had for lunch and the fact that his teacher wears a wig. The teacher is a man and Mark found that really strange. I loved listening to him. The sound of his voice and especially the sound of his laughter made me happy.
By the time we got back to Cecile’s cottage, she was home from her appointment.
“Hey Buddy!” she said to Mark. “How was the day?”
“Good,” he said with a smile. “Aiden picked me up!”
“I know,” she said, ruffling his hair. “I asked him to.”
“Thank you! We had ice cream and next time Aiden comes we’re going to go to the boardwalk where they have rides and everything!”
Cecile laughed, “That’s great, Buddy. I’m glad you had such a good time. Get started on your homework now.”
“I’m going to take off,” I told her.
“Oh, you don’t have time for a cup of coffee with me?” she asked.
“No, I really don’t. My baby had an accident this morning and I got called to the hospital right before you called.”