“You’re not buying this, are you? Please tell me you’re not.”
He gave me a look that said he wished I weren’t being so rude. I wanted to scratch his eyes out too then.
“Where is Mark? I hope the two of you haven’t been sniping at each other in front of him,” he said, instead of answering my question.
“He’s watching television, I’ll get him,” Cecile said. “And you know me, Aiden. I would never raise my voice in front of Mark.” She looked at me as if to say I might do otherwise. When she had gone into the other room, I looked at my husband.
“You’ve been seeing her?”
“I’ve been seeing Mark,” he said.
“It’s the same thing, Aiden. Why didn’t you tell me?” Before he answered, the little boy ran into the room and into Aiden’s arms. Aiden picked him up and hugged him.
He swung him around and said, “I’m so happy to see you, Sport!” He hadn’t even looked at Eric.
I took my own son and went back into the kitchen to finish dinner. A few minutes later, Aiden came in.
“Hey Buddy! How’s daddy’s little man?” The baby squealed and smiled and reached out for him. I put him in Aiden’s arms reluctantly.
“Are we going to talk about…that?” I pointed towards the other room.
“We’ll talk about it, after they leave,” he said. “I don’t want to talk about any of this in front of Mark. He’s confused as it is already.”
“That’s fine; I don’t want to upset him either. But, you and I have a lot to talk about. Dinner’s almost ready, so they should probably go now,” I told him, trying to be firm.
He was playing with Eric and he didn’t answer me. When I bent down to take the roast out of the oven, he left the room and took Eric with him. Sighing, and maybe slamming a pot or two, I finished making dinner. When I got back to the other room, they were all sitting on the floor playing with Eric’s toys. They looked like a happy family. I don’t think I could even put into words how angry that made me. It was also obvious that Aiden hadn’t told Cecile that it was time to leave.
I cleared my throat and Aiden looked up at me.
“Maybe we should say goodnight now, dinner is ready.”
Before Aiden could speak, Cecile said, “I don’t mean to overstep, but Mark hasn’t had dinner yet. He was just telling me how yummy your dinner smelled, Holly. It might be nice for us to eat with you.” She smiled at me again with that sickening, sweet, faker than her breasts smile and said, “Why not let Aiden have dinner with both of his sons? It will be nice for us all to get to know each other. It seems we’ll be spending a lot of time together.”
I thought that the vein in my temple might burst. I could not only feel it pulsating, I could actually hear it inside my head. This woman was the pushiest, ballsiest…
“That sounds great!” Aiden said. He looked at me with pleading eyes and gestured his head towards Mark. I think something inside my head exploded.
Chapter Six
~
AIDEN
I wasn’t only caught in my lies, but in my worst nightmare. Holly and Cecile were sitting at the same table on either side of me. They both had knives. I have to admit that the biggest reason I had wanted Cecile and Mark to stay for dinner was because I was a little afraid of what was going to happen when I was alone with my wife. She had a fire in her eyes that I’d never seen before, not even before we had Eric and I had done some really stupid things.
“How old is the baby?” Mark asked. I wanted to kiss him for getting the conversation started.
“His name is Eric and he’ll be a year old in two months,” I told him.
“So that means he’s ten months old?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what it means. You’re a really smart guy Mark, you know that?”
“That’s what my daddy used to tell me…before he left.” The table was completely silent. None of us knew what to say to that. It was Cecile’s responsibility to explain Jake to him. I wanted as far away from that subject as I could get.
“He was right,” I said, simply.
“Aiden’s going to teach me how to play baseball,” he said.
“That’s right, Buddy. As soon as we have some time we’re going to do that.” I could feel Holly staring at me; I couldn’t bring myself to look at her. “So how are you doing in school, Mark? Do you like your teacher?”