Page 6 of One Moment in Time
‘He looks like he could be one of those models in the Macy’s Christmas catalogue,’ he teased his mom, gesturing to Kurt, who was busy chatting to one of the partners in Aiden’s legal firm on the other side of him. It gave him a welcome minute with his mother.
‘That’s because he probably is one of the guys in the Macy’s Christmas catalogue,’ his mom replied bashfully.
Aiden’s smile was instant. ‘Well, get you! A model?’
She flushed bright red and dug him in the ribs. ‘He’s just a friend. We work in the same office, so he’s a realtor and a part-time model as well as being – for today – my very own fake boyfriend. I’ll be damned if I’ll let your father think I’m here like some sad pity party, on my own, finding him impossible to replace.’
His eyes widened. ‘Really? I like your style.’ He loved both his parents but he had a special connection with his mom and was more than happy to keep her secrets.
‘I’m loving it,’ his mom whispered. ‘Your father has been breathing in since he clapped eyes on Kurt two hours ago. He could faint at any moment.’
‘Okay, so apart from the fake boyfriend, how you doing there, maw?’ he asked, knowing that using the Scottish slang for mom always made her smile. He’d never actually been to Scotland, but his mum still had the soft, lilting accent of her homeland. His dad’s accent had morphed into something more East Coast USA, except for when he was pissed off, drunk, or delighted and then he’d go full-scale sweary Glaswegian. Going by the loud guffaws (Dad) and the giggles (Mitzy) coming from the bar, he was at least one of those things right now.
His mom must be hearing this too, but, if it was getting under her skin, she didn’t show it. Even without Macy’s catalogue guy, that was his mom. Calm. Patient. Beautiful. His dad used to say his mom had a wild streak in her younger years, but Aiden had never seen it, except maybe when she’d got heatedly competitive when he was playing sports in high school and college. She was the mom who was on her feet, cheering him on, yelling in outrage if he was fouled in basketball or thumped on the football field. Sometimes he wondered why she could defend her kid until the end of the earth, but she rarely defended herself against some of the crap that used to come out of his dad’s mouth.
Until, that is, the day she just upped and left. It was in Aiden’s first year at college. His dad had a family home on the day Aiden left to start his freshman year and a bachelor pad by the following summer. His dad had stalled out the divorce, but it had finally been signed and sealed a couple of painful, protracted years later.
Anyway. Bygones. Two parents, with an underlying simmering disdain. It wasn’t perfect, but in his line of work, he knew plenty of people who had it worse. He just wished that before grandkids came along, they could get to a place where they could happily co-exist in the same room and be amicable, instead of either acting like a flash idiot (that would be dad) or taking the stonewalling approach (his mum’s speciality).
‘I’m doing fine, son,’ she answered, reaching out to take his hand. ‘I think what matters more is how you’re feeling. You okay? The worst bit is the waiting, but I’m sure she’ll be here soon.’ She kept her voice low, so that she couldn’t be heard by Layla’s guests on the other side of the sandy aisle.
‘It’s her one flaw. Always late,’ he replied, hoping that his smile didn’t give away the fact that he was beginning to get more than a little disconcerted. He’d wait for Layla until the end of time, but he was starting to feel bad for his mom, their families, their friends, all of them beginning to flush in the midday heat. He was tempted to text her, but he didn’t want to spoil the moment. Besides, she probably wouldn’t be checking her phone if she was on the way here. He’d arranged for Layla’s entire extended family to stay at a beautiful hotel just a couple of hundred metres along the sands last night. Hotel limos had shuttled most of her relatives here this morning and now they were just waiting for that last trip with the bridal party.
‘Were you late on the morning of your wedding then?’ Aiden asked his mom, just trying to make conversation to pass these moments and take her mind off the heat and her missing daughter-in-law. His mom would never say anything, but he had a feeling that Layla hadn’t quite won her over yet. She had plenty of time to do that. A whole life ahead.
‘No, I was bang on time. Probably worried that if I were five minutes late, your dad would move the party to a bar and forget where he was supposed to be.’ It could have come out bitter, but her pragmatic smile kept it amusing. That, and the honesty. They both knew it was probably true.
His gaze went back to said father, holding court at, yep, a bar.
His mum reached over and touched his cheek. ‘You go mingle with your guests and get ready for your big moment, son. I love every bit of you, you know that?’
She’d told him that every day of his life, even when she was upset because he’d got himself into some kind of scrape. ‘I love every bit of you. Except the bit that reversed my car into the garage wall,’ she’d said once, when he’d just got his learner’s permit and ‘borrowed’ the car without asking. It wasn’t the borrowing that was the issue. It was the putting it back that turned out to be the problem.
‘Love you back,’ he told her, pushing himself up, then leaning down to kiss her forehead. If Layla was half as good a mom as his was, then they’d have the happiest kids.
He’d just made it back up to a standing position and was about to carry on to the bar for the water for the celebrant, when the ding of a phone broached his consciousness. Then another. And another. Suddenly several of the guests on Layla’s side of the aisle were pulling cell phones from their bags or their pockets. That in itself wasn’t too worrying, but what was definitely troubling were the nervous glances he was getting after they’d checked their phones.
Shit. Had something happened? Was there a problem? Was Layla going to be held up even longer? He didn’t hold out much hope of keeping the celebrant hydrated enough to hold him here if there were going to be further delays. And… wow… why were people still staring at him with those weird expressions?
He wasn’t prone to knee-jerk reactions, but a slow, creeping feeling of dread was working its way up from his gut.
‘Back in a minute, Mom,’ he said, trying to act like nothing was amiss, but he could see by the two tiny frown lines that appeared between her eyebrows that she could sense something immediately.
Smiling at the guests as he passed them, doing his damnedest to act like nothing was wrong, he forced himself to walk at a normal speed up the aisle and over to the bar at the back.
‘There’s my boy!’ his dad roared. ‘About to get married. I tried to talk him out of it…’ he joked to his audience of Mitzy and Trevon. Although, there may have been a grain of truth in there. A couple of years after his mom had left him, his dad had embarked on another short-lived marriage to the latest in his long line of young, beautiful secretaries. Predictably, it had hit him hard in the finances when it crumbled a year later, so twice-divorced, midlife crisis Gary Gregg wasn’t a huge supporter of the institution of holy matrimony.
‘Trevon, can you give me my phone?’ Aiden had passed his cell to his best man for safekeeping during the ceremony because his suit jacket wasn’t tailored to accommodate a handset in his pocket.
‘Yeah, sure, bud. You wanna beer first though? Way too good a day to be stressing.’
Trevon’s laid-back, South Carolina drawl temporarily slowed the worry that was creeping up Aiden’s spine. They’d been friends for years, since Aiden’s first week on the job, when Trevon had walked into his office and asked Aiden to represent him in his divorce from the wife he’d married in college. Trevon became his first ever client, mainly because, back then, Aiden had been the only lawyer he could afford. He was still in his late twenties, only a few years older than Aiden, and was working night and day to set up his first gym. When the divorce was finalised, on relatively amicable terms, the two guys had sparked a friendship that had now lasted longer than Trevon’s marriage. They’d ended up sharing an apartment for a couple of years, until times, and Trevon’s fortunes, had changed.
‘Later,’ Aiden answered the offer to the beer. ‘Just the phone for now.’
‘Did I tell you about the time this son of mine…’ he heard his dad say to Mitzy, and Aiden knew he was about to dredge up some crazy story from his childhood, one that would invariably end with his dad’s words of wisdom on the situation. Mitzy didn’t seem to be listening, given that she was still staring at Aiden. He chose to ignore it. He wasn’t going to start judging here, but Mitzy was around the same age as him, and he wasn’t quite sure what she was doing with his dad. Maybe it was love. Gary Gregg had that big, live-for-today personality that people were always drawn to. What he didn’t have in family values or marital loyalty, he made up for in sheer charisma. He was the best company in any bar. The most fun at any party. And the biggest spender in any club.
Come on. Come on, Aiden silently urged the phone, as he waited for it to power up.
