Aquarius_Mr. Humanitarian_The 12 Signs of Love

by Tiana Laveen

  “Shit!” The last of him escaped as she panted against him, her smooth skin a gorgeous canvas that he caressed with his fingertips. Looking over her shoulder, he took note of the rise of her ass and her slightly folded, long legs. He could not get enough of staring at her.

  “You’re too good in bed, Aiden…” She laughed lightly as she lazily rolled off him. Propping herself up on one elbow, she stared at him. “We’re going to miss out on some great sightseeing if all of this screwing keeps taking place.”

  He took note of her breast, leaned forward and enveloped the taut, erect nipple into his mouth. She sighed, her feminine moans growing louder and louder as he tantalized her erotic zone. “The only sights I need to see is you on top of me, or me on top of you…”

  …Two weeks later

  “Aiden, I need to talk to you.” Aiden looked up from his desk in his new office, his phone call interrupted. He grimaced when he saw who it was.

  Mark.

  “Um, excuse me, David.” He placed the phone down and put it on mute. “What do you want?!”

  Mark stepped inside and made himself comfortable. “I’ll wait.”

  “Get the hell outta my office!” Aiden snatched the phone back up and continued his call. Much to his chagrin, Mark stayed there, listening intently as if he were a part of the conversation. Soon the call was over and Aiden glared at the man. It took everything he had in him not to dash from his desk and beat the living shit out of him.

  “Congratulations on your wedding.”

  “Congratulations on being a fucker. Now get out!” Aiden pointed towards the door.

  “We never really talked after William called us into his office and let us know that you were being offered the job. I want to tell you that I’m sorry about all of that, all right? It’s just…” he said with a shrug. “I really wanted this job and when I overheard you and Tim talking about your situation with your now wife, I figured that information may give me an edge up. It was the wrong thing to do.”

  Aiden looked at the man but didn’t believe his apology to be sincere; in fact, he surmised that this was leading to something else… such as a request for a favor of some sort.

  “Mmmm hmmm, okay. Well I’m a little busy right now so if you could—”

  “I want to transfer to another location, Aiden. If you could give me a letter of recommendation, it would really help.” Aiden knew this was coming, but still, he could not believe the bastard’s nerve!

  “You must be kidding me! You’ve made my life hell since I first stepped foot into Dexter Employment and Staffing Agency. You threatened to tell my boss about my love life, knowing it might have negatively impacted my future here and then, after I got the job, you still went around and told people that I was not qualified for it and must be kissing someone’s ass. Now here you sit, and you have the gall to come in here, interrupt a call with an important account who wants to hire at least ten of our clients and ask me for a recommendation so you can get a better job at a different location?!”

  “Well, yes, but you make it seem as if—”

  “I’m going to chalk up this entire interaction to temporary insanity on your part. Get the fuck out, Mark, and I’m not going to tell you again.” The man snatched his body out of the chair with an attitude and marched away, slamming the door behind him. “I cannot believe that man!” Aiden took a few seconds to cool his jets, then called his wife on his cellphone.

  “Hey, what’s up, sexy?” she greeted.

  “Is today big balls day, Addison? You won’t believe who just came into my office and asked for a letter of recommendation!”

  “No way! He didn’t! You’re making this up!” Addison burst out laughing, obviously knowing full well he wasn’t.

  “I couldn’t make this up if I were the President of World-Wide Creativity, had a degree in Bullshit-ology and was crowned King Liar for the year.”

  It took her a while to stop laughing. “You know what though? To get rid of him, Aiden, it may be a good idea. Maybe you could—”

  Just then, his phone buzzed. “Hold on, baby.”

  “Okay.”

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, um, is this, uh, Aiden? Aiden Summers?” a gruff, raspy deep voice asked.

  “Yes, this is he.”

  “Okay… all right, uh.” The man coughed hard and went quiet for an uncomfortable period of time. “Aiden, this is…this is Greg. I’m your father…”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Unlike Father, Unlike Son

  Aiden sat in the McDonald’s restaurant, shaking his leg under the crumb-ridden table. His flavorless burger was cold and the ice had melted in his soda cup. He checked the time on his phone as he waited for Gregory Bernard to stand him up, for the second time. The man was four minutes late. After he’d picked his heart up off the ground when the guy had called him the day before at work, the man had requested they meet face-to-face. He didn’t like doing these sorts of things over the phone and definitely didn’t want to go back and forth online. Aiden agreed to meet him and even let the man pick a neutral location.

  Aiden nervously snatched his phone back up from the table and called his best friend…

  “Addison, he’s not here yet. Watch, he’s going to be a fucking no-show.”

  “Aiden, calm down. He’s not that late. It’s rush hour. He could have gotten caught up in traffic. You’re never nervous, so I know you are in a bad place right now emotionally for you to be freaking out like this. It’s going to be okay. Just wait a bit longer, all right?”

  “I really wish you would have come with me.”

  “No, baby, this is between you and your father. He said he was coming alone, and you should as well. Now, for future visits, should there be any, you know that I will be there.” He swallowed some of the watered-down Coke as he looked through the windows, trying to catch a glimpse of an old motorcycle guy with brown and gray hair.

  “Shit… I think I see him.”

  “Well, good! Call me after it’s over.”

  “No! Wait!” But the woman hung up, leaving him to his own devices.

  A man in a white bandana, jeans, black boots, and a long-sleeved black t-shirt parked his big motorcycle right in front, then made his way into the place. Long hair swayed behind him as he walked like he owned the entire world. The guy snatched off his sunglasses, placed them atop his head, and looked around. In a matter of seconds, they locked eyes. Aiden slowly got to his feet, his heart beating a mean percussion within him. He could barely breathe and thought he might pass out. As the man approached, his cowboy stance softened like putty. His lower lip began to quiver and his eyes filled with tears.

  “Jesus Christ!” he cried out as he hastened his gait, grabbed him in his arms, and squeezed hard. “It’s you! Don’t need no damn DNA test. You look like an exact copy of my son, Steve.” The man let him go and looked him up and down. “I can’t believe this. I can see the resemblance even more in person. Aiden, shit!” The guy flashed a toothy grin, but the tears flowed. Aiden was proud he hadn’t broken down. Yet.

  They took their seats at the table and looked at one another as if they were science experiments.

  Same eyes… same nose… same smile… same body type…about the same height, but Gregory has on boots so I might be a little taller.

  “So, uh, I’m not sure where we should start,” Aiden stated before taking a bite out of his burger. He wasn’t certain why he did that; he sure as hell wasn’t hungry.

  “I think I better do the talkin’ since I was the one that disappeared.”

  Aiden nodded in agreement.

  “All right, there’s no way to pretty this up, but here’s the truth.” Gregory rested his big palms on the table between them. “When you wrote me on Facebook, I was shocked. I had to think about how to tell my wife, Aiden. She knew nothing about me and your mother and definitely not you. I knew I had to tell her because I refused to just ignore this message you sent, pretend like it never happened. You sought me out and you foun
d me.”

  “Wait… wife? My mother said you were divorced. Are you saying you got remarried to someone else and she wouldn’t understand?”

  “No.” The guy lowered his head and shook it. “You see, I lied to your mother, okay? I told her that I was divorced, but I was still married and hadn’t even thought about leaving my wife when I got your mother pregnant. It was hard ’cause I loved both of them, okay?”

  Aiden swallowed the bit of beef, lettuce, and bread in his mouth in a hard gulp. “So, you had a family already and you were having an affair?”

  “Right. Me and my wife was going through some rocky times. I met your mom at this store she was working at. She was beautiful.” The man offered a sad smile. “I shouldn’t have done it. I should have resisted I guess, but I didn’t. I asked her out. She gave me her number and we started dating. I knew if your mother found out about my wife, she’d dump me, and if my wife found about her and the baby, she’d file for divorce.”

  “Mmm, Mom made no mention of you being married. She must’ve really thought you were single, I guess.”

  “I was at your mother’s place more than I was at home, so, I guess, in that regard, she believed it was just me and her exclusively. Then, when I and your mother were still messing around, my wife, Vicki, got a hold of me and told me she was sick. She’d gone to the doctor and they found a lump in her breast. By then, your mother was like six or seven months pregnant. I had to go home, Aiden. I had to be there for my wife so I tried to leave it all behind… I figured you’d be better off without me.

  Selfishness… excuses…

  “She called me when you were born and I didn’t want to see you ’cause I knew it would break my heart. You were my first boy. I already had a daughter when you came into the world. I went to the hospital anyway, saw you, and just wanted to die.” Another tear rolled down the man’s cheek. “There was no way I could accuse your mom of sleeping around once I saw you. I figured, or maybe even hoped a bit, that you wouldn’t look like me. But even as a little baby you did, and you looked a lot like my Rebecca, my first born. I held you in my arms in that hospital… and I knew I had to back away. I couldn’t be with you, not like that, not at that time.”

  “Are you still with Vicki and is she still sick?”

  “Yeah, we’re together, Aiden.” The man dropped his head for a spell, then looked him in the eye as he said, “She beat cancer. It was caught in time.”

  “Then why didn’t you try and find me after that?” Aiden’s jaw tightened as he repressed his urge to completely blow up on the bastard.

  “I… I was afraid. I didn’t want my wife to leave me. She and I had gotten closer, and we’d mended our relationship after she had that health scare. I really figured you were best with just Barbara. I didn’t have nothin’ to offer you, Aiden.” He threw up his hands and fell back into the seat. His hair moved just enough where he could now see a faded tattoo on his neck, a large black spider. “I ran with a motorcycle club. I was involved in a bunch of shit I shouldn’t have been doing. I didn’t have a job at the time. I got an arrest record that would blow your mind and to me, that wasn’t the kinda thing you needed in your life.”

  “But then you went on to have more children. That’s very interesting, Gregory.” Aiden snatched his drink off the table and gave the straw what for… anything to squelch his true, angry voice…

  “Look, I know what you’re thinkin’ and nobody is perfect, but I did eventually get myself together, many years later. And for the record, not that it may matter to you at this point, I did try to find you one time.”

  Aiden placed his drink down. “How?”

  “I was asking around, things like that. I had been thinking about my life, about you and Barbara. Nobody knew where she was, only that she’d moved to another spot and had another son. I figured she’d moved on by then, gotten married. I decided to leave well enough alone.”

  “But see, that’s just the thing, Greg… things were not well enough.” Aiden could feel the heat building within him, and he was on the verge of an explosion. “For the first decade or so of my life, I used to wonder where the hell my father was. I would ask and Mom would say she didn’t know. All I had was your name. She told me that you up and left, and you’ve admitted that. But, some pretty messed up things happened to my mother after you left, things that messed her up so bad, she could not take care of herself and she damn sure couldn’t take care of two little boys.”

  The man looked at him in surprise, as if it just couldn’t be.

  “Sweet, little Barbara, Gregory, turned into a raging alcoholic. She also would lie to several different doctors to get pain medications and she’d sometimes pop upward of ten different pills a day. Pills she did not need. She’d chase them with booze. At times, me and my brother would wake up and think she was dead, and often, we wished she was! So, no, Gregory, you leaving well enough alone was bullshit! Nothing was well!”

  His rising voice attracted the attention of some people. His father kept calm, looking somber even as Aiden lost his resolve.

  “I’m sorry, Aiden.” The man’s eyes glossed over. “I didn’t know… I swear, I didn’t know. I woulda come for you if I’d known.”

  Aiden pounded the table a few good times. Tears filled his eyes and zigzagged down his cheeks.

  “I…needed…you. I needed…someone… to help me! I needed someone to hear me!”

  Gregory stood and snatched him in his arms.

  “I’m so sorry, Aiden! I can’t say sorry enough. I can’t make the hurt stop, but I want to try to make it up to you the best I can!” The man released him, his face so beet-red, he looked as if he may just pass out. Gregory bent at the waist as if he needed to catch his breath. Aiden gently took the man’s arm and ushered him back into his seat, then returned to his own. Handing the man one of his napkins, he watched the guy wipe his eyes and blow his nose.

  “Is your mother still alive, Aiden?” he finally asked after a long silence.

  “Yes. She is in an outpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. She was in an in-house program for a while, had a relapse, and returned of her own free will. She’s now been sober for about two months and she, uh… she is really trying.” The tears wouldn’t stop falling.

  “That’s good to know ’cause she was a good person. Sorry about her getting wrapped up like that. I know it must’ve been tough.” Aiden nodded but looked away, needing a breather. “Aiden, I fucked up.” The guy laughed mirthlessly. “I can see by your facial expression right now and everything you just said to me, you and I got some time to spend with one another. Can you help me help you? I need you to let me in your life, Aiden, if you want me to stand up and do this. I want to be your father, Aiden. I told my wife about everything, and then I called you. There’s no excuse for me leaving you behind. A part of me thought I was doing the right thing and the other part of me was a coward, afraid my wife would leave me if she found out that I cheated on her again. And not just that, but this time, a baby came of it…”

  “So this wasn’t your first affair? Did my mom know about all of this? I thought you two were exclusive.”

  “There were shitloads of women, Aiden. I loved sex, and I was wild and crazy back then but I loved your mother, Aiden, I honestly did. You have no idea! I’ve only loved four women in my entire lifetime.” He began to count off his fingers. “My mother, God rest her soul, my wife Vicki, Barbara … your mother … and my daughter, Rebecca. Period. I know you’re mad as hell at me and you’ve got every right to be. Your mother was going through some shit and you and your brother apparently got the brunt of it. I was nowhere in sight. I deserve that anger. I deserve for you to stand up, walk outta here and wash your hands of me, but I am being one hundred percent honest with you, man.

  “I sat here and told you the truth! I didn’t try to say something stupid like your mom told me you weren’t mine. I didn’t try to say I didn’t know she was pregnant, or that she was sleeping with a bunch of guys when she and I were
together. I didn’t try to say that I didn’t believe the baby was mine. That would have been a bunch of lies and I’m tired of lying! I’m not going to sit here and look at my son… shit, yeah… you’re my son…”

  He hung his head and sobbed. Aiden remained quiet, but his anger began to dissipate, replaced with empathy. “I’m not going to sit here and look into the eyes of a man I haven’t seen since he was only a few hours out of the womb, and lie to him… and I’m not going to tell you that I can make it all better, go away, because that’s a lie, too. But what I can promise you is that from this damn day forward, you’ve got a father!” He jabbed the table with his finger. “I’m here, and I’m not goin’ anywhere, for as long as you want me!”

  Coming to a decision, Aiden got up from his seat and enveloped Greg into a hug. The man wrapped his arms around him and squeezed, this time harder than before. At last, Greg released him and held his face with both hands, gazing into his eyes.

  “I want to know all about you! I want you to meet your brother and sister, tell me what you do for work, where you went to school, what sports you like to play… Are you dating, married, got kids? I want to know all of it! I want to see pictures. I want us to go out and I want you with me because that’s where you belong!”

  Aiden swiped at the tears forming in his eyes and hugged the guy once again. As they rocked back and forth, the emotions caught in his throat, unable to come out. As painful as it was, a part of him was liberated at that moment. He was able to finally ask the questions that had bothered him for years and get the answers. But, his heart sank when he thought of Perry… how his brother may never get this experience. Even a rejection from a father was better than not knowing at all. Maybe if all worked out well, Gregory would be good to Perry, too. He sure hoped so because, in Aiden’s mind, he and his little brother were a package deal. To love one, you had to love them both…