motherfucker like me, either. I wasn’t your thing once upon a time, but now I am definitely your thing. Ain’t I, baby? You were so wet last night there ain’t no way in hell I’m not your cup of tea.” He chuckled when she remained quiet, though he knew she was on the brink of laughter. “I bet you’ve never even been camping before to say if it’s your thing or not, either. It’ll only be for one night, all right?”
After a long pause, an annoyed, yet resigned, sigh came through, warming his heart.
“When?”
“Next weekend.”
“Let’s just go fishing again.”
“No, baby. I took Aiden fishing a few days ago, like I told you, and boy did we have a good time but I’m ready to camp. Okay look, Lauren, I’m finished toying around with you. You’re going. If you don’t go, I’m going to charge you for all of those books that you took from my father’s house in exchange for a damn date that you were going to go on with me anyway.”
“What?!”
“You heard me. I know you wanted me the whole time. You were just playing hard to get.” He heard her gasp and they both bust out laughing.
“You wouldn’t dare try to charge me for all of those books!”
“I would. You made a profit off the majority of them, too. Call me Mr. Petty McFetty, at your service. Now, we’re going. Next weekend. It’s settled. You and me. Stone Mountain Park and campgrounds.”
“Stone Mountain? I haven’t been there in quite some time.”
“Good. It’ll be fun and new to you all over again.” He glanced at the time. “Baby, I gotta go. I think I heard Aiden come home and I need to talk to him.”
“Sure, yeah, of course. Tell him I said hello, honey. I was just calling to make sure that everything turned out okay for you today. I knew you were a little stressed out about it but it looks like God handled it. I’ll see you later tonight.”
“You bet.” He blew her a kiss then disconnected the call. Lauren was stopping by to watch a movie with him later, and then she’d be going home. She still wasn’t quite comfortable spending the night with Aiden in the house, no matter how many times he’d tried to convince her otherwise. It upset him, tickled him, surprised him and made him happy, too. She was old-fashioned in some ways. He wished she’d reconsider, but he respected her views, although he wasn’t done attempting to convince her. He took one last drag of his cigarette before snuffing it out, then got to his feet. After stretching, he made his way down to the kitchen where he found Aiden wolfing down his microwave meal and slurping on a chocolate Yoo-Hoo.
“Well, isn’t this just fuckin’ fantastic!”
“What?”
“Aiden, that was my Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes.”
“Oh,” the boy mumbled around a mouthful of food. “It’s not all that great anyway.”
Aries swallowed his words for the millionth time that day.
“You said you were stopping to get Burger King with Keith’s dad, Jerry, and Fernando.”
“We did. I thought this was for me, too.”
Aries opened the freezer door, hoping he’d find another meal inside.
“Can you hand me some pepper?” the boy asked, as if nothing was wrong.
Aries ignored the little beast’s request, then rummaged through the freezer in desperate need of something he could eat. He hadn’t gone grocery shopping in a while since it was the chore he hated the most.
Thankfully, he got lucky. In the far back of the ice box, behind a half-empty box of popsicles and unwanted fish sticks, was a chicken pot pie. Store brand. He snatched it up, opened the microwave, and tossed it inside. He watched it spin around and around, arms crossed, then sat down across from Aiden, giving him the once over. The boy was looking at his cellphone, taking a few bites of his food every now and again, and chewing noisily, seemingly oblivious that he’d joined him.
He studied his son. In him, he saw the best parts of himself.
He’s got to have a piece of my spirit. There is a slice of my soul sitting in front of me that I’ll never get back – because when I made him, he took it. That was the deal we made before he was even born. I just know it. Now I sound like Lauren with all that metaphysical, crazy shit, but I bet that’s true. I’m glad he has it. It’s safe with him.