Hot Food and A Hot Family

Aaron was laughing and smiling like he hadn't since he was little. His heart leapt for joy at all the smiling faces even the dumb look on his friend David's face was a welcome sight.

Before Aaron could say or do anything else the twins got up from where they were sitting and made their way around the table from opposite sides closing in on the cornered Aaron like a pair of Lioness' stalking a Gazelle. Aaron was frozen in place as the two visions of loveliness took hold of one of his arms and pressed their bodies into his sides, giggling.

Together the twins said, "We Love You Little Brother!" And then kissed him on each cheek before causing him to yelp and jump in surprise when they each pinched him on the ass at the same time. All the women at the table giggled mischievously at Aaron's discomfort. Aaron was feeling so many things at the moment that he really wasn't sure what he was feeling but he didn't have time to sort those feelings out just now because he had the distinct impression that something was heading his way and sure enough he looked over to where his little sister was sitting just in time to see her suddenly stand up and run over to him, jumping up and throwing her arms around his neck while pulling him down into a blistering kiss that made his toes curl and left him feeling lightheaded. After almost two minutes and quite a bit of tongue wrestling Monica broke the kiss and again the women around the table laughed and giggled as Aaron stood there numb and dumb just drooling and trying to french kiss the air.

To his credit Aaron came out of his stupor a lot faster than David did but then again Aaron had a lot more brain power to start with.

Needless to say, his family excluding Garrent, of course, were all so happy and overjoyed that Aaron was doing better that they couldn't remember a time when they were happier.

His mother nudged Garrent and when that didn't work she slapped him on the arm and when he turned to look at her he was instantly rendered speechless by the smiling yet dead serious expression on her face.

"Isn't there anything you'd like to say to Aaron sweetheart?," Cyndi quietly ordered her husband in that subtle not so subtle way that women have when they want you to do something but don't want to come right out and tell you to.

"No I don't think so, Honey.," Garrent, Aaron's step-father stated brusquely and without hesitation before he returned to sipping his coffee.

The poor bastard wasn't even smart enough to realize he was in the line of fire.... At first but A rather intimidating glower washed over Cyndi's lovely face for just a moment before a very loud thump from under the table caught everyone's attention and a surprisingly loud yelp drew their attention to Garrent's face which was momentarily twisted in pain.

Taking the hint when he looked his beautiful wife in her once smoldering eyes only to find vaguely concealed animosity he leaped into action before his tiny little nuts wound up in the meat grinder mounted on the edge of the butcher block just a few feet away.

"Aah yes well...," Garrent stammered trying desperately to lie sincerely, an oxymoron if ever their was one.

"Y-Y-You see I'm j-j-just so happy that you're doing well that I don't know what to say. You've been sick for so long that I didn't want to say anything to jinx this long awaited moment.," Garrent spoke quickly and in a sickeningly insincere manner.

"Nice Recovery.," Aaron commented snidely then smiled when he saw Garrent frown at his remark before adding, "Mom's really got your nuts in a vice, Huh?"

His sisters all laughed then gasped and covered their mouths when Garrent angrily glanced over at them before he started to get up and presumably strangle Aaron then die horribly when his wife beat him to **** with her bare hands. Now obviously that didn't happen everyone because Cyndi cleared her throat and with it her husbands anger. Garrent just hung his head and mumbled, "Glad you're doing better son."

Now whether Garrent intentionally meant to stab Aaron in the heart the fact remains he did. Aaron was about to fly into a rage at being called son by that short eyed little weasel of a man but a stern look from his mother silenced the inevitably barrage of acrimonious discourse between the two men. As you have undoubtedly noticed Aaron and Garrent have a healthy dislike for each other and the reason for that is obvious, Garrent is a fine example of all the worst qualities of humanity... Apathy, Greed, Cruelty, Intolerance, Arrogance, Ignorance, Insecurity, Narcissism, Nihilism, Psychopathy and sadly the list goes on and on Ad Infinitum (Latin. Without End or Limit). Of Course, The Man... And I use the term loosely is also equally abhorrent on a physical level with his short, hunched, grossly obese stature, beady little eyes, gnarled left hand, and bird-like nose. He made Danny Devito playing The Penguin in Batman Returns look like a Chippendales Dancer.

Now given his own unusual appearance and terminally optimistic outlook on life Aaron is more than capable of looking past the purely physical but every time Aaron laid eyes on his step-father all he saw was an unending series of cruel acts perpetrated by a vicious and vindictive little man indifferent to the suffering of others and governed solely by unscrupulous ambition and his own sadistic sexual appetites. As you can doubtless tell I'm not exactly a fan of Garrent and you probably aren't either.

Garrent was so happy at first to have Aaron as his son, A son he hoped to mold in his own twisted little image. To finally have the heir that he always dreamed of to succeed him, To manage and expand his empire when he was gone. Thankfully for all of us his plans didn't go as planned. At first everything went better than he expected but it quickly became apparent to Garrent that while young Aaron was more than capable of handling the business and management aspects of his empire Aaron lacked the ambition and the cruel, brutal ruthlessness necessary to expand his base of power and to crush his competition along with his allies under foot to achieve greater and greater wealth.

DANGER, DANGER, Will Robinson! Psycho-Babble Incoming Prepare Yourself...

Being a devout Narcissist (No that isn't a religion, not a recognized one anyway but a psychological condition) the core of Garrent's personality can naturally be characterized by persistent Grandiosity with unreasonable expectations of particularly favorable or special treatment and automatic compliance from other people regardless of his actual status or achievements, **** self-absorption, an excessive need for attention and Admiration from others, a personal disdain and lack of Empathy for other people to the extent of openly disregarding the negative impact his behavior has on the feelings and needs of those around him, whilst at the same time insisting that people see him as the ideal person, Exploitation of others to achieve personal ends especially when the other person is in a subservient position where resistance would be difficult or even impossible, severe intolerance towards views and opinions contradictory to his own, Intense envy of others, and the belief that others are equally envious of him.

To protect their fragile Ego (Self-Concept), Narcissists use psycho-social strategies, such as the tendency to Continually criticize, devalue, bully, belittle, and to insult and blame other people in order to validate their own imagined superiority rather than taking responsibility for their own failures and flaws. Because their fragile egos are hypersensitive, When wounded either by a real or perceived criticism or defeat, people like Garrent with narcissistic personality disorder (or NPD) are prone to feelings of Shame, humiliation, and worthlessness over minor incidents in their daily life and imagined, personal slights, and usually mask such feelings, either by way of feigned humility, by socially isolating themselves, or by responding with explosive outbursts of narcissistic rage which are disproportionate to the nature of the criticism suffered, or by seeking ****; but typically, the actions and responses of those like Garrent are often deliberate and calculated.

Now that the Sigmund Freud psychoanalysis hour is over and you all hopefully understand what a prize winning specimen of humankind Garrent Masters is let us return to the story.

It wasn't that Aaron wasn't able to do things Garrent's way it's that he chose not to. In only a day and a half Aaron was able to come up with plans to increase productivity and profits for the company by more than 30%.

Garrent's ego as you can imagine couldn't take the strain of Aaron doing better than him using methods other than his own which was utterly repugnant to Garrent. And Aaron's age and inexperience only made the perceived attack on his own idealized self-image all the more unbearable so Garrent retaliated by setting little Aaron up to fail by putting him in charge of an entire division in his company but things did not go at all like he intended.

You see, Aaron actually took an interest in the employees under him taking the time to learn about them... Their lives, their dreams, their families, and their needs. But worst of all he treated them like equals... Like actual people with names and rights and feelings instead of the soulless inhuman tools and corporate stepping stones they really were or at least that was Garrent's view of others.

It was simple: Garrent proposed a contest of sorts... If after six months Aaron's division showed a significant profit increase then Aaron would officially become his heir but if not then Aaron would work for him without pay for the next 30 years of his life (Aaron was 7 years old at the time). Aaron agreed without hesitation, The thought of failure never even crossing his gifted mind. There was a period of adjustment, Of Course, and all of the employees Aaron was introduced to thought it was another of Garrent's cruel jokes but everyone took an instant like to Aaron, A fact that angered Garrent to no end. After taking the first month getting to know his employees in person rather than reading about them from some impersonal personnel file, Aaron began by making it Clear that he wasn't Garrent nor would he run things as Garrent had.

He also made sure that if they had a problem they were not to report it to human resources they were to come to him directly and he would handle it personally. That was quite the surprise but not as much as what he said next. He told them that if they had an opinion especially if it differed from his own they were to tell him immediately and he would consider it. They would not be demeaned, publicly humiliated, or punished in any way and if their idea was better he would give them a raise even if he had to pay for it out of his own pocket. Aaron created a relaxed but extremely productive office environment in which everyone was regarded as equals and worked in cooperation instead of plotting each others downfall as they had under Garrent's leadership.

Next, Aaron determined the strengths and weaknesses of everyone and reassigned them to new responsibilities more in keeping with their particular skills and dispositions in order to maximize efficiency. The six months practically flew by in the blink of an eye and Aaron not only succeeded with Garrent rigging things behind the scenes in his own favor but he exceeded the original projections of his plan.

Long story short, Garrent reneged on the deal (Like none of us saw that coming) and actually had the audacity to accuse Aaron of cheating declaring the challenge invalid.... An outcome that Aaron expected from the moment he accepted the challenge so he didn't even dispute it except to say that he did nothing dishonest or deceitful.