Lisa calls Aiden

Natalie woke with a dull ache behind her eyes from too little sleep and too many thoughts running through her head. She could tell by the light coming through the blinds that it was later than she usually slept, but continued to lie there for a few minutes before finally getting out of bed.

The apartment was quiet, with no sounds of Aiden bustling around this morning. Getting up, she pulled her robe around her, walked into the kitchen, and slipped a pod into the machine, pressing the button. She leaned against the counter while it worked, feeling her head pound with more than just the lasting effects of the wine or the sex, but from everything that had gone on in her thoughts last night. Matt had kept her busy, but even at the height of it, her thoughts had strayed to places she had been resisting, and knew she shouldn’t be thinking about.

She reached for her mug as the stream of coffee poured, the scent of it helping bring her thoughts into focus, when Aiden’s door opened. He stepped out already dressed for the day, with his backpack slung over a shoulder, and phone in hand.

“Morning,” he said carefully, like he wasn’t sure she was going to acknowledge him.

“Morning,” Natalie replied, giving him a small nod and stirring cream into her cup.

He hovered near the edge of the counter, testing how much she was willing to engage with him this morning, as he nervously shifted his phone from one hand to the other. “Feels good out,” he said, nodding toward the blinds. “Seems like we’ve got a break from the cold for a few days according to my weather app.”

She glanced at the sliver of daylight sneaking through the closed blinds, but her eyes caught on him instead, and the way he filled out his stretched T-shirt. Every time she looked at him, it was like a reminder of everything she couldn’t get out of her head. She cinched the robe tighter around her waist. “Yeah. I saw that too.”

Aiden studied her for a second, then tilted his head. “You sleep all right?”

For whatever reason, the question caught her off guard, and she let out a quick snort, though she looked back down at her mug. “Not really. Too much on my mind, I suppose.”

He nodded, understanding what she meant because he felt the same way. “Well, hope today takes it easy on you.”

She **** a smile, grateful he wasn’t pressing further. “Thanks. Have a good class.”

Not knowing what else to say, he made his way to the front door. “See you later.”

The door closed behind him, leaving Natalie with the apartment to herself. She wrapped both hands around the mug and took a sip, feeling it burn her tongue. At the same time, her phone buzzed, and she set the too-hot coffee on the counter.

Opening her phone, she saw a text from Matt.

Matt: Really wanna see you again soon.

She flipped it face down, not wanting to think about the night before. Her eyes drifted instead toward the door Aiden had just walked through.

Aiden adjusted the strap of his bag as his phone buzzed. His mom’s contact filled the screen. He groaned for a second before answering.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Hey, honey.” Even though her tone was warm enough, he could already hear there was something under it. “How’s your morning?”

“Fine, just heading to class,” he replied, trying to keep it casual. “What’s up?”

“Nothing urgent. I was just thinking… it’s been too long since I’ve seen you.” There was the slightest pause before she added, “I want to come up this weekend.”

Aiden frowned, and his head dropped to stare at the ground as he walked. He could hear the tone in her voice, and considering what he now felt was a dumb choice to call her the night before, he knew she was worried about him now.

“You don’t have to do that, Mom. I’m good.”

“I know you say that,” Lisa replied gently, “but after our call last night, I don’t know. You didn’t sound like yourself, and I’d just feel better seeing you.”

He shifted the phone to his other ear and hooked his thumb under the strap of his backpack, hiking it up higher on his shoulder. “Mom, I’m fine, really. You don’t need to make the trip just because I called you yesterday.”

“Well, I want to,” she said, sounding as if it were simply a friendly visit, but he knew his mom well enough to hear the finality of her concern. “We’ll get some groceries, have a home-cooked meal, and just catch up. It doesn’t have to be a big thing. I just wanna see my baby boy.”

“All right, sure. That sounds nice,” he replied, knowing she wasn’t going to let it go. “But, I, uh- I’ve already got plans Friday night.”

“Then I’ll see you after or something. I’m not coming to mess up your weekend, honey. I just miss you.”

His mouth pursed and twisted to one side, knowing that her missing him was also probably true, and her being an empty nester was still hitting harder than she wanted to admit. “All right. If that’s what you want.”

“It is,” Lisa said with a little more pep. “And it’ll be good to see Natalie too. We can catch up a little. Now that you’ve actually been there for a bit, I should probably thank her again for letting you stay. She’s been a real blessing.”

Aiden swallowed, tightening his grip on the strap of his bag. “Yeah. She has.”

“You know,” Lisa added after a pause, “I miss having both of you living here. It feels like forever between actually getting to sit down with her.”

“Yeah,” Aiden said. “I’m sure she’ll like getting to see you, too.”

He could hear that she already sounded happier as she continued. “I think so too. We always say we’ll make plans and then never do, because it’s just so far. But now that you live there too, I get to see both of you.”

“Right,” he murmured, wishing he hadn’t called her.

“Anyway, I’ll be up Friday. We’ll have dinner, maybe the three of us if you’ve got time before your plans. Sound good?” Lisa said, though there was still that undercurrent in her voice.

“Yeah,” Aiden said quietly. “Sounds good.”

“Okay then,” she said sweetly, as if she could feel his unease. “We’ll talk more soon. Love you, honey.”

“Love you too, Mom.”

Aiden slipped the phone back into his pocket and looked out across campus, but his focus was now cluttered by the conversation with his mom as well. Now, not only did he have the awkwardness with Natalie, but his mom was also going to come up, and bear witness to it all.

Finally reaching his class, Aiden slid into his usual seat near the back of the lecture hall, opening the notebook in front of him and balancing a pen between his fingers. The professor’s voice carried from the front, but it may as well have been white noise. He wrote a few lines, half a sentence of notes, then stopped, staring at the unfinished words until the letters blurred into each other.

His mind kept circling back to his mom coming Friday, wanting to have dinner with Natalie. He wished he could feel as casually about it as she did, like it was no big deal. For her, maybe it wasn’t, even though they were having a secret affair, or whatever they would call it, that he wasn’t supposed to know about. But for him, it felt like a deadline he couldn’t outrun, and would have to perform a show to look normal.

The couch, the phone call, the silence across the hall all replayed in his mind. He’d been telling himself maybe it was nothing. That if Natalie hadn’t said anything to his mom yet, maybe she never would. But his mom showing up, wanting to see both of them, talk to both of them… it felt like secrets were being **** closer to the surface. Secrets he didn’t know how to face.

He shifted in his chair, rubbing his face, and repeatedly checked the clock. Only twenty minutes had passed.

By the end of class, his notebook held little more than half-scribbled phrases, none of which translated to legible notes. He stuffed it into his bag and headed out, weaving through the crowded hallway.

Friday. Dinner. The three of them sitting at the table, while his mom asked questions, and would probably never lose her effervescent expression, as she looked between him and Natalie. He could picture it too clearly.

Aiden hunched over his desk and the mess of open books and half-finished notes. His eyes skimmed the same paragraph for the third time, but like the night before, nothing stuck. The page stayed blank while his fingers drummed the edge of the desk, and his mind drifted miles from the work in front of him.

There was no doubt Natalie had been dodging him since that night, and there was no ignoring it at this point. He’d replayed every second of it in his head, starting with the moment she’d pulled back her legs when he was rubbing her feet, to the look she gave him before disappearing down the hall, and then… his stupid decision to stay sitting on the couch. God. He scrubbed a hand down his face, pretty sure she’d seen him. She had to have, and if she had, then no wonder she didn’t want to be around him.

Now his mom was coming on Friday, to see both of them, using the fact that it had been too long as part of her excuse… Maybe she’d already told Natalie, but she could be scatterbrained about things like that, always assuming people had filled in the gaps for her. So, it wasn’t unreasonable to think that she’d just assumed he’d tell Natalie himself.

He couldn’t risk it. If Natalie didn’t know, and Mom just showed up with her usual hugs and questions, it could get weird fast.

Aiden stood, pacing once around his room, chewing at the inside of his cheek. He thought about waiting until he caught her in the kitchen, or the living room, some neutral spot, but she’d been avoiding those lately, too. If he wanted to make sure he saw her, he’d have to be the one to go to her.

It felt different walking the few feet to her door with the intent of knocking. He realized he’d never just gone and knocked on her door before now. He stopped outside her room, raised his hand, and then hesitated. What if she opened the door and just looked at him like she had in the kitchen the other morning? What if she shut it in his face? Or if she just called through the door and didn’t even open it?

Gathering himself, he finally knocked. Just two short raps, and then he let his hand fall to his side, waiting to see how she’d respond.

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