Chapter 5

Asher was in a great mood. It was Friday night and he was taking Mia out for dinner. He had made reservations at a nice restaurant in Raton, a small town not far from them. The restaurant was Mulligan’s and it served Mexican and American food. He bought a new shirt for the occasion and was just buttoning it up when he heard a commotion in the hallway. His parents were still at work as far as he knew and none of the staff were usually in the house past six. Curious but not alarmed yet, he opened his bedroom door. He saw the large figure of his father, crumpled on the floor next to the master bedroom.

“Dad? Are you okay? What happened?” Asher rushed over to him and as soon as he got within a foot of him he smelled the booze. The strong odor of the stale whiskey made his stomach turn. “You’re drunk?” He already knew it…but he still posed it as a question. He should have been at work or at least just getting home from work.

He looked up at his son. His eyes were bloodshot and the front of his shirt was stained. As a matter of fact his clothes were wrinkled like he had slept in them. He had a red mark along the side of the face that looked like it was going to turn into a bruise, probably from hitting the wall just now.

“Asher.”

The sound of his name on his father’s drunken lips pissed him off more. “What the hell are you doing? Mom will be home soon. You can’t let her see you like this!”

His father leaned forward and at first Asher wondered if he was going to pass out. He realized then that his father was trying to use his arms to push himself up off the floor. With a disgusted sigh Asher slid his arm under his father’s and pulled him to his feet. He teetered slightly and then pressed his palm to the wall to steady himself. “You reek! Why weren’t you at work?” It suddenly dawned on Asher that he hadn’t seen his father since maybe Wednesday. He had thought they were missing each other, but from the looks of it, he hadn’t showered or changed clothes in days.

His father looked at him again like he was trying hard to focus on his son’s face. “Watch the way you talk to me,” he shot. Asher wasn’t one to disrespect his parents. As an only child he always had a close relationship with them both. He had been raised to be respectful and polite but it was hard to feel anything but contempt for his father in his current state.

He took another deep breath and said, “You need to get in the shower before Mom gets home.” He was still holding onto his father’s arm. He jerked it away from Asher and pushed open the bedroom door. Asher stood in the doorway and watched as his father stumbled across the room towards the mini-bar. “Are you fucking kidding me? I hope you don’t think you’re going to have another drink.”

His dad ignored him and pulled out a bottle of scotch. Asher completely lost it. All of the emotions he had been holding back since the day his mother told him she was dying pushed through all at once, ignited by his disgust for the way his father was handling things. He flew across the room in a rage and jerked the bottle out of his father’s hands.

“What the hell are you doing?” His father bellowed.

“I’m keeping my mother from having to come home and see the cowardly drunk she married.” His dad did something then that in nearly eighteen years of Asher’s young life had never seen him do. He took a swing at his son. His coordination was off from the alcohol and Asher easily dodged it. The intent had been real however and it only fuelled Asher’s anger. He pushed his father and he stumbled back into the wall. His dad was looking at him with shock on his face. Asher had never even considered putting his hands on his father before, but this was too much. Even knowing that the stress and the helplessness he felt over his mother’s illness was causing him to drink held little water as far as Asher was concerned. He always looked up to his father and the man he saw in front of him today was not the man he knew at all.

“You’re the CEO of a respected company. What the hell are your employees and your customers going to think if they see you somewhere like this? If you won’t clean-up for Mom, the person you should, at least think about the business you will lose when people in this little town start figuring out you’re a damn drunk.”

Asher stepped close to his father and this time he didn’t make any move to strike him or fight him. Putting his hand on his dad’s arm he led him into the bathroom and turned on the shower. “I’m going to make you some strong, black coffee and you’re going to drink it and sober up before mom gets home.” He turned and left him standing there. He wasn’t sure if he even had time to clean him up before his mom got home, but he was going to damned sure try.

When the coffee was ready he took the cup of black steaming liquid upstairs and was surprised to see that his dad had actually showered. Asher noticed that he had a three days growth of beard and said, “Sit down and drink this. We’re going to clean up your face. Where does mom think you’ve been?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Asher was tempted to slap him in the back of the head. “She has to be freaking out.”

“I called her.” He looked like he was about to fall asleep. Asher shoved the mug in his hand and wrapped his fingers around it.

“Drink!” he ordered as he started lathering up his father’s face. Asher had never shaved anyone but himself, but half-assing it would be better than nothing. As his father sipped the coffee, Asher shaved the black and gray peppered stubble off of his face. His father sat still like a child or a mental patient, Asher thought. Twenty minutes and only two nicks later, his father looked human again almost. Asher went to the closet and pulled out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He tossed them on the bed and said, “Get dressed. I’ll get you another cup of coffee.”

“I don’t want any more coffee!”

Asher turned and looked at him with his intense green eyes. “Too fucking bad,” he said.

**

Asher was fifteen minutes late to pick up Mia. He had called her before he left home and her mother hung up on him twice. Suffice to say, Mia had broken the news to them about dating him. Finally the third time he called Travis picked up the phone. “Hey Bro, sorry about that. Ask for me from now on.”

Asher laughed. He wondered if Travis knew how often his mother hung up on him when he did ask for him. He let it go and said, “Will you tell Mia I’m on my way and I’m sorry for being late. I had some family stuff.”

“Yeah, I’ll do you one better. I’ll drive her down to the end of the driveway so you don’t have to deal with the glare of the parental units.”

Asher laughed. “Thanks. The steaming holes they bored through me the last two times I picked her up haven’t healed yet. What are you doing tonight?”

“Dean and I are doing some night fishing. If you two lovebirds finish with your dinner early enough, you should come out. We’ll be at the basin.”

“Sounds romantic.”

“Fuck you. Get a girlfriend and all of a sudden you are too good for us.”

Asher laughed. “I’ll be right there.”

“Hey wait! You said you had ‘family stuff.’ Is your mom okay?”

“Yeah, she’s doing great actually. I can’t say the same about the old man.”

“Oh.” Travis knew about Asher’s father’s drinking since the diagnosis. There wasn’t much that went on with Asher that Travis didn’t know about. He was also smart enough to figure out if Asher needed to talk about it he would, otherwise he left it alone.

Asher was at the end of the Halloway’s long drive-way ten minutes later. He stepped out of the Mustang and watched as Mia stepped out of her brother’s pick-up. She was wearing a denim skirt that came down to just above her knees and a white eyelet blouse that buttoned up the front. Her long hair lay in thick masses across her shoulders and down her back and her gorgeous hazel eyes were sparkling. His breath caught in his throat every time he looked at her, but this time there were things going on all through his body. He kissed her cheek and breathed in her fresh scent and then waved at Travis. Travis stuck his head out the window and said, “You kids behave.”

Asher grinned. “Always.” The look on Travis’s face before he drove away told Asher that the intimate details of his relationship with Mia was where he wanted to draw the line at knowing everything. Asher slid in behind the wheel and looked over at his gorgeous date. “You look incredible.”

She smiled, completing the picture. “So do you, as always,” she said.