Nine
Gavin
I was on my third beer for the night by the time Ron met me at the local bar we frequented. It was still early in the afternoon, and Ron had just gotten back from a morning of fishing when I messaged him letting him know that I would be at the bar. He hadn’t wasted any time in meeting me, and soon we both were enjoying our drinks and exchanging stories of our uneventful morning. It wasn’t particularly surprising, I supposed, when the conversation turned toward my mom, and her diagnosis.
“You could have told me,” Ron said. The bartender filled my glass of whiskey and nodded in Ron’s direction. “When you first found out, you could have told me instead of waiting for a public dinner.”
“She wanted it done that way,” I said.
“I know, but I know how stress fucks you up, and I could have been there to help deal with it all,” he said. “You and I both know that Mona would have wanted you to share your burden.”
A group of college-aged women arrived and sat on the other end of the cherry oak bar. They giggled as they each glanced at me and exchanged hushed whispers with one another. I turned from them.
“You only waited like a day,” I said. “Plus, I had a lot of other shit on my mind.”
“I don’t blame you,” Ron said. His attention was slowly moving between the group of women and me. “Fuck, we both have been through this already. When is life ever going to give us a break?”
We both lost our fathers at a relatively young age, is what he meant. I knew Ron’s sympathy was honest, but it still rubbed me the wrong way.
I was already drinking far too much for a Monday afternoon, but I knew no one would question a man with a dying mother. Maybe that was the problem with this town; everyone knew who I was, and that my mom was dying.
“You could tell me anything,” Ron said as I paid little attention to him and more on my glass. “We’ve been best friends since grade school; fuck, that’s over 20 years, isn’t it?” Ron chuckled as he nursed his beer. “You ever need anything, Gavin, and I got it.”
“Thanks,” I said, and meant it. I expected to hear those words from a lot of people, but it meant the most coming from Ron. Still, his voice was beginning to scratch the inside of my head, and not in a good way. I realized all I wanted was to be alone, but between mom and Ron and the rest of this goddamn town, that wasn’t ever going to happen.
“I got a call earlier from Maddie,” Ron said. “Her roommate might be moving to California soon, so she might have to move in with me.”
My fists clenched. I decided against telling Ron that his cousin was a heartless gold-digging bitch, but it still didn’t lessen the sting. I didn’t want to create any family drama, especially when I had a million other problems to deal with. Still, just hearing her name caused a headache.
“Oh?” I swallowed a gulp of my drink.
“I don’t know how I feel about it. I probably would have to stop bringing home women on the weekends,” he said. “It might be a deal breaker.”
Ron didn’t often bring women home as much as he claimed, not since his fiancée broke up with him the week before their wedding. But he definitely loved talking about it. His entire body was facing the women on the other side of the bar, and he had gotten the attention of a few of them. He told the bartender he’d pay for each of their drinks, and the women gave almost shy grins. Something told me they weren’t too shy at all
“So tell her to fuck off,” I said, my voice a little more tense than normal. Ron noticed, and he glanced at me with a frown. His skin was darker than usual after several hours in the morning sun, and his clothes had been crinkled and dampened from the lake. The women seemed to appreciate the look of a day laborer, and the bartender had returned with three of their numbers.
“For you, as well,” the bartender said and gave me a few numbers. I passed it to Ron, and he slipped them all into his pocket.
“You know I can’t do that,” Ron said. “My mom would kill me if I just let Maddie be homeless in a box off the highway.”
“She’s a grown woman,” I said. “She can take care of herself.”
But it was evident that she couldn’t take care of herself, or else she would never have tried extorting money from me. I briefly wondered what Ron would think. He’d be disappointed, upset, maybe even embarrassed. Not from the moment that I received the money from selling my father’s company did Ron ever ask for anything. Even after I offered to pay off his mortgage and school loans, he still refused it all. I had to sneak around our lunches and pay our bill before he noticed, or else he would still insist on splitting the cost. It had been difficult trying to reward his friendship, and it wasn’t until he pointed out that I refused to ever spend any money on myself that I stopped trying to shove it on him.
He was more than okay with using my boats whenever he wanted, and I did manage to convince him to let me pay for the rest of his mom’s credit card debt.
“That’s for damn sure,” he agreed and finished his beer. The bartender poured him another one, and he tipped him quickly before I could do it. “I know she’ll eventually get to where she’s going, but damn is it hard to watch her struggle.”
“Struggle?” I asked. “She lives in a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate while spending all her time on her phone, if she isn’t already posing for pictures to go in magazines.”
Ron laughed. “You’re really out of touch with reality; did you know that?”
I shrugged. “I guess, but I’d rather be out of touch than obsessed.”
“I don’t know if one’s better than the other,” Ron said. “At the end of the day, if Maddie’s asks to move in all I can do is say yes. I guess I’ll just have to get my fill of women in before then.” He gestured at the women. “Fancy any of them?”
I took another look at them. They were all tall and beautiful, with smooth skin and silky hair. A few were blonde, some brunettes, a redhead, and two dark haired beauties. I was frustrated beyond all reason, and the idea of taking a beautiful woman into my bed was more than tempting. I felt a stir in my jeans as the red-head smiled at me and pushed her curly hair behind an ear. Maybe Ron had the right idea.
I stood from my seat with the intention of introducing myself when my phone rang. Ron frowned as I unlocked it to find Karen’s name staring at me with an unanswered phone call.
I answered it immediately.
“Gavin, your mother isn’t well,” she said instantly. I leaned against the bar and gestured for Ron to leave me.
“Do you need anything?” he asked.
“I’ll be right there,” I said to Karen and shook my head at Ron. “You go have fun. I’ll call you later.”
Ron left to spend the beginning of the evening with a beautiful blonde, while I rushed to my dying mother’s house.
met me outside of the house, which instantly made me lash out at her.
“Don’t you ever leave her alone like this ever again!” I yelled and slammed the door shut behind us. My fear and rage bubbled inside of me until it was threatening to explode.
“I’m sorry, Gavin, but she absolutely refuses to move from the kitchen,” Karen said. I followed her into the kitchen where mom was leaning against the counter with harsh, shallow breaths. She was forcing herself to stand by her arms, which were already weak, and she was close to fainting. I ran toward her and put my arms beneath hers.
“Mom!” I practically screamed. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I don’t want to go to bed,” she said. Her tiny frame was shaking violently. “It’s not my bedtime.”
“You need to rest,” Karen pleaded behind us. “She took all her medicine today without any food. She’ll pass out if she doesn’t lay down.”
“I don’t need to lie down,” mom said. “I just need to finish these damn dishes.”
The sink had one cup stained with coffee and a plate with crumbs from a cookie.
“I’ll finish them,” I said in a softer voice. “Just go rest, and I’ll finish them.”
“Get the hell off of me,” she demanded and pushed me away. “You don’t know how I feel, or what this is doing to me.”
It felt as if my heart broke into tiny pieces. Her face had a yellow hue, and her hair was matted at the roots and barely hanging by a thread. It was far thinner than I remembered, and it might not last much longer. I also realized that she had lost enough weight to make her already shallow cheeks even more sunken, and there were black bruises beneath her eyes and across her forehead. I pulled her against me as the reality of the situation truly hit. My mother was dying, and she was afraid.
“I’ll finish the stupid dishes,” I said and held her at arm's length. She looked away from me, but I knew I was winning.
“We’re out of dish soap,” she mumbled.
“I’ll buy some,” I said.
“Well look at that,” she laughed. “All of a sudden I’m tired.”
She leaned against my arm as I led her toward her room. She hesitated near the bed, where the sheets were crumpled and flung across the top.
“You got into a fight with Karen?” I asked and fixed the bed. Her medications were on the side table, and momentarily I wondered how long she would take them. The entire six months? What was the point?
“Just a little,” she admitted. “I know I was wrong, I’m sorry. Sometimes I just feel so damn angry.”
“I understand,” I said and helped her into the bed. I fluffed her pillows and moved them so that her back was sitting against the wall. “Are there any shows you want?” I turned on the TV and offered the remote to her.
“Just something on Netflix,” she said. “Oh, maybe that new superhero show. I’ve heard it’s good.”
I smiled, knowing exactly which one she was talking about. Not many people knew this, but my mom had quite the comic book collection sitting in storage. She had been the biggest nerd growing up and had run to the comic store every Wednesday morning for the new releases. She had given me her collection when I turned of age. They were worth several tens of thousands of dollars, and she had wanted me to sell them and pay for college. I pretended I did, until my graduation when I gifted her with both my diploma and a box full of graded comics that never once saw the light of day.
I still remembered how glossy her eyes had become as she hugged me and thanked me for keeping them. I had said that she already sacrificed so much for me, and I was never going to let her give up anything else.
I did, however, take out one particular comic and ruined the quality by reading it over and over again. Captain America, the very first issue where he appeared, had been my favorite go-to bedtime read after rough exams and weeks of late-night studying. Captain American quickly became our favorite thing to talk about together. Watching the movies, reading comic books, obsessing over new TV shows that might feature him.
“The next season is rumored to have our favorite American hero,” I said and began playing one of the latest superhero TV shows. “But that’ll come out late next year, so we’ll have to wait and see.”
My mouth caught up before my mind, and I abruptly ended my sentence. The room fell into an uncomfortable silence. How dumb was I? Wait and see? Mom wouldn’t know about anything that happened after six months. And the last thing I should be doing is reminding her.
“Have you thought about what I asked?” she asked after a moment of silence. She was staring at the TV, where I had paused the show.
I couldn’t disappoint her more than I had already; she deserved happy news. But I couldn’t just lie to her. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that she needed happy news. Maybe that fake marriage wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
“The date went well,” I forced myself to say.
“Oh? With Maddie?” She brightened up immediately. “I do love that girl. She’s such a sweetheart.”
I grimaced but didn’t argue. “She’s sweet.”
“And you guys have known each other since you were kids. Well, you were there when she was born, weren’t you? Isn’t it funny how life plays out sometimes?” Mom settled back into bed with a slight smile on her face. “Don’t you mess this up for me, you hear? She’s a catch.”
I nodded, pretending that I agreed with her. I couldn’t tell my mother that Maddie had tried extorting money out of me using her request, it would ruin everything. One glance at her laid back, and stress-free state and I knew exactly what I had to do.
“Things are looking really good with Maddie,” I said. I knew I was going to have to fake marry Maddie and pay that damn woman whatever she wanted.