The Fool and the Hero
It took a while to get over to my father’s old rickety house. It was older than I was and on the other side of the city. Traffic was a bitch and I had to go through some detours just to get moving a bit. By the time I got there it was nearly noon time.
However, I noticed that there was another vehicle, a jeep, parked right outside. This one was big, green and had a bunch of nonsense stickers on the back bumper. I parked opposite it and cautiously knocked on the front door.
“Dad, it’s me!” I yelled out. “Dad, open the door!”
The door opened but to my surprise it wasn’t my father. Instead, it was Aiden. He was wearing a pair of dark green cargo shorts, sneakers and literally nothing else. He was shirtless, showing off his muscles and his six-pack abs in broad daylight and here in my father’s house.
“Aiden?” I asked in confusion as I stepped inside. “What the fuck are you doing here in my dad’s place?”
I didn’t wait for him to answer and headed straight for the living room. I found my father there, seated on a recliner, trying to shift through a bunch of papers. It took him a few good moments before he realized I was there.
“Oh, hello baby,” he greeted. “Could you please show that man out the door?”
Aiden followed me to the living room and he grabbed my arm, “So where have you been?”
“Don’t touch me,” I snarled and snapped my arm away from him. “Just the hell do you think you’re doing here? Why were you bugging my father?”
“I was looking for you,” Aiden explained. “I’ve been trying to call you for weeks. When you wouldn’t answer I went to your apartment and saw you no longer lived there. I then checked your work and they said you quit weeks ago.”
I nodded and shot back, “That’s all true and also none of your business.”
Aiden was taken aback but he quickly retorted, “Excuse me, what do you mean it’s none of my business? As your future husband, I think it is.”
I was going to vomit. I looked at him with disgust and asked, “Why do you think I’ll marry you? Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“You will because I’m me,” Aiden then explained. “Who wouldn’t want to marry the hottest man on the planet? Come on, you and me can bump in the night and make a few munchkins, eh? Just tell your old man here that everything’s good and settled and we can talk wedding plans.”
He was so damn full of himself. I was beyond angry at this point and if I could shove a stick up his ass I would.
My father, who had been quiet all this time, looked up at me and asked, “I-I just want him to leave. He might cause trouble. We’re already in a lot of trouble as it is with Mr. Rousseau.”
“Mr. Verdandi, you’re telling me you two have a thing with Mr. Rousseau?” Aiden asked. He was being dumber than usual. “What kind of trouble is this? Is this why my smoking-hot Bella has been gone for so long?”
I was going to slap him. I was really going to if he didn’t shut the hell up any time soon.
“Our business with Mr. Rousseau is none of your business,” I snapped.
“No, it’s my business as well,” he insisted. He then pointed a finger at my father and asked, “Explain all this, old man! I demand it as your future son-in-law!”
My father looked at me and then back at Aiden. He was so confused and so uncertain. I had never seen my father so dizzy with events whirling around him. Even at his age he was often so sharp and alert. It was then that my eyes caught the papers he was holding and realized they were from Adam’s stock firm.
I grabbed the papers, completely ignoring Aiden, and studied them for a second. As it turned out, Adam had been paying my father and his company three times more than what he should have. Over the past eleven weeks my father’s company had received a grand total of over seven million dollars in cash.
“D-dad, did he really send all this money?” I asked.
My father nodded, “He d-did. I’ve been going through it over and over again but the numbers all check out. I was going to call and thank him when this man here suddenly stormed in and came looking for you.”
I then turned back to Aiden, “Get the fuck out of here. You shouldn’t even be here. One, this is my father’s house, not mine. Two, you’re being rude. Three, I don’t want to see you. I never want to see you.”
Aiden pointed his finger at me and nearly drilled it at my face, “Baby, you’re just playing hard-to-get, I know it. Trust me, I can fix this. I’ll just drop by Mr. Rousseau’s house and show that motherfucker that being rich ain’t got nothing on my beautiful face and muscles. I’ll rescue you from him, take him down and then you and I can get married.”
My jaw literally dropped at how dumb he was.
“N-no, do not even think about going to the Rousseau Manor,” I tried to stop him. “Nothing good is going to come out of this. Aiden, don’t be a fucking idiot!”
He turned around and was about to slap me when my father suddenly rose up and grabbed Aiden’s hand. The handsome fool pushed my father back to his seat and then looked at me, “Let me be the hero, Bella. I will fight for you and for your old man.”
With that he turned around and grabbed his protein drink from the table. I didn’t even notice it was there until he took the time to get it. He then walked out the door and left as if it was nobody’s business. What an arrogant prick.
“Dad, he’s going to cause a lot of trouble,” I told my father. “If he goes over to bug Mr. Rousseau all hell could break loose.”
“I know sweetie,” he said. “We have to do something.”
“We can’t call the cops because we can’t really have him arrested,” I explained. “But if we don’t stop him then Mr. Rousseau might get mad at us, he’ll probably kill Aiden and if he doesn’t Aiden is going to get mad at us too or worse.”
There was nothing good that could come out of this. I had to stop Aiden from heading over to the Rousseau Manor before it was too late. And here I thought I could spend a free vacation at my father’s.
“Do you think he’s going there right now?” I asked.
My dad shook his head, “That boy? No, he’s too caught up in himself for that. He’s probably going to the gym and show-off his body for a bit. Why don’t you sit down and relax for a bit. I’m sure we can settle all of this on our own later.”
“Okay but let me text Adam,” I told my father as I sat down on the couch. I just couldn’t sit and wait for Aiden to get us all in some kind of mess. I then sent Adam a warning via text. “Adam, someone’s going to visit you and cause trouble. His name’s Aiden. He’s a narcissistic model and nothing more. Please don’t hurt him but do get rid of him.”
He didn’t reply. I didn’t know if he was just busy or if he couldn’t find the words to send back. Was he mad at Aiden or just mad at me? Ugh, I should have pulled Aiden back just to drill into his head the fact that I had no interest in him whatsoever.
My father got up and made us both some coffee. It felt really good to taste his brewed coffee after spending so much time in Adam’s house. Sure, I did love a good strong cappuccino but my dad really could make some good old brewed coffee.
“Mmm, this is really good,” I told him with my eyes shut. I soaked in the aroma and then said, “Dad, thank you.”
“For what?” he asked as he sat back down and drank.
“For letting me meet Adam,” I told him. “You could have stopped me that day, you know? You could have convinced me to stay out of your business.”
“I did try to stop you,” he reminded me. “You just didn’t listen. So, it’s Adam now huh, no longer Mr. Rousseau?”
Oh shit, he kind of figured it out. I shrugged with a sheepish smile and said, “Well, it’s kind of complicated.”
“I could only guess that you two would get together seeing as you work with him on a regular basis,” my dad said.
He was kind of right but of course I wasn’t going to tell him that my relationship with Adam really kicked off with him taking my virginity. I just looked back at my dad and tried to hide my shame with a display of smiles and giggles.
“Are you sure this is the right thing?” he asked me. “Mr. Rousseau isn’t exactly what I would call the ideal man. He’s got a dark past nobody knows about, he’s too rich to mingle with anyone but other rich peers and there are rumors he’s connected to the mob.”
“Dad, he’s none of those things,” I refuted those claims. “He doesn’t talk to people about his past because he doesn’t want to be defined by what is done but by what he’s doing. He doesn’t just mingle with the rich – just yesterday he went with me to a hobby shop and we played some tabletop games. Also, that thing about him and the mob, totally not true. His dad was with the mob but he himself is not.”
My dad didn’t buy it, “Baby, you might just be blinded with infatuation.”
“Dad, even if I was infatuated it doesn’t take a genius to see Adam isn’t as bad as people think. People just judge him because of how scary he can be when the truth is he’s a really kind and geeky guy. You know he has a big man-cave filled with old movies and video games?”
Even then he seemed apprehensive about it, “I don’t know sweetie. I don’t want to be judgmental but I really don’t have anything to base my opinion on except for what I see on the news and on the Internet.”
“Yeah but I’ve been with him for nearly three months,” I told him. “I think I should know who he really is, you know?”
“He might just be showing his good side to you,” my father still didn’t back down. “Guys do that, you know? We lie and pretend to be anything a woman wants just to get on her good side. I know I’m guilty of that with your mother.”
That kind of caught me by surprise. I looked at my father and asked, “Can you elaborate on that? What do you mean you’re guilty of that with mom?”
My father leaned back on his seat, thought really hard about his next choice of words and then explained, “You know back in the day being a computer nerd wasn’t really the coolest thing in the world. When I first met your mom she was this smokin’ hot chick wearing black leather. I knew jack-shit about rock bands.”
I laughed and asked, “So what did you do?”
“I did my best to pretend I was into the whole heavy metal scene and that did not churn out well,” he answered with a big smile. “She drilled me on different bands and eventually called me on my bullshit.”
“She must have been furious,” I commented, knowing how my mom was whenever I lied.
“She was but I got to make up for it by buying tickets to an Aerosmith concert,” he then said. “I like to tell everyone that that’s the night we made you.”
I rolled my eyes and just guffawed at him, “Dad, please, I don’t need to hear this.”
He laughed too and eventually, once he had relaxed, said, “Man, I miss your mom.”
“I do too,” I replied. “Dad, what really happened to mom?”
At first I thought my dad would get really dark and sad but instead he smiled when he started thinking about mom. He even chuckled before he said, “Y-your mom was one of the coolest persons I had ever met. She was a daredevil. She was always on the front lines. She was always at rock concerts.”
“Dad, you’re cool too, you know?” I tried to console but he put up his hand and then continued on.
“There was a time where I genuinely believed your mom couldn’t be stopped, you know? She was just so head-strong but then eventually all the partying caught up with her. She got lung cancer and it’s mostly blamed on her heavy smoking,” he explained. “You were too young to really understand. That’s why we just said she left town for work and died while she was away from work.”
A void that had been growing in my heart ever since I was a kid suddenly vanished and was replaced with something warm. It was something I had never felt before. I didn’t know if I was going to cry or if I wanted to smile after knowing the truth.
“She was a great woman,” I told my dad. “I want to let you know that I think Adam is a great man.”
My dad reached forward and placed a hand on my leg, “Baby, I don’t know everything about him and I do have my protests against this idea of you being with him. However, you do know better. You’ve been with him for a long time. You’re not a child anymore. I can trust you with this. Now let’s go deal with the real problem.”
“Which is?”
“That boy, Aiden,” my father answered. “Someone really needs to put that kid in his place.”
“I don’t know where he gets his confidence or his ideas,” I told my father. “I used to think he was really handsome but now that I got to see him this way he’s just… sad. He’s a sad narcissistic human being.”
My dad whistled in agreement and said, “If I were younger I would’ve smacked him in the face the moment he strolled right on in my house. The nerve of that guy to just go in like he owned the place was appalling, to say the least.”
“I know dad,” I knew exactly how he felt. “He’s been that way with me ever since we met. It was a really bad experience since then. Honestly, I don’t want anyone to get hurt but I do have this feeling of hope that maybe Adam will sock him a good one in the face.”
As if the universe itself was on our side I felt my phone buzz and I checked to see it was Adam. I took a moment to read it.
“Let me take care of this Aiden,” Adam’s text read. “I promise not to hurt him… much.”
Quickly I looked up at my father, “Dad, I need to go.”
“B-but you just got here,” he protested. “Can’t you stay here a bit longer?”
“No, Adam and Aiden might get into a fight,” I reasoned. “Adam just sent me a message. I need to stop this bullshit. Aiden’s got things all wrong and his stupid narcissism is going to get everybody into a thick mess we can’t swim out of.”
My father was about to say something but I stopped him with a hug and a kiss. He patted my back and acknowledged me before I turned around and left the house. I ran straight back to my car and started it as quickly as I could. Before I drove out back to Adam’s manor I sent him a text message.
“I’m driving back right now,” I told him. “I freaking hate Aiden but I don’t want things to blow over our heads.”
I then slid my phone back into my pocket and drove. I felt the phone buzz and I could guess that it was Adam texting me but I didn’t have the time to check it. There wasn’t a lot of traffic on the road and I drove as quickly as I could.
Unfortunately by now traffic had congested within the main city streets. Every now and then I found myself sitting in the car doing nothing but waiting for a chance to move forward or switch to another lane. I was getting anxious and I’d stare at the clock on my dashboard.
Every time I’d reach for my phone, however, the lanes would move and I couldn’t get the chance to check if Adam or even Aiden had texted me. It was a little frustrating but I pushed forward, thinking it was just a matter of time before I got there anyway.
When I did arrive back at the manor I feared for the worst when I saw Aiden’s big jeep was parked there as well, meaning he was already inside confronting Adam. I quickly parked right across from it and ran up into the manor.
Inside I found Adam seated on his big couch in the entrance foyer, dressed in a suit, casually drinking wine as Aiden stood still half-naked about fifteen feet away from him.
“Ah, you’re here,” Adam then said. “I guess you didn’t get my text message.”
“I-I didn’t, I was driving,” I answered. “Adam, please don’t hurt him. He’s just a really stupid fool.”
Aiden turned around and looked at me, “Baby, what are you saying? Come on, let’s just teach this gangster who’s the real boss around here so you and me can celebrate on the beach, drinking some whiskey and banging our bodies like it’s the Fourth of July, eh?”
I looked at Aiden with disgust and then back at Adam, “You know what? Forget whatever I said. Go beat the living shit out of him.”