‘A good night?’ He tried to keep the enquiry light, to appear calm, as his stomach churned, his blood ran fast, and he had to bite his lip to prevent words of warning firing from his mouth,
‘Don’t do it, son!’
‘Think of what it’d do to your Mam, to me!’
‘You have a bright future, lad, the brightest!’
‘We love you, Aaron, you’ll never know how much we love you!’
‘Not really.’ His son paused. ‘Georgia dumped me—’
‘Sorry to hear that,’ Mikey spoke softly. ‘Your mum finished with me once, you know.’
‘Did she?’
‘Yeah,’ Mikey laughed, ‘I was devastated!’
‘What happened?’ Aaron leaned forward. It took all of Mikey’s strength not to grip his hands, look him in the eye and beg him to stay.
‘It was a long time ago. I think she got cold feet. We were very young, about your age, and some of her mates were moving away, heading off to college or whatever, and I think she was worried about getting left behind. Settling.’
‘But she settled for you in the end?’
‘No, Aaron, that’s the thing, everyone was saying,there’s plenty more fish in the sea,as if I should have gone fishing for a new bird, but, instead, I chose her, and she chose me. Settling would have been the biggest mistake, always is. We chose each other.’
‘And you lived happy ever after!’
‘Again, no, lad!’
His son laughed, and it was wonderful to hear, so very wonderful!
‘Life’s difficult and relationships aren’t easy, but we carry on choosing each other every day and we face whatever comes together. It’s hard to accept when you’re young, but the truth ismost days are boring, tiring, and it’s the small things she does that make me laugh or make me comfortable or make me happy that mean I want to get up in the morning and want to get home to her at night. I’ll always work as hard as I can for you both. I’ll always love you both to the bloody moon and back. You two are me world, me whole world!’
He couldn’t help the tears that fell, no longer ashamed or embarrassed by the display, in the way he had once been, because crying was now, unfortunately, second nature to him.
‘So you think Georgia might take me back?’
Mikey gripped his son’s arm and looked him in the eye. ‘She might, but the question is, do you want to put your happiness in the pocket of someone who has dumped you? You need to understand her reasons and then make a decision.’
His son nodded.
‘It’s been a shite week, Dad. I, I messed up at work.’ Aaron folded his hands, as his knee jumped with nervous energy.
He did not know this!
‘You did? How?’
‘Didn’t connect the alternator properly on the boss’s wife’s car. She broke down in the Mersey Tunnel. He’s mad as hell.’
‘He’ll calm down, lad. We all make mistakes. Talk to him, tell him you know you messed up, he’ll respect that, and I know that you won’t do it again.’
‘I bloody won’t!’ Aaron exhaled a long, slow release. ‘I’m tired, Dad.’
Mikey watched him stand, with fear in his chest that made his limbs shake.
‘Aaron—’
‘Wha?’ his son asked, one hand on the door.
