The Finest Thing

Excerpt:

Aidan´s company kept him busy. In the past few weeks he´d been to Dallas, Chicago and New York, which didn't bother him because he liked traveling, but living out of a suitcase so often was starting to grate on his nerves. He was happy to be back home at last. He dropped his bags on the floor the minute he walked in the door and trudged to the couch in the living room and fell down onto the plush cushions. "Ah" he sighed as he leaned his head back on the couch and closed his eyes.

He didn´t know how long he´d been asleep when he felt the vibration of his cell phone in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at the caller ID, shocked that it was his mother calling. He was going to ignore the call then the thought that it might have been an emergency prompted him to take the call.

"Hi, Mom. Is something wrong?" He asked with dread.

"Yes, something is wrong. Why did I have to find out from Peter´s mother that you´re coming home?"

As soon as he´d gotten the invitation he knew it was only a matter of time before his mother would find out and call, but he wasn´t looking forward to it."You know how things have been between me and the family. I thought you wrote me off. So, why are you even bothering to call me, now, Mom? The last time I heard from you was an impersonal Christmas card, two years ago."

He could hear the guilty pause over the dead airwaves. "I´m sorry, Aidan. I´ve wanted to call you so many times over the past few years. I just couldn´t find the right words."

"But you are suddenly finding them now?" He practically yelled. He took a deep breath to recompose himself, and continued, "Mom, I´m only going back to Connecticut to see my friends get married. I´m glad that at least the state has seen fit to let gays get married. Not that it matters to you. I know that if I ever get married you´d never come to my wedding. You, Dad and Jason could just never stomach seeing me marry another guy, see me really be happy."

"I´ve only wanted you to be happy, Aidan, but you know how difficult your choice makes things."

"My choice? Being gay is not a choice, Mother," He said formally. "It´s who I am. And I´m not going to forget how you treated me after you found out about Kyle. I loved him, just as much as you love Dad and Jason loves Amy. There is no difference. Love is love." He could feel himself getting more and more upset as the phone conversation dragged on. "Look, Mom, I can´t talk about this right now."

"Aidan, please. I´d really like to see you, and I know Jason would like to see you too."

"Oh, really? Well, then why haven´t I heard from him at all since I came out?"He asked bitterly, holding the phone in a death grip. "I´d really like to know why I didn´t hear from any of you even once when Kyle died. Was it because he was my gay lover and you couldn´t accept that? I bet if he´d been a `her´, I´d have gotten all the support I needed."

"I´m so sorry. I wish we´d been there for you, Aidan. Really, I do. It was a mistake, a big mistake. I know being sorry isn´t enough, but I just want you to know we love you."

"We? As in Dad, too? Because I know how proud he is to have a gay son," he added sarcastically.

"There´s something I need to tell you," she said hesitantly, pausing before she continued, "Your father and I split up."

That was a punch to the gut he wasn´t expecting. "You and Dad split up, when?"

"A few months ago I found out he was cheating on me. There were a lot of unexplainable charges on the phone and credit card bills and he tried to deny it, but with the evidence I had, he couldn´t. Then he tried to say he was sorry and wanted to make amends, but I had enough of him lying through his teeth. I told him to pack his bags and go."

He didn´t say a word for a minute, trying to give himself time to absorb this new development. He knew his parents´ marriage wasn´t ideal, far from it.There had been plenty of arguments when he was growing up, but he never thought they´d ever get a divorce.

Despite everything, he loved his mother and couldn´t help but feel bad for her."I´m sorry to hear that, Mom."

"No, you´re not, but thank you anyway. I´m better off without him. Aidan,"she said, changing subjects, "I hope when you´re here that you might stop by and see me and your brother. I know you probably don´t want to after how we´ve treated you, but please, just promise me you´ll think about it?"

"Sure, Mom, I´ll think about it." He said, making no commitments. "Thanks for calling. Bye."

"Bye, Aidan." He heard the phone disconnect on her end and slowly shut his phone. He knew that going to a wedding could present some interesting social challenges, but he hadn´t expected this latest situation with his family. Truth be told, he did want to see Jason, since they had been close while growing up. They had been more than just brothers----they had been friends. When Aidan came out to his family and things had gotten ugly between him and his parents,Jason got caught up in the middle. Instead of picking sides, he shut down and just left without saying a word.

Going home again was going to be an interesting trip in more ways than one. He just couldn´t wait for it to be over so he could come back to San Diego, which felt more like home to him than Mystic had since he came out.

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