I smirk and take a step back from him and look at her.
“Mom, Aiden’s going to head back.”
“Oh. You should get a good night’s sleep first. Fly out in the morning. We have the sofa bed in the rec room. Carly will sleep in her old room.”
“Mom, Aiden’s not gonna sleep on the sofa bed in the basement…”
As if.
“Actually, I’m pretty tired,” Aiden admits. “I could fly out tomorrow.
He twirls Mom’s keys with her ‘Bingo Nut’ keychain in his hand.
This is ridiculous. All of it. No. Aiden Carmichael is not going to sleep in my parent’s basement on the lumpy green sofa bed in front of the old floor model television. There’s another television on top. A modern one. The floor model serves as the TV stand. Dad watches sports down there. It’s a typical Dad-basement TV room. In other words, hideous.
But, apparently, he is planning on sleeping in my parent’s basement, because he winks at me and then holds out his arm and mom slips her hand into the crook. He holds out his other arm for me and gives me a wink.
My God, he’s handsome. That he just put that smile on my Mom’s face after tonight? I’m kind of awestruck.
***
Ten minutes later, we’re pulling into my parent’s driveway. Mom insisted I sit up front with Aiden and then I navigated as she updated Aunt Susan on the phone on the way home.
Mom was sparse with details, thankfully, and likely because my boss is in the van, though he’s heard way more tonight than I’d have wanted him to hear about my family life. As we pull into my parents’ driveway, she tells Aunt Susan she’ll call back in an hour because she has to get “the kids settled.”
I see a smile tugging at Aiden’s mouth when she says that.
My parents’ raised bungalow is an ordinary family house. Lots of knickknacks and photos on the walls. They haven’t decorated in ten years on the main floor, and the basement looks like it came straight outta the 70s, but my mother is a clean freak, so everything, though outdated, is tidy. We take our shoes off at the door, like we’ve always done. Aiden looks a bit thrown by that, but then he takes his off, also.
We’ve come in through the kitchen door and Mom offers to make food.
“You don’t have to cook, Mom, not after the long day we all had. I’ll make some grilled cheese sandwiches and open a tin of soup. Is that okay?” I look at Aiden.
“Yeah,” He sits down at the big old farm-style kitchen table with the painted white chairs and the small houseplant in the middle. “Sounds great.”
“Nonsense. I’ll go to McDonald’s. Aiden, what do you like?”
Aiden raises his eyebrows and is about to open his mouth.
I roll my eyes. “I don’t think---”
“Nonsense. Big Mac meals all around?” She says it like this is a big treat and grabs her purse and lifts the van keys from the table where Aiden had put them.
“Sure, Mrs. Adler,” Aiden says. “Unless you want me to go and
---”
“Nope, it’s just down the road. Carly make up the sofa bed while I dash out, will you?”
“Maybe I’ll take the sofa bed. It’s kind of…lumpy.”
“Is it?” Mom looks horrified. “I didn’t intend for Aiden to sleep on a lumpy bed. I---”
“It’s totally fine, Mrs. Adler. I can sleep anywhere. Not to worry.”
“Call me Charlene, Aiden.”
He smiles at her and she looks at him like he’s a celebrity.