Chapter Twenty-Seven -- The Mother Of All Misunderstandings
Aidan was on cloud number nine. It wasn't only because Heath had been adamant about keeping him awake half the night -- actually, that made him feel a bit wasted -- and not even because of the shared love confession from the day before.
It was because, simply put, everything in his life was falling into place for a change. He had been a bit desperate lately about finding a good job, a good boyfriend, and finally living the life like everyone on social media. Only that, in his case, he didn't feel any need to tout his happy life all over the place and wanted to keep it to himself.
Aidan knew he would have to call his parents and give them all the good news, though. They would undoubtedly be happy for him, both for the job that was getting better now and for the person he had in his life. He wondered briefly when it would be a good time to tell Heathcliff about visiting his parents together. If there were someone busier than the fitness guru, they were probably working for NASA or something. Or at least that was what he felt since Heathcliff was not missing a day, and not even Sundays to stay in touch with his subscriber base. But that made him so famous and likable, and Aidan liked that about him, too.
First things first, he would start with a call to his parents.
"Hey, mom," he said, as soon as his mother answered.
"Hi, sweetie, how are you?" his mother's voice came through.
"I couldn't be better," he replied and could feel a grin splitting his face as he said that. "I got promoted at work!"
"That's great news!" His mother was excited. "Joe!" She yelled for his father, definitely wanting to break the news to him, too, but did that without putting the phone even a bit away.
Aidan was the one to take the phone at a small distance from his ear. His mother was a bit of a tyrant, but in a good way, and both he and his father were enduring in silence, most of the time.
"Your son got promoted!" His mom yelled at the top of her lungs.
Aidan smiled and listened to the small conversation between his parents that was about him but not including him, as it happened more often than he liked to admit. He had told Heathcliff about the helicopter parenting ever present in his life, and he had told the whole truth.
Finally, his mother remembered that she was actually on the phone with her son. "That is great, Aidan. You should come to see us soon, or is your job too demanding at this point to take a bit of time off?"
"I will find the time," Aidan said solemnly. "Also, there is something else." He drew one deep breath. "I have a boyfriend."
There were two seconds of silence on the other end. "Who is he?"
Even through the phone, he could see his mother's eyes thinning with suspicion. She was always so overprotective, and, for the most part, Aidan couldn't hold it against her. Yet, that became overbearing once in a while.
He needed to be brave for this. "He is a fitness trainer."
"That doesn't sound like a real job to me," his mother replied.
Here we go, Aidan thought. But it had to be done. "He's actually quite successful."
"Oh, does he have his own fitness center?" The next question came right away.
"No, but he has millions of subscribers," Aidan said.
His mother snorted. "Subscribers."
"Yes, subscribers," Aidan insisted, emphasizing the word. "He is endorsing a product my company is selling."
"And isn't there some conflict of interest to be intimate with him?"
That was his mother's not so subtle way of asking him if he was sleeping with his boyfriend. He decided to ignore the bait. "No. My company has pretty open views on this."
"That's surprising," his mother said. "What's his name?"
"Heathcliff Stone, he is --"
"Joe, Google Heathcliff Stone!" his mother yelled again.
That was so typical of her.
"Mom, seriously. Anything you want to know about him, you can ask me. I'm right here. I'll tell you more than anything Google could tell you," Aidan said.
His mother seemed to have, all of a sudden, a case of selective hearing. She was probably waiting for her husband to provide her with information on their son's boyfriend.
"Anyways," he hurried to say, "now I'm heading to work, and I can't be late."
"Yes, yes, go," his mother said. "Are you eating enough?" she remembered.
Again, so typical of her. Now she would launch into an entire interview so that she could make entire radiography of what Aidan's life looked like now.
"Heath is a great cook, mom," he said quickly. "I really have to go. Bye! And give dad a hug from me!"
He cut the conversation quickly. If he let her have her way, he would have to talk to her all the way to work.
In a way, it hadn't been that bad. He had managed to transmit all the information regarding the good news. Now, of course, there was the issue of what his parents would find out about Heathcliff from the World Wide Web. Obviously, it would be a twisted image, and he would have to work hard to change their minds, and present them the truth, and not how trashy magazines wanted to portray his boyfriend.
It was true that Heathcliff had been not until long ago the poster boy for the gay bachelor life on steroids, but he wasn't that anymore. He was settled down, Aidan thought with a smile. Heathcliff Stone was settled down with him, of all people, no matter how much more beautiful or smarter they were. And Aidan could only consider himself lucky for that.
***
The office was unchanged, but Aidan felt like it was suddenly smaller as he walked in. He was so happy that he almost wanted to break into a waltz step and maybe engage one or two of the other people present and take them on a dancing trip by the water cooler, like in some forties movie.
Almost. He had gotten the promotion he had worked so hard for, but that was only the first step. Next, he needed to prove himself even more if he wanted to make it in the corporate world he was living in.
He took his seat inside his cubicle. That hadn't changed, but Aidan couldn't mind. One of the few hopes he had was that he would have to complete considerably less paperwork and get more involved in the creative process.
Oh, he could hardly wait for that. Aidan's head was full of ideas, and all he needed was to channel all that into something productive.
"You got promoted," he heard someone talking, perched on the side wall of his cubicle and looking down at him.
Penguin Pants had come to complain about it, most probably. Aidan schooled his face into a neutral expression. "Yes, I did," he said shortly and pretended to be absorbed by the loading screen of the operating system on the digital display in front of him.
"Hmm."
Hmm? What was that supposed to mean? He looked up and stared into his co-worker's washed out eyes. He knew he should just let it slide, but now this new version of him, the happy, confident one wouldn't let him do that. "Do you have a problem with that?" he asked, keeping his face from frowning with much difficulty.
Penguin Pants sighed theatrically. "Not everyone has a boyfriend who could blackmail the upper management into getting a promotion for him."
Aidan snorted. "Is it really that difficult for you to understand that I got the promotion fair and square?"
"Is that the name of some sexual position you're trying with your boyfriend? Fair and square?"
