"So," Tess paused as her son looked up from his phone. "Harry Flack asked me out on a date."
Flynn eyed his mother across the breakfast table.
"Harry 'what the' Flack, Dad's old friend?"
"Uh huh," Tess spied her son's reaction. "I ran into him at the supermarket."
"Oh."
His response wasn't enough for Tess to gauge his opinion and tentatively she sought more.
"So how do you feel about that?" She asked.
Flynn shrugged his shoulders, noncommittal.
"I mean it's been what, seven years since Dad died? He told you to move on so....when are you going out?"
"Friday night," Tess winced.
"Movie night!?" Flynn couldn't help but voice his disappointment. For that was what he felt. Friday's being their day, an ongoing commitment of family time since his father was alive. Flynn's job saw him starting work early Saturday mornings therefore going out with friends on a Friday evening had never been an option, preferring to stay home with his mother and continuing on the tradition of a movie, take out. In truth he loved the time with her. Over time he'd even come to see it as their own kind of mother/son 'date night.' Innocently of course.
"I know," Tess wasn't surprised at Flynn's obvious disappointment. "It was the only time he was free."
"Harry Flack," Flynn repeated. "Isn't he married?"
"Divorced," Tess corrected.
"Oh," Flynn looked back down at his phone. "Well we can watch a movie any night," he maturely conceded much to his mother's delight. Ultimately he wanted her to be happy. His father hadn't always been the best of partners to her he knew and if Harry 'what the' Flack gave her life some enjoyment, then who was he to stand in her way? To his surprise she stood from her chair and circled around the table.
"Thank you," Tess wrapped her arms around her seated son from behind, Flynn recoiling as she tried to kiss his cheek, eventually allowing her lips to make contact with his skin, surprised at the goosebumps that arose across his body. "I'll make it up to you," she added as she released him from her grip, her hand brushing his bare arm. "Ooh, goosebumps!" She smiled.
*
The days leading up, Flynn noticed her demeanour had shifted. Obsessing about her appearance, commenting about some imaginary weight gain, seemingly invisible grey hair. Questioning him as to what to wear, what color to paint her nails? Did that handbag go with this dress? She always looked fine to him, Flynn thought. She was just his mother, ever beautiful whatever she wore, however she had her hair. Was Harry Flack worth this much worry he wondered?
"So how do I look?" Tess posed as she entered the living room early Friday evening, turning for her son as if she were on a runway.
She'd donned the dress Flynn had suggested though now made up completely, hair tied back in a tight pony tail, stockings and heels, he wished he hadn't. She looked amazing and he was sure Harry would agree. It was then the reality of his mother dating another man dawned on him. He could see them together. Holding hands. Would he kiss her? Want more? The thought took him by surprise, not nauseating but close.
"Well?" Tess reminded him of her initial question.
"Oh," Flynn trailed his eyes up her body from her black stockings over the figure hugging red dress and spoke from the heart. "You look beautiful."
Even under the make-up he could see she blushed, the reaction surprising. A car horn sounded from the street, breaking the connection they shared as her eyes unlocked from his.
"Seriously?" Flynn questioned. "He can't even come to the door?"
Tess shrugged. "He always was a bit different," she excused his behaviour and looked at her reflection in a mirror. "Alright don't wait up. Wish me luck," she called as her high heels clicked along the hallway away from him.
He would. And he didn't.
*
It was nearly eleven p.m. when he heard the car pull into the driveway. He'd planned to still be watching television in the living room but the thought of Harry and his mother entering the house, awkwardly conversing with him had seen him take refuge in his bedroom. To his surprise however, he heard the front door opening whilst the sound of the car driving away occurred. She'd come home alone. He didn't hear the sound of her heels on the timber floor and assumed she'd removed them so as not to wake him as she navigated the house.
After awkwardly removing her high heels inside the front door, tipsy, not drunk, Tess was thankful she'd declined another drink at the bar. The evening had been enjoyable. Uncomfortable to begin, with the combined baggage of their previous partners, it was inevitable much of their conversation had circled around such. Developing as the night progressed.
Feeling her way along the darkened hall she was disappointed Flynn hadn't stayed up to see her home; encouraged when she spied light seeping below his closed door. She paused to listen for the sound of his television and jumped when it was his voice that broke the quiet of the night.
"Are you coming in or not?" Flynn yelled from behind the panel and Tess entered her son's room without delay.
Still clothed, Flynn sat on his bed, a book cast aside as his mom fell into his room.
"I thought you were sleeping," Tess whispered, unsure why, before climbing onto the bed beside him, dropping her shoes on the carpet.
Flynn could smell the alcohol on her but her appearance was much the same prior to her leaving, sans the shoes of course.
"As if, with the sound of you bumping along the hallway!" Flynn chuckled.
"I took my heels off to be quiet!" She defended herself as she leaned down on one elbow, her knees bent and Flynn noticing how her dress rode up high on her stockinged thighs. Had Harry noticed as well? He wondered.
"It didn't work!" Flynn smiled and his mother playfully punched his leg.
"I didn't have that much to drink," Tess confided. "I was a good girl." The hand she'd used to punch him she tucked between her thighs and noticed her sons eyes drift to, then quickly away from the area.
"So I guess you want to tell me how it went," Flynn stated, hoping she hadn't noticed him looking at her legs.
"Oh, it was alright," Tess began, not giving too much away to begin with. "We went to a movie."
"Yeah? Which one?"
"Oh, the one with the bald wrestler and all the car chases," Tess elaborated, Flynn understanding the movie she meant. "It was o.k. Then we went to a bar and just talked. Then home."
"I hope he wasn't drinking and driving," Flynn challenged.
