The Gran

Three days later Eric pulled into his driveway with the distinct feeling that his insides were actively twisting themselves up in knots. He put his vehicle in park and shut the engine off. Eric sighed as he turned back to see his mother's unmistakable cherry red convertible parked on the street in front of his house.

Knowing his parents were aware of the extent of his omissions devastated him, and this went beyond his own life. He had to own up to the fact that he was a one-man show working overtime against letting his mother have a much-coveted grandchild.

Slowly, he climbed out if his SUV and walked to the back of the vehicle for his luggage and his tech gear before making his way toward his home. Eric had purposefully extended his days at the life-draining work conference in hopes that his mom would have returned home by the end of it, and he would've had more time to come up with plausible reasons for his actions.

He should have known Vanessa Hawthorn would have extended her own vacation precisely to shows him they were working on her time, not his.

He unlocked the door and swung the wooden barrier open, quickly noticing Alex and his mother were sitting at the breakfast nook with Chinese takeout boxes scattered all around them. His little brother immediately locked eyes with him, and Eric immediately noticed the palpable tension his little brother had carried like a rain cloud hovering above his head had dissipated.

Alex smiled widely at him and immediately stood. He walked to his mother's side bending over to kiss her cheek. "Call when you get home, yeah?" He said before standing upright and making his way to Eric.

Eric's eyes went to his mom. Vanessa dabbed her lips with one of his black cloth napkins before dropping it on the table. She was about to stand when Alex's face appeared in front of him.

His little brother placed a sturdy hand on his shoulder. "Mom wanted to talk to you alone, I'm going to Lila's," he informed him.

Eric looked at his brother briefly before returning his gaze to his mother who was now walking in his direction with her arms crossed and an obvious look of disappointment.

"Well, welcome home, son," she motioned for him to take a seat, which Eric found ironic given he was in his own home. "I trust you had a nice trip seeing that you stayed for the duration despite complaining that it was beyond you to begin with." She took a seat at the side of the sofa closest to the kitchen.

Eric placed his belongings against the wall and promptly sat opposite his mother. He leaned back and jutted his chin ready to accept whatever she threw at him.

"Well?" she prompted. "Is there anything you want to say to me?" She crossed her arms, staring fixedly at him.

Eric opened his mouth, realizing it had gone dry all of a sudden. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. He tried again. "I had a dissolution in college," he admitted in a whisper.

"Ha!" Vanessa uttered loudly. "Baby, that's old news. I saw that in your medical records," she shifted against the sofa. "I had to sift through all of your records to see that, but I saw that blurb three years ago."

Eric began feeling upset. "That's an invasion of my privacy!"

"It's no worse than your attempted invasion on your brother's future family plans!" she retorted. "It was never your place to encourage a dissolution when Alex had didn't want one!"

Eric's neck almost snapped at how quickly he looked at his mother. "You don't want to talk about me?" He asked, half relieved and half upset.

Vanessa leaned toward her eldest son. "Honey, not to minimize your experience but what you went through happened so long ago," she said dryly. "I wish you had come to me then, you didn't, and now the focus is on Alex."

Eric huffed. "So you don't care that I got rid of one of your grandkids?"

"Of course I care!" She replied immediately with a tone that suggested she had no patience where he was concerned. "Honey, that was your decision to make and believe it or not, I would have supported your choice, son." She reached across the sofa to place her hand on top of his. "And I tried all these years to get you to talk about the dissolution but you never did." She shrugged. "I had to respect that too."

Eric frowned as he turned away from his mother. All these years he expected this conversation with her to be more explosive; this felt very anticlimactic.

"But let's go back to Alex now," Vanessa's voice broke through his thoughts. He turned to look at her once more. "Alex has made up his mind about what he wants to do with this offspring, and you need to respect his wishes," she said sternly.

Eric's lips tightened. "I'm thinking about his future-"

"And so is he, son," she countered without hesitating.