Small Town Love

Chapter Three

Vince sighed as he paid his cab driver and climbed from the car. He smoothed his black suit pants on his lean legs and tugged at the jacket of his tux. He hated getting this dressed up just to go sit in a stuffy restaurant with portions that always left him starving and had him going through the local drive thru before he finally made it home.

He was also ten minutes late which meant his father would give him a scolding about how important punctuality was. He shook his head at his own uneasiness. He was a thirty-two year old, independent man who had built his own company from the ground up, but eating dinner with his parents still made him a nervous wreck. It made him feel like he was sixteen again and going for his first job interview at his father's law firm because, according to his father, even the bosses son couldn't have a guaranteed position.

He made his way into the five star Italian restaurant and was recognized instantly by the man at the door.

"Hello, Mr. Griffin, your parents are waiting for you. Shall I escort you to their table?" Vince shook his head.

"That won't be necessary, Theodore, I believe I can find them." he replied. He made his way into the dining room and looked around at the tables of fancily dressed diners. This was all so dull and routine to Vince, that his response to the happy smiles and waves of those he recognized was robotic. The automatic smile of a well trained man with good blood lines.

He scanned the dining room and his eyes fell on his mother and father. They were impossible to miss even among all these bodies. Vincent Howell Griffin the third, was a noticeable figure in any crowd. He was six and a half feet, just like his only son, and still had the broad shoulders and flat stomach at sixty that he had had as a much younger man. His thick black hair was highlighted with silver. He had icy blue eyes that few people could look into for very long. Vincent was a very successful lawyer and it was those blue eyes, that stare that seemed to be looking into your soul, that had helped further his success. Few jurors could deny him what he wanted and few could take the witness stand without falling apart beneath his questioning.

And of course there was his mother. Beverly Griffin was the picture of a successful man's wife. She was tall, slender, perfectly manicured and tanned with a flashing smile and the elegant grace of royalty. Her blond hair was perfectly styled in a fancy coif on the back of her head and her green eyes (completely unlined thanks to botox and face lifts) were the complete opposite of her husbands and full of good humor. She was wearing a perfectly tailored red skirt suit and had fat white pearls around her neck.

Vince was nearly to the table before the waiter that was speaking to his father moved and he caught sight of the blond that was also sitting at their table. She was clearly tall and slender with store bought breasts on display in her tight black dress. Her tanned skin was glowing in the low light and her light blond hair was hanging in ringlet curls down her back. She was beautiful but she was fake and just like all the others his mother had picked for him. She would make the perfect trophy wife since no doubt she had been raised to be one, but Vince wasn't interested in any wife, especially one that would look good on his arm and have nothing else to offer.

He groaned and thought about turning around and hightailing it out of the restaurant but just as he was readying his leg to turn his mothers false accent was pulling him toward the table.

"Vince, darling, there you are! We were starting to think you got lost." Beverly exclaimed. Vince plastered that fake smile to his face and walked to the table. Beverly stood and hugged her son and he kissed her cheek before pulling out her chair and allowing her to sit back down. He scooted her chair back to the table and then he took the only remaining seat right next to the blond who was currently smiling at him and looking very much like a parrot, preening and showing off it's rather impressive plumage. His mother had certainly found a good looking one this time.