After filing his company for bankruptcy, Kyle's wife leaves him and his three-year-old son. Now a forty-two-year-old divorcee with no parenting skills or money, Kyle decides to move back to the small home town he grew up in.
He should have lost all...
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They had to wait for Kyle's mother to come back since Kyle couldn't cook. Kyle, Chaska, and Otis had been watching the tellivision in silence. There was some small talk between the adults, but it never leads to a full-on conversation. It was around six in the evening when there was knocking on the door. Chaska had gotten up to answer it before Kyle could, so Kyle just sat down and watched as the young man and his son walked up to the door. It was Kyle's mother. The old woman was surprised but happy to see Chaska.
"What are you doing here?" she kept repeating with a smile on her face as she gave him a hug and kissed his cheeks. She was in a blue dress today, and her grey hair was in stiff curls that sat on her head like a little wig. She had probably stopped at the salon before she came back. She pulled away from Chaska while to greet Otis who had been saying 'hello' and hopping on the spot.
"I didn't think you would be here when I came back. You called me for the address hours ago," she said, wandering into the living room with her bag. Her eyes moved from Chaska to Kyle, wondering why the young man was still in the house.
"I invited him for dinner," Kyle explained, walking to take his mother's bag before kissing her cheek and giving her a side hug. She was shorter than him and had been since his teen years, but her slouch made her look smaller amidst Kyle's 5'11 and Chaska's 6'0.
"Ah! I have to start on dinner then!" She seemed excited, and Kyle guessed it was because she hadn't had too many guests in the past few years. The kitchen had been quite bare when Kyle and Otis moved in, but it had slowly come back to life as his mother prepared meals in it more often for him and Otis.
"I'll join you," Chaska said to Kyle's mum. He was carrying Otis now.
"You don't have to."
"I want to." His voice was still respectful, but it was firm. He was helping, and he wasn't giving the old woman space to refuse.
With a little hesitation, Kyle's mother agreed and ended up sprouting some instructions to Chaska before disappearing into her room to freshen up and get into something more appropriate for cooking.
Kyle learned two new things about Chaska that evening—that he could cook, and he was also reasonably strong. The man did all the lifting and moving around when he made to help Kyle's mother prepare dinner. At a point, she had complained about her favorite knife that had slipped into the space between the counter and the fridge a week ago, and Chaska had just moved to lift it like it was nothing. Kyle started to wonder if the young man wasn't only into kickboxing.
"I'm sorry. I invited you for dinner and you ended up cooking half of it," Kyle said when Chaska bent down to drop the plate. The man had heard, and he turned to give Kyle a small smile.
"It's fine, I haven't really cooked anything in a while, so this feels nice," he said before straightening up and leaving for the kitchen area again.
