"Please, come in, make yourselves at home." Miles's father tries but Miles still refuses to look him in the eye. David gives me a small smile before giving me a tight hug.
"I'm so glad to meet you, Madison." His dad looks at me, the small lines on his eyes showing as he smiles brightly at me. He looks at his son for a quick second, trying to force a smile that is clearly defeated.
"You've grown so much, you're almost unrecognizable, the last time I saw you—" His dad stops himself and Miles smirks
"The last time you saw me was the day you abandoned me," Miles says, pushing past his dad, hitting his shoulder, and pushing himself into the house. David's eyes search back to me and I give him a small smile as I take in all of the similarities.
His eyes are a piercing blue-gray, his beard is short but very visible, his eyebrows thick and his hair dark just like Miles's. His dad gives me a small smile before showing us the way inside the large house. He has no tattoo's and he looks to be in his mid-forties.
Miles keeps his eyes on the ground as we walk into the clean living room. Everything looks spotless and every item seems as though it was carefully placed. The table is set and the room itself is decorated with every possible attention to detail.
Everything shines so perfectly and it makes me wonder just how Miles feels.
"Please, sit." His father says, his features strong.
"I want you both to meet Sandra." Miles's father extends a hand to the woman coming out of the kitchen. Her cheeks are a perfect apple color and she's holding a pot roast, ready to be placed on the dining room table that is much smaller than I expected. Instead of the table being drawn out for multiple guests to join, it's smaller and more intimate. Miles looks down at the table while I try my best to smile as they try their best to ignore Miles's clear annoyance at this whole dinner.
Sandra brings everything we could possibly need to the table and before I realize it, our plates are full, except for Miles's plate.
"I'm Sandra, by the way. Thank you both for coming, it's lovely to meet you both." She smiles at both of us but her smile isn't returned when she looks over at Miles.
"Don't be shy, have some food son," David says and Miles clenches his jaw, still looking down at his plate.
"I'm no fucking 'son' to you." He barks and David tries to ignore the embarrassment that is clearly spreading itself across his face. His girlfriend looks at him with a kind smile, placing her hand over his.
"Let's dig in." Sandra smiles kindly. I stick my fork through a potato, trying to distract myself from Miles who clearly doesn't want to be here. My head is clouded and I don't know how to act. All I can do is smile as the three of us try to ignore Miles's rudeness even though his attitude is more than understandable.
As David smiles and sticks a potato in my mouth along with salad, I can't help but think about how that man left the poor boy that needed him. Those blue-grey eyes looked at the boy with dark hair and hazel eyes and managed to leave the only child that needed him.
As I watch David whose desperately trying to communicate with his son I can't help but drift off into a memory of my own father that left. I hadn't been five for too long, the day before, I remember watching them in the kitchen, cooking something together.
My father held my mother's waist as I sat in a small chair, watching the two giggle and laugh. They both held the small wooden spoon and stied the sauce that was starting to slowly bubble in a small pot.
As the night progressed and the dinner was getting close to being finished, my father started leaving to the bathroom, to the outside, and claiming that he was cleaning up the house but there were one too many trips upstairs.
My mother nor I were allowed to go up there, my father was reconstructing everything, claiming that it was dangerous and that he had to work on it for a long time because of the bad situation the house was in.
I remember my mother turning around from the sauce, placing it away from the stove, before looking me in the eyes as if she knew he was hiding something. She picked me up slowly from the chai and I gave her a big smile.
She gave me a peck on the cheek as she walked with me in her arms. She took me up the stairs slowly and I still remember the pink slippers she was wearing, I watched them as she walked up the stairs with me clinging to her shoulder until we finally reached the top, my mother's delicate hand pressing slowly down on the door.
"Madison?" David says and my mind comes back to reality.
"Are you okay?" He asks and I do my best to smile through the memory.
"I'm fine," I tell him and he smiles back at me.
"I was just saying how happy I am that Miles found such a sweet girl for himself, I would have expected him to stay single for a while longer, but I guess you made him change his mind," David says and I blush with a smile.
Miles doesn't respond to any of the dinner conversations and instead pours himself a glass full of water. I take a small sip out of my own glass and try to finish whatever is on my plate. David tries to make small talk with his son but the conversation quickly fades and dies out, especially when Miles doesn't respond to any of it.
The dinner is quiet with clicks of forks and knives as all of us try to finish the rest of our food—all of us except for Miles. David takes a napkin and wipes the edges of his lips before giving me a small smile and clearing the table, helping his girlfriend who is still sitting at the table.
"It's really storming out there." She says and I look out the window instantly and only then I hear the harsh rain bark against the windows.
I barely noticed anything other than Miles but now that I have noticed the rain, I can't stop. The only thing I hear is the tapping of the windows behind me. The sky is darkening with every minute that passes and the rain seems to increase. David comes back and sits down at the now clean table.
"I know you don't want to talk to us, but I'm—we're so glad you came, both of you." David smiles and I give him a smile back. David looks at Sandra for a split moment and the two exchange smiles.
"We have something big to share with the both of you." David begins.
"I know we're a little old but . . ." Sandra giggles.
"We're trying for a child." Both of them say and I try not to let my jaw drop. Miles's eyes shift to meet David's and both of their eyes colliding somehow makes everything feel worse.
"What the fuck did you just say?" Miles's voice breaks out the words.
"Calm down now, we—"
"Don't tell me to fucking calm down!" Miles shouts, his eyes haunting Davids's
"How the fuck dare you leave one fucking kid and now you're going to raise another! I hope the cancer fucking kills you before you get to see the kid's face!" Miles yells, pushing the table harshly away from him, letting a few cups fall down and water leak onto the table.
"Miles," I say in shock but he's long gone, storming off into the rain. I hear the door slam shut a shiver runs through me.
"I'm sorry," I say, trying my best to ease everything after Miles lashing out but the damage has already been done and I can't do anything other than escape this house and run into the pouring rain, right behind Miles.