Early upload because I couldn't wait and because I'm procrastinating :), so yeah. Enjoy! Let me know what you think and I hope there are no major errors! Thanks all for reading/voting/commenting. Now happy reading :)!
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The Saturday to meet Seth’s biological mother arrives too soon. Nate can see Seth is nervous about it. He has wanted to call Elizabeth either to make sure she is still up to the meeting or to cancel the meeting, but he has backed down every time he dialed the number. They drop Danny off. They told him they are finishing planning his birthday party, so Danny doesn’t insist on coming. He also understands that his dad and Nate need alone time. Throughout the ride, they talk about Danny’s birthday plan, but Nate can see that Seth is too nervous because of his short answers.
“We’re here. Are you ready? We have twenty minutes until noon?” Nate announces.
“Do you think she’s in there already?”
“It’s a possibility.” Nate responds as he reaches to grab Seth’s face to turn him to look at him. “You have to go in there believing things turn out the way you want them to turn out. Remember, it’s you that’s leading the meet. She is your biological mother, but she hasn’t been in your life.”
Yes, that’s true. I want to meet her. I set the parameters of the meeting.
Nate finishes by brushing Seth’s lips with his.
Kiss me.
After a second, he kisses Seth passionately leaving Seth breathless. While Seth tries to level his heartbeat, Nate gets out and opens the passenger’s door taking Seth by the hand.
“It’s time to go inside.” Nate says.
Looking around once inside, they see a table by the corner facing the window to where they head. They take a seat facing the entrance. Seth doesn’t know what to do with his hands. He ends up placing them on his lap. Every time the door opens, he glances over to see who’s coming in. Underneath the table Nate holds Seth’s hand.
“She’s here.” Seth whispers when he notices a woman wearing a red scarf around her neck come in.
Nate squeezes his hand before removing his hand from Seth’s. She is slender with red-brown hair, brown eyes, and her skin color is a shade lighter than Seth’s, but the resemblance between the two is evident. She starts walking toward them once she notices Seth is the only one wearing a blue dress shirt. When she gets to their table Seth stands up, he doesn’t know what greeting she is expecting. He decides to go with the formal greeting.
Extending his hand, he says, “good morning, Ms. Torres, I’m Seth.”
“Good morning, Seth. Please call me Elizabeth.”
“Yes, please take a seat. He is my friend Nate.”
They had talked about it--that Seth would introduce Nate as his friend, and let her know their true relationship until he felt comfortable with her to do so.
“Hello Nate.”
“Hello, would you like something to drink and something to eat?”
“I’ll just take a coffee, a latte please.”
“And for you Seth, the usual?”
“Yes.”
Nate gets up to place the order.
Preventing an awkward silence to settle, Seth says, “thank you for coming, how was the trip?”
“It was good. Tell me about yourself or you can ask me questions. I’m sure you have them. You’re twenty-five, right?”
“Yes, I’m twenty-five. Hmm, I’m a teacher and I have a son.”
“That’s a good career. You have a son, how old is he?”
“He’s about to turn six. He’s a great kid and he loves playing soccer.”
“You’re soo young to have a son. That makes me a young grandma. Are you married too?”
Not feeling comfortable telling her Danny’s story, Seth decides to be brief. “No...hmm, she left me the baby.” At that moment Nate returns with the drinks and some food, he directs the attention to Elizabeth, “what about you are you married?”
“I am. I’m married to your dad actually.--”
Do I have brothers or sisters?
“Would you like to meet him too?”
“Yes.” Seth looks around the coffee shop wondering if he’s here too.
“He’s not here. He decided it might be too much for you to meet him, since you were only expecting to meet me. I can call him though if you want. He’s in the area.”
Can I handle meeting him too? “No, I’ll meet him later.”
“Okay, whenever you want to. He understands. You want to know why you were in the orphanage?”
“Yes and how old were you when you had me?”
“I will tell you our story. First, I want to say that I’m sorry I wasn’t in your life. I can’t tell you how guilty I feel for not being part of it. After I tell you why I gave you up if you don’t want me in your life I will understand. I don’t expect you to ever call me mother because I don’t have that right.”
Before continuing she takes a drink of the latte noticing that Seth also likes the same drink she does and his resemblance to his father.
“I was twenty in college when I met Emilio, he was an exchange student and we fell in love. There was always the knowledge that he would leave once the year was over, but I kept that in the back of mind. I didn’t want to think about it. If I didn’t think about it then maybe it wouldn’t happen. That shouldn’t have been my mentality, but it was. At the beginning of the following year, he received news about his mom. She was sick, but they wouldn’t tell him what was wrong with her or how sick she was. He only knew that they wanted him home. He had planned on staying in the United States, but he is very close to his family, especially to his mom, so he couldn’t not go. The night before he left we spent it together. It hadn’t happen and the thought that I would probably not see him for a while at least tore my heart in half, so it was a piece I wanted to keep to myself if anything. He promised he would return. I belief it.
Later, I found out I was pregnant. I didn’t know how to tell my mother or father. I knew they would be disappointed I was sure of that, mostly because of the timing. They had met Emilio and they liked him. We visited them frequently and they considered him a son.
Do I have a grandmother and a grandfather?
I told them and as predicted they were disappointed, my mom was the first to ask if I had already told Emilio, but I hadn’t been able to get in contact with him. He hadn’t contacted me either, so I began to think something had happened to him when he landed, but he had let me know when he arrived. A few months went by before I heard anything from him. He said he couldn’t return to the states because his mother was sick and he was staying by her side. Through it all, I didn’t have a chance to tell him that I was pregnant. Then, a few months later you arrived.” Elizabeth says smiling at Seth.
“You were such a good newborn. You didn’t cry and you slept through the night. You gave me almost no trouble. Your grandparents were there during your birth. During my pregnancy, I continue attending school and unknowingly it would be my last full year in college. At the end of the summer, my mom gave us the news that she was diagnosed with cancer. I unrolled from school and moved in with my parents. I had to be there for my parents, especially for my mom. It was a lot to handle, spending time at the hospital, the bills, and taking care of my dad. He tried being strong I saw that, but he couldn’t handle having to work and not being close to my mom, so he quit his job.
You were almost four months and my mom was getting worse. Emilio still had no idea he had a son, I didn’t have time to even think about him. I was working, but I wasn’t earning enough to pay all the bills. Everything was piling up and there came a point where it became too much and I couldn’t take care of you anymore. It was the hardest decision I had to make…” Elizabeth meets Seth’s eyes.
By now she has unshed tears and Seth reaches across the table for her hand to show some type of reassurance. He isn't angry at been abandoned at the orphanage. He always told himself he couldn’t pass judgement on his parents because there had to be a powerful reason of why they couldn’t take care of him. Learning that his father didn’t even know he had a son, he didn’t know how to feel about that.
How did he learn he had a son? When?
“I spent days thinking if I could actually do it. If I could let you go. I was barely earning enough for the necessities and I didn’t have enough time to spend time with you. And then, we got a notice that we were being evicted, so one day I told myself I could and if things settled down I could always go back and regain you. But things didn’t settled down for a while. My mom didn’t make it and my dad went into a depressive state. It was during this time that I heard from Emilio. He told me his mother had also died and I told him about my situation, leaving out he had a son because it wasn’t something to say over the phone when I had already given you up.
Then, a few weeks later I found him in my doorstep. I didn’t know how to react. I didn’t know how he would react once I told him about you. I had pictures of you in the living room holding you. He asked who the baby was and when I said mine. I could see him trying to rein in his anger and then, he asked who the father was. When I told him the baby was his, he asked for you. I broke down then, he held me while I got my courage to tell him where you were. He wanted to come and get you, but I voiced my concerns. I dropped out of college. I was taking care of my dad, and I was barely living month to month. He still wanted to meet you, so we went to visit you. He wasn’t able to meet you because you had been taken into foster care and we learned there was a potential couple who wanted to adopt you.
I remember that day clearly. When Ms. Brown told us about it. I was torn between allowing the adoption or keeping you at the orphanage. Yes, she couldn’t make exceptions, but she did for me. She told us it could be an open adoption. We agreed there didn’t seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel any time soon and I didn’t want you growing up in the system. I didn’t trust Emilio to be able to provide or be there because after all he had been absent during the time I needed him the most. You were adopted and I kept my information updated in case there was a day you wanted to know about me, us.”
“How did you end marrying my Emilio?”
“It happened several years afterwards. He proved himself again and I learned to trust him again. We did celebrate your birthday.”
“Do I have any brothers or sisters?”
“No, I didn’t want to have children. I didn’t feel like I could after giving my first--born up.” She responds with a sad smile. “At first he wanted other children, but eventually he learned to accept that I didn’t want to have any more children.”
“How is my father like?”
“You have his eyes, the same shade of blue, and his skin color. He’s from Spain. He’s very caring and loving. You know he visits the orphanage we left you at and spends time with the children there. I suppose that’s his way of giving love to children when he couldn’t to his own son.”
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Thanks all for reading! What do you think?! What should be Seth's reaction?! Should he meet his father? Do you think she'll accept he's gay?!