Stanley ended the call with a blank expression and stared at the screen for a moment before putting away the phone. Then slowly but surely he rested his face into the palms of his hands releasing a strangled groan of embarrassment.
'What the fuck was thaaat!?'
'That' was him exchanging dialogue with Ezraphel that was one part flirting and another part soliciting her for sex later that night all done through Natalie's phone while on speaker.
"I'll have you."
His face contorted in disgust at remembering that line of cringe.
"Natalie has to go."
He loved his sister but she needed to finish up her training with Ezraphel, get her shit together (preferably packed up) and get the fuck away from him because his dignity and sanity were obviously taking damage from her continued presence. He only did something like that was because he knew it would get under her skin as the freshly turned Wight was no doubt suffering severely from the female equivalent of blue balls. The fact that he could do that shit without his common sense warning him only served to prove the point that he was becoming more deranged.
Anyway his thoughts went back to the topic of that conversation. It would be a lie to say that Stanley expected Ezraphel to reject his offer to have her meet his mother right now. Quite the opposite really, he thought she would be ecstatic under normal circumstances except now he realized that this wasn't exactly 'normal' circumstances for her. Being preoccupied with his own situation it momentarily escaped his attention that Ezraphel had her own thing going on.
In his defense she managed to hide most of the ill effects of maintaining her slavish devotion to working on this project of hers and seeing it completed in time for his birthday. The fact that he could actually tell something was wrong in the first place was a red flag that had him feeling disappointed in himself for not picking up on it.
In hindsight he's glad Natalie went ahead and rejected the suggestion on Ezraphel's behalf. Knowing his girlfriend she would likely accept it out of courtesy if nothing else despite being stressed from working on her project. He knew this intuitively which was actually a major part of the reason why he just blatantly told her he was up for sex after dinner tonight. Him rubbing it in Natalie's face was just a coincidence, no really.
Though it does says something about the situation that they were both too caught up in their own issues to bother with sex for the last couple of days. In any case he made his way back to his mother who in the time since he left had managed to drain the rest of her boba.
"So, looks like we'll have to put a pin on that visit. Sorry about that" he apologized as he took his seat.
She waved his apology "its better this way. I'd rather visit when you're actually comfortable with me in your home."
'That's…'
"I wouldn't say I'm not comfortable with you visiting" he grumbled a little "it's just…"
He stopped himself from mentioning Ezraphel as he really didn't want to throw her under the bus. So rather than do that he simply gave up on an explanation halfway and took the fall.
"That obvious?" he finished lamely after a moment of hesitation.
In response she gave a wry indulgent smile that to him said "you should know better than to think you can hide such things from me Stanley."
He didn't know how to respond to that and he's afraid if he said anything to address it he might give away that bit of misconception so instead he decided to occupy the time by finishing his own drink. This resulted in something of an awkward silence as she waited for him to be done. After draining the cup Stanley was faced with a realization that he hesitantly pointed out with his next words.
"So I guess this is it then?
His mother also appeared hesitant "unless there is something else you want to talk about."
Stanley already said all he cared to. The only other untouched topic was Natalie and he already agreed to leave her out of the conversation. Then as thoughts of his neglecting Ezraphel fleeted through his mind he realized that they've only been talking about him throughout their conversations. It occurred to him that he had no idea what his mother had been up to this entire time.
In his defense there was a large part of him that held general apathy to the world at large. Even for the people he actually gave a damn about he wasn't the guy to sit down and listen to their life stories unless it had some material benefit to him or was in regard to some physical manifestation of an ailment or injury. It is for this reason why he has to actively wrestle that part of him down and escort it to the far reaches of his consciousness for detainment.
In its place came curiosity which, like a particularly aggressive tapeworm, managed to infect his consciousness and grow its way forward to a point where he just could not ignore it.
Thus he expressed said curiosity in a single hesitant question "so what's been going on with you?"
From the brief flicker of shock on her face she clearly did not expect the question which he understood. Hell he could even understand the follow up expression that seemed to question if he was being serious. Part of him would have been offended at that if not for the part of him that held a general disinterest in hearing about anyone's problems. And make no mistake he could tell that whatever's been going on with his mother consisted of nothing but problems.
Rather than spilling her heart out as he did when she asked the question she instead commented "we should leave if we want to talk some more."
"Why?"
"I think we're taking up seats."
He begged to differ on the account that he paid for their drinks but then he saw that a line was forming at the counter. Taking a look at the clock he found that it was past midday which was typical time for lunch breaks at most businesses except the people in line didn't look like they came from a corporate office. That is unless office workers changed their wardrobe to polo shirts, jeans and sneakers.
As employees from what he assumed to be the closest tech company filed in Stanley decided that he didn't want to stay long enough to decide if buying a couple boba teas would exempt them from their place in the establishment. Also he didn't want to mingle with a bunch of hipster tech bros anyway and left. Once they went outside Stanley made a b-line to his car only to be stopped by a tug on his arm.
Turning back to his mother he asked "what?"
"Where are you going?"
"To my car" he answered pointing vaguely in its direction "why?"
He just about stopped himself from finishing with "do you have somewhere else to be?"
Despite this he couldn't help but feel as if she managed to puzzle out the unsaid part of his sentence with how her brows furrowed in the way that let him believe she knew what he meant to say.
"There's a park I want to visit."
"Where is it?"
"Not too far" she answered easily enough.
Stanley frowned "and we can't just drive there because…?"
In response she rolled her eyes and pinned him with an unimpressed looking "walking won't kill you Stanley."
'I beg to fucking differ.'
It might sound overly dramatic or paranoid of him but such is the mentality of a natural pessimist who doom scrolls on a semi regular basis. What you get is a guy who's on the lookout for shit to go sideways every time he stepped foot out the door. Paranoia aside in this instance he actually had a reason not to want to stray too far from his car. If you watch Mark Rober's glitter bomb series or that Channel 5 documentary on the Kia Boyz you wouldn't want to leave your damn car unattended in unfamiliar places either.
But then one might ask about the magical protections Ezraphel layered on his vehicle and then Stanley would worry about what they would do to the poor idiot dumb enough to fuck with it.
'…on second thought maybe it wouldn't hurt leaving it for a bit.'
"Lead the way."
And so she did.
The walk towards the park was a silent one something that Stanley was secretly thankfully for. He already demonstrated that he had nothing else to talk about having said everything he needed to say. Plus with their path being occupied by a steadily flowing throng of people Stanley would uncomfortable talking. Ezraphel could reluctantly pull a conversation out of him hesitantly because she's Ezraphel and the rules normally don't apply to her. Plus the silence allowed him to remain vigilant just in case Murphy decided to throw a curveball at what was a mostly good meeting.
Eventually they arrived at the park and his mother guided them along a wide paved path to an empty bench sitting in front of a tree. The two sat there for a few minutes basking in the ambiance.
"This isn't the first time I've been here."
'I figured'
"The truth is I've known where you lived for quite some time now."
He gave her a side eyed glance "Natalie?"
In response his mother's smile turned wry for a moment "she was hell bent on wanting us to meet with each other. I suppose she wanted me to surprise you with a visit."
'Why didn't you?' he wanted to ask but kept his silence.
"I couldn't do it though" she continued coincidentally answering his unasked question "who knows what would have happened if I suddenly showed up at your house out of the blue."
'Me neither.'
Stanley thought about that and not even he was sure of what his reaction would be though he concluded that it wouldn't be anything good overall.
"It was a near thing though" his mother continued with a sigh "I was so close to just throwing caution to the wind but I never did. I couldn't even make it past this place, could never bring myself to just…do it."
"…" Stanley didn't say anything, couldn't say anything really.
"Instead I ended up just wandering around. I discovered that little café and here among other places…" she trailed off for a bit seeming to gather herself before continuing.
As she spoke everything seemed to pour out. Stanley listened without a word of interruption allowing his mother to speak, to express and even to vent in some instances. It turned out to be not as easy as he thought it would be a there were many times where he wanted to ask questions or just say something to interrupt, derail or verbally critique what she was saying. He held his tongue however and let her finish after which the two lapsed into silence.
His mother was clearly recovering from the physical and emotional toll of speaking for so long recounting what was perhaps the most difficult moments of her life. Stanley on the other hand was deep in his thoughts and the consensus was that he felt equal parts surprised and frustrated with what he's heard.
Surprised by the fact that things happened in his mother's life outside of the divorce which he really shouldn't have but such was the way when he deliberately shut out anything that didn't directly affect him and almost anything that had to do with his family in general after he left. His frustration came from the fact that his mother despite everything she went through with her asshole of an ex-husband was still not completely over him.
It was a subtle thing, the kind he could only pick up on due to his empathic abilities and something he desperately resisted the urge to speak up on because he had opinions about it. He could at least take solace in the fact that the relationship was well and truly dead with no chance of resurrection. His mother also understood this even if she still felt something for the bastard. If nothing else the divorce proceedings and how that turned out ensured any rekindling of romance, no matter how unlikely, will never happen.
It was just that brutal of an experience.
Speaking of which…
"Thank you, by the way" his mother interrupted his thoughts.
"For what?"
"For what you did, with the divorce" she continued looking directly at him.
"Oh" he hesitated, caught off guard by the gesture "you're welcome?"
"I know you didn't have to-"
"I'm going to stop you right there mom" Stanley suddenly interrupted.
The divorce was the only event he went out of his way to be kept appraised of in regards to his family outside of Natalie. There were three reasons for this: his animosity towards the asshole and his genuine care for his mother which culminated in the third reason which was him literally funding his mother's lawyer fees while using Natalie as a proxy.
Which was why when he addressed his mother it was with the utmost seriousness.
"With all due respect I consider what I did to be a fucking service."
Her response was to scowl "language."
That cut through his seriousness but he forced himself through and stuttered out "y-yeah well sorry not sorry."
She still maintained a frown even if her eyes softened a bit at his response "be that as it may I appreciate your help."
"You should thank Natalie. She's the one who did all the leg work."
Said leg work included getting him involved. In fact Natalie could be considered the driving force behind the divorce itself. She was the one who pointed out the asshole's infidelity in the first place. After a prominent dating website marketed towards marriedcouples and encouraged cheating got hacked the information of around three thousand of its users was posted on a website for all to see.
Natalie used the website to search for the asshole via his e-mail address on a whim because surely she figured she wouldn't actually see it. For all that he was an asshole he's the guy who always talked a big game about being a real man and real men wouldn't cheat on their wives, right? Even then what were the chances that he would be on the list which wasn't exactly big to begin with given the scope of the websites total global user base?
Well it turned out to be pretty fucking high and in what seemed uncomfortably fitting for the borderline dramatic fiction his life has become the asshole was on the list. He used his personal e-mail too instead of creating a new one. A classic Gen X blunder but one that wouldn't have really mattered since his e-mail was the least damning piece of information about him released. Among the released information was chat logs, geo locations and credit card transactions.
The type of shit you really don't want readily available to the public.
In Stanley's opinion the worst was probably the chat logs which Stanley perused out of morbid curiosity and he regretted ever since. Reading the guy's attempt at being flirtatious ranked among the top three worst kinds of cringe he's ever experienced in his life and he watched cringe compilations.
Fucking Johnny Bravo had better game than-
'Nope, not dwelling on that shit again.'
So Natalie, she hated her father more than Stanley did and after exposing his infidelity made it her personal mission to ensure that he paid for it. As such she was with their mother every step of the way during the divorce proceedings. Thank God she was because their mother was ill equipped for it in more ways than one. When their mother married him he made her quit her job and give up her aspirations to be a stay at home housewife. Meanwhile he made it so that she was dependent on him for damn near everything.
He controlled the family finances which he managed to convince her to deposit a number of her own personal assets into. Without him she wouldn't be starting from scratch but she wouldn't be able to afford a quality standard of living. Luckily with Natalie by her side she was convinced to sue for additional compensation and after a lengthy court battle they eventually settled for a substantial amount enough for their mother to stay on her feet.
She even ended up with a bit more in the bank from an 'anonymous' wire transfer some weeks later which was a lucky coincidence in his book.
"Speaking of your sister, have you spoken to her recently?" his mother questioned interrupting his thoughts.
For a moment he hesitated before answering "yeah."
"How is she?"
"She might be going through some stuff."
"What do you mean?"
"Not really sure but from what little she told me I think she's going through some personal stuff."
"Is it bad?"
He shrugged in response "dunno, it's been a while since we last talked" he lied so convincingly he surprised himself.
His answer caused her brows to furrow "oh, I'll make sure to call her later then."
And just like that they seemingly ran out of things to talk about. Or it would have been however his mother's recollection of the past several years as well as briefly touching upon the topic of Natalie made him realize that wasn't necessarily the case. So after a moment of pondering he broached the topic with a single question.
"How's Wendy doing these days?"