Darius settled on the far side of the sofa. “What’s with you and Mom? The other day she criticized me for eating lunch before one.”
“You spoke with your mother?” Simon’s expression brightened. “Did she ask about me?”
Was Simon delusional? “She kicked you out of the house, remember? Why would she ask about you?”
Simon gaped at him. “She didn’t kick me out. It was my decision to leave.”
Darius wasn’t going to argue semantics. He returned his attention to his forty-eight-inch flat-screen television. “Listen, Dad, if you want to watch football with me, fine. But don’t talk during the game. It’s annoying.”
Simon looked at the television. “Who are the Browns playing?”
“The Bills.” Hadn’t he just asked his father not to talk?
Silence lasted a few plays this time before his father once again spoke. “So how’s your mother?”
“Why don’t you ask her?” Darius grabbed the remote from his coffee table, pointed it toward the television, and pumped up the volume.
It was obvious Simon was bored and lonely, but Darius wasn’t interested in playing twenty questions with his father while his team struggled for a winning season.
“I tried.” Simon raised his voice to be heard above the game. “She won’t return my calls.”
“Can you blame her?” Darius’s eyes were on the television, but his mind was in the past.
“What does that mean?”
Darius wasn’t surprised his father was so clueless, but did he really want to get into this now while his team was fighting for football respect?
Why not?
Darius used the remote to mute the game, then shifted on the sofa to confront his father. “Put yourself in Mom’s position. Three months ago, after thirty-four years of marriage, she discovered her husband has a seventeen-year-old son she’s never heard of much less seen. This is after years of your denying you’d ever been unfaithful.”
Simon shot from the recliner. His body was stiff as he pointed a finger at Darius. “I made one mistake. She’s going to throw away thirty-four years of marriage over one mistake?”
“Which mistake are you admitting to?”
“The one I made.” Simon lowered his arm. Tension still vibrated around him.
“You’ve made a hell of a lot more than one.”
“What are you talking about?”
With his fingers, Darius counted off his father’s transgressions. “You married a woman you didn’t love—”
“I loved your mother when I married her.”
“You lied to June when you told her you weren’t married—”
“I never told her I was single.”
“You had at least one extramarital affair—”
“June came on to me.”
Darius unclenched his teeth. Simon was a piece of work. “You never took responsibility for Noah.”
“June never told me she needed my help.”
Darius stared at Simon. Was he serious? “That doesn’t matter.”