The Side Effects of Marriage

Chapter 20

"Who are you, and why are you in my house?" Hayden walked through the front door and came home from work to find a man sitting at his kitchen table. He was East Asian--probably Chinese or Korean rather than Japanese--, of middling age with salt and pepper hair, and clad in a khaki jacket and rumpled grey slacks. Hayden was beginning to think that he should have kept his gun on him, not in the safe.

"Hayden," his mother said, her voice like a grating chastisement. "Didn't you check your texts? I already told you that Haoran would be dropping by to visit."

"Well, more than visit." The man stood up to shake his hand, looking unperturbed by Hayden's brusque greeting. "You must be Hayden. I'm Haoran Lu, your mother's fiance."

Hayden, having barely had time to wrap his mind around the idea of his mother having a fiance, stared blankly as he shook Haoran's hand, squeezing with a tad too much force so that the older man suppressed a wince. "How do you do?"

It wasn't, after all, nice to meet him. And unlike his wife, he wasn't in the business of lying.

"I'm well, thanks. So what I was saying is, I'm actually here because your mother and I have decided to move up our wedding date," Haoran explained. He gave an easy, casual smile, as though his words weren't hammering another nail into the coffin that was quickly becoming Hayden's life.

"Oh, really?" was all he could say. His face felt paradoxically in flames and numb all at once. He checked his watch; it was three-thirty, and he'd taken off work early. Where was Layla?

"Yes, to this weekend, in fact," his mother said. There was a glow about her, something he hadn't seen before or had refused to see, a youthful levity and joy that he would have to be horrifically selfish to take away from her. He had to celebrate this wedding, even if on the inside, his mood was pitch-black.

"That's... soon." It was only Tuesday. "Have you made the preparations already?"

"Oh, we were just planning to get married at City Hall and then throwing the reception at a nice hotel," Loretta said.

"I have a brother with some connections around here," said Haoran, reaching for his mother's hand. "He should be able to get everything ready for us, honey."

Honey. The endearment was sour, leaving a bitter taste in the air. Hayden busied himself with hanging up his jacket. Something buzzed under his skin--a trapped fly; an earthquake resonance; something tiny until it joined forces with so many others and became a plague.

"Who's your brother?" He went back into the kitchen and opened the cupboards. Should he pick a glass and drink whiskey straight, or settle with his and Layla's preferred vice: coffee? Hayden decided to slam the cabinet shut and leave the breakable objects alone. "Maybe I know him."

"This isn't exactly a small town." Haoran chuckled.

Their conversation delved into small talk about the other man's job--he was an electrical engineer, and had met Hayden's mother through some work function that Hayden had completely wiped from his mind the moment it was uttered--and his family--his parents had immigrated here from Guangzhou, and he had five siblings: four sisters and a younger brother. All the while, Hayden was fairly certain that if he had grabbed a drink, there'd be broken glass on the floor.

Haoran never let go of Hayden's mother's hand. In return, she rested her other hand on his forearm or his knee, sitting close to him. The love with which they looked at one another was apparent. Apparent, and stomach-turning. He knew, logically, to be happy for his mother. Of course, he did. But logic and the heart were the same poles of two magnets, and they would never willingly join together for long.