𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰

64 - Significance.

Tanned leather repeatedly met concrete, concluding a footstep before giving birth to another. Feeble moonlight complimented the crisp southern air, as it shaped a pair of eager shadows strolling past another flushed lamp post to reach the next street that addressed their destination—one of the oldest Charleston hotspots Pierre knew with a burning passion that could easily spark another vintage affliction.

The stoplight interfered with a brewing conversation, as red transitioned into green. Abandoning the pavement, the duo walked through the pedestrian lane, connecting them to the soulful antebellum diner propping up the same flickering signage which kindled both nostalgia and appetite.

The bells rang once upon Pierre’s entry, then twice after Aiden followed his quiet path.

Grimsby’s hardly changed. The briny whiff of seafood still drifted all over the busy atmosphere, and the same checkerboard pattern decked the floors. A stream of smoke hovered above the blended noise of utensils and chatter, clouding Pierre’s senses with memoir.

Food, however, was the very last thing on the tycoon’s mind. Dinner had been more of a waiting shed than an actual gathering, with both father and son antsy to escape the table, so they could walk all the way here, right where things started and ended; a haven that toyed with Pierre’s heart from the get go.

Pierre made himself comfortable by the bar at the corner of the restaurant anyway, casting his thoughts aside. There were far more brighter aspects of the evening to trade such baggage for.

Noticing the bar stool beside him has not been taken, he reverts his attention back to his supposedly present companion, who is still soaking in every charmingly rogue detail of the restaurant.

Before he could call for Aiden to take a seat, the younger man tore him away from his comfort zone first.

“You and mom come here a lot?” Aiden asks, his tone untraceable. To anyone else it would have sounded blunt, but Pierre trusted his judgment enough to recognize the hint in his son’s question as melancholic wonder.

Pierre nodded, a faint smile stretching the dark scruff of a beard he possessed. He motions for him to sit, and Aiden takes his cue to join him, both noise and silence ensuing as retro rock music incoherently warbled all across the diner.

The pair fumbled with ticking time by quietly staring into the impressive stock of intoxicants situated before their easy sights—the Back Bar, specifically.

Aiden’s eyes skimmed over from one brandy to another. He may have looked concentrated on the multiple sets of Knob Creeks, but there were hardly a list of ways on how one should begin a conversation with their long, lost biological father and his brain wasn’t giving him the best idea right now when he needed it.

“Are we talking Bourbon now?” Pierre teases, catching his son’s gaze.

Aiden was surprised he wasn’t startled with the sudden icebreaker, unaware that Pierre had to draw a mountain of courage himself just to blurt it out loud.

He nervously shakes his head, “I’m fine with anything. I don’t mind ditching Scotch for it. I’m down for any drink you’d–”

Unexpectedly, a gruff, thick voice piped in with a ridiculously friendly manner. “Good evenin’ boys, what are y’all thinking for tonight?”

Both father and son flinched, the sudden arrival of the robust bartender catching them off-guard and thankfully breaching the tense air. Pierre’s full beard would have bowed in shame if it lived, in comparison to the bartender’s brushed Bandholz.

Leaning his inked arms on the drunken oak of the counter, the massive man chuckled, “Upset yer’ wives eh?”

Pierre laughed—an entire, full belly laugh—but not because he’d like to upset anyone. He just thoroughly appreciates the joke that much. Because what if in another world, he actually had someone to argue the littlest things about with. What if he actually had experienced the most tiring night of his life looking after a wailing newborn. What if he actually had granted a little boy’s pleas of getting a puppy. What if he actually lived.