Telling Alice {ManxMan} | MPreg

Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen:

He spotted him instantly, Aiden was an easy one to spot, settled in a corner booth, legs stretched out as if he was lounging on his home couch.He was staring down at his phone, playing some game as he waited for his order. Eshe forced himself to breath reminding himself he had plenty of time before Alice would be back since Cyro had left promising he'd distract the girls til Eshe sent him a text to bring them. Taking one more deep breath he walked behind the counter where Lola was setting one of trays with coffee for customers..

"Let me guess, Mediterranean dark roast no sugar no cream with an espresso shot?" Eshe asked her, pointing to a tray with a cup of coffee and a single plain donut on it. Lola nodded moving down the line of orders double checking them before they went out. He watched her making sure she wasn't paying close attention to him as he picked up the small container of salt they kept on the counter, flicking the lid open. Waiting til Lola moved a bit out of the way before he grabbed a large pinch of salt.

"Yeah, it's for that all guy in the corner did you-" Lola trailed off sucking in a deep breath as Eshe sprinkled the salt into the coffee cup. He didn't bother to explain himself, he was sure he'd have to do it later but he didn't want to be bothered now. She said nothing just watched clearly confused and slightly horrified as he picked up the small stirring spoon of the tray. He stirred the coffee for a brief moment sighing to himself before sticking the spoon in his mouth frowning slightly at the unpleasant taste.

"I'll take this to him." Eshe mumbled dropping the spoon back into the coffee cup. Lola frowned, an obvious question formed in her mind about what was going on but Eshe ignored it, turning away. The trip across the cafe wasn't nearly as long as he needed it to have been. His stomach clenched as he set the tray down on the table the clinking noise pulling Aiden's attention away from his phone. He stared as Eshe sat in the seat across from him as if he were trying to confirm he was really there but said nothing.

"So this is where you work now?" Aiden finally asked.

"No I own it, do we really have to do the whole small talk thing Aiden?" Eshe sighed pulling his hair free from the messy bun he'd thrown it in earlier. His gaze locked onto the table as he raked a hand through his curls. Eshe wasn't sure what to say, he wasn't sure what Aiden would say, but he wished that whatever it was Aiden would hurry up and say it. "Are you going to try to take her, because you'd never win a custody battle."

"You're telling me. I don't even have custody of the one I knew about" He laughed, an obvious bitterness in his voice pulled Eshe's gaze to meet his. Those green eyes stared back unwavering even when Eshe arched a brow in disbelief. "I tried to let it go, you know, write it off like a casual fling and move on but it was hard. I really cared about you Eshe and then you were just gone with no explanation. Penny and I tried to work it out, even did couples therapy, but I just couldn't do it. Ended up volunteering for deployment to try and get my shit together, that didn't work. We got divorced after a while, she fought me on it but I just had to, I gave up custody without a fight it was the only thing she really asked for."

Eshe let an awkward silence settle between them, his mind racing with thoughts of what to say next. He thought he'd finally been prepared for this but he wasn't, that much was becoming more and more clear. He could feel himself being slowly overwhelmed all over, the stress of thinking what he would tell Alice settling back to its place at the front of his mind. He sighed forcing himself to push those thoughts away, he knew he'd already made up his mind, he just needed to force himself to stick with it.

"Do you want me to feel sorry for you?" Eshe murmured, fighting to continue to look as calm as he could. He wanted it to be clear he'd left that part of his life behind. He wasn't interested in revisiting anything he'd made himself forget about, he refused to put himself through that stress. Despite that, he couldn't escape the feeling that time seemed to be freezing around them, the burdens he'd forced himself to ignore all this time settling back down on his shoulders. He'd never meant to be that person, the home wrecker, but he had been he knew he had. That was part of the reason he left.

"If it helps the situation, maybe." He laughed before noticing just how off in his own thoughts Eshe really was. He could tell by the look in his eyes he was looking through him. Aiden sighed running his hands through his dark brown hair before reaching out to take Eshe's hand. The gesture brought him back from his thoughts all to abruptly as he tried unsuccessfully to remove his hand from Aiden's grip for a few seconds before giving up and looking him in the eyes once more. "Eshe, as much as I want to be furious about this, I could never hate you, honestly you're still the love of my life, I just want a chance to get to know my daughter."