Apparently, the whole family was there.
Had I misjudged Claire? She seemed to be genuinely pissed at herself for forgetting about my birthday again. Though, if she was now genuinely upset about it, how could it happen in the first place? And two years in a row, no less. No, more likely, her frantically looking for a present was in no way caused by guilt or her being pissed at herself. She was probably sent here by her parents, who were angry that she failed to fix our relationship. Or possibly even blaming her for the clusterfuck their visit had turned out to be, because they believed the family’s bullshit excuses last year.
The others seemed to care just as little as I expected them to. Getting me money as a present? Over the fourteen weeks since Logan had left for college, they shamelessly helped themselves to $2,200 from my bank account to pay for Logan’s ‘college stuff’. And now they wanted to give me a $50 Amazon voucher and call it a fucking gift! Fucking priceless.
“How about something for his car?” Claire suggested.
“Sure. Maybe an air freshener.” Logan said dismissively.
“I’m afraid Logan has a point, honey. I took a look at his car a while ago. It’s a miracle the thing doesn’t just fall apart whenever he drives over a speedbu...” Aaron answered, but his voice suddenly cut off.
They had rounded the corner as Aaron was shit-talking my beloved Jeep, and quickly spotted me standing in the aisle. I didn’t want to give any indication that I overheard them talking, so, instead of looking in their direction, I grabbed the adapter I needed like I had just found it after intensely looking for it, and calmly went to pay. They caught up to me in the parking lot when I was just opening the car door. For some reason they kept a good fifteen feet distance from me. Aaron seemed to be the first to find the resolve to talk.
“Tim. What are you doing here?” He asked, and I turned my head to him with fake surprise on my face.
“Hello to you too, Aaron. Boss got the wrong part for a project. I was looking for the right one.” I answered, consciously trying to sound aloof, as I held up the adapter.
“Well, maybe this is for the best.” Claire said, sounding resigned. “Truth is, we’re sorry, Baby...”
Just like Aaron in the store, she didn’t get to finish her sentence, since the last word she spoke was overshadowed by Logan shouting a loud “OH SHIT!” as three guys stepped past him, positioning themselves between the family and me. For a moment it looked like Logan wanted to run, but I could see one of them was holding him by the arms. Like they had expected him to try that. All of them seemed to be in their mid thirties to early forties, so even if they had refrained from immediately restraining Logan, it would have been clear that they were not some friends of his.
“We’ve been looking for you, Logan. Hiding away with Mommy and Daddy?” the guy holding him said. Logan looked mighty uncomfortable with that and was trying to play it off.
“What? I ... I’m just visiting home for the Holidays!” he answered with almost no panic showing through.
I placed my shopping-bag in the car, leaned my back against it, and lit myself a cigarette. If Logan was about to get his ass kicked, I wanted to enjoy the show, and this was the next best thing in the absence of popcorn.
“Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but we’re still waitin’ for our money!” came an angry answer.
“Money? What money? Logan!?” Claire asked, clearly alarmed by what she heard.
“Oh, if it isn’t Mommy dearest. And the lovely Ava! It’s an absolute pleasure to finally meet you in person!” The stranger, who seemed to be in charge, said in a sickeningly familiar tone.
I perked up. How the fuck did he recognize them, Ava even by name, when Claire and Ava had obviously no idea who these three guys were? Aaron, finally realizing this wasn’t a friendly get-together between college friends, stepped forward.
“What do you want?” he asked them. It didn’t impress anyone, since his voice was pregnant with uncertainty and indecisiveness.
“Our money, as we already said. Your father isn’t the brightest fellow, is he?” Another one of them replied. Did he just guess that Aaron must’ve been Logan’s father, or did he recognize him too?
He took a step towards Aaron. Suddenly I understood why Claire was taking money out of my bank account.
“Paying for ‘college stuff’, huh?” I mused to myself, just loud enough for everyone to hear, causing the family and the three strangers to turn their attention to me.
This wouldn’t do. Aaron was useless even in this kind of situation, Logan was already incapacitated, and Claire was protectively holding onto Ava with both of them looking frightened. This was rapidly turning ugly.
