19th August 2012 – 10:00 Marseille Provence Airport, France
Aaron was having a cheeky cigarette outside the arrivals hall as he waited to pick up his mother. He'd seen on the board that her flight had landed ten minutes ago, but he guessed she'd be at least another twenty minutes waiting for her undoubtedly huge amount of luggage. She never packed light. He was still unsure why she was visiting as she was very cryptic on the phone, just asking if she could stay with him for a bit and making him swear not to tell anybody she was coming. Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around expecting to see a jobsworth airport worker asking him to put out his cigarette. It was, in fact, his mum.
He put his cigarette out on the floor and then opened up his arms for a hug as he smiled and said, "bienvenue en France!"
She laughed and gave him a huge squeeze, "God I've missed you" she said as she clung on like a limpet.
"You too" he replied, and found he meant it. It had been hard adjusting to life on the run and his emails and phone calls from his mother had stopped him from getting too homesick.
Eventually, they broke apart and he took a proper look at Chas. She looked different, wearing flat boots, jeans and a loose jacket, no heels, no tight top, and – most surprisingly – no makeup. He looked around for her luggage, but couldn't see any cases. "Where's your stuff?" he asked her, looking past her inside the airport to see if she'd left it all there, "they blow your luggage up if you leave it unattended nowadays you know?"
Chas smiled and showed him a black holdall behind her, "don't panic, it's here" she said.
"Is that it?" Aaron asked, amazed.
"All I need" she said sadly. He saw that there was something really wrong, but thought it'd be best to get her home before he started grilling her so he picked up her bag and carried it to the car for her.
The drive to Aaron's flat was filled with small talk and news about friends and family back in Emmerdale. Aaron was amazed to hear about Ashley's meltdown and Paddy and Marlon's new drama. He'd had a quick conversation with Paddy on his wedding day, but he'd not caught up with him properly for a long time.
When they got to the flat, Aaron showed Chas in and put her bag in the spare room. She looked around the apartment with pride, reflecting on what a success Aaron had made of himself since he'd left. She was already regretting coming to stay with him, she seemed to bring him nothing but heartache and he didn't deserve to be lumbered with her problems. He came into the lounge and saw her looking at a photo of Debbie and Sarah with tears in her eyes.
"Mam" he got her attention, "what's going on?"
"Cup of tea and a story?" she requested and he nodded, going into the kitchen to pull out cups and teabags and milk.
"Ed not around today?" Chas asked, sitting on the sofa as he made their drinks.
Aaron had hoped to avoid that question for a while longer, but bit the bullet and confessed all. "We're not together anymore, I moved out of Ed's. It wasn't working; I think he was getting bored of me. And I might have met someone else…" he told her, expecting to be read the riot act.
But Chas just nodded, "thought there was a strange lack of rugby paraphernalia for this to be Ed's apartment" she mused, "who's this someone else?" she asked him.
"Someone I work with on the rally cross team" he replied, "we just clicked. I really like him Mum, but we're trying to take it slow".
"How many times have you had sly sex in a cupboard at work?" Chas asked as he put her tea down in front of her, making him jerk and slosh tea all over the coffee table.
"Mum! Look what you made me do! That is not something I will ever discuss with you, ever!" he told her off as he went to the kitchen to get a cloth, ignoring her wicked grin. He could feel redness float up his neck and face, because she'd got it spot on; they were always sloping off for sex in secret places at work, they couldn't keep their hands off each other. And he loved it.
"Do I get a name at least?" Chas asked, enjoying winding her son up.
"You don't deserve one" Aaron huffed, then answered her anyway, "his name's Carl. And yes, I know that's a weird coincidence and it really put me off even speaking to him at first. But there's something about him, draws me in like a magnet, you know what I mean?"
Chas nodded, she knew exactly what he meant. She looked down at her tea, no longer able to maintain eye contact with her son as she thought about what she'd done.
"Your turn now" Aaron prompted her as he sat next to her on the sofa.
"I don't know if I can" she said, suddenly scared. She wasn't sure where to begin, how much to tell him. But her secrets were pressing down on her now, making her weary, she felt like if she didn't talk to someone, she'd break.
"Why all the secrecy?" he asked her, "are you in trouble with the police or summat?"
"No. Nothing like that. I'm not in trouble with anyone at the moment, but secrets never stay secret and I needed to get out before they…" she couldn't finish her sentence, her fear about the affair becoming public knowledge took the air out of her lungs.
"Before who what?" Aaron was confused but could see that Chas was trying her hardest. He tried to be patient.
She looked up again, staring straight into his eyes as she spoke, "Aaron, I've done something terrible. I hate myself for it and I won't blame you for hating me. But you've got to promise me, however you feel, you won't tell anyone I'm here until I've gone again. And I will go, straight away if you want me to. I'll go now if you'd rather not know it. But please, promise…"
"I promise, I won't say a word. You're really scaring me now Mum, just tell me what you've done"
His phone started to ring and they both looked at it in surprise. The screen read "Cain Calling" and Chas went chalk white. He thought she was going to keel over.
He answered the phone, "Cain? What's wrong? No I haven't…." as he listened to a frantic Cain tell him his mum had run off and nobody knew where or why, he walked into the kitchen and brought the sugar bowl back in with him, adding two more spoons to his mum's tea and stirring it. "Well yeah, I'll let you know if I hear anything, you sure you don't know why?...Call me if you find her. Okay, bye." He put the phone down and pointed at Chas's tea, "drink that before you pass out".
She brought the cup up to her mouth with shaking hands and Aaron couldn't imagine what had happened to make his loud-mouthed, hard as nails mother so scared of a call from her own brother. He waited until she'd finished the drink and then encouraged her to start talking.
Chas told him about everything that had happened up until her discovery two days ago, but decided that bit could wait. She saw the disappointment on his face, the anger and betrayal and she was certain she'd managed to wreck things with him yet again. As she spoke, the tears ran freely, but she knew she had no right to be crying, to be asking for sympathy, so she ploughed on with her tale until she finally reached her conclusion at Cameron's proposal.
When she'd finished speaking, she felt drained, but strangely light, like just saying the words out loud, confessing her sins, had unburdened her ever so slightly of her guilt. Aaron still looked angry and she braced herself for the torrent of abuse that was surely about to come.
"Slimy two-faced bastard" he fumed, "he can't get away with it!"
"Who?" Chas asked, confused.
"Cameron of course, telling you he loved you and then dumping you for Debbie. I thought he was alright an' all" Aaron seethed.
Chas wasn't sure she was hearing this right, and felt she had to explain, "Debbie nearly lost the baby because of us, we had no choice…"
"Don't defend him Mam, he's a weasel. I'm gonna…"
"Aaron, calm down. You're not gonna do anything, because it's over. He does really love Debbie and she needs him now. She's close to giving birth, and then once she has, she's got weeks of chemo with Sarah to prepare her for the marrow transplant. And that's if everything goes right. Cameron did wrong, but I did worse. I've betrayed my whole family, I went with Debbie's fella when she was relying on me for support. Why aren't you calling me a whore? Why are you not throwing me out?" it sounded to Aaron like she was begging him to punish her. But he found he couldn't.
Who was he to judge, when he'd cheated on Ed? He could tell that she loved Cameron, that she'd been torturing herself for weeks about what she'd done. He knew how much his mum loved her family and how loyal she'd always been to them and therefore knew that the last thing she would have intended to do was hurt any of them. He could see how frightened she was and it made him want to protect her. Being away from her for so many months had made him realise how much she had supported him after Jackson died. She'd never judged him for what he'd done, never thrown him out, even when he'd tried to kill her in a car crash. She'd just been there to support him and tell him he was being an idiot. How could he not do the same for her?
"You're an idiot, you know?" he told her gently as he moved across the sofa to her and hugged her tightly. He felt her sag into his embrace and shudder as her tears became huge racking sobs, and she finally let go of the tight control she'd had over her emotions for the last few months.
They sat there for half an hour, Chas crying, Aaron hugging, until she was quiet and he realised she'd fallen into an exhausted sleep. He lay her down gently and pulled the throw off the back of the sofa to cover her. He knew he'd only heard part of the story, but he was willing to wait until she was ready to tell the rest.