Redemption (Complete)

1. Stretched Thin

Carlton Smith sat in a booth in the corner of the crowded bar by himself. He was waiting for his friend Aiden Kinsley to join him. Since coming back from the South Lake Tahoe area of California, Aiden had been almost absent to his friends outside of working hours.

It was understandable. His girlfriend had been dealing with some atrocious morning sickness for a couple of months and he felt the need to cater to her every craving in hopes of settling her stomach or at least finding something that would actually stay put in it.

A pretty little server came up to Carlton and smiled. He knew she liked what she saw. Most women did and for that he was grateful.

Carlton, who most times went by Carl, was a successful, wealthy and handsome man who never lacked for money or dates. He considered himself one lucky bastard, but recently he had been in a bit of a funk.

All his friends were either married with children or on their way to being so. It made him the black sheep of their little group. It didn't sit well with him being the lone free man, agent of his own whims. He lacked a wing man at the very least.

"What can I get for ya tonight?" the slim brunette with the pixie style haircut asked him when she came up to his booth.

"Scotch on the rocks and your phone number, if you're giving it out," he told her with a lopsided grin. He knew it would draw her in and make it easy to gain her 10 digits.

The server smiled even wider at him.

"Brand?" she asked, knowing if he was a man of means he would ask for top shelf.

"Macallan if you have it, any other top shelf if you don't," he told her with a wink.

"Macallan it is," she told him. "And I'll see about that number."

She walked away with an exaggerated sway in her step, knowing he would be looking as she went to the bar to retrieve his drink.

Carlton honestly didn't care if he got her number. He had no lack of phone numbers in his iPhone X. Most of the numbers in it were sure to have a lovely lady on the other end that would be more than willing to come over for a quick roll in the hay. His flirting was more of a habit nowadays than a necessity. But, it was hard to break a habit. He had been doing it for nearly half of his 32 years.

The Macallan- along with the server's phone number- had just been placed in front of a smiling Carlton when his friend finally appeared at the door of the tavern.

"Sweetheart," Carl purred at the server before she had finished setting down his drink. "If you wouldn't mind, please grab me another drink- A Glenfiddich single malt if you have it- another Macallan if you don't."

"Double fisting it tonight?" she asked him with a trace of humor. The innuendo didn't pass by Carlton whose mind was perpetually in the gutter.

"Only if I'm unlucky tonight, sweetheart," he told her.

At that point, Aiden had walked from the door of the bar to the booth Carl was ensconced in and was about to speak to the server when Carl intervened.

"Glenfiddich," Carl said. "She already knows Aiden."

"Bu-" Aiden started.

"Or Macallan," Carl sighed. "I've taken care of it. Now sit down old man and let's discuss."

Aiden sat and Carl noticed that his hair was a golden halo around his head. The man looked like he could do with a good twenty four hours sleep. He looked trashed.

"Constance still vomiting at all hours of the day and night?" Carl asked his friend.

"No, worse." Aiden shook his head. "We are onto the strange cravings at all hours of the day and night phase. Honestly- where can one get Pad Thai at two AM on a Sunday night? And where the woman puts it the Lord only knows."

Carl chuckled at that. He didn't envy his friend. The man may have been younger than he by two years, but Carl felt he looked to be a decade older than his age due to lack of sleep. It was mostly due to the fact that his woman was giving him ridiculous food requests at any given hour of the day.

"And why do they call it morning sickness even?" Aiden continued. "She would puke morning, noon and night. I swear I still have dreams of her projectile vomiting all over my lovely little mountain paintings she picked out in Europe."

Apparently Constance hadn't been able to make it to the bathroom one night and had ruined a completely beautiful mountain scene that had become a favorite of his. Probably because Constance had picked it out herself, but that was neither here nor there.

"Well, only another five months and you can see spit- up instead of puke," Carl said wryly. "and dirty diapers by the truckload. You have your work cut out for you my friend."

Carl's and Aiden's friendship had gone through a rough patch following his little slip up when Constance had heard about their little bet right before Valentine's Day this year. There had been some rough times but once Constance had forgiven Carl, Aiden had found it easier to forgive his friend as well. Though Aiden thought that Constance had been too easy on Carl. He would have loved for her to stick it to him a little or at least make him beg forgiveness, but that just wasn't his woman's style. She was far too forgiving in nature.

"Has she made up her mind about going back into the workforce or will she be sponging off of you for the next- oh, say forever?" Carl asked.

"She wants to go back to work. Says she's bored at the house by herself," Aiden told him.

"Then what's the problem? Bettina can set her up with something," Carl stated.

"I don't want her to go back to work," Aiden said petulantly and Carl laughed. Honestly, his friend was such a child sometimes.

"Why not- afraid another Felix Anderson will be waiting in the wings to snatch her up?" Carl jibed.

Aiden sneered at his friend at the mention of Constance's former employer c*m Bettina's temp agency.

"Don't mention that little s**t's name near me, Carl." Aiden seethed, hating the man even from the far reaches of the local watering hole. Felix had also wanted what was his. Hell, the man wanted any good looking little thing with a wet hole to stuff his c**k into. He was an insatiable horndog.

"Relax, the last I heard his wife was wringing him dry with all the court dates she has lined up for their divorce," Carl told him and Aiden brightened a bit at the thought.

"I hope she takes him for every ill- begotten penny the man has ever made," Aiden said gleefully. "That asshole deserve everything coming to him."

"Speaking of gigantic assholes, I was just speaking with Harry earlier today," Carl said, changing the subject. Felix Anderson would always be a sore spot for Aiden and they were at the bar to drink their cares away, not wish death upon the unworthy.

"Oh yeah?" Aiden asked raising a brow. "What did the old man have to say?"

"He was gushing like a tween at a New Direction concert," Carl stated.

"It's One Direction and they aren't even around even a thing any more you ignoramus," Aiden said amused at his friend.

"Fine," Carl said with a shrug. "He was gushing like a bunch of twelve year old girls at the first concert they attend of the most recent popular boy band- better?"

"Much," Aiden said with a smirk. "What was the old fart so happy about that he was practically orgasmic with glee?"

"His daughter is transferring to UC Berkeley," Carl told him as he sipped his scotch.

"Wasn't she attending UCLA?" Aiden asked. The last time he had seen Violet was Christmas when she had come home for the holidays. His son had been stuck in London attending to business and spending the holidays with his London relatives.

"So I've been told," Carl said, finishing his drink and flagging the server over for a refill.

"What happened?" Aiden asked sipping the rest of his first drink of the evening.

"She said it was too hot and was making her hair frizzy?" Carl threw out.

"Really?" Aiden asked. He had never known Violet very well, but she didn't seem the type to be too concerned about the heat. Nor did she come off as vain.

"No- not really," Carl smirked. "Well, not really about the hair. She did say it was too hot."

"Well, I can concur. L.A. is abominable in the summer time," Aiden said. Aiden had been to Los Angeles many times for business and had hated every time he had had to go whether it was summer or winter. If it wasn't the intolerable heat, it was the insufferable traffic.

"What was her major?" Carl asked, just to make conversation. He had met Violet years before, but couldn't remember what she looked like and he racked his brain trying to remember. He thinks she had mainly favored Mathilde, but he wasn't too sure about that.

"No clue," Aiden said as he started to sip his second drink.

They drank in silence for a bit and Carl looked at his friend once his second drink was securely tucked away in his stomach.

"Another?" Carl asked.

"Nah, I have to drive home and Constance would kill me if I had another," Aiden said.

"You are so f*****g p***y- whipped," Carl commented shaking his head.

"It's the best kind of whipped to be," Aiden threw out with a wistful smile.

"I'm never getting married or having children if this is what it does to you," Carl announced.

"Famous last words, Carl. Famous last words."

******

"Angel?" Aiden called out as he entered the condo. He couldn't wait to close on the house in Belmont. He had plans for the place and most of them included a nursery and playroom for the little one that Constance had squirreled away under the small baby bump in her abdomen.

"Did you get it?" she called from somewhere in the condo.

"Yes, Dear." Aiden feigned a resigned voice.

"Gimme!" she called out and Aiden walked into the master bedroom of the condo where she was sitting in an undershirt of his and drinking from a gallon of milk. Constance had hated it, but Aiden had insisted she drink enough calcium and he brought home milk as if all the heifers udders in North America were about to go dry the very next week.

"Pad Thai and I'll put the cookie dough ice cream in the fridge for later," he told her as he brought her a plastic bag filled with her latest craving.

"How's Carl?" Constance asked through a mouthful of food.

"Fine," Aiden stated. "Still not ready to settle down. The man's going to be fifty by the time he realizes his life is as empty as his head during a board meeting."

Constance nearly snarfed her food through her nose and scolded Aiden with her eyes.

"Not nice, Baby," she scolded with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Eat your food, woman," Aiden ordered with a smile. "I need that baby coming out cute and chubby."

"Hopefully not too chubby," Constance groaned out. "I still want to have a v****a when this lil' bugger comes out."

"We can always get the elective Cesarean," Aiden pointed out.

Constance frowned. "I'll have to stay in the hospital longer if I do that," she frowned as she spoke. She hated hospitals. The antiseptic smell that assaulted her nose in hospitals made her want to vomit. Even thinking about it made her stomach roll uneasily.

"But at least you'll stay nice and tight where it matters," Aiden said in a teasing tone. She had been complaining about episiotomies and the like since day one until Aiden had started to wonder if this was his only chance to become a father.

"True," she pondered. "And I suppose I could always wear a high waisted bikini after giving birth that would cover the scar."

"Wear a one- piece instead," Aiden gently requested. "I don't want everyone gawking at my beautiful Angel in two small pieces of fabric.

"I'll wear a muumuu if you'll try a speedo," she offered with a smirk.

"Done," Aiden said and Constance frowned. She had expected more of a fight. Plus- she hated speedos. Not that AIden wouldn't look absolutely edible in one.

"Hmmmm, I concede," she told him. She didn't want the women gawking at her man any more than he wanted the men ogling her.

"Knew you would," Aiden said with the briefest of smiles.