After spending Friday night getting married, and then Saturday morning discussing the logistics of the upcoming divorce with Haley Slater. Deacon had hoped that Sunday would be a time for him to be able to rest.
Unfortunately for him that was not in the cards.
Bright and early Sunday morning he had been awakened by a call from his mother.
Deacon's plans for the day had consisted of going through some paperwork and then going over to the tennis court to play against the ball thrower. But his mother had decided to derail his plans.
She had wanted Deacon to go to the Roth Manor to eat dinner with the rest of the family. Something that Deacon had been completely against, but in as much as he had no trouble refusing to do things for others. When it came to his mother, Deacon could never tell the woman no, which was why he was currently at the Roth Manor, staring down at his plate as one of the maids refilled his glass of wine.
When the girl was done Deacon waved his hand and she quickly made her way out of the dining room, leaving only his family there.
Despite his mother's best efforts, the men of the house had not said a word to each other yet.
"Come now you three, it is so rare that all of us are able to be under the same roof at once, the least you could do is be civil to one another,"
Deacon looked over his mother and gave her a warm smile. How the three of them had ever managed to have her in their lives was beyond him, the woman really was the glue that held the family together.
"Sorry for my silence, mother, I was a bit preoccupied with a project from work," Deacon told her smoothly.
In reality he was worried that something about him would give away the fact that he was married.
Looking over at both his parents, a terrible thought occurred to Deacon.
His parents were married. What if married people had some sort of inbuilt sensor where they could tell if somebody had recently tied the knot?. Had his mother taken just one look at him and known.
Doing his best to be discrete, Deacon looked down at his hand, trying to see if the ring that he had only won for a few short hours before taking off had left a mark. Would it leave a mark after such a short period of time? What if the mark was there but he could not see it?
"Brother, why do you look constipated? Is all the work that you are constantly bogging yourself down with finally getting to you? Has it given you the constitution of an old man?"
His brother, Brian's annoying tone broke through Deacon's panic. Normally he would have avoided talking to his brother. But that evening Brian was just the distraction that Deacon needed in order to stop himself from accidentally blurting out that he had gone and married Slater.
"If I were you little brother, I would not be worried too much about me, I would worry about yourself. After all how healthy can you be when you sleep with anything that has two legs and walks the earth?"
"Have you come back with any STDs yet, I have heard that there are new strains of syphilis going around. Did you catch it, or were you the original host?"
"Deacon!" His mother's admonishing tone, did very little to make Deacon feel guilty. But he still threw an apologetic look her way.
All the while, their father continued to ignore them, simply cutting into his steak with the determination of somebody trying to pretend as though nothing else existed.
"If I were you, Deacon, I would worry less about me and all of my partners. Worry about yourself, you have not had a decent shag in years,"
'Brian!" This time it was his younger brother who was getting admonished and Deacon could not help but smirk, but Brian was not done.
"Seriously, brother, I am worried about you. Do you know that 'it' can fall off from not being used?"
"Stop it this instant boys. We will not be talking about genitalia at this table,"
"Sorry, mother," They said in unison, but the glare that Deacon got from his younger brother, and the one that he returned, said that the two of them were not sorry in the least.
After a brief staring contest, they turned back to their meals, and ate in silence, the meal a much more strained affair as they tried not to snipe at each other.
Their mother, trying to lighten the mood, asked them questions about their different pursuits and both of them did their best to answer her.
It seemed that while Deacon had been busy at work, Brian had once again been globetrotting. He was talking about parties in places like Milan and Johannesburg.
Deacon for his part updated his mother on the latest progress that he'd made. Sharing the information with her, even though he was certain that his father had already clued her in. His mother nodded with true delight on her face, like it was actually interesting news to her.
All the while, Deacon could feel himself beginning to feel more tense the longer the meal continued. His worry that his secret would be found out, making it impossible for him to relax.
'Do not look married, do not look married, do not look married'.
His mind kept chanting. It was a command that would have been easy to follow. If Deacon actually had any idea what married people looked like, what aura they gave off. What if he was giving off that aura without even realizing it?
None of the people at the table could find out his secret. He had to hold on till Wednesday. Then he would go back to not being a married man. He had to keep his cool, he had to keep his secret.
By some miracle, Deacon made it throughout the entire meal without being called out. By the time that he took the last bite of his dessert and made to stand. Deacon felt as though his heart were about to give out from all the stress.
"Thank you for the dinner mother, it has been lovely. Hopefully I'll be able to clear my schedule and we can do this more often," Deacon said, but he really hoped not. The entire thing had been torture.
After exchanging barbs with Brian and being ignored by his father, he'd had enough of his family. The only person he'd feel guilty about not seeing would be his mother. But as for the rest, he was completely fine. He had not even managed to push his chair back when his father cleared his throat.
A sign that after spending the entire dinner in silence, he was about to speak. Sure enough, a few seconds later, he proved Deacon right.
"Before you go, Deacon, there's something that I need to discuss with you,"
Doing his best not to roll his eyes. Deacon, turned to his old man.
"What would that be father?" He tried to keep his tone respectful, but from the slight narrowing of his father's eyes, it was clear that the man caught on to the fact that Deacon was being flippant with him.
"You and I need to discuss the issue of your marriage,"
It was just like his father to hold all the cards and let Deacon think that he'd won until the final moment when he struck. Heart in his throat, with world around him suddenly feeling far too loud, Deacon tried to hide his panic, but it was incredibly hard. His father wanted to talk about Deacon's marriage.
How had he been found out so quickly? Was there truly a married person aura?
Oh, no.