Chapter thirteen

Jordan holds unto take takeaway bag in his hand as he leaves the fast food restaurant. He looks around in the dark sky and can't help but wonder what Elana is doing now. He smiles to himself, and as he makes his way to his car, somebody walks into him from his right side. He immediately steps away and apologizes. All went well for him, up until this very moment.

"J-Jordan?"

His eyes grow cold on the woman standing in front of him. She has a short pixie haircut in the color of red, her lips screaming death in maroon, and her eyes cut him in green.

"Eleanor," he greets her with a little nod. He gives her an odd look. She seems surprised to see him and happy at the same time.

"How are you?" She asks him nicely. "And how is Sam?"

"Sam?" He asks with an odd look. She nods as if she's fully convinced about who her son is. "His name is Joe."

"You named him Joe?" She asks. Her smile runs away slowly. "I thought we agreed on Sam."

"We agreed on Sam, but you didn't want him, so I chose Joe," he replies straightforwardly and turns to leave.

"Can I see him?" She asks. He frowns as he looks at her. He can feel himself turning sick in his stomach. How could she turn up here and act as if she never did a thing wrong? As if rejecting her child was nothing.

"What have you as a mother ever done for your son?" He asks her. "Nothing. So don't expect anything, okay? Goodnight."

He takes out the keys from his pocket to unlock the car. Eleanor just remained standing there and staring at him. There's a bitter pain in his heart. Seeing her might make him realize that he's got open wounds himself after all.

"I know I was wrong," Eleanor speaks, looking anxiously at him. "I shouldn't have been such a fool. Jordan, I think of him every single day of my life. Please just let me see him once. He's old enough to choose by himself whether he wants to know me or not."

"You're right. You were a fool for leaving him," Jordan says to her and opens his car. "A mother's love never dies, right? But a child's love does, and I'm not gonna let you be the reason for that."

"What does that mean?" She asks. He ignores her and gets in his car. One thing he feels confused about now is his feelings. Should he be glad, or should he feel angry? Glad she's feeling bad for leaving and that she wants a relationship with her son now or angry at the fact that she thinks she can do whatever she wants in life and never pay the price?

"When the rain is blowing in your face," Elana sings in front of the crowd in the bar. Liam is seated at the table admiring his mother. "And the whole world is on your case. I can offer you a warm embrace. To make you feel my love.

When the evening shadows and the stars appear. And there is no one there to dry your tears. I could hold you for a million years. To make you feel my love." Her eyes close as she tries to picture herself singing for Jordan. He changed not only her life but her heart towards men. "

I know you haven't made your mind up yet. But I will never do you wrong. I've known it from the moment that we met. No doubt in my mind where you belong."

She opens her eyes, meeting them with her son. A smile forms on her lips, seeing him so happy about her expressing herself in music. Something nothing can do.

"

I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue. I'd go crawling down the avenue. No, there's nothing that I wouldn't do. To make you feel my love," she sings, sending a wink to him. With a deep breath in, she looks at her audience again. "The storms are raging on the rolling sea. And on the highway of regret. The winds of change are blowing wild and free. You ain't seen nothing like me yet," her voice breaks through the walls of silence. Her eyes close as her soul teaches out. "I could make you happy, make your dreams come true. Nothing that I wouldn't do. Go to the ends of the Earth for you. To make you feel my love. To make you feel my love."

Her eyes go open, but before her, there is only Liam. He jumps up and claps his hands and shouts to her. The rest of the crowd's applause is nothing but silence. She smiles at her son and puts the microphone on it's stand going down to him.

"That was sly," she giggles and takes a seat at the table. "But thank you. No one ever enjoyed my talent the way you do."

"Well, my mom inspired me to do what my heart loves to do, so it's my job to encourage her to do the same," Liam winks at her. She giggles and look at the older man who came to them. The man who announced the karaoke and most likely owns the place.

"Hi, I'm Keneth," he introduces himself. She looks at him and gives her hand. He touches it gently and lets go again.

"Elana," she replies and looks at her son. "And that's my son, Liam."

"Hi Liam," he greets him and looks back at Elana. He inhales deeply as her attention goes back to him. "Can I have a quick word with you? I'm sorry to interrupt your dinner with your son."

"No problem," she nods and shows him to sit down at their table. He takes a seat, looking anxiously at her. The fear in her sparks up that he might be having his agendas and intentions.

"What do you do for a living?" He asks. She raises an eyebrow, glancing over at her son and then back at him.

"I'm currently looking for a job," she replies and shrugs her shoulders with a little smile. He claps his hands in excitement.

"Excellent. You're hired," he says. Her eyes grows round on his. Disbelief plays a tricky game on her facial expression. "I would love to have you work here. If you can, you can come in tomorrow morning at ten, and we can discuss your wages as well as what you'd like to have in terms of work. Your voice is absolutely amazing and I think we can help each other get what we want. You get a job, and I get business."

"That's amazing," Liam says in surprise and grabs his mother's hand from across the table. "Then you can do morenof what you love and less of what you don't."

"Okay," Elana nods a bit uneasy, looking at her son and then back at Keneth. He's waiting eagerly for her response. "Okay, great. I'll see you tomorrow at ten." She smiles at him, that sigh in relieve and got up from his seat.

After wishing them a lovely night, he went off again leaving the two on their own.

Liam is already asleep in his bed all tucked in. Elana spends some time admiring him from his door. She missed the times when he was nothing back a child. He was so scared of sleeping alone, especially if his closet was open. Being a boy, his toys always laid around and made it impossible to close the doors sometimes. Elana spent nights around cleaning his room when he was trying to sleep just to close the closet and lay down next to him till he fell asleep. Liam was her comfort, her safe place, and her only love.

Jordan stands at the window in his office at the house holding unto his glass of whiskey. There's three things bothering him. First it's his encounter with Joe's mother, Eleanor, then it's having to face his son wondering whether he should tell him or not and lastly it's why he hasn't heard anything for Elana. Does their distance from each other mean friendship, or can it do them well? A lot has changed between them towards how they were in the beginning, but it can either make or break them, right?

The message tone goes off on his phone. He looks at the pop-up text from Elana.

"Hey, can we meet up tomorrow?"