Vince sighed as he paid his cab driver and climbed from the car. He smoothed his black suit pants on his lean legs and tugged at the jacket of his tux. He hated getting this dressed up just to go sit in a stuffy restaurant with portions that always left him starving and had him going through the local drive thru before he finally made it home.

He was also ten minutes late which meant his father would give him a scolding about how important punctuality was. He shook his head at his own uneasiness. He was a thirty-two year old, independent man who had built his own company from the ground up, but eating dinner with his parents still made him a nervous wreck. It made him feel like he was sixteen again and going for his first job interview at his father's law firm because, according to his father, even the bosses son couldn't have a guaranteed position.

He made his way into the five star Italian restaurant and was recognized instantly by the man at the door.

"Hello, Mr. Griffin, your parents are waiting for you. Shall I escort you to their table?" Vince shook his head.

"That won't be necessary, Theodore, I believe I can find them." he replied. He made his way into the dining room and looked around at the tables of fancily dressed diners. This was all so dull and routine to Vince, that his response to the happy smiles and waves of those he recognized was robotic. The automatic smile of a well trained man with good blood lines.

He scanned the dining room and his eyes fell on his mother and father. They were impossible to miss even among all these bodies. Vincent Howell Griffin the third, was a noticeable figure in any crowd. He was six and a half feet, just like his only son, and still had the broad shoulders and flat stomach at sixty that he had had as a much younger man. His thick black hair was highlighted with silver. He had icy blue eyes that few people could look into for very long. Vincent was a very successful lawyer and it was those blue eyes, that stare that seemed to be looking into your soul, that had helped further his success. Few jurors could deny him what he wanted and few could take the witness stand without falling apart beneath his questioning.

And of course there was his mother. Beverly Griffin was the picture of a successful man's wife. She was tall, slender, perfectly manicured and tanned with a flashing smile and the elegant grace of royalty. Her blond hair was perfectly styled in a fancy coif on the back of her head and her green eyes (completely unlined thanks to botox and face lifts) were the complete opposite of her husbands and full of good humor. She was wearing a perfectly tailored red skirt suit and had fat white pearls around her neck.

Vince was nearly to the table before the waiter that was speaking to his father moved and he caught sight of the blond that was also sitting at their table. She was clearly tall and slender with store bought breasts on display in her tight black dress. Her tanned skin was glowing in the low light and her light blond hair was hanging in ringlet curls down her back. She was beautiful but she was fake and just like all the others his mother had picked for him. She would make the perfect trophy wife since no doubt she had been raised to be one, but Vince wasn't interested in any wife, especially one that would look good on his arm and have nothing else to offer.

He groaned and thought about turning around and hightailing it out of the restaurant but just as he was readying his leg to turn his mothers false accent was pulling him toward the table.

"Vince, darling, there you are! We were starting to think you got lost." Beverly exclaimed. Vince plastered that fake smile to his face and walked to the table. Beverly stood and hugged her son and he kissed her cheek before pulling out her chair and allowing her to sit back down. He scooted her chair back to the table and then he took the only remaining seat right next to the blond who was currently smiling at him and looking very much like a parrot, preening and showing off it's rather impressive plumage. His mother had certainly found a good looking one this time.

"Son, I would think that as the owner of such a successful company you would be able to arrive at dinner on time. I sure hope you run you're company with more punctuality or else it will be short lived." his father stated sternly.

"Yes, sir." Vince replied tightly. Beverly quickly intervened before her husband could say anything else.

"Vince, this is Penny. She and I met while working on a fundraiser together. Penny, this is my son Vince."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am." Vince said with a polite tip of his head and Penny giggled. Vince winced, he hated giggling. He always had. Either laugh or don't laugh but that half laugh, high pitched giggling gave him a near instant headache.

"Nice to meet you too, Vince." she replied as she batted her abnormally long lashes. Vince nodded and then took a long drink of his water. He was grateful when his mother, always the perfect hostess, took lead in the conversation. Soon Beverly and Penny were lost in their own conversation and Vince found himself being stared at by his father.

"Is there something on your mind?" Vince asked him and Vincent nodded. He leaned toward Vince and they turned so that their backs were to the chattering ladies.

"Your mother really likes this one and she would make a fine wife for you. She comes from a prominent family with good blood lines...."

"You make her sound like a racehorse." Vince interrupted and Vincent nodded.

"A thoroughbred." he stated and Vince's head began aching a little more. "You haven't spoken two words to the woman all night and you need to. You are getting older and it is time you settled down and produced an heir to carry on the family name." Before Vince could say anything the band began playing their first song of the night and he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.

He turned to see Penny smiling at him. He had to admit she had pretty brown eyes, they were doe like and sparkling.

"I love this song." she stated and Vince suspected she was lying because it was classical music and she looked more like a stripper than a scholar. She simply wanted him to ask her to dance. He looked over at his mother's hopeful face and his fathers stern one and sighed. It wouldn't hurt to humor them for the night and besides, Patricia was always telling him he needed to get out more and enjoy female company.

"By all means then, let's dance." he replied as he stood up and helped her from her chair. He could practically hear his mothers cheeks cracking as she smiled broadly. Vince led Penny to the dance floor and as any well bred gentleman would he began to twirl her around with style, putting those dance lessons his mother had insisted he take as a child to good use.

Vince wondered what was wrong with him as he twirled robotically around the floor. Here he was thirty-two years old, fairly good looking, rich and successful. His biggest dream he'd ever had had come true with his company. He was in one of the fanciest restaurants in the whole of New York and had a woman in his arms that most men could only dream of dancing with and yet he felt dead. He wasn't happy, he wasn't sad, he was simply numb.

".....And that's when I realized that blue really was not my color, instead I look good in yellows and...Are you paying attention to me?" Vince realized that Penny had been talking and looked down at her annoyed face. She really was beautiful. She had the body of a Victoria Secret model and the face of a Barbie doll and still Vince felt nothing.

It was as if his body was just a shell and the only time he felt anything at all was when he was working and saw a good deal come across his desk. What was wrong with him? Was he broken or something? The only thing he felt right now was the pounding in his temples and the urge to get the hell out of here.

"I'm afraid I have to go, Penny, you have yourself a nice life." he stated as he pulled away. Penny huffed and clenched her fists at her sides while she stared at him as if he was crazy.

"Are you kidding me right now?" she demanded.

"No, ma'am." Vince replied politely. He pressed his fingers to his temples and quickly walked away.

"Where is he going?" he heard his mother whisper and he heard his father's deep voice reply though he couldn't make out what he said. Vince didn't care either. He just wanted to leave. He walked out of the restaurant and quickly hailed a cab. As he pulled away he saw his mother out on the sidewalk and on cue his cell phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket, took one look at 'mother' across the screen and turned it off.

He reached in his other pocket and pulled out the bottle of over the counter pain reliever he always kept inside. He swallowed four of them dry and leaned back against the seat, praying his head would ease off soon. These headaches were only getting worse.

He went home to his empty penthouse suite and locked the door behind him. His answering machine was blinking but since he knew they were probably all from his mother, he didn't waste any time listening to the messages.

He slid off his tux jacket and tossed it to the floor as he made his way toward the bedroom. He removed the rest of his clothes in a rush, rolling them into a ball and tossing them in the corner. He went into the bathroom and turned on the hot water in the shower.

He let the hot water beat away some of the tension in his body and then he dressed and made his way to the empty king sized bed. He watched a few minutes of the news but even those horrible stories that should have cut him in two didn't make him feel a thing. He took out a deck of cards and played a few hands of solitaire though he quit after losing several hands in a row. The silence in his apartment was deafening so he turned on the floor fan to drown it out. He curled up in his huge bed and wondered with curiosity what that gnawing ache in his gut was.

888

Vince managed to avoid his mothers phone calls all weekend but Monday morning as he was going over some paperwork his office phone rang.

"Hello?" he asked.

"It's your mother, sir, she wants to speak with you and she sounds pretty insistent." Patricia said matter of factly.

"No." Vince replied sternly as he felt that throbbing tempo picking back up in his head.

"Fine, but she said if you won't talk to her over the phone then she'll just come down and see you in person. Honestly I think you need to just man up, grow a set of balls and speak to your mother...."

"I didn't ask for your opinion, Patricia." he snapped. "Put her through." Vince pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers before his mothers angry voice came over the line.

"What in the world got into you?! Your father and I raised you better than to just walk away from a meal that way!"

"I apologize for any embarrassment I caused you but I warned you that if you tried to use dinner as a matchmaking attempt I wouldn't be there." Vince replied simply.

"It wasn't matchmaking! Penny is my friend and she was there to eat dinner with me." Beverly blustered and Vince shook his head.

"Whatever you say." he replied with a sigh, knowing that arguing with Beverly Griffin was much like bashing your head against a brick wall. It didn't solve a thing and simply guaranteed you a very bad headache. "Is there any other reason that you called today, I'm rather busy."

"Of course you are. You are always too busy for your mother." Beverly pouted.

"I'm not too busy for you, mother, I'm too busy for a wife and that seems to be all you want for me."

"Vince, your father and I worry about you being all alone. You need to settle down with a wife that can take care of you and provide you with children to carry on the Griffin name."

"That last part was father talking." Vince stated.

"Not entirely. I wouldn't mind having some grandchildren!"

"Mother, I have no urge for a wife or children. Perhaps you should get a dog. I hear a lot of people use them to combat loneliness." Beverly grumbled and Vince heard a laugh from his office door. He looked up to see Patricia leaning against the door jamb and covering her mouth with her hand.

"This Friday is your fathers birthday and we are throwing him a party at the house. Of course we will expect you to be there." Beverly stated in a very no nonsense way.

"I really don't..." Vince started but Beverly interrupted him.

"See you Friday." There was a click and the line went dead. Vince sighed as he set the phone on the receiver, closed his eyes, leaned back in his chair and rubbed at his temples.

"Shall I make a phone call to the local pet shop and see about your fathers gift for this Friday?" Patricia asked and Vince could hear the smile in her voice. "I think a cute little Pomeranian... Or perhaps a Shih Tzu." Vince shook his head and looked over at her.

"I need you to get me directions and rent me a car." he stated.

"Directions to where?" Patricia asked with curiosity.

"Grant County, Kentucky. I think I'm going to listen to your advice and take that vacation."