When I make my way to the other one, my phone goes off.
“Just ignore it,” I say but her body stops moving.
I glance up and see that she is looking at the screen.
“It’s your mom,” she says, swallowing hard.
“What time is it?” I ask, searching for the alarm clock near the nightstand.
“Shit,” I say, pulling up and answering the phone. “I'm sorry I'm running a little late, I'll be there as soon as I can.”
“I'm so, so sorry,” I say, shaking my head. “I completely forgot that she had an appointment in the city today and I said that I’d be there with her.”
I button my shirt and pull up my pants.
“It's okay,” Aurora says, adjusting her bra.
We kiss again but she pulls away and tells me to hurry.
“Send me the picture of that girl,” I say when I open the door. “I’ll try to find out who she is.”
8
Henry
I can’t get Aurora out of my head for two days. Every time that I close my eyes, I kiss her and I run my fingers up and down her soft skin and I lose myself in her luscious lips.
This afternoon is no different. I'm back home in Montauk and my mother is having a really good day. She's alert and up and about, with newfound energy. Kathryn Solinski, the nurse, has been going far and beyond her normal duties by doing the cleaning, the laundry, and even some grocery shopping.
When my mom was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and she was buried under all of those bills, she entered a dark period. It's as if there was a cloud hanging over her, infecting every thought and action but with Kathryn's help, and her companionship, she finally started to have something to look forward to. She started to enjoy the little things in life and I saw how much of a difference that has made.
I haven't told her much about what's going on with Aurora but she knows that I miss her. She also knows that she's married.
While my mother was enthusiastic about me trying to get back together with her prior to her marriage, she has been less so afterward. She doesn't say much but she never asks about her and I can tell that she silently disagrees with the fact that I still see Aurora.
Jackie, my old friend and an ex-police officer who now makes his living spying on married people to gather evidence for their divorces, comes over. My mother is in such high spirits that she actually makes us dinner.
“You really don't have to, Mrs. Asher. Henry and I can just grab something from the fridge or get take-out later.”
“Nonsense, I finally have a guest over and I am feeling great. I'm not going to pass up this opportunity to act like a hostess.”
Jackie glances at me waiting for me to say something but I just shrug my shoulders. When my mother gets something in her head, it's hard to convince her otherwise.
“So how are you feeling? Any news?”
“Actually, I'm feeling good. I'm not as tired as I used to be. The chemotherapy is definitely taking a toll but I'm sort of used to it. I have to go get more tests done and then I will know more about whether it has spread.”
“Well, you've been amazing through this experience,” Jackie says. “I'm really sorry that you're going through all this and I hope that it all turns out well.”
She gives him a slight nod. We all know that the survival rate of pancreatic cancer patients is not the best, but hope is all I have and hope is all I can hold onto. I take a sip of water before my emotions get the better of me.
My mom hasn't seen me cry once and for that I'm grateful. She has enough problems and she's being strong enough for me that I can't break down in front of her.
I'm here to be her rock. I'm here to support her and to do anything that she needs me to do for her.
When my mom and Kathryn disappear into the sitting room for some coffee and biscuits, Jackie and I clean up the dishes. We don't have a dishwasher so I wash as he dries and puts them away.
“I got that image that you sent me,” Jackie says.
“And?”
“I did a reverse image search on it and it's not good.” He pauses for dramatic effect. I wait, annoyed.
“Well, are you going to tell me?”
“She’s still in high school.”
My mouth drops open.
“How can you be so sure?”
“I found her pictures on Facebook from a few years ago when she was in middle school. Then I found her Instagram. She's definitely in high school. Tenth grade.”
“Holy shit,” I whisper and shut off the water. I help him dry the rest of the silverware and put on another pot of coffee.
“What now?” I ask.
“I have no idea.”
“But Aurora told me that she saw her working as a waitress at their party. She couldn’t have had that job if she was still in high school, right?”
“There's more,” Jackie says, stirring some sugar into his cup.
I watch the cream dissolve in the blackness at the bottom of his coffee cup and wait for him to continue. This time he's not pausing to create drama but simply gathering his strength.
“I reached out to one of her friends. There was a photo where a girl commented saying that she will always be there for her no matter what. It made it seem like she knew something or something may have happened. The dates lined up so I direct messaged her. I told her that I was a private investigator and I used to be a police officer and that she had nothing to worry about but I needed to talk to her about something very important. We video chatted and I recorded our conversation.
“Do you want to see it?”
I nod and hold my breath as he opens the recording on his phone.
The girl who appears on the screen doesn't look like she is a day over fourteen. She's skinny and small and her eyes look terrified.
Luckily, she is wise enough to ask Jackie for his identification and even ask for his private investigator license number, refusing to continue the conversation until she looks it up online. After she confirms his identity, she relaxes a little bit and lets out a sigh of relief. She says that she's not comfortable meeting but she will tell him what she knows.
“Tell me everything,” Jackie says from behind the camera.
The girl adjusts herself in her seat, avoiding eye contact and looking out somewhere in the distance.
Finally, she takes a deep breath and says, “Taylor would kill me for telling you any of this but I think someone has to so that it doesn't happen again.”
“What happened to her?” Jackie asks.
“There's this really popular girl in school, Tamara, who always has really expensive shoes and jewelry and purses. One day, Taylor was talking to her in study hall and she told her that she does these massages for this guy who lives in this mansion. She made it sound like all she does is go to his house and gives him a massage. I thought that it could never be just that but Taylor is really innocent and a little bit stupid.”
She takes a deep breath.
“Tamara said that he just likes looking at high school girls and having them massage him and he would pay them $200 per hour for doing this. No sex, no anything.”
“So, that's what she did?” Jackie asks.