A Broken Fate by Cat Mann
Chapter 25
Hide and Seek
Ari kissed me goodbye early the next morning before he left for work. I had my head buried in the blankets and he had to dig through them to find me. I grabbed his shirt collar and gave him one last kiss.
“I put your meds on the nightstand,” he told me, “and you should take them and then try to go back to sleep for a little while.”
I pulled all the blankets off and looked at my phone. Eight o’clock already.
“I can’t. I have to get some work done before I go out with your mom.”
“Ok, but take it easy, Ava, and call me if you need anything.”
“K, I love you,” I said and he closed the door and left for work.
I got ready and then walked down the steps to Julia’s room. I called from outside the door, afraid of what Rory might or might not be wearing.
“Julia, I’ll be in the study … just come and get me whenever you’re ready.”
I didn’t wait for her response, just walked back upstairs and sought refuge in my study for a few hours. I worked on a project for Andy, phoned Juan at Pacific Rehab to notify him about Ari’s donation, then opened my mother’s journal to the page I had been working on last.
Julia saved me from a growing pile of post-its a couple of hours later and sat down across the desk from me.
“Nothing more?” she asked.
“Just a few things here and there, but nothing coherent,” I said, looking up at her.
“That’s cute,” she said, nodding at the bracelet Margaux had given me.
I half glanced at it.
“It’s is cute.”
“Well, are you ready?”
“I guess,” I said and peeled myself up out of my seat. Julia grabbed the items she had to return and I slipped on some shoes. We walked out the front door and across the lawn to Aggie’s. We walked in through her front door, a first for me, I think, and there in the foyer sat Max. He was crying and his eyes were red and puffy. I scooped him up in my arms.
“Max, what’s the matter?” I asked, holding him to me as best as I could with my still very sore ribs. He couldn’t answer me. He was crying so hard that he was forgetting to breathe. I carried him into the living room and sat him down on my lap. I wiped all the tears off his face and rocked him for a minute while he calmed down.
“Ok, Max, what happened?” I asked again.
“Aggie scared me,” he said and started to cry a little bit again. Aggie came in through the kitchen and I looked up at her.
“What’s going on?” I asked in as civil a voice as I could manage.
“Oh,” she said waving her hand casually in the air, “we were playing hide and seek and I guess I startled him. We won’t be doing that anymore.” She smiled a bright white smile. “He’s a fragile guy.”
“Oh…okay.” I rocked Max back and forth a few more times.
“Julia is coming with us today; I hope you don’t mind.”
Aggie nodded and smiled again when she saw Julia walk into the living room, but she didn’t say anything.
“Well…. are you ready to go?” I asked her.
“Sure! Let me just grab my keys.”
We rode with Aggie to town. I sat in the tiny backseat with Max and read him a book that I found under the seat and he bounced back to normal after a few minutes. We spent the late morning wandering through Aggie’s favorite stores and for the most part, she seemed back to her normal self. She was personable and loving and seemed to have moved on from whatever had been bugging her.
We went for a quick lunch at Aggie’s favorite restaurant. I was thankful to be able to sit. My side ached and Max kept holding his arms out to me, wanting to be held. I could tell he was getting tired. We sat at a table that looked out over the ocean and Max climbed out of his chair onto my lap. He put his little head on my shoulder and his hand on my cheek and fell asleep. Max was a sound sleeper and his body was still having issues adjusting with the time difference between Dana Point and Greece.
While Max slept, Julia babbled on with Aggie. They gossiped about actors breaking up and some Hollywood starlet’s dramatic weight loss. I was incredibly glad that Julia had agreed to tag along. She was the perfect person to have as backup – she and Aggie always got along; in fact, she was much more like Aggie than I ever would be. Things seemed to back to normal, and I was relieved and thankful to move on with our lives.
“What do you girls say we walk next door after this and get a pedicure?”
I looked down at Max sleeping on top of me and then back at Aggie.
“What about Max, Aggie? He’s not budging.”
“Oh, Ava, he’ll sleep like that for hours. I’m sure you’ll be fine holding him.”
I bit my tongue and smiled. I didn’t want to get back on Aggie’s bad side, but Max weighed nearly thirty pounds and his body was pressed up right against my ribs.
I carried him next door to the salon after lunch and sat in a chair to have my toes painted. I shifted him to my other side, which gave me a little relief, but still my ribs screamed out in pain, while Aggie and Julia carried on an animated conversation about their nail polish color choices.
I asked for the girl who almost always painted my toes – we had developed a nice relationship over the past year and she worked quickly and efficiently, keeping small talk out of the process. She grabbed my standard color and started right away.
I was done before Aggie and Julia so I got up and readjusted Max. I paid for all three of us so I could get the two of them out the door more quickly and announced that I was going to put Max in the car seat.
By the time I got to the car, I was nearly in tears. I managed to maneuver a still-sleeping Max into his seat and buckle him in, then climbed into the car myself. I took a few careful breaths of relief and dug out my cell phone from my purse, causing half of my purses’ contents to spill out on the floor of the car. I hastily shoved my belongings back in to my bag. I called Ari’s cell, but he did not answer. I toyed with the phone for a moment then broke down and called his office, but the call went straight to his voicemail. I opted out of voicemail and got his assistant.
“Thank you for calling baio! You have reached the office of Ari Alexander, Fauna speaking. How may I assist you today?”
“Hi Fauna, this is Ava. Is Ari busy?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mrs. Alexander. He’s tied up in a meeting with Ms. Baio. They’ll probably be a few more hours. Is there something I can assist you with?”
Yeah, you can put Ari on the phone, I answered impolitely in my mind.
“No,” I said. “Just tell him to call me, please.”
“Okay, Ava, sure thing, buh-bye!”
I put my head against the car seat and closed my eyes. Aggie and Julia got in the car a few minutes later and we finally drove home.
Aggie pulled up in front of my house to let Julia and me out, “that was so much fun girls --thanks a bunch for such a relaxing day!” Aggie said, all smiles.
“Sure, Aggie. See you later,” I said, trying to get out of the car.
“Oh, Ava,” she called, stopping me, “could you watch Max tomorrow for me? I have an appointment.”
“Sure, Aggie; I’d love to.”
“Okay. Why don’t you come to my house and watch him so he doesn’t have to lug his new toys over to your place.”
“Yeah, okay, great. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I climbed out of the car and softly shut the door behind me so I wouldn’t wake Max.
Julia walked with me to the front door.
“Do you think she was acting strange?” I asked, digging in my bag for the house keys.
Julia shook her head.
“No, not at all,” she said and tried the door handle before I found my keys. Surprisingly, it pushed open with ease; I must have forgotten to lock the door.
“Yeah. I think she’s done with being so mad at me.”
“Yeah, Ava, go soft on Aggie. She feels really bad about how she’s b
“She sure does have some crazy mood swings going on.”
“Yeah, maybe. I know you hate it when I bring this up, but Aggie acted that way a bit when I was dating Ari. She doesn’t like to share. You know how close the two of you are; it’s always been that way with them.” Julia said and turned towards her bedroom with her bags in hand.
I tried to work in the study and finish up on some lose ends but my side ached too much to do anything else but rest. I took my pain meds and curled up in bed, on Ari’s side because the sheets and pillows smelled like him. I fell asleep in a matter of seconds.