Chapter 13
“This place is great”, Aurora cooed as she told Sheila about her new place.
“I’m not saying anything about it”, Sheila snapped. “I’m wondering why you didn’t tell me that you had moved when you knew I was coming to wake you up?”
“Do you have time to come and see it?” Aurora asked, completely ignoring Sheila’s question.
“Yes”, Sheila grumbled. The building was on the way and they could still make it on time. The older woman hung up the phone and marched angrily down the road to the new apartment.
“Can you believe I am paying half what I paid for the old place?” Aurora said as she opened the door to let Sheila walk into the new pad. Aurora could see the scowl softening as Sheila took in the place.
“How is that possible?” Sheila marveled as they walked through the hall to see the bedroom. “The molding alone is a huge improvement over the last place”. Aurora looked down as if she was noticing the moldings for the first time.
The whole experience had been overwhelming. Lydia and Carly had moved a bunch of her stuff over before Aurora had even seen the place. They had been such a big help over the last few days.
Aurora could see that their relationship had moved past the masseuse-client relationship, but she didn’t pry. It wasn’t her business, she was just glad to see the two of them were happy.
It seemed as though Sheila was finding the same type of happiness with this apartment. “I am coming over for breakfast every morning”, she gushed as she danced out onto the balcony and sat down at the small table.
“I have toaster waffles”, Aurora shrugged as she tried to think of what she bought on her short trip to the market. It was really the only breakfast food in the house.
They settled on one coffee on the balcony and then off to work. Sheila was overjoyed, and Aurora was just happy that her friend was so happy. They finished their coffee and headed off to work.
Aurora was no longer the intern, and so she didn’t have to get coffee. That freed up her day, but it also left her without a job to do. She had been brought on board without a real plan. Sheila tried to keep her busy with filing, but the former intern spent most of her day sitting at her desk making a paper clip chain.
“Could you make a coffee run?” Max asked after watching Aurora clip paper clips to each other for a half hour.
“That’s a little demeaning, don’t you think?” Aurora kept her face as straight as possible. She didn’t let even the slightest hint of a smile onto her face until Max got on the elevator.
Sheila and Aurora fell all over each other laughing. “No matter what else happens today, it was totally worth it to come to work!” Aurora laughed loudly. Then the ding of the elevator rang out and they tried to stifle the laugh.
The door opened, but it wasn’t Max who walked off. It was the biggest bouquet of flowers in the entire world. It was coming toward Aurora, and she already knew who it was from. She thought about running, but she didn’t have time. The bouquet was already there.
Aurora waited for the bouquet to lower. She was expecting to see a delivery man and she was going to tell him to get rid of the bouquet, but when the flowers lowered Lance was standing right there.
“Oh”, Sheila could smell the drama cooking, and she moved far enough away to not get sucked in, but stayed close enough to watch the chaos unfold. Aurora glared at her friend as she made her retreat.
“I just wanted to talk”, Lance said as he walked around the side of the oversized flowers.
“How big is the bouquet if you want to do more than talk”, Aurora joked. Her joke was met by a blank stare. “Right, not a time for jokes”.
“You moved out?” Lance seemed a little upset. “I have been mature about this, and I haven’t tried to hide anything from you. Why are you running away from me?”
“That’s fair”, Aurora said as she stood up and started to pace in the space behind her desk. “I can’t handle this…whatever this is, and I needed to find some space. I am not the other woman, I’m not going to be Rita”.
“You aren’t Rita”, Lance said. “You’re actually nothing like Rita”.
“We could be twins”, Aurora said as she remembered the striking similarities between her and the other woman. “We have a lot in common”.
“Physically”, Lance admitted. “You are not even close when you look at other factors. I don’t even know why she is coming into this discussion. Rita is a weird chapter from my past”.
“Mine too”, Aurora cut Lance off. She could feel him ramping up the sales pitch and she just needed it to stop. “The more recent past, but I feel like she is also my future”.
“You’re leaving me for Rita?”
“What?” Aurora laughed. They both laughed, and then Aurora choked it down and glared at Lance. “This is too hard. You can’t do this to me. I need to have closure. I need to move on”.
“What if I don’t want to move on?” Lance had a sincerity in his voice that was tearing Aurora up inside. She couldn’t even look him in the eyes as she walked past him and hit the elevator call button. “Where are you going?”
“If you love me, you won’t follow”, was the only response Aurora offered through her tears. She was tired and run down. The elevator opened and she got on. It was just after lunch, but Aurora was heading back home. Sheila didn’t even try to stop her.
Aurora didn’t spend much time at work over the course of the next several weeks. Lance was there every day. He brought flowers, gifts, and candies. Aurora tried to avoid him, but he was constantly sneaking up on her.
“It’s adorable”, Sheila said as she brought Aurora into her office. “It has got to stop. I can’t have him disrupting the office every day”. Sheila seemed to be wrestling with something, and just unable to find the right words.
“Are you letting me go?” Aurora asked after watching Sheila wrestle with the wording for a few moments.
“No!” Sheila seemed alarmed, and that made Aurora relax for a minute. She was glad that she wasn’t getting fired. “Not yet anyway”. Aurora’s heart sank at this news. “You’re never here, what am I supposed to do?”
“What are you supposed to do?” Aurora exploded. “What am I supposed to do? Lance is here every day, and on the other side of that question, what am I supposed to do? You haven’t even given me any official responsibilities”.
Sheila shrugged and looked down at her desk. “I didn’t need anybody, and I haven’t had the time”, Sheila moved a few papers around on the desk. “All we even have interns for is the coffee”.
Aurora went home as soon as she left that meeting. There was nothing to do anyway, and she couldn’t spend any more time talking to Sheila today. Aurora wasn’t mad at Sheila. It was just the situation and the hormones.
When she got to her building Aurora couldn’t walk in. She tried several times, but each time she walked back out and then stared up at the empty apartment. It even seemed lonely from the ground. She decided she needed to walk the streets. It was a classic New York thing to do. Aurora was going to walk the streets until fate landed her in the place she needed to be.
The place ended up being the door of her old apartment. She took a deep breath and knocked. It seemed like an eternity before she heard Carly answer the door. Aurora would’ve waited even longer. She needed to be around friends.
“I’m not going to make it through this”, Aurora moaned into Lydia’s cleavage. The hugs that Lydia gave were always just a little too intense. Aurora was too upset to fight her way out of the suffocating embrace.
Lydia had thrown Aurora into a bear hug as soon as she came through the door. The Russian immigrant was extremely affectionate to an almost violent extent. Aurora loved her ex-roommate for just that reason.
“You don’t need anyone”, Lydia sighed and kissed Aurora on the top of her head. “You have me and Carly, but you don’t need anyone”.
“That’s right”, Carly said as she pulled Aurora out of the boob hug and handed her a cup of hot tea. Carly put an arm around the distressed pregnant woman.
Aurora could feel Lydia on the other side of her, combing her hair. Aurora felt like an Egyptian queen being pampered as she lay on the couch. She hated that she didn’t live with Lydia anymore. It was depressing to see the boxes sitting around the room. She was glad that Lydia and Carly were moving in together.
“I just know I’m going to let him back in”, Aurora cried the words. She took a sip of the tea and allowed the warming feeling to fill her chest. She composed herself for a second. “I just don’t want to turn into the next Rita”.
“Who’s Rita?” Lydia asked.
“The woman who was standing over me”, Aurora explained.
“Rita”, Carly laughed. “She was a little off from the get go”.
“You know her?” Aurora couldn’t understand what Carly was saying, there was no way she could know Rita.
“Know her”, Carly laughed. “I watch the security guards chase her off the lawn every few days. She’s like seven girls ago. She made a big mistake when she came to the house. Lance and I have an agreement, nothing public”.
Aurora’s head was racing. She had no idea that Carly was Carly Macauley. She talked to this woman all the time. Aurora considered Carly to be a good friend. “How could you not have told me!” Aurora felt betrayed.
“Lance would’ve hated that”, Carly shrugged. Aurora could see the shame on her friend’s face. “We don’t interfere in each other’s lives. I mean outside of the home. We talk at parties, but until last week, I hadn’t seen him in almost six months”.
“You saw him last week?” Aurora didn’t know why that piece of information seemed important.
“Yes…”
“And?”
“And he was miserable”, Carly admitted. “He really does care about you. He didn’t even care about what was going on at the board meeting”.
“What board meeting?”
“Trevor is pushing to take over the company”, Carly explained. By her face it seemed more like she was facing a firing squad than a barrage of questions. Aurora didn’t feel sorry for Carly. Aurora had talked about Lance with this woman for weeks and she didn’t think to mention any of this to Aurora.
“Trevor, the brother that you slept with”, Aurora threw out the words just to hurt Carly. “And this didn’t seem like something you should share?” Aurora asked as she searched Carly’s face.
Aurora needed to know how Carly could’ve kept this secret. Knowing what Aurora was going through, Mrs. Macauley had held her tongue. “I told you how bad it made me feel to sleep with a married man, you could’ve told me that his wife was having an affair. I thought you were my friend!”
“You didn’t even know my last name until a minute ago”, Carly sneered as she saw the reproachful look on Aurora’s face. They both looked shocked by that comment. “I’m so sorry…I…”
“No, you’re right”, Aurora sighed as she stood up from the couch. “I just remembered that I have some place to be”.
Lydia and Carly tried to stop her, but Aurora really did have somewhere to be. She didn’t remember until after she said the words, but she was telling the truth accidentally.
As she got down to the street she took a minute to breath in the air. It had been so tense up in the apartment, and the nausea that seemed to haunt her days was taking hold again. Catching her second wind, Aurora hailed a cab and headed off to her first doctor’s appointment for the baby. It was also her first gynecologist appointment in the last three years.
Aurora was terrible at remembering to do things like schedule doctor’s appointments. It was starting to worry her now that she was pregnant. She was going to have to get better at it.