Kevin

By the time I got off the phone with Spencer letting me know they were on the airplane and headed this way, I saw Maddie run down the the terrace after Tina. I leaned over the balcony and saw Tina dashing into traffic, and I called out her name to try and get her to stop. She was running as if her worst fear was chasing her, but all I could do was watch helplessly as Maddie tried to catch up with her.

I watched Tina disappear down an alleyway while Maddie was still searching for her, and I took off running to try and get Maddie’s attention.

“Maddie! Maddie! She ducked into the alleyway!”

“What!?” Maddie roared.

“The alleyway!” I yelled, pointing.

By the time I got to Maddie and we turned the corner, Tina was gone. I saw a fence at the end of the stretch, separating the other road from the alleyway between the two buildings, and I saw no sign of Tina. The only feasible answer was that she jumped the fence to continue running, but after that I had no idea where she could possibly be.

“Who was on the phone?” Maddie asked.

“Spencer and them. They’re on the plane and headed back from the island. They’ll be here tomorrow morning.”

“I don’t think Tina needs to be staying with her mother anymore. It’s toxic, she was right,” Maddie said.

“Her mother’s just grieving differently,” I said as we started jogging back to my car. “Tina doesn’t get it because her emotions are finally spilling over, but her mother copes with stress by retreating into herself. There’s a good chance her mother’s crying in private, but her mother will never show that to Tina. She feels she has to be the strong one now, especially since her rock is gone.”

“Since when did you become a psychologist?” Maddie asked as we approached my car.

“Since I started trying to figure out why the fuck Tina is the way she is,” I said.

“You really love her, don’t you?”

The question stopped me in my tracks. I looked over at Maddie as she was poised to duck into my car, and I drew in a deep breath before I nodded my head.

“I do,” I said.

“Then, let’s go find her before she really gets herself lost. Any idea where she could be?” Maddie asked.

“There are a few places around town that hold special memories for her for different reasons. I’m gonna try those places before I start to panic.”

“I’m already panicking,” Maddie said.

“I know. Which is why I’m trying to put mine off. Now, hang on.”

I saw tears dripping down Maddie’s face as he careened out of the parking lot and began racing around town. The first place I could think to try was the bakery across from Central Park. That was a place her father took her all the time when she was a child. She’d never admit this, but she was always terrified of going into Central Park. Her father watched the news a great deal, and all the stories about things that happened there at night really spooked her as a child. But, she still enjoyed the way the park looked and how the leaves would change colors with the seasons, so her father would bring her to the bakery to have a treat while they watched people in the park from the windows.

“Let me go see if she’s inside,” I said.

I walked into the bakery and pulled out a picture of her to see if anyone had seen her. My heart sunk when they shook their heads ‘no’, but I had a few other places I could try.

My next stop was M&M’s World in Times Square. Her favorite candy was M&M’s, but she always picked them out by color first. She would eat all the brown ones, then all the red ones, then all the blue ones. She’d do that for whatever package of M&M’s she was eating. She was always entranced with the buckets of M&M’s in the store that were already sorted by color, and she’d buy canisters of each color just so she could revel in the satisfaction of not having to sort them herself.

But, when I got inside and showed them a picture of Tina, they said they hadn’t seen her either.

My next shot was the suit shop her father always went to. Whenever her father would get fed up with her mother, he’d take Tina and go to the shop. He’d get himself measured for a new suit while Tina tried on the hats and oversized shoes on her feet, and it was his way of expelling stress while getting Tina out of that environment. She told me this story one time of how she got tangled up in one of the fabric rolls they had hanging on the wall, so the tailor offered to make her a little suit to match her father’s since he would have to discard the fabric anyway.

Her mother absolutely hated it, which was probably why she adored it even more.

But, yet again, no one in the suit shop had seen her.

I had one more place I could try, but it wasn’t going to be easy for me to go inside. The closer we got to the restaurant, the guiltier I felt for missing that damn dinner. Back in college-- when Tina and I were officially dating-- her parents had invited me over for dinner. Not a simple dinner at their place where their chef cooked and we sat silently around their table, but the type of dinner where they made expensive reservations at one of the top restaurants in the city just so they could meet me. It was the kind of place that had multiple pieces of silverware and you really needed to know your royal place settings in order to navigate the meal.

They had invited me to get to know me-- to meet the man who was courting their daughter-- and I’d gotten so lost in my studies that by the time I looked up from my book I was two hours too late. I had flown into town and booked myself a hotel just so I could meet her parents that weekend, and I fucking missed it because I had my damn nose in a book.

Her mother never forgave me after that. Her father eventually came around, though I still don’t think he was a fan of mine. But, her mother? Never. She held it over my head, and it created so much tension between the two of us and kicked up so much back home that Tina began drinking. We never talked about going to see her family again-- even though I wanted to try and make it up to them-- and she lost herself in the parties and the booze and the late nights.

I felt partially responsible for the degradation of her relationship with her family in college, and the moment we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant the guilt began to eat me alive.

“You alright, Kevin?” Maddie asked.

“I just hate this place is all,” I said.

“Why do you think Tina would be here?” she asked.

“Honestly? It’s the only other place I’ve got to look, and I’m not yet willing to say we should call the police. Just… give me a second.”

I walked into the restaurant and showed the hostess a picture of Tina. She passed it around the waitstaff, and one by one they all shook their heads. Even the smells of the restaurant made me nauseous with guilt, and I stumbled out of there as quickly as I could before tears sprang to my eyes.

Where the hell was Tina?

“Kevin, we need to call the police,” Maddie said as I got into the car.

“Go ahead and get them on your-”

At that very second, Tina’s name came scrolling across my phone. My eyes widened while my fingers began to tremble, and I almost dropped the phone to the floor before I picked up the call and put her on speakerphone.

“Tina? You there? It’s me and Maddie. Where are you? We’re gonna come get you, just stay put.”

“Hello?” a man asked.

A man.

On Tina’s phone.

I felt my blood run cold for a split second before he began talking again.

“Hi there. My name is Raul Feliz. I’m a cab driver with the city of New York. There’s a woman in my car. She’s dressed in, uh-”

“-black sweatpants and a tank-top with a yellow short-sleeved cardigan?” I asked.

“Yes. She’s asleep in my backseat. We’ve been driving around for a while. She kept mumbling something about getting away and finding her father?”

My heart broke in that very instant as a tear leaked down my cheek.

“Her name is Tina. She’s just lost her father. Where are you? I can come get her,” I said.

“If you want me to just take her home, or back to a hotel, I can. She’s been asleep for a little while, but I kept driving because I felt back for her, honestly. She was sobbing when she got into my car,” he said.

“It’s been a rough day for all of us. Do you have your GPS ready? I’ll give you her home address and you can meet us there. I’m ready to pay you as well,” I said.

I rattled off her address before I breathed a sigh of relief. I hung up the phone and raced back to Tina’s house, and the two of us waited until the cab driver pulled up behind us. I peeled myself from my car and dashed over to the cab. I was so relieved when I saw Tina breathing easily and sleeping soundly in the back of that car, and the only thing I could do was scoop her up into my arms.

“Maddie, could you pay the cab driver? I’ll cut you a check,” I said.

“Sure, not a problem.”

I carried Tina into her home while Maddie settled the tab, and with every step I took her body curled into me even more. Her face was puffy from crying and she was snoring because of the snot clogging her nose. Her body was trembling with what was surely a nightmare, and I held her as close as I could get her before I found my way to her room.

It looked exactly as I remembered it to be, and I had to take a second to reorient myself before I placed her into her bed.

She didn’t make a sound while I tucked her in, and I smoothed my hand over her forehead before I kissed her goodnight. This was the first time since all this started that I’d seen her truly peaceful, but even during her deepest sleep I could see the stress etched in her features. I knew what I needed to do in order to lift some of this burden from her body, but I didn’t know how she would react once she figured out what I was doing.

I walked quietly out of Tina’s room before I shut the door behind me, and when I turned around I came face to face with Bernie.

“Are you hungry, Mr. Kevin?” he asked.

“I suppose I need to eat, yeah,” I said.

“Miss Maddie is already at the table. Come come. The food’s gonna get cold,” he said.

“Is mother hen joining us for dinner?” I asked.

“Not to my knowledge. I have not heard from her or seen her all day,” he said.

“Do you think we should try to call her?” I asked.

“If there is one thing I have learned about Mrs. Theresa in all the years I have worked for her, it is never to call her while she is out. If she is gone for a couple of days, this would not be the first time her guilt has gotten the best of her.”

“Guilt?” I asked.

“Oh, there is much you kids don’t know about her. But, those are stories for another day. Sit and eat. We don’t need anymore unhealthy people sinking in their emotions around this place,” he said.

I sat down at the table across from Maddie just before a plate of food was placed in front of me. It smelled delicious, but my mind was swirling with that Bernie had just told me.

Guilt?

Stories?

What didn’t we know about Tina’s mother?

Was something wrong with her?

Was she sick, too?

“Eat,” Bernie commanded.

So, I picked up my fork and began to eat even as my head swirled with the events of the day.

Holy hell, I couldn’t wait for everyone else to get into town.