by Cat Mann
****
Dinner at Gianna’s started off as loud and fun, then it turned into just loud. A thousand different conversations seemed to be going on and through the noise, I heard Collin quietly thank Ari for helping August when they had been arguing a few days earlier. I saw Ari’s cheeks turn a tiny shade of pink and I nearly choked on my food. The sight of Ari blushing was a very first for me. Ari elbowed me pretty energetically in the ribs to quiet me, forgetting that they were still sore from having been broken a few months ago and I let out a cry of pain. All joking aside, it hurt like hell. He was stronger than he thought most times. Ari’s face went pale and he jumped up out of his seat causing the chair to rub loudly against the floor. His hands flew to his mouth as I closed my eyes and choked back tears.
“What the heck just happened?” Andy said from across the table. All conversation had stopped and all eyes were on the two of us.
“I just broke Ava’s ribs,” Ari said as he got on his knees and put his hand on my side.
“No way,” Rory laughed in a disbelieving way. “How’s that possible?”
I couldn’t find my breath; I felt as though the wind had been knocked out of me. Ari hadn’t nudged me that hard, but his elbow had caught me in the very spot where the ribs cracked the first time.
“Ava and I were playing around and I elbowed her to keep quiet and I heard a crack. Ava, I am so sorry.”
I finally was able to take in a breath and look at Ari.
“It’s fine, Ari. Would you just go get me some Tylenol?”
He looked horrified as he went to Gianna’s medicine cabinet and brought me back the whole bottle.
Ari stood at my side and watched me while I downed three red-and-white capsules with my glass of water. I looked at him as if he were nuts, not sure why he wouldn’t just sit down. The entire family was quiet as they stared at us in disbelief.
“Ari, I’ll be fine, sit down,” I clamped my teeth together and forced a tight smile.
“No way, I am taking you to the hospital.”
I shook my head no and his jaw clenched.
“Ari, they can’t do anything for a cracked rib. I’ll be fine as soon as the Tylenol starts to work.”
“What if you punctured a lung?” he asked, looking even more horrified.
I shrugged my shoulders then winced at the pain it caused.
“I promise to let you know if I start to have difficulty breathing.”
My promise was only a half-truth because I was already having a hard time breathing. I just wasn’t sure if the trouble was because of my ribs or because of something else and I didn’t feel like going to the hospital on Christmas Eve. He looked at me, a little unsure at first, and then took a seat next to me at the table. Conversation picked back up; I was in too much pain to eat and Ari refused to take his eyes off me.
After dinner, Ari left the table to clean Max’s sticky hands and face in the bathroom. Aggie asked me to help Gianna with the dishes while Lauren and Julia wiped counters and stowed leftovers. I tried to stand up from my chair but the pain was starting to become unbearable. My side hurt much more than I remembered from the last time my ribs were broken, when No. 6 kicked me over and over, but that was probably because then I had been drugged the whole time.
I stood next to the table and attempted to catch my breath. My chest was tight and my lungs were burning. Aggie set a stack of dirty dishes in front of me with a “get moving” look on her face. I steadied the stack with a white-knuckled grip.
Ari appeared from the hallway with Max in his arms.
“You are ghostly pale, Ava. There is no way you should be up moving around right now. What are you doing?”
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out from between my parted lips.
He had an anxious look on his face and turned to Aggie.
“Mom, how can you make her help you right now? Her ribs are probably broken. I think she should stay sitting down.”
Aggie gave Ari an indulgent little smile and an eye roll.
“Oh, I’m sure she’s fine, Ari.”
Ari’s jaw clenched tight and he set Max down on his feet. Max quickly fled the kitchen in search of August.
“Obviously, Ava is not fine,” he spoke through clenched teeth.
“Ava’s been through worse. A little more pain is good for her, considering the anguish she has caused my family over the past year,” Aggie said, laughing at her own bad joke. Ari was angrier than I have ever seen him before.
“You think it’s funny that she nearly died half a dozen times trying to save our lives? Not to mention that last year when she was in London she saved you from cancer. Did you even thank her? You must have forgotten that someday Ava will be the end of us all. One day, she will come for you and if she is feeling kind, perhaps she will show you mercy. I don’t know what your beef is with Ava right now, but you had better get over it or you’re going to think it’s really funny tomorrow when the two of us don’t show up for your stupid Christmas.”
I saw Aggie’s face blanch as I made my way, unnoticed, to the kitchen counter. I grabbed the garbage can from under the sink and started to get sick from both pain and shock. Ari yelled a bit more and used a couple of foul words I was fairly certain he had not used in front of his mother before. Aggie lost her nerve but then quickly found it again and started yelling back at him. The whole kitchen erupted into chaos around me. I began to feel dizzy and got on my knees as I continued to get sick in the garbage. I heard someone trying to calm Aggie and Ari down but I couldn’t concentrate on voices or words. I tried to get sick again but my lungs would not let me take in any more air. I finally gave up, put my head down on the cool kitchen floor and closed my eyes. I did not pass out but I was weak and my lungs screamed and pleaded for oxygen. The pain became overwhelming.
“Hey, Ava, are you okay?”
I looked up and saw Julia standing over me. I shook my head no and she hollered for Rory. He rushed over and picked me off the floor and cradled me in his arms then started to yell through the screaming to get someone’s attention. He bumped my ribs against his body. I let out a little cry with the pain it caused. Rory started to freak out, his booming voice outdid everyone else and the room finally fell quiet.
Ari took me out of Rory’s arms and went straight to Gianna’s garage. He put me in the front seat of her tiny sports car. He peeled out onto the street and sped all the way to the closest hospital.
Emergency personnel took a chest X-ray as soon as I arrived and confirmed that I had three fractured ribs, but couldn’t determine if my lung was collapsed. The on-call doctor kept me under observation for a few hours.
After a quiet wait in a dim hospital room, the doctor finally determined that my lung was unharmed and that I had an anxiety attack. I tried to convince Ari, whose jaw was still tightly clenched, to apologize to his mother, whom I could hear crying, perhaps a bit too dramatically, in the waiting room. But he refused.
I heard a knock on the door and Ari left my side to yank it open. “Oh,” I heard Ari say, “hello, officer.”
“Mr. Alexander, do you mind if I have a moment alone with Ava?” I heard the familiar voice of Detective Scott say.
“Ava?” Ari turned around and opened the door all the way revealing Detective Scott. He looked the same as always, with his dark hair slicked back, wearing his presumably expensive suit. I nodded my head at Ari to let him in the room.
“I’ll be right outside the door if you need anything, okay?” He smoothed my wispy hair back and kissed me several quick times on the forehead.
I smiled at him.
“Ari, I’m okay, really. I already feel a hundred times better. He probably just wants to know if I am going to press charges against you.”
I tried to say the words playfully, even though I was sure that was why Scott was there. I mean why else would he be? I had told the hospital’s staff the truth, that my husband elbowed me in the ribs. I was sure my statement had not made us look good. Ari looked grief s
tricken as he walked out of the room.
“Merry Christmas, Ava,” Detective Scott took a seat next to the hospital bed.
“Merry Christmas,” I said with a half-smile.
“So what happened?”
I recapped the evening and Detective Scott laughed aloud. He was already well aware of my extensive list of injuries, since he had shown up every time I had been in the hospital. He was well aware of my preexisting rib damage. I guess you could say we had a sort of friendship growing.
“So, are you planning on pressing charges against Mr. Alexander?” he asked.
“No, of course not,” I felt a tiny bit appalled and my facial expression showed my dismay.
“I had to ask, Ava; it’s my job. Is there anything else I should know?” he gave me a good hard look in the eyes as he spoke.
I shook my head from side to side and let out a “nope.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. Why, what are you getting at?”
Detective Scott put his elbows on his knees and scooted the little rolling stool a tiny bit closer.
“Ava, I know who you are,” he said the words so quietly that I could hardly hear him.
“I think you have mistaken me for someone else.”
“No, no I haven’t. I know exactly who you are, Ava. I knew who your dad was, too. I just want to let you know that if there is anything you need – all you have to do is call.”
He handed me another one of his cards, wrote his cell phone on the back, and stood up to walk out of the room.
“There’s another one,” I blurted out. “No. 7. And I know who it is; I just need to, um, get rid of him.”
Scott nodded at me. “Who is it?”
I bit down on my lip, unsure then responded, “Margaux Baio.”
Detective Scoot peered down at me. “Are you sure about that?”
“Positive.”
He ran a hand through his slicked back hair.
“I wish you all of the luck in the world, Ava. If there is anything I can do, please call.”
I nodded and swallowed hard.
“Oh, and Happy New Year,” Scott said as he walked out of the room.
Ari came in right after he left and Aggie and Andy trailed in behind him. Aggie was still beside herself and her eyes were bloodshot and moist.
“Oh, Ava, I am so sorry.”
She took my hand in hers and held it warmly. I looked at Ari to see if they had made up yet. He shook his head no, so apparently he was still mad at her.
“It’s alright, Aggie; you didn’t even do anything. You know I love you. Where’s Max? Is he alright?”
“I love you, too Baby. I’m just so sorry. I don’t know where we would all be without you. Max is fine. He’s at home getting ready for Santa. Collin and August stayed back with him.”
I put my head back against the bed and closed my eyes.
“Ari, I just want to go home. Can you please find the doctor and get my release?” He brushed another series of kisses on my forehead and left to go find the on call doctor.
I turned to Andy.
“Hey, do you know Detective Scott?” I asked, showing him the LAPD business card.
“Yeah, I know him. I see him all the time at the courthouse.”
“Is he Greek?”
“Yeah, I guess he is. Why do you ask?”
“He knows who I am.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean he came in here and told me he knows who I am,” I made a scissors gesture with my pointer and middle finger.
Andy tapped his lips with his fingers as Ari and the doctor came back into my room.
I watched Ari hold his breath as the doc checked me over one last time so I could go home. Doctor Miller prescribed some painkillers and anti-anxiety meds to prevent another pain-induced anxiety attack. He added that I should follow up with Dr. Phillips after the holiday and I grudgingly agreed.
Ari drove me home while Andy and Aggie went to fill my prescription. I stood at the counter in our kitchen with my back to the door. My hands were pressed down firmly on the marble counter top for support. It was cool and smooth against my hot, sticky palms. Ari and I were discussing Detective Scott. He thought Scott’s knowledge of who I was probably accounted for why I had been asked so few questions after the deaths of No. 1 and No. 2. I agreed. My story had been full of holes but Scott never really seemed to have doubts about it. He had known that I was a Fate from the start.
I heard a small knock at the back door but I didn’t turn around. Ari walked passed me and yanked open the door.
“If we come over tomorrow, we’ll be late, so don’t wait around for us,” I heard him say in a clipped tone.
“Oh … ok,” his mother responded.
Ari shut the door and turned the lock. He came back to my side and opened a small, white paper bag. He pulled out two pill bottles, opened them and placed two pills in front of me. One was a large oval with a big V on it; the other was a small circular white pill. He opened a bottle of water and waited for me to take my meds. I took the painkiller then pointed to the small white pill.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Anti-anxiety.”
I looked at the pill for a minute then flicked it across the room. It pinged against the oven, then skidded across the kitchen floor, and finally came to a stop underneath the refrigerator. Ari was angry, but I knew he was too tired to fight anymore.
We went to bed. Ari encased me in pillows then gently wrapped his arms around me. I stayed awake, trying to fight off the effects of the medication. Ari could tell how emotional I was feeling, so he stayed awake and calmed me down by telling me stories of how nervous he used to get when he came to my dorm room at night. And of how he would get a stomach full of butterflies each time he saw me in the halls or rode with me in the elevator. I listened to his soft, sweet words until my eyelids grew too heavy and I gave up and lost the battle to sleep.
I woke up the next morning in a fog and my side ached like crazy. Ari traced his fingers down the side of my face.
“Merry Christmas, Baby,” he said quietly.
“Mmm,” I murmured, nodding my head, “Merry Christmas.”
“How are you feeling this morning?”
I took a deep breath and quickly regretted doing so as shooting pain radiated through my body.
“Fine,” I answered.
“You promised you would never lie to me, Ava.”
“Okay then, Ari,” I ground my teeth, the scraping and crunching sounded in my ears. “I feel awful. My side hurts like hell, and I am in an incredibly bad mood.”
“That’s better,” he said as he climbed out of bed. I watched Ari walk out of the room only to come back moments later holding pills in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. He helped me sit up and he held his palm open waiting for me to take the meds. I stared at them for a moment, wanting nothing more than to knock his hand away and send the pills flying. I resisted the urge, took the pain pill, tossed it to the back of my throat, and swallowed. I looked at the other pill and then, defiantly, at Ari.
“Ava,” Ari said, brushing a stray stand of hair off my forehead, “I know that you don’t think you need this and maybe you’re right, but please just try the medication.”
I kept firm my face unchanging and waited for him to take the pill away.
“I know you are strong, we all know that and no one is arguing with you. No one will think you are weak if you take this, I promise. Just please, Ava, do as the doctor told you and try the meds for a while. If they don’t help, then I promise you can stop taking them. Please give this medication a chance. Do this for me.”
I wanted to scream and yell and kick and I may have had my ribs not hurt as much as they did. I blinked and felt a stupid tear run down my cheek.
“Oh, no. Don’t cry, Ava.” Ari wiped my tear away with a kiss, causing the floodgates to open; tears poured down my face, my eyes swelled and my nose turned stuffy. He crawled back in be
d with me and softly held me to him, wiping away all the tears as they fell. I sat there and cried until I ran completely dry. I was upset because he was right. I probably did need the pill but I was more upset that I was in the situation to begin with. I was mad that I couldn’t figure out what to do with Margaux and that I had a sense of impending doom that I couldn’t shake. I was angry that I could feel this pain and was too weak to be able to deal with it on my own, without pain medication and anti-anxiety crap, as I had been able to do in the past.
I began to feel the loopy feeling that the painkillers cause and then gave up on my fight and took the stupid little white pill. We sat in bed for a while longer as I tried to fight off the painkillers. I absolutely hated the way they made me feel. My eyes were droopy, my nose itched, my head was clouded and hazy. My arms and legs seemed to weigh a ton. Ari chuckled and I smiled at him.
“What?” I said, dragging the word out much longer than necessary.
“Nothing,” he smiled, and suppressed a laugh. “Do you want to go next door today or not?”
“Ari, you know we have to go. You know we should have been there hours ago and you also know that you owe your mom an apology. You need to say you’re sorry for yelling at her yesterday.”
“I don’t know that I owe her an apology, Ava. I think she needed to be reminded of a few things and now we are back on a level playing field. You are my wife. You are my family now.”
I put my head back against the headboard, closed my eyes, and let my mouth hang open.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” I said, opening one eye to look at him. “I just don’t feel like getting dressed.”
“Ok,” he said with a smile, as if taking on a challenge. “I’ll do it for you.”
I bobbed my head up and down in agreement and closed my eye again.
Ari got up and went to the closet. He put on a pair of gym shorts and some Nikes then pulled on a hooded sweatshirt, something he wouldn’t be caught wearing outside our home in a million years. In fact, even when he is lounging around in the house he wears jeans and a fitted tee shirt.
I watched Ari disappear into the closet again. He strolled back out moments later with one of my bras, matching underwear, a pair of my black leggings and a black and grey baseball tee. The outfit was close to something I would wear to Pilates. He threw the ensemble on the bed. Ari peeled my shirt off my back and held up my bra and underwear. I blushed.
“I’ve never had any experience in putting any of these on before.”
“Ari!”
“I’m just saying … ” he teased.
Ari slid my clothes on slowly one article at a time. I giggled the whole time he dressed me, and in between giggles, I let out little cries of pain. He got me out of bed and we went to the bathroom to wash our faces and brush our teeth.
“Turn around,” Ari said and made a circle motion with his pointer finger. I turned facing away from him. He began to gather my hair up in his hands. After a few failed attempts, he tied a hair tie around my hair in a ponytail. The ponytail was a tad high for my taste but Ari beamed at his handiwork. He tugged at the end of my hair playfully.
“Too cute, Ava.”
“Thanks.” I smiled a large, toothy smile at him.
“Are you ready for your Christmas gift?”
I cocked my head to one side.
“You already gave me my gift. My iPad.”
“I said that was one of your presents. I have a few more to give you … This gift was a bit last minute but I think you’ll like it. Collin helped.”
“Okay…”
“Follow me.”
Ari grabbed my hand and we walked out of our bedroom. He turned left towards the study. We walked down the hallway and he stopped in front of the study door.
“If you don’t like it then we will find something else to do with them.”
“It? Them? What is it already?!”
Ari turned the knob and pushed open the door. I cocked my head to the side again and my jaw hung down. Ari had taken the scissors from my mother’s collection and had them arranged in a glass shadow box. The box hung magnificently on the study wall near the door.
“What do you think?”
“It’s beautiful. Perfect.”
I walked closer to the wall and stared at the scissors carefully hanging in mix-and-match rows.
Ari tapped on the glass at the pair in the middle of the middle row.
“Oh … ” I furrowed my brow. “Those are mine – the pair Maya gave me.”
“I hope it is okay that I added those. I figured they needed a home, too.”
“The gift is perfect, Ari. I love it. I love you. Thank you.”
“You’re most welcome.”
I frowned.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” I shrugged a bit. “Your gifts from me are next door, but they aren’t nearly as good as the gifts you have given me.”
“You give me everything I need by just breathing, Ava.”
He kissed the corner of my mouth, took my hand and we walked back out of the study and towards the back door.
“You know your mom is going to kill us for showing up at her house on Christmas dressed like this,” I said looking down at my bare feet and Ari’s hardly worn gym shoes.
“Ava, I am sure she won’t have one negative thing to say for a very, very long time.”
Ari pulled my favorite gray hooded sweatshirt from a peg by the door, the one that had once belonged to him, and wrapped me up in it. He tugged at my ponytail again with a smile, planted a kiss on my lips and very slowly picked me up in his arms. He cradled me in his arms as he had on the evening of our wedding and I watched as his Nikes make Swoosh imprints in the sand.
We showed up at the back door four hours late but we were still greeted with smiles and gentle hugs. Ari walked me straight to the living room and made a little nest for us on the couch.
Max was sitting on the floor playing with a dozen or so new toys. I had gotten him a little antique piano. It was a kid’s toy from the 1950’s and probably shouldn’t have been played with anymore but I wanted him to have it. He sat on his knees and pushed on the tiny black and white keys. He had a grin stretched across his face from ear to ear. He carried it over to me and I played twinkle, twinkle for him and he laughed and had me do it again and again. I laughed, too, but I think it was mostly the painkillers talking.
Apparently, my actions and reactions weren’t just funny to Ari, because after my second dose of medication for the day the whole house made a game out of making me say funny things. Ari was shaking so hard with laughter over a French conversation August was trying to engage me in that I had to have him scoot over to keep from shaking me, too.
I didn’t eat much or say much at the dinner table and neither did Aggie. She kept quiet all day and I felt awkward. I felt bad that Ari had fought with her over me and I hoped they got over their differences soon. Aggie had been cold to me lately and a little quick lipped but I didn’t think she meant to be. I hoped not anyway. I knew that she liked me, more than liked me – she loved me and I loved her, too. It was just that I had taken her baby away from her. I don’t think she had been prepared for the hard time she would have picking up the pieces and moving on with this stage in her life.
Andy lightened the mood by giving a nice Christmas toast and pouring glasses of wine a bit too full. Max told Ari all about Santa coming and I really regretted not having been there in the morning to see the excitement on Max’s face. I could tell Ari was more than disappointed that he missed the occasion, too.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here, Max,” Ari said to him as he placed his hand on my back and rubbed his thumb down my neckline. “But my Ava wasn’t feeling well and she is my whole universe.”
His statement was a bit deep for a three-year-old, but it made me swoon nonetheless. Julia and Lauren drew out a long “awww.” And I, of course, blushed. I didn’t have to look up to see Aggie’s reaction beca
use the whole table could hear her audible tsk. Ari tried to ignore her and keep his conversation up with Max. But I could see his jaw clench tight.
We were nearly done with dinner when the front door bell rang. Andy looked across the table to see who was missing, but every seat was full. And it wasn’t as though any of us had ever used the doorbell before. Andy excused himself and disappeared down the hall towards the door. He was only gone for a few seconds when he called for Ari.
Ari stood up, kissed me on the top of the head, and followed his dad’s voice towards the front door. I could hear some talking but I couldn’t make out what was being said. Ari came back a few minutes later holding two small packages and a thick manila envelope.
“What was that all about?” I asked as he took his seat next to me.
“Well, these are for you,” he said and handed me the packages.
“Oh,” I said a little taken back. “Who was that at the door?”
“I don’t know who that person was exactly, but he was sent here by Margaux.”
My eyes got large and I took a aching, deep breath and started to open the first package. Margaux had gotten me a gift from Toy Me. I had seen them before in London. It was a pair of silver scissors that had been molded into a bracelet. I took the bracelet, set it in front of Ari for inspection, and then opened the second gift.
“What the hell … ” Ari said as I pulled out a faded blue Cub’s tee-shirt with a Cubby Bear on it – the same style shirt that had been ruined by my own blood when I was kidnapped four months earlier.
I handed the shirt to him quickly.
“I don’t know if she is taunting me or being nice,” I said, trying to suppress a cold chill that was working its way down my back.
Ari took the gifts and slid them under his chair. He took the envelope and hesitated for a moment.
“Maybe I should just throw it away.”
“You can’t, Ari; you work for her. You have to at least know what it says when she asks you.”
“Yeah, man,” Rory said. “If you don’t open it, I will.”
Ari tossed the full envelope down the table towards Rory and it came down on his plate with a thud.
“Do I get to keep whatever is inside if I open this for you?” Rory asked as he toyed with the metal clasp.
“No, you don’t, so just open it and shut up.”
Rory pulled the clasp straight and then ripped the folded part away from the rest of the envelope. He peered down inside, “uh, please can I keep it?”
“What is it?” Ari asked.
He pulled out a wad of cash that was the size of a brick and the whole table gasped.
“Let me see that,” I said in disbelief and Rory tossed it at me. I dodged out of the way, as Ari caught the wad of cash, saving me from hurting my ribs again.
“Oops, sorry, Ava; I forgot,” Rory said with a rare frown on his face.
Ari handed me the cash and I thumbed through it.
“This is the same money I gave her a few months ago for my car.”
“You’re joking,” Ari said incredulously.
I pointed to the hair tie I had used to wad it all together.
“Nope, that’s my hair thing.”
“Why did she do that?”
“I don’t know, Ari; she’s something of a psycho.”
Ari rubbed my back.
“She’s not psycho, Ava; she’s just possessed.”
I smiled, then I laughed, then I laughed harder while I held onto my side in pain.
“That wasn’t funny, Ari,” I said, scolding him.
“Are you sure? Because I think it was,” he said playfully, pointing a finger at me.
I handed him back the money.
“Here, you can have it. Maybe cash will make up for the less then awesome Christmas gifts I got you this year. Can I see that bracelet again?”
“Aw, Ava Baby, how romantic, but I like my presents from you,” Ari put the money down with the shirt and grabbed the bracelet. “I’ll add the money to the donation you made to Pacific Rehab. They need it more than we do.”
I smiled at him and kissed the corner of his mouth. “That’s a great idea.”
I looked across the table to see Aggie staring at us.
“What?”
“Do not ‘what’ me, Ava.”
I let out an irritated sigh.
“Did you just give Ari that cash?”
“Well, what’s mine is his, so I don’t really see what difference it makes.”
“How much was there?”
“Ma, stop,” Ari said with a serious look on his face, forgetting to hand me the bracelet.
“Ava didn’t give me the money; we are donating it to Pacific Rehab. Ava has been working with the center’s founder since Misha died and she has added them to her charity list. She had them construct a memorial in Newport. It is really beautiful.”
Ari and Andy were aware of my financial situation, but I don’t really know if anyone else was. I think for the most part people just assumed I had inherited some money but they didn’t know how much. Ari supported the fact that I donated my pay from House to Home back to the cause and we mostly just lived off what he earned at baio. No one was aware of the fact that I worked with other charitable groups, and I liked that.
“Ava, how much money do you have?” Aggie asked with a bit of a snotty tone.
If she wanted to play this game then I would play it with her.
“I don’t know, Aggie. Hundreds of millions. Why?”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Ma, that’s none of your business. Stop now,” Ari snapped at her.
Max let out a tiny whimper.
“Yes, I am serious,” I said, ignoring Ari’s plea to end the conversation. I didn’t know why Aggie cared. She and Andy had plenty of money. Maybe she enjoyed thinking of me as an orphan.
Aggie smiled a tight-lipped smile and took a bite of her food and Ari shot me an irritated look.
“What? She asked,” I whispered at him as he got up to put my gifts in a bag by the back door.
We went back to our post on the couch after dinner and watched basketball with the rest of Ari’s family. I fell asleep before the end of the first quarter, thanks to the painkillers. I had loopy, weird, nonsensical dreams about Aggie and Margaux until Ari woke me up when it was finally time to go home. We walked back to the house behind August, Collin, Julia and Rory.
“What’s gotten into your mom, Ari?” I asked, not able to stand her beef with me any longer. “I swear one minute she is fine and then the next minute she looks for an excuse to hate me.”
“She loves you, Ava, you know that. I don’t know what her problem is. I’ll have a talk with her tomorrow.”
Ari did not have to talk with Aggie the next day because when we left for home Christmas night, she caught up with us on the beach before we reached our gate. Her eyes filled with tears and she enclosed me in her arms and held me in a tight, painful hug.
“Ava, I am so sorry.”
“Okay, Aggie,” I said petting her hair, “I’m sorry, too. It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not fine. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I am just so sorry.”
“Mom,” Ari said pulling her off me, “it’s alright.”
She threw her arms around Ari and cried. He shushed her and calmed her down after a few minutes and she agreed to let him walk her back to the house. I gave Aggie one last hug, Ari handed me the bag with the gifts in it, and then I headed up our back steps towards home alone.
I sat on the couch and waited for Ari. It took him ages to get home and I was beginning to feel anxious. To kill the time, I pulled the scissor bracelet out of the bag. The bracelet was silver and shiny, it was pretty and I really liked it. I turned it around in my hands a few times while I stared off at the blackness beyond the window. The wind had picked up briskly and was whistling and pounding on the glass. I suppressed a sudden chill, tossed the bracelet back in the bag and took
it, the cash and the tee-shirt back to the study. I threw the cash in a drawer, and took the bracelet and left it on top of the desk. Perhaps Ari could add it to the collection behind the glass case. I walked back up the hall and threw the Cubs shirt in the closet. When I got back to the living room, Ari still wasn’t home. I finally broke down and called his cell phone. I heard it ring the same time the kitchen door slid open; I was relieved when I saw him and hung up the phone.
“What took you so long?”
“Sorry, she just needed to talk I guess,” Ari took a seat next to me.
“Oh, well I was worried about you.”
Ari ran his thumb across my cheek. “Ava, I was at my parent’s house next door. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“You’re right,” I put my arms around his neck and took one big, aching breath so I could inhale his sweet, wonderful, comforting scent.
“Listen Ava,” Ari said in to my ear, “she feels really bad about how she’s been acting and she wants to get together with you tomorrow.”
“I don’t know, Ari,” I bit down on my bottom lip. “Will you come with us?”
“I can’t. I have to go to work tomorrow.”
“Are you serious? It’s the day after Christmas.”
He laughed at me.
“Margaux doesn’t view the day after Christmas as a holiday.”
“Well, I’ll only go with your mom if I can bring Julia or something.”
“Ava, are you for real? You want to spend the day with my mom and Julia?”
“No, I don’t particularly want to spend the day with either of them. I would rather stay here and try to figure out what's going on with Margaux. But if spending some time with Aggie will help us patch things up, I’m all for it. I just want to have some backup.”
“Backup,” he scoffed. “Ava, you're being ridiculous. I think your meds are still messing with you.”
“They aren’t,” I held my side in pain as I got up off the couch and walked down the steps to see if Julia was still awake. I knocked on their bedroom door and Rory yanked it open wearing just his boxers. I shielded my eyes.
“Where’s Julia?” I asked.
Rory pushed the door all the way open and I nearly flipped. Their room was a complete mess. Julia was lying on the bed reading a magazine.
“Hey,” she smiled up at me.
“Um, hey, uh, sorry to bother you, but umm, what are you doing tomorrow? Would you please hang out with Aggie and me? I need a buffer.”
“Of course. What do you want to do?” she asked, tossing the magazine aside.
“Uh, well I feel like getting a tattoo, so we had better do something you want to do.”
“Yeah, that doesn’t sound like fun to me. I have to return some things at a few shops in town, turn some ugly Christmas gifts in to cash, and then we can grab lunch or something.”
“Sure, that’s fine. See ya tomorrow,” I said, then closed the door and turned around; I nearly walked right into Ari, who was quietly standing behind me.
“Another tattoo?” He asked raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t know. I was thinking about it.”
We walked upstairs and down the hall to our room and Ari arranged my gaggle of pillows. Then he handed me my meds. I situated myself and took my last pill for the day. Ari gently wrapped himself around me and put his head on my pillow.
“So what are you going to get?” he asked.
“Hmm?”
“Tattoo?”
I looked down at my arm and traced the wing of a bird on my half-sleeve.
“I don’t know, why?”
“Just wondering.”
“Would you ever get one? A tattoo?” I asked.
“Not unless I needed to,” he answered and then kissed me goodnight.