by MJ Masucci
The next day was busy as the counselors and instructors got the camp ready for the first busload of children to arrive. In two days, the camp would be bustling with activity as the first session got started. The camp had four sessions of two weeks apiece. They were able to accommodate two hundred children in each session.
Several deliveries had been made: food, toiletries, commissary items and other non-perishables. The entire staff was expected to pitch in and put away all these items. Ava was stocking bundles of toilet paper when she heard her name called. She turned to see Tim Bartlett, a computer programming teacher from the Bronx, call to her.
Two years ago she had poured her heart out to him about what had happened with Xander. Tim had also faced loss since his wife had passed away from cancer four years ago. So he was well aware of how loss felt, though her loss was completely different from his. His wife was gone, but Xander was alive, he just didn’t want her any longer.
“Hi, Tim! How are you?”
Though they had promised to get together during the cooler months, they never did. Tim had told her that he often came into Manhattan for shows and to spend time in the area. She was kind of glad that he hadn’t contacted her; she knew that he was attracted to her. Last year during a hike with some of the older children, he had kissed her. At first, she reacted to him, longing for contact with another man, but quickly regained her composure and pushed him away. She explained she was not ready to start dating again.
Today, they just chatted as he helped her stock the rest of the toilet paper. During dinner he sat next to her, a little too close for her taste. He had asked her to join him at the fire pit with some of the other counselors, but she declined, saying she was tired. He had looked sad, but she didn’t want to mislead him. He was a nice man, but not her type.
As the second day progressed, the finishing touches were put on the campgrounds. The children would be coming up the next day, and Ava was excited. To celebrate the beginning of the season, several of the counselors took row boats to the middle of the lake and later when it got dark; they decided to sit on the dock and look up at the stars or swim. Tim insisted that Ava get in the boat that he was rowing. She reluctantly did and hoped that he wouldn’t make any moves on her.
After rowing a bit, they docked the rowboat and dangled their feet in the cool water. Several other counselors were lying on the dock looking up at the sky. It was a cloudy night, and most of the stars were hidden. Someone dove in and was splashing water.
Several of the other counselors got involved, and in a matter of minutes, everyone was drenched. Ava jumped in the water and started to swim towards shore. She might not swim very often, but she was a strong swimmer. Her lean arms sliced through the dark lake as she followed the lights on the beach as her guide.
Tim rowed up behind her and helped her get into the boat. She started to shiver in the cool night air, and he rowed faster. When they got to the dock, she quickly climbed out. Tim rowed to the beach, and she met him to help pull the boat ashore. Several of the other counselors had done the same. Thunder could be heard in the distance, and Ava wanted to get back to her bunk before it started to pour. She was thankful for dim lights on the beach. Her clothing clung to her, and her nipples were hardened from the chill. The last thing she needed was Tim to see her like that. She didn’t want him to get any ideas.
Tim insisted he walk her to her cabin and just before they got there the heavens opened up. Her teeth were chattering when they got to the porch of her small cabin. Tim’s cabin was on the other side of the camp, and she didn’t want to be impolite by telling him to leave. So, she invited him in but kept up her guard. She went into the tiny bathroom in her cabin and got him a towel. The rain thrummed on the roof and flashes of lightning cut through the dark sky. She had no idea what to say to him, and he was the first to speak.
“So how was graduation?”
That was the best you could do? “It was nice. My family came to town from Georgia and stayed for the entire week, even my niece and nephew. How was your school year?” She wanted to seem polite, so she asked him questions in return as she rubbed her hair with the towel.
“It was great. We got funding for a new robotics club for this upcoming year. I’ll be co-instructor. The kids are really excited.”
She smiled at him and removed her soggy sneakers. She hadn’t worn socks, and Tim was staring at her manicured toes.
“You have such pretty feet.”
Ava thought this was kind of strange. The one thing to notice on someone and it was their feet? She went into the bathroom to remove her wet clothing. She didn’t remember to take any dry clothing in with her, and the only thing she had to change into was her terry cloth robe. When she came out Tim had taken off his t-shirt, sneakers, and socks and had them near the small heater.
“Sorry, I was trying to get them dry before I catch a cold.”
She looked away from his bare chest. He was lean and muscular. He was cute in a nerdy sort of way, but he wasn’t her type. She had only one type, and that was Xander.
They both sat down on the only place to sit, and that was on the bed, she at the top, and he at the foot. She curled her legs under her and pulled the robe tightly together near her chest. She was naked underneath the robe, a fact she didn’t want to be revealed to Tim. The rain continued to pound on the roof and slap against the window. They talked about their lives during their time away. A flash of lightning tore through the sky and they heard a loud crack followed by a big thud.
Tim ran to the cabin door to look out and noticed a small tree was still burning not far from the cabin’s front door.
“What is it?” Ava said.
“There is a tree that got hit. It’s about fifty feet from the cabin, but it looks like the flame is going out.”
He ducked back in the cabin. Ava stood up and moved around trying to find a signal on her phone. She wanted to check the weather radar to see how long this storm would last. When she found a weak one in the corner of the room, she pressed the icon for the weather channel. It appeared, and the radar showed the storm was right over them.
Probably another couple of hours until it would end. She was looked nervously at Tim who was flipping his socks over near the heater. Stop acting like a teenager. He is not going to jump on top of you. You’re a grown woman for heaven’s sake. She may have thought that, but she wasn’t so sure. She sat back down on the bed, and dozed off while talking with Tim. When she woke, he was standing over her and placing a blanket on her. In her sleepy haze, she thought it was Xander.
She reached out to touch his hand, and he took it as a sign. Tim leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. His cologne was strong in her nose; the same type Xander had worn. She kissed him passionately. His hands caressed her breasts. She reached up to run her hands through his hair but something was not right. She opened her eyes, and in the dim light of the cabin, she realized this was not Xander. She quickly turned her head to break the kiss and pushed Tim’s hands away from her breasts. He was startled by her abruptness.
“No, Tim. I’m sorry.”
He sat up, looking at her. In his deep brown eyes, she saw something she had seen before in Xander, lust.
“I just can’t.”
“Ava, it’s been four years. Two years ago, you told me that you needed to move past him, but when will you?”
She started to pick at her nails. “I don’t know. Have you moved on? Are you dating?”
“Yes, I am. I was dating a woman for a few months this past school year. You have to get past it already. If he wanted to be with you, he would have done it already. If you were my girlfriend, I would never leave you expecting that you wait for me.”
He rose from the bed and started to gather his clothing. His shirt was almost dry, and he slipped it over his head. The rain had eased up a little. He slipped on his sneakers and balled his socks up in his hand. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Think about what I said.”
After he had left, Ava locked t
he door and slipped under the sheets. Tim was right about Xander not coming back. But why had he drawn the rose for her in the art lodge if he didn’t still love her? She buried her head in her pillow and cried. “Xander, why did you leave me?” Her voice echoed in the silent room.
The next day, the children arrived at noon. Ava was thankful because it kept her mind off Xander and what had happened with Tim, who hopefully had realized that Ava was never going to be available. He did, as he left her alone. He didn’t talk to her the rest of the time that she was there, but she had a great time with the kids and other counselors for the two weeks of camp.
On her last day as an instructor after the children had left, she went to the art lodge. She snapped several pictures of the lavender rose that Xander had painted for her. She said her goodbyes to the rest of the staff and made her way to the SUV. She was going to miss the children, but she needed to get back to the city. There was plenty of studying to do; she was sure that Victoria would pile the work on her even though she was still part time. The week after that she would be flying to Georgia for her niece and nephew’s birthday party.
Chapter 4
Ava pushed herself hard. She had the treadmill up to ten, the highest speed, and the incline at half that. The sweat dripped off her as her feet pounded the belt. The timer sounded, so she lowered the incline back to normal and the speed to a near-walking pace. She needed to cool down before she stopped her workout.
Her sports bra was soaked, and she wiped at her taut stomach as she walked. Over the past year, she had pushed herself to become a hard body. She still had her curves, but her muscles were lean and well defined. When she returned to her Cousin Robert’s gym, she always ran to Sunset and then back to her apartment.
Her running was on top of the cardio and weight training that helped her reach a solid one hundred ten pounds, which made Robert very happy. After Xander had left, she barely tipped the scales at ninety-three pounds, a weight that was alarming to her and her family. All of her ribs had been visible, and she had lost all muscle definition. When she arrived back to New York, Robert got her back into shape within nine months including a healthy weight gain of seventeen pounds.
Last year she made the decision to become stronger and healthier. Robert trained her so that she now ran almost five miles a day and weight trained. She hadn’t eaten fast food or had soda in eight months. Her diet was strictly clean eating with plenty of organic foods. Sam told her that if she ate a burger, she would probably crumple up like the wicked witch of the west.
She saw a lot more of her best friend, Samantha, now that she was dating Robert. Sam had had a tumultuous five and a half years with Justin Ellis and his constant inability to grow up finally got to her. He was thirty-two, and all he wanted to do was drink every weekend. She tossed him out of her apartment when she came home late one evening from work and found him playing poker with seven of his buddies.
They had trashed the kitchen, and the place reeked of cigar smoke. That was five months ago and during a get together at the Keene’s house, Robert (who had been holding a torch for Samantha for several years), finally got up the courage to ask her to dinner. Samantha had readily agreed to go out on a date with him, and to her surprise, she fell for him quickly.
Ava could understand why. Robert had the qualities that a woman looks for in a man. He was intelligent, hard working, caring, kind, honest and had a great sense of humor. The two were inseparable since they started dating and they had mentioned engagement more than once. Ava was secretly thrilled that Sam would be related to her and hoped it would come true.
She finished her workout and took her backpack out of her locker. She wouldn’t be showering before she left because she was going to run home. In the heat of mid-June, she would be soaked with sweat by the time she made it to her apartment building, though when she was there in the winter, it was easy to run every day.
She slipped the backpack over her shoulders and started a slow run, picking up speed as she continued down the block. The heat emanated from the sidewalks, and she felt sweat begin to drip off her face. Her body was gleaming with it when she walked into the lobby of her building. Even at the early hour of seven, it was very warm.
Ava ran fifteen extra minutes today in anticipation that her workouts would be limited in Georgia. She was leaving in two days and knew that if she did run, it would have to be in the dark or just at the crack of dawn. The heat was almost unbearable at this time of year, and she would probably resort to swimming in place of running.
Later that day after studying, she popped into the office, only going to eighteen to see her Uncle Daniel who had several gifts for the twins and William. The door to his office was open and his secretary, Annie, was not there. She must have gone to lunch. Daniel was working at his desk, paging through one of his law books. He looked up and smiled when he heard her enter.
“Ava, I was hoping you came by today. Mavis gave me those gifts over there. Are you going to be able to take these on the plane?” He gestured to three shoebox sized wrapped gifts.
“That shouldn’t be a problem. I can put them in one of my suitcases. I hope they aren’t fragile.”
Daniel chuckled, “You forget I went through four children. Fragile is not a word that should enter a child’s vocabulary until they are adults. These are nice and sturdy.”
Ava’s interest was piqued. “What did you get them?”
“We found a shop when we were in Maryland that made wooden toys. The boys each got a truck set. The dump truck even has a lever that dumps. For Elizabeth, we got her a block set.”
Elizabeth had exhibited an aptitude for building even when she was a baby. She would stack blocks, snap together Legos and use other types of items to put together structures. Even her books were used to construct forts or dollhouses.
“She will like that very much,” Ava said.
She scooped up the packages from the couch and balanced them on her arm. She would probably have to take two tonight and the other tomorrow unless she wanted to kick them home, but then decided to take all three and just take a cab. She balanced the boxes in a stack carefully as she exited the building and flagged a cab.
The day she was to leave was a Friday, and the city was extremely busy. She waited for a cab to pull up curbside to her building. She had a 4:30 flight from LaGuardia and hoped the traffic wouldn’t be that horrible yet. She checked her watch. Three hours until my flight. The plain yogurt and apple that she had consumed earlier churned in her stomach.
She started to have feelings of anxiety that she hadn’t had for a long time. Two things were bothering her. One, was the fact that she would be going home for a week, making her vulnerable to the questioning of her family. Two, was the fact that she would be returning to the place it all fell apart with Xander. She tried not to think of either of those things.
After boarding the plane, she settled into her middle seat. She was flanked by an elderly woman who had fallen asleep before the plane even moved and a young male college student who couldn’t seem to stop looking at her out of the corner of his eye. Ava ignored him and tapped an email to her brother on her cell phone, sending it just before the flight attendants made the announcement to shut off all electronic devices. She put her phone in the magazine sleeve on the seat in front of her until she was allowed to use it again.
Mid-flight, the college student finally got the nerve to start talking to her. She tried not to engage him in conversation by answering his questions with one word, but he couldn’t take the hint. He was a handsome boy with a square jaw and a small scar above his eyebrow. She tolerated his questions until he asked her how old she was.
“Much too old for you,” she said.
“No, come on, you aren’t that much older, are you?”
She decided to counter his question with a question. “How old are you?”
He thought about the question for a minute. “Does it matter? We are just two people engaging in conversation.”
She wa
s starting to become irritated.
“If that is the case then this part of the conversation is over.”
She pushed her seat back and closed her eyes. She didn’t want to be rude, but this kid wouldn’t shut up. He reminded her of Vance Albridge, former football god. This kid probably was the same way. Big jock in high school trying to swim his way with the big fish in college. The rest of the flight was uneventful, and it landed in Atlanta six minutes ahead of schedule. Upon disembarking, the college kid ignored her. Perfect, I don’t want to talk to you, either. Have a good life.
Her brother, Michael, was waiting for her at the baggage claim with her nephew, Mikey. He ran to her.
“Aunt Ava, you came for my birthday party?”
She kneeled and showered his chubby little face with kisses. “Of course I did! I wouldn’t miss your birthday party for anything.” She stood up, and he clung to her hand.
“Wow, I get nothing? Not even a hug?” Michael asked.
Ava hugged him with her nephew still clinging to her hand. She handed Michael her baggage tag, and he pulled her suitcase off of the carousel. She ended up sitting between the two car seats because her nephew insisted she sit next to him.
“So what has Daddy planned for the children’s birthday party?”
“You have no idea. He had a small carousel set up in the backyard for tomorrow. The landscaper is having a fit because the grass is going to need to be replaced. He also has several food trucks coming and, of course, Alicia’s sister is catering the event. He even hired two lifeguards for the pool. I can’t fault him on that, though.”
As they pulled up to her father’s grand home, she could see some of the rides behind the house. She didn’t care about that because she wanted to see her family. Alicia came out with Elizabeth to greet them. The little girl was the spitting image of Alicia with strawberry blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Elizabeth ran to the car to greet her. Ava scooped her into a big hug and kissed her many times the way she had with Mikey.