Chapter 34: In Which She Tries To Clean But He Distracts Her

Aurora looked at the sky and closed her eyes in exasperation.

She saw her mother’s text this morning after she had finished clearing up her clothes from the kitchen, while Theo was still in the shower.

Mother: Call me.

Those two words never failed to suck the life out of Aurora. Suddenly, she recalled how Theo had described his mother and chuckled. Her mother might just be the same.

She ignored the text and read the others.

When she returned to the office at nine, as Theo had miraculously predicted, she dove into her work, ignoring her mother’s text. But it was nagging at the back of her mind, refusing Aurora a sense of peace. By noon, she couldn’t take it anymore.

With a bleak mood, she exited the building, went across the street to the city’s park, took an empty bench in a secluded area and dialed her mother’s number. She answered in a ring and then berated her daughter for taking so long to return a simple call.