“Aurora, you will be fine. I promise,” Tessa said. “Besides, you have me again, and I am not going anywhere.”
“That is true,” Aurora said. “You are someone who is not feeding me, per se, but feeding my soul.”
“What is that?”
“Well, I know I have to be stronger to get back at him. Gannon keeps trying to contact me, but I ignore his calls, voicemails, texts, and Facebook messages.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“I don’t know. I just enjoy torturing him for my own benefit,” Aurora said. “I want him to know I am ignoring him because out of everything in the world, Gannon hates nothing more than being ignored or not being in control.”
“Does it actually make you feel better?” Tessa asked.
“I want to feel better about this, but I can’t. I feel nothing, Tessa.”
Chapter 6
Aurora was in the hospital for a week. She got on some new medication and saw a counselor while she was there, and they put her in contact with a domestic abuse center that helped people who went through what Aurora did. The center was Domestic Abuse Intervention Services, a non-profit organization in Madison, known as DAIS.
DAIS was important to Aurora because she started to meet with a support group from the organization, which was one of the many services they offered.
--
A few days after getting out of the hospital, while Aurora was engulfed in her work, a mutual friend of Aurora and Gannon’s reached out to Aurora. He was tall and slim with green eyes and sun-kissed skin. Melih, pronounced Mel-lee, would come over for house parties at Aurora and Gannon’s townhouse on occasion, but would never drink. He was from Istanbul, a highly populated city in Turkey. Though some people from Turkey did not practice Islam, Melih did. He liked the spirituality that religion made him feel and he thought alcohol would get in the way of that. Many people respected him for it. Aurora always did. She respected it more after the doctor she was seeing, after she left the hospital, told her to stop drinking with her anxiety medication.
Melih called Aurora before lunch.
“Hey, Melih.” Hmm... I wonder why he’s calling.
“Hello, Aurora,” Melih said. “How are you?” When he talked, it sounded mellifluous, as if honey were dripping from his lips. Whenever he would say a vowel, it sounded similar to a French melody in your ear. His words were soft, but with a strong undertone. Aurora thought he had a lovely accent when he spoke.
“I am fine,” Aurora said. “How are you?”
“I am good,” Melih said. “I’m on my lunch break now.” He was a successful petroleum engineer.
“Oh, nice. Me too.” She said as she stared at her small bottle of nutritional protein she had been sipping on since the morning.
“Dat is good. I am sorry for vhat Gannon did, but I have to say, I'm not surprised he did it.”
“That doesn't make me feel better.”
“It really upset me the way I saw Gannon treat you at your house that night you vere going to play guitar for us,” Melih said. “I am sure you remember.”
“Unfortunately, yes, I do.” Aurora sighed.
What Melih said reminded Aurora of that night. She had tried to get everyone to snap their fingers to the same beat, but it was a struggle for everyone to get the beat down.
“Aurora, you’re horrible. Just stop,” Gannon said bluntly. Everyone stared at Gannon. The room became quiet.
“But I just want everyone to –” Aurora started, her voice barely a whisper.
Gannon cut her off, “Aurora, don’t make me repeat myself. Just stop.”
Aurora inhaled a big gulp. A tear fell down Aurora’s face and she felt the hair rise on her arm.
Everyone urged her to keep going, but she was already too embarrassed.
She swallowed her pain and tears like she always did from Gannon.
Melih continued the phone conversation, “Vell, before that, he was so focused on the girls arriving, as vell.” Aurora rolled her eyes
Melih continued, “He kept telling me to keep calling the girls because he was eager for them to arrive.” Aurora recalled that one of the girls was Shazzy.
“Well,” Aurora said. “That makes sense.”
“How is dat?”
“Well, my mom always says, ‘love is blind, but the neighbors aren’t,’” Aurora said. “I finally know what she means.”
“I guess so.”
“Yeah.”
“I have to tell you some-ting,” Melih said. “I vanted to tell you for a vhile.”
"What's that, Melih?"
Aurora's heart started to beat fast. She thought Gannon had done something else. She felt a knot in her stomach.
Tiffany knocked on Aurora’s office door. “Ms. Tousey, you have a work lunch to get to.”
“Vhat?” Melih said.
“Oh, I am sorry!” Aurora said. “I have to go. I am late for a meeting. Talk later?”
“Okay, dhen,” Melih said.
--
She expected that Melih would tell her something horrible. Though, Aurora thought it was hard to top all of the things Gannon had already done. She assumed Gannon had been cheating on her for a while, and Melih would break the news to her. Aurora wasn’t sure why she cared so much. Do I enjoy this pain?I don’t understand.
Aurora wanted to forget about Gannon, but she knew she would have to go through with the divorce eventually. She knew she couldn’t go back to Gannon. The divorce wouldn’t be too hard on legal terms because they got a prenuptial agreement before the wedding. Gannon was from old southern money and Aurora was from a working-class family. Though Aurora didn’t want his money, she signed it to prove to him and his family that she loved him for him.
Chapter 7
Aurora started to move on with her life and forget about Gannon. She was still staying with Tessa. Aurora would spend most nights reading by herself or watching romantic comedies on Netflix with Tessa. She had seen every single one, even the one-star movies. She was trying to distract herself as best as she could. She wanted to message her friend Melih to see what he wanted to tell her, but she didn’t want to pry or annoy him. She also realized that if it was any information about Gannon cheating, it would only make things worse and all of her progress would be purposeless.
Aurora had not been out in weeks since she found Gannon with Shazzy, until one afternoon when Tessa sent a text to Aurora while Aurora was at her desk editing an article for her magazine. She kept staring at her protein shake on her desk and forcing herself to drink it. I am so sick of the taste of this, she thought as she swallowed down the lukewarm butter pecan-flavored drink. She heard her phone ding.
"Hey, you want to go out tonight?" Tessa said.
"No, not really…"
Aurora thought about how she had been sulking for months and wanted to dress up and feel pretty again. What do I have to lose?
Aurora took another sip of her protein shake.
Aurora hesitated, "You know what, yeah, let's go out, but I want to remind you that I cannot drink alcohol because the doctor said it does not mix well with my anxiety medicine."