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“Hello, Emma.”
Mom lets out a vicious lengthy cough as she ushers me inside the small old house. I’m concerned for her after hearing that gush from within. I knew she was ill, but not this bad. I would’ve jumped on the train and visited sooner if I had an inkling of her true physical state.
As always, Mom has never disclosed how bad she truly is when we’ve talked on the phone. She can be a real stubborn mule when she wants to be.
“You okay, Mom?” I ask as I take a step inside. “You don’t sound so good.”
“I’m fine, Emma. Let’s sit down, my back is aching.”
She brings me into the tiny kitchen at the back of the house. She immediately sits whilst I stand over her, watching her with uneasy apprehension.
“Have you taken your pills for today, Mom?” I ask her.
She waves with a grunt, indicating she hasn’t.
I walk over to the medicine cabinet and sort out the many pills for her. I run her a glass of cold water and bring over the pills in my palm for her to grab. She reluctantly takes them from me and swallows them individually, nearly throwing up each one. Like everything else in this house, the whole process takes a hell of a long time.
“I hate these,” she whimpers. “I really, really hate them.”
“I know,” I reply. “But youneedto take them.”
“Sometimes I conveniently forget to,” she tells me, a little spark of the oldhermomentarily returning only to fade away just as quickly.
“Don’t, Mom,” I say. “That’s not good for you if you forget to do it.”
“I know,” she replies with a smile. “But let’s not talk about me anymore. I’m old and weak and my problems are boring. How about you, Emma? How’s the big city treating you? How’s your job going?”
“Same old,” I say wearily. “Trying to save as much as I can. Cleaning at the hospital. What can you expect that’s new with that?”
Mom reaches out to take my hand. “You were always so good with your dancing,” she says softly. “How about that? Irina and those ballet classes, that was all you were obsessed with, remember? For years and years and years...”
“A long time ago, Mom.”
“Remember that Penmayne family? We thought we had hit a goldmine with that family when they offered us that live-in job? We thought we were set for life; an easy family with an easy, stable job. But how hard was all that? How terrible was it when they let us go in the way that they did? And all because their boy was trying to get into your pants.”
“Yeah. They were one crazy rich family. I’m happy to be rid of them.”
August.
I can’t believe I saw him at the hospital. I can’t believe he’s the new doctor everyone is talking about. I can’t believe I didn’t just wander up to him and slap him across his pretty face for the betrayal he subjugated me to all those birthdays ago.
He didn’t see me when I saw him at the hospital,thank God. He didn’t even look in my direction. Maybe he’s completely forgotten about me - that would be par for the course for an out-of-touch Penmayne with bottomless pockets.
Ha. I was delusional for even thinking he was ever into me for more than just a quick, easy screw. I was simply a novelty in August’s upper-crust world for the entirety of our secret little affair.
Instead of giving him a slap back there at the hospital, I simply walked away from him. I basically ran out of there the moment I laid eyes on the undeniably attractive man. I haven’t had a cleaning shift since, so I haven’t had the chance to run into him again. I still don’t know what I might do to him if he even recognizes me.
Would I freeze or run away or cry or even a combination of all three? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see...
I checked him out on my phone on the train to Mom’s. I stalked him online. I couldn’t help myself. My suspicions were true – he’s some famous pediatrician now. A genius, just as Diana told me.
Of course he is.
He was never far from a medical textbook for all those years. He worked his ass off studying as a teenager. He got himself to this position in life, sogood for him. Genuinely. It’s not surprising that he’s the next cool doctor on the block. He deserves it.
He doesn’t deserve me for that betrayal, though.
He looks the same as he did when we were fresh young teenage adults, just more mature and comfortable in his skin now. The same handsome Penmayne features - that chiseled jawline, the athletic, toned body with the wide shoulders, those steely blue eyes I remember so clearly. Diana had called himhot, and I find it hard to disagree with her assessment, despite my protest. No wonder I was suckered in as a lonely teenage girl to this charismatic Penmayne heir. He was cool, confident, and with the looks to match – a perfect honey trap for any hot-blooded woman.
