****
When I woke up the next day, it was nearly noon. I rubbed my eyes as they adjusted to the bright California sun coming in through Ari’s window. It was a beautiful day. Ari was nowhere in sight but I couldn’t blame him for getting on with his day without me. I climbed out of bed and stumbled my way into the kitchen. August and the family, Ari included, were all in there, but no one noticed me come into the room. They were all caught up in a conversation about something and I was too sleepy for any of their words to be coherent. I yanked a spoon out of the drawer and shoved it into some creamy peanut butter. I flipped the spoon into my mouth and turned around, they had stopped talking and everyone was staring at me.
“What?” I mumbled, taking the spoon out of my mouth. “I’m hungry; haven’t you guys ever seen anyone eat peanut butter before?”
“How long have you been up, Ava?” Aggie asked me, tilting her head to the side. Her tone was one that someone might use when speaking with a toddler.
“I dunno. . .thirty seconds maybe. Why? What’s going on?”
“Oh, nothing. . .we just didn’t see you come in, that’s all.” Her patient tone remained.
I finished my peanut butter and put the spoon in the dishwasher.
“Ok, well here I am. I’m going to sit at the piano now and then I am going to take a shower, just so you know.” I said, mocking Aggie’s tone but adding my own attitude. I walked past them towards the living room.
“You sure about this, Ari?” August said in a whisper and everyone burst into laughter.
Once my attitude ebbed, I found everyone had relocated to the pool so I took up residence on a deck chair and worked on my tan for the rest of the afternoon.
Ari had The Beastie Boys playing through the speakers, and after winning a round of pool volleyball, he dried off and stretched out in the chair next to me.
“So have you decided where we’re headed yet?”
“Yeah, I think I have,” I answered, nodding my head.
“Are you comfortable with August, Rory and Julia coming along?”
“Sure, I don’t think I have a choice; they decided everything without me yesterday.”
“Yeah, that sounds about right.” I said with a smile. “Well, I still have my home in Montréal. I sent an email to the caretaker yesterday and he is going to have it ready by Monday.”
“Canada?”
“Mmm hmm. It’ll be nice, and quiet. It has three bedrooms and it’s really close to downtown. You’ll love it, I promise.”
Ari took my hand, “I’d love anywhere as long as you were there with me, but Rory is going to be so disappointed. I think he has his heart set on someplace warm and sunny.”
“Ha!” I laughed looking around, “Tell him to stay home then.”
“Yeah, no joke,” Ari gave a smile. “So when do we leave?”
“Well, I guess we can fly out on Sunday. I’ll book the flight tonight.”
“Ok,” he agreed. “When were you going to tell me you owned a three-bedroom home in Montréal?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Actually, I had kind of forgotten I had it. Margaux doesn’t even know about it, so don’t tell her where we are going. My mother had left some documents to be disclosed to me when she passed away. In her notes, she told me not to mention the house, so I never did. I am going to sell it this fall when we leave. I don’t have any use for it anymore, I guess.”
“Am I going to have to learn French?”
“You should learn French! But no, you’ll be ok as long as you take me or August everywhere you go.”
“August, yay,” Ari said sarcastically and I laughed.
“What’s wrong with August?”
“Nothing, I’m joking. August is a pretty nice guy really.”
“Yeah, he is. Look Ari, I know you are unhappy with the fact that we lived in the same flat together and I totally get that. I would probably go ape shit if I heard you were living with some girl. I should have told you about the arrangement, but August saved my sanity along with my life. He’s a good guy and he’s a terrific friend. I can’t just walk away from that now.”
Ari began stroking the tally marks on my left wrist. “You don’t have anything to apologize for; I just wish I could have been the one that was there for you.”
I looked down at my wrist remembering all of the horrible things I had done. A cold shiver ran down my spine.
“Are you ever going to tell me what happened?”
I shook my head no. I took my wrist out of his hands and covered my tattoos up with my other hand. “I can’t tell you what I did, Ari; I’m sorry.”
I had never told Ari any details of what had happened that night on the beach with Kakos No. 1 and No. 2. The only story he knew is what was on the news -- and that had been all wrong. I did horrible things and I have had to relive them every night in my dreams. There was not a night that went by that I didn’t see No. 5’s skin melt from his face, or feel No. 3’s blood running down my hands as I sliced his thick neck open. There was no way I would allow Ari to be haunted with these images.
“I love you, Ari, but there are just some things I can’t talk about.”
He kissed me tenderly, “I understand, but if you ever need to talk, I want you to know that I will always be here.”
“I know.”
He paused for a moment and stared straight at my toe. Ari’s mouth turned into a little ‘O.’
“What?” I asked with a giggle.
“Is that what I think it is?”
I looked down at my foot and wiggled my toes. Ari had finally found my second freckle – took him long enough. He pulled my leg up onto his lap and kissed the little freckle. Then to my surprise, he slid my little toe into his mouth. My body has never reacted so immediately to any touch like that ever before. My back arched and my body squirmed. I let out a loud giggle. I could feel his touch throughout my whole body.
“Hey! Hey!!”
I kept giggling and squirming and Ari refused to stop. Neither of us was paying attention to Andy and Aggie as they hollered at us.
“Hey, you two -- stop it!” But Ari kept on until suddenly we were hit with what felt like a bucketful of water. Cold water.
“Lauren is down here! Let’s have a little decorum.” Andy scolded us.
Aggie climbed out of the pool, grabbed a towel, and sat next to Ari. Apparently, she felt as though we were in need of a chaperone.
“What has gotten into you?” she demanded of her son.
“I’ve been hunting for that little thing down there on Ava’s toe,” and he pointed to the freckle, “for nine months. I finally found it and I was celebrating.”
“Well, congratulations, Ari,” Aggie said and rolled her eyes.
“Oh, don’t congratulate me just yet. I’m not finished. If my memory serves me correctly, there is still one more freckle out there.”
Aggie tilted her head back and laughed.
“Ari, she is in the tiniest bikini ever. If you can’t see the freckle right now, you’re going to have to take her inside and look for it behind closed doors.”
He groaned and leaned back in his chair. “Not today, Mom.”
I shot them both a dirty look and wrapped a humongous towel around my body. My bikini wasn’t that small.
Once everyone cleared out of the pool, we sat on the deck and watched Andy cook on the grill. I told Julia, Rory and August that we were leaving on Sunday. Ari was right; Rory was disappointed when he found out that we were going to Canada. I tried to convince him to stay home but he refused. August, on the other hand, was very excited to be returning to a French speaking country. We sat out on the patio and ate together -- Ari, Andy, Aggie, Lauren, August, Rory, Julia, Nick, Gianna, and Thais. My family, the people I love the most in the world.