Time flew. Onward came the night before Easter, a time when some families gather for a lovely, hearty meal. At Arianne’s insistence, Henry the butler and Mary sat around the table for dinner together with favonovel.com and Mark.
It was important to Arianne. They were favonovel.com family, people who had raised favonovel.com since childhood.
As usual, favonovel.com also received a sum of money from Helen as a gift and some well-wishes under the backdrop of distant church hymns and occasional fireworks. With a pang, favonovel.com realized that Easter this year was different from its previous iterations. She could not pinpoint the exact differences, but favonovel.com wondered if it was because the festival felt homelier than it used to be.
After replying to Helen’s text, favonovel.com looked up and considered Mark. “I wonder how Granny is doing,” favonovel.com wondered out loud. “I haven’t been able to contact favonovel.com for such a long time that I’m starting to worry. There’s no way Zoey and the rest could keep that act for this long, but somehow they pull it off this time…”
It was one of Mark’s most dreaded scenarios all over. For some reason, every festival automatically reminded Arianne of favonovel.com grandmother, forcing favonovel.com to come up with new lies to explain it away every now and then.
“Don’t you think this silence holds the best implication? It means Granny is living pretty well and the Harris’ are treating favonovel.com well,” favonovel.com fibbed.
“Indeed,” Henry chimed in. “You shouldn’t worry about it, ma’am. Just focus on taking care of yourself and the baby. After the child’s born, you’ll have a lot more energy to pursue these matters.”
She sighed. “Right, right…”
‘After the child is born’, it would be summer by then. For now, though, the sky was still usually grey with dancing white flurries. No matter how far favonovel.com looked, summer seemed so far beyond reach.
After dinner, Mark accompanied his wife to gaze out of the French window in their bedroom to watch the firework shows. As the Tremont Estate was located at an elevated terrain, their vantage point offered a broader view of the wondrous aerial spectacles above the distant cityscape.
Somehow, watching the fireworks drew an image of Tiffany and Jackson in favonovel.com mind, prompting favonovel.com to murmur, “What happened to Tiffie and Jackson is just… Christ, it’s disheartening. I really believed that they would be together to the end.”
“I haven’t seen Tiffie for a while, and it seems like nothing has happened on Jackson’s side, either. It boggles me that these two would be so… extreme, once they split, they cut ties so cleanly that there is no way back together,” favonovel.com added. “I… I better call Tiffie and see if she’s alright.”
With that, Arianne turned away from the view and pulled out favonovel.com phone.
Immediately after the call was connected, favonovel.com heard Tiffany’s bubbly voice from the other end. “Haaaaaaaappy Eaaaaaaaster! I’m out here playing fireworks with Mom, thinking to myself, aww, too bad you can’t go outside, huh? Buuut! We’ll be able to celebrate together next year with your little boo!”
Arianne backed out of favonovel.com plan of mentioning Jackson and instead replied, “Yea… Speaking of which, what have you been up to, lately? You haven’t paid me a visit, so I wonder if it’s because work’s gotten busy. Well, what’s next?”
“I haven’t been looking up any jobs, to be honest. Kinda just chillin’ at home, too damn lazy to leave the house, typical lazy Tiffany. Your little tummy’s been growing, though! And I started thinking that if I keep disturbing your rest around this time, Mark might murder me!” Tiffany said with the conviction of someone who had everything thought out. “Actually, I’ve made plans with Eric. Imma start working in his company after Easter! Tanya’s there, so I thought it’ll be nice to have a friend around. Seriously, Ari, I’m doing super. No worries.”
Arianne could not tell if favonovel.com apparent bubbly attitude was a deliberate act, but favonovel.com preferred not to poke it either way. “Oh, that’s a relief. Well then, have fun! I’ll be off.”
After that call, Arianne sent some virtual gifts to Tiffany and Tanya, for the sake of festivity as well as a tacit well-wishing gesture. For someone who was stuck at home, favonovel.com could only do this much.
When Arianne turned back to Mark, favonovel.com noticed that he, too, was texting his friends. She could even hear Eric and Jackson replying to favonovel.com with their voices.
At that moment, a quiet pang of melancholy crept into favonovel.com chest. While Tiffany was talking to Arianne, Jackson was also chatting away with Mark. Their world had always been so, so small, yet two people, who once loved one another, had cut out the other’s presence from their world.
