Page 56 of Once a Month

“We do, too,” she says.

“I know. She told me you’re friends.”

“She’ll be back next month.”

“Is she okay? I mean, I know she’s not. That’s a stupid question. Is there anything I can–” I stop myself again. “This is strange. I know you can’t tell me, and I understand, but I want to do something. I need to do something.”

“I don’t think we can tell you any more than that. We didn’t discuss that with her.”

I nod again and say, “Can I do anything? Can I send flowers or something? Shit. I don’t even know her name.”

“You want to send flowers?” the woman asks.

“I don’t know what else I can do,” I say.

They look at each other for a moment.

“Tell us what you want to send, and we’ll take care of it,” the one sitting behind the other says.

“Roses and lilies. I have cash with me. It’s in my purse. Can you… I don’t know. Can you put something generic on the card? I don’t think I have the right to put anything more than that, but I’d like to sign it, at least.”

“With your real name?”

“No, with… Can you sign it from Wall Street?” I ask.

They look at me like I’m crazy. Then, one of them nods.

MONTH 6. PART 2. – It Happens

(POV Escort)

“Are you sure?” my friend asks.

“I can’t go,” I say.

“But the nurse will be here.”

“I know, but she’s worse. The doctors are telling me I should consider hospice care,” I tell her.

“Okay. Well, she comes first,” my friend says.

“I don’t want to miss the event. You know how much I want to go.”

“To see her,” she says.

“The woman that mounted and fucked you to claim you in front of us,” her wife says.

I laugh a little and say, “It was kind of hot, huh?”

“Kind of? It was definitely hot,” my friend says. “God, all four of us on that bed – that’s something I’d like to do again.”

“Me too,” I admit.

“You would?” her wife asks.

“Definitely. I liked watching you guys while she was doing what she was doing.”

“She was marking her territory.”

---