From a Distance

Sarah and Matt’s break up had come as a shock to me.  It stemmed from Sarah being at Matt’s house, and Matt was showering.  His phone had lit up with an incoming call from his ex-girlfriend, whose name Sarah happened to know.  She didn’t answer, however, she did get curious and opened his texts and read a quite lengthy text conversation that had occurred between the two of them that spanned over a week and a half or so.  The conversation wasn’t outright sexual, but there was subtle flirting with an open ended invitation from her for them to have dinner which he hadn’t turned down.  She was mad at the inappropriate conversation, and he was mad she had read his texts.  It blew up from there and they broke up and neither had spoken since.  Sarah was feeling guilty and felt that it was her fault, and she shouldn’t have read the messages. 

I tended to lean towards the side of my bestie, and be fiercely loyal to her, and said Matt shouldn’t have been text-humping his ex-girlfriend.  Maybe a little extreme wording... but maybe halfsies true.

After she had shared all this with me, I unfortunately had let my mind wander that night while in bed, and started imagining all the more-than-likely-inappropriate conversations Aaron was having in the name of his job, and I shuddered.

But that was a week ago. 

And the thoughts were still present.

My phone rang and it was Detective (Brad) Stratton.  He asked me to come and speak with him down at the station. 

Once I got there, he didn’t waste any time cutting right to the point.

“Did you see Aaron recently?”

I gulped.  “Yeah... I was planning on coming and telling you about it, I just got busy.  I’ve had a lot on my mind.”

“I’m not mad,” he quickly said.  “I understand why you would tell me, but unless his cover was blown, you would’ve had no reason to come speak with me immediately, I suppose.”

“Aaron and I did talk.  And he told me to tell you.  I was just scared of the repercussions for him, that he might get pulled if I did.”

“Oh, no, Aleah.  He’s in way too deep.  He’s not getting yanked out, yet.  But I do need to make you aware that the main person of interest that Aaron is after is trying to have one of the other undercovers find you.  It’s being handled, so you shouldn’t have anything to worry about, but I would avoid Omaha in case you run into them again.”

I looked down at my hands, fidgeting in my lap. 

Brad leaned over and patted my shoulder.  “Keep your chin up, kid.  I know this is hard for you.  And I can already tell that you want to run out to Omaha and try to run into him again.  Don’t do it.  It won’t help the fake id that was created for you.  You were just visiting here and live in Florida.  I’m telling you this, just in case you do run into them again.  Your name is Kim Smith.”

I smiled at him.  “You guys could’ve chosen a better name for me at least.  Kim Smith?” I wrinkled my nose.

“Hey, we needed something very generic that would be next to impossible to search and find out that it really isn’t you.”

“Got it.”

“So tell me what happened with Aaron.”

I detailed what happened, only glossing over the bathroom experience (we met in the bathroom, and, um, talked briefly... and stuff).  Brad laughed when I told him my last exchange with the Tito guy.

We briefly touched base about Luke’s case.  Trial was officially scheduled for February.  For now.  It kept getting delayed.

Before I left, Brad made me promise to not go to Omaha, and if for some reason I had to, I was supposed to take Sarah, since she was my “cousin,” and Brad wanted to come along as my dad.  I told him I’d avoid it, and let him know if for some reason I couldn’t.

Even though I was still struggling with Aaron not being around, after speaking with Brad, I felt more secure knowing that I was being looked after from a distance.