‘There you are, Mom,’ said Violetta. ‘Gorgeous.’
She tidied up her mother’s bedside table and the things that Grace had brought in from her mother’s apartment.
Violetta had spent all day and evening at the hospital, trying to make up for leaving Birdie alone and vulnerable to the prying media. She had spent thirteen hours straight by Birdie’s bedside. She read to Birdie, talked. Napped in the uncomfortable chairs and rubbed her mother’s feet, something she remembered her mother had loved when Violetta was a child.
She remembered Birdie’s words to her. ‘You have such lovely hands, Violetta, as though they are separate from the rest of you, wanting to do something else. I can feel their energy when you use them. I look forward to seeing what they will create, my darling.’
What had she done with those hands? Nothing so far, she thought.
Standing up and stretching, she spoke to the ever-silent Birdie. ‘Mom, I’m going to stretch my legs, back soon.’
She wandered up the quiet hallway towards the light of the nurses’ station. All the patients were asleep and there was an eerie silence in the night compared to the day, thought Violetta. Leticia and another nurse were sitting at the station.
‘Hey, how are you? Your mom need anything?’ asked Leticia.
‘No, thanks,’ smiled Violetta, and she walked to the large collection of magazines on the table nearby to search for something new to read.
Leticia continued her conversation with the nurse. ‘Well, he must have a girlfriend now. The man’s wearing Prada. I know because I saw the label in his tie.’
Violetta smiled as she leafed through an old copy ofGood Housekeeping.
‘It’s no one here, he must have met her online,’ said the other nurse.
‘I saw that, Judy from emergency showed me. What does a handsome man like that need to go online and search for a lady friend for? I tell you, it makes no sense.’
Violetta started to listen closely. Jeff online? What?
Leticia continued. ‘Nobody’s gonna say anything here but a few of the nurses who are already members have sent him kisses or butterflies or whatever they send. He’s probably got hundreds of emails now.’
Violetta suddenly felt jealous of nameless women with email addresses who had a direct line of contact with Jeff.
The other nurse spoke. ‘He seems quite sweet in his profile description. If I wasn’t married, I would go for it.’
Leticia laughed. ‘You and the rest of New York City, baby.’
The phone rang, interrupting their conversation, and Violetta walked back to Birdie’s room.
Jeff online, looking for a partner, it made her somewhat sad and yet fascinated.
‘Mom, I’m going now,’ she said in the darkness. ‘I have to go and do some research. I love you.’
She kissed her mother and wondered if her hand was in the same position as it had been before, or was she imagining that it had moved? Probably imagining it, she thought as she rushed back to her apartment. The idea of Jeff being online was too tempting not to snoop on, she thought.
But which site? Leticia and her cronies didn’t mention it. She remembered them saying something about kisses or butterflies. Once inside, she didn’t even take off her coat, instead grabbing her laptop and opening it up, searching for internet dating sites. Jesus, there were hundreds of them, she thought as she trawled through them.
Butterflies, she thought and typed into the search engine, ‘Butterflies, internet dating, New York.’
A new search came up and then she sawTogetherforever.com
Terrible name, she thought, as she clicked on the link.
Typing into the site’s search option, she thought about Jeff and filled in the particulars, guessing his height, weight… star sign? She realised she knew nothing about him. A list of potential candidates came onto the screen and Violetta scrolled down them. Twenty pages, she read. Shit.
Trawling through them, she thought she found him a few times but was disappointed. Why did men put up photos of themselves where they have clearly cut out their old girlfriend? And why did men allow themselves to be photographed in front of a cat scratch pole?
Violetta briefly thought she could make a living giving advice to men online about their profile pictures, but had just decided against it as a photo of Jeff came up.
White T-shirt, smile, backpack, Machu Picchu in the background. The travel photo didn’t thrill her but seeing his lovely face online made her smile. Trying to click on the link to read more, she realised that she would have to sign up to continue into the site further.
