All The Men I Have Danced With Are Dead

Another Chapter

3 Months Later

"Aurora!"

Aurora felt as though she was in a bubble, the air was crisp and the sound surrounding her was muffled and distorted as if she was submerged underwater separate from where she was physically. She heard her name being called, the voice penetrated the bubble to arrive in her consciousness as a distorted version of the original.

She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"It has been so long! " The voice attached to the hand said. Aurora followed the length of it to reveal, a well-rounded curly-haired woman in her forties who worked at Aurora Alma Mater at the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies Office and had given her a placement in her office at the time. They had shared a lot in common and curated a strong mentor/mentee relationship, so Aurora wasn't at all surprised when she received an email from her with the subject line " Please be my plus one" less than a week ago with the body of the email asking if she wanted to attend the Women in the workforce gala (WWF). 

Aurora had needed a reason to dress up anyway and she was excited to see her again after almost two years. But when she got to the table and located her name on the cue card, her mentor wasn't anywhere to be found. She was sitting with five other people, two of which she vaguely recognized, not enough to extend her greeting past a casual nod in their direction. The person sitting directly opposite her was a young lady probably no more than fifteen years old, she had that air of teenage rebellion about her, in the way she leaned back on her chair with a disinterested look on her face showed she was forced into attending the Gala. The man to her right was undoubtedly her father, they both had essentially the same face and sported identical scowls. The last was an empty seat, Aurora couldn't see the name placement on account of it being turned in the other direction.

The ceremony started a few moments after she got there. During the opening monologue, the waiters had served a round of white aged wine that tasted nothing short of euphoric. Nearing the intermission, the wine had come around a few more times and Aurora had indulged until the room seemed brighter and the punchlines seemed funnier.

They had finished dishing out a significant portion of the awards when they called for intermission, which was filled with a live band playing a rendition of Beyonce's Who run the world.

" Aurora! it is so nice to see you" The woman who invited her had said when she finally made her way to Aurora's table. Aurora stood up to hug her, her velvet dress rising up a little too far up her thigh and table mate #2 was able to sneak a peek before she quickly adjusted it.

Hi!" Aurora responded with too much enthusiasm on account of the alcohol.

Aurora sat back down and Samantha stood above her as they reminisced in little voices about their time together at the university. Sam had told Aurora about a death in her family and Aurora held her hand tightly. Then Aurora told her about her new job as an editorial intern at a publishing firm and Sam congratulated her with a squeeze on her shoulder. Their conversation lasted about ten minutes. By then, the host had returned to the stage and called for the event to be resumed.

'I love what you did with your make-up,' she said before she started to return to her table, waving her index finger at Aurora's face.

" the blue suits..." Sam started to say again but was cut off by the squeaking sound of a chair against the floor.

Aurora turned around, expecting to see a waiter asking them if they wanted another refill of the magical wine.

But instead, it was Peter... her Peter.. positioning himself on their table.