The Science of Growing Apart

12- Dara

A large wave of relief and accomplishment washed over me the next morning as I hit send on the article at 8:58 the next morning. I don't think I'd been so tired since pulling all nighters in college, due to being up so late and then getting up early enough that morning to be able to edit the article and get ready for work.

Things probably would have gone smoother if Casey hadn't called me last night. It was stupid of me to even answer the call and I regretted it so bad. All it did was complicate things for me moving forward. He really wasn't making this easy for me.

"Did you get the article I sent?" I popped my head into Kim's office ten minutes later, just to make sure it sent. As if I hadn't sent her a million articles in the span of my career at the journal. This one was a big deal to me though, so I wanted to make sure that everything went perfectly.

"Yep," she responded dismissively, not looking up from her laptop screen.

"What did you think?" I continued to prod.

"I'll let you know when I get to it," she said and I understood that I was annoying her, but she always made me feel that way, so I was used to it. Still, I began to exit the office as quickly as I'd welcomed myself in until quickly, her head perked up and she actually looked at me. "What's on your schedule today? I have a hit and run that needs covered."

"I have a meeting soon," I responded, trying my best to work over my schedule in my head and think of a way to maneuver everything so that I could cover this hit and run. It wasn't something that I wanted to write about, but it was just in my nature to people please and I was always eager to get the job done when asked. It was almost physically painful to admit to both myself and Kim that there was no way I'd be able to cover it that day.

"I'll talk to Boris then," she easily moved on without looking miffed at all, not even asking what my meeting was about. Which was a huge relief to me, because I wasn't ready to tell her about the case against Silas. My meeting that day was with Shiloh's mother, and I didn't know how to explain that away without getting into the details of the story I was writing.

I was nervous to meet Shiloh's mom, knowing that I'd have to ask her some awkward questions about her passed sexual history with a married senator. Asking awkward questions was one of the main job descriptions when it came to journalism, so I was used to it, but I still had to mentally prepare.

Shiloh offered to go to the meeting as well, but in the end we decided it might be more comfortable for her mom, whose name is Dara, to talk about these things without her daughter present.

Even without Shiloh there to introduce us, it was easy to find Dara at the cafe. She had the same deep brown hair and soft features as her daughter, and the way she hunched over the table and gripped her mug with white knuckles, I could tell the poor woman was nervous.

"Hi," I introduced myself. "Are you Dara?"

"Yes, I am," she confirmed, barely even looking up at me. "Are you Josie?"

"I am, it's nice to meet you," I said in a gentle voice, as if I was talking to a scared baby deer. "And thank you for meeting with me."

"It's important to Shiloh," she stated, leaning back in her chair. "And when she told me that I wasn't the only one... I guess that made it easier for me to want to get the story out there. Maybe it could help the others."

"I think it could," I offered her optimistically. "Before we start, I just want to let you know that if I ask any questions that you don't feel comfortable answering, just let me know and we'll move on. This is your story, and you get to decide how it gets told."

She nodded in understanding as I flicked open my notepad to the long list of questions I'd scribbled down that I wanted to ask her.

The meeting with Dara lasted so long that my back and butt started to ache from the metal cafe chair, my knuckles were sore from writing everything down so quickly to ensure that I didn't miss anything.

Dara was a lot more open with her story than I expected and like Shiloh, she seemed much lighter after telling it. As if these secrets had weighed her down for nineteen years and she was finally able to release something that she'd been holding onto for so long.

She told me how they met when she was an aide in his office. I thought about Eleanor and Casey, nineteen years ago when Eleanor would have been around 13 or 14 and Casey was only five. My stomach twisted in disgust at thinking about what kind of abuse Eleanor was dealing with in that foster home while her father was out frolicking around with a twenty-something with no regard for anybody other than himself.

Dara explained that she didn't have very many options after getting out of a long term abusive relationship, but Silas made her feel safe and taken care of. Which was ironic, considering the fact that he'd never taken care of anybody in his entire life except for himself. He helped her pay her bills, bought her groceries, and just made her feel safe.

I could tell that she felt the need to justify her actions throughout the entire conversation, as sleeping with a married man in his early fifties is obviously frowned upon. However, I didn't judge her, as I couldn't even imagine what kind of situation she was in at the time. To me, it seemed like she was just doing what she felt like she needed to do.

Apparently, he seemed like a complete gentleman for the five months they spent time together and she was really starting to fall in love, as she believed he was too. Until the positive pregnancy test showed up, and Silas disappeared.

The all-too-familiar cadence of Silas Barkley.

After I asked all of my questions and Dara answered everything that she wanted to, I thanked her again for meeting with me, reminded her that she could always email or text me if she had anything else to add, and we parted ways.

The meeting left me feeling a lot heavier than I thought it would and I was starting to worry that I really was too close to this case to work on it. I felt so angry and so sad for Eleanor, who was clawing her way through life while Silas continued to manipulate young women just to get his dick wet and then discard them when it became inconvenient for him.

Shiloh was lucky that her mom was able to provide a good life for her as a single mom, but Eleanor and Casey weren't so fortunate.

But if things didn't happen how they did, I wondered what would have happened to me? If Eleanor wasn't there to save me from the foster home, what would I have become?

The anger I felt for Eleanor and Casey only fueled me forward more, because I knew that Silas needed a huge wake up call and right now, it felt like I was the only one that could give it to him.

–

On my way home after a very long day of work, I received a new Tinder message. This one was from a guy named Toby who I matched with just a couple of days ago and liked to talk about his dog named Willy. It was actually all he talked about, no matter how hard I tried to change the subject.

I was surprised to see that the text was him asking me if I wanted to go to dinner that night. And when I responded, asking if Willy was coming too, he confirmed that he would not be bringing his dog on the date.

I thought about it for a while, not sure if I should go or not. My mood wasn't great, as I was dealing with a lot of emotionally draining things that day and a first date was always a gamble. If it was a good first date, it could improve my mood and flip my day into a great one. However, if it was a bad date, it would just make my day so much worse.

Toby was cute in his pictures, seemed tall with a lean body and veins snaking up his forearms. He was a teacher, which I found endearing, and being an animal lover was a plus. We'd been talking for a couple of days and he had yet to make a comment about my boobs or wanting to hook up, so he also had that going for him.

I responded to him, asking if we could meet up the next day instead to give me some time to rest and recover from the last twenty-four hours. Toby graciously accepted my counter offer and without skipping a beat, I texted Natalie to inform her of the date as well.

It would be good, I thought, to be able to get my mind off of everything else going on and just relax. Dating wasn't always relaxing, but it could be, if done right.

Instead of going on a date with dog-loving Toby, I returned to my apartment to make pasta with alfredo sauce out of a jar. Tulip loved alfredo sauce, which meant that I had to guard my plate from the fur monster the entire time I ate as she stubbornly pawed at the edges, even catching a noodle in her paw at one point when I grabbed for my drink.