“I’m looking. Now what?” I have a newfound aggravation. I don’t want to think about that prick anywhere near Abby, even if I don’t know the details of their relationship. I can tell he isn’t making her happy. A perverse part of me hopes he can smell me on her bedsheets. That is the only thing making me smile at the moment, until I frown, hoping he doesn’t get near the bedsheets to begin with.
Maddie glowers at me and makes like she might smack me upside the head, forcing me to shy away from her. It’s a wonder I take the beating from her as I look back out at the beach from behind the heavy drapes lining the open windows on my deck.
“Wait for it, dear.” Maddie stands there with her arms crossed over her chest, and we wait and wait and wait. Once a solid ten minutes pass, I turn around and go back into my kitchen. I open the fridge and pull out a cold beer, slamming the door shut. I don’t care what time it is—I need this. “I thought for sure… I was so positive that…” Maddie looks stunned and as upset as I’m feeling on the inside. “Oh, Roman, I’m so sorry, my boy. I thought for sure he was coming to break up with her.”
“He could have called her from LA.” I chug the beer down pissed off wiping my mouth clean before crinkling the can and tossing it in the recycle bin.
“I suppose.” She fidgets and I know she means well, heck she even warned me to stay away, but I didn’t listen.
“It wasn’t meant to be, that’s all.” Attempting to brush it all off, I shrug my shoulders and pick up the paper, pretending to read the local articles. I’m waiting for Maddie to leave me in peace until my next job in town forces me to leave my house. I feel heavy and bloated by pain I didn’t think I could feel for Abigail. From now on, I’ve hardened my heart once again. Spoiled LA brats have no place in my life.
ABIGAIL
Feeling hot and drained from my trek up the dune to the cottage, I pace, trying to cool off in the air conditioning. “I’m not doing this with you, Lucas.” I’m pretty sure I’m making the right decision, but my headache is getting worse by the minute.
“I just figured you’d need some time—that’s why I said what I did. You’re really blowing this out of proportion. I can’t believe you assumed we were breaking up. Babe, seriously?” Lucas stomps around the cottage, ignoring me as we avoid physical contact with each other. I’m speechless about this whole situation. His linen lounge outfit seems a bit ridiculous for the Pacific Northwest and the differences between Lucas and Roman loom in the realm of football fields of distance.
“Oh, I don’t know. I mean, you totally bailed on me coming up here in the first place, and now you show up out of the blue. I just don’t know what to think.” As I cross my arms over my chest, Lucas looks at me, shaking his head, eyes narrowed, assessing. It’s his expression saying he somehow finds me lacking that sends my level of frustration to nuclear. Argh! He opens the refrigerator and turns back to give me a knowing look—like I failed at this too.
“Damn, Abs, not even a decent beer or wine in here?” I cringe when he uses that nickname, like I’m supposed to just give in. I hear bottles clink together when he slams the door shut.
“Sorry, I’ve been busy.” Muttering, I try willing away this headache, which should be named Lucas-the-never-ending hurricane. I slouch down onto a loveseat in the living room before looking up. Nope, he’s still here, and a groan come from me.
“Obviously,” he snarks, and I wonder if our once placid relationship will spiral into something ugly—probably, because now I just don’t feel like complying and making nice.
I lean over as the pain builds, holding my head in my hands. “You know what? Just leave. Now.” I can’t do this with him. I don’t want to. What I really want is outside this cottage and probably pissed as hell at me.
“Excuse me?” I can see his feet standing in front of me and his overpowering cologne mixes with the sweet smell of ocean and freedom.
“I think you heard me, Lucas. I don’t typically stutter statements of fact. I don’t even want to pretend to do this anymore.” The pain inside my head spurns me to continue through with it. My resolve to be free of him renews Go me!
“What the fuck, Abs? I just drove an entire day damn it to work this out with you. Please, Abigail.” Speaking softly, Lucas leans down on his haunches and uses his hand to lift my chin.
“I’m sorry you wasted your time then,” but what I’m most sorry about is the time I wasted, though I say nothing more.
For a second I almost contemplate giving in, and then my phone rings. “Don’t answer that,” he says, and I see him dart his eyes around nervously.
Ignoring him, I walk over to where I’d dropped my purse and take out my phone, which has rung three times now. One more and it will go to voicemail, so I pick it up. “It’s Leah,” I tell him. He spins around, not looking at me as I answer her call. “Hey, Leah, what’s going on?”
My sister and I are not particularly close for a plethora of reasons, one being her general disdain of me. “Is your boyfriend there?” Leah’s icy greeting lacks a hello or a ‘hey how are you, sister, who up and left LA in the dead of the morning?’ Yeah, we’re not terribly close. She takes after my dad and doesn’t rank on my list of people to regularly confide in.
Distracting Leah into talking about her self-absorbed self might work. “Uh, I’m not sure what you mean, Leah. What’s going on? Is everything okay with dad? I heard you got a new case to work on.” Not that I wanted to talk about dad or work, but I want to talk to Miss Judgmental about Lucas even less. I feel this weird pit in my stomach when Lucas finally turns to look at me. I didn’t think anyone knew about our relationship, the one we tried so hard to keep quiet and professional.
“Oh come on, we all know you and Lucas are together,” she says with disgust. “Just put him on the phone.” Leah has a hardness that’s just typical for her. I come from a family of hard-asses, but she kind of takes the cake. Sighing, I hand the phone to Lucas. I guess I don’t have to worry about explaining to my dad why I’m seeing someone who works at the firm now. Or was seeing, considering how this is all blowing up in my face currently. So much for easing them into this. I’m not sure if the disappointment will be in my secret-keeping or because Lucas wasn’t born into my dad’s golf club.
“Leah wants to talk to you.” Lucas takes the phone from my numb fingers and walks outside. I hear some yelling and I’m confused by his demeanor and even more so when he comes back inside and is racing around picking up things like his wallet and car keys. “Lucas, what’s going on? What aren’t you telling me?”
“It’s complicated, Abs.” He seems to be in his own little world and our relationship troubles are quickly dismissed.
“Complicated, how?” Even more curious is this whole situation.
“Your dad has me working on a case with Leah and things are… intense. I left a shit-ton of unfinished work to come up here, just for you.” Lucas doesn’t look at me and I know. I just know. Fuck him and his lectures, making me feel guilty about whatever was happening with Roman on our ‘break.’ Intense my ass. Lucas has always been and always will be a shitty liar. It’s one of the reasons he could never bluff through a discussion on the debate team.
“Intense how?” I don’t want to think about this. My stomach is rolling.
“Abs, let it go and just come home,
please. We can work things out at home.” Lucas cares more about moving up in the world, and now I see it.