“Ronni drove me home.” Nick didn’t really know how to begin but he knew that Ronni’s name had to be in the first sentence.
Abby stared at him. Nick wasn’t sure how much of this she was taking in. But it didn’t matter anymore, it had to be said.
“She said that she wanted to talk to me about something. She said she wanted closure.”
Abby wondered why the fact that each of them was married to someone else didn’t provide that.
“But that’s not what she wanted,” said Nick, halting his pacing to look at her. He bore his eyes into Abby’s looking for a reaction. He didn’t get one. “She wanted me,” he continued.
Abby stared back at him but didn’t move or react.
“Except, I don’t think she really wanted me…I think she wanted me to want her. I think she wanted me not to be over her, to still be pining away.” He turned and looked out the window for a minute and didn’t say anything. Then he went back to pacing. “And I kind of wanted the same thing from her. Not that I would…it’s just…I kind of wanted her to regret…losing me, I guess… giving me up…I didn’t want to be the loser.”
Nick chanced a glance at Abby. He thought maybe Abby’s eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch, but otherwise she didn’t move. He took a deep breath and soldiered on.
“Ronni said she didn’t believe in our marriage. She said she’d checked it out…whatever that means. She said she figured it was just a marriage of convenience…for both of us. She said that she was sorry if her marriage to James had caused me to take up with you on the rebound. She said that she understood why you would do it, but she couldn’t understand why I would. She said that she didn’t believe that I loved you…” Nick’s voice trailed off. He stopped pacing and turned to look at his wife.
He waited for Abby to react. She didn’t move.
“…and I couldn’t argue with her. I couldn’t tell her that I loved you…”
Abby waited for her heart to explode. Stay absolutely still, she told herself. It’s your only hope of survival.
“…because I haven’t told you.” Nick paused, then took a deep breath. “And that didn’t seem right somehow, to tell her before I told you…so I just got out of the car and came up here to tell you. I love you, Abby. I don’t want her. I want you. I don’t care about her. I care about you. I love you.”
Abby was still and silent, her eyes wide and staring.
“You are everything to me,” said Nick. “I can’t imagine life without you…you are my heart and my soul…you complete me, you make me whole…I want to be with you forever…” He shook his head in frustration. “Shit, everything I say sounds like song lyrics!” He stopped talking and shook his head again. Then he brushed his hands sideways, palms down, centering himself…once, twice, three times…
“Okay,” he said. “Okay. I know about rule number one and all that, and I don’t care anymore. I love you, Abby, and that’s the way it is. No apologies for that, no going back. I love you.” He waited.
Nothing. Wide-eyed stare.
He took a breath and sighed. “Maybe you would like to say something at this point…”
“No.” It was the tiniest whisper.
“No?” Nick repeated the word, not understanding.
“I don’t want to say anything,” said Abby in a small voice. “I don’t want to move…or even breathe…because if I do, then maybe I’ll wake up…and you won’t be here telling me that you love me.” Her voice broke on the final syllable.
“Uhh…” Nick expelled air, making him realize that he hadn’t actually been breathing for the last few moments. He walked slowly toward her, not taking his eyes from hers. He reached out a hand to her and pulled her to her feet. He cupped her chin gently in his hand. “I will always be here telling you that I love you,” he said, gently.
“Unnhh,” said Abby.
“And maybe some day, you’ll be able to…”
“I love you,” said Abby in a tiny voice. And then louder, “I love you.”
“Really?” asked Nick.
“I love you,” said Abby. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
And in the Myopian treasury room, Princess Penelope threw back the lid on the chest. She danced around the room, her arms conducting the air, as the words drifted up out of the trunk and wafted around her head like music before fading away as Abby whispered them into Nick’s chest.
“I love you. I love you. I love you.”
And then she was whispering them into his mouth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~AJ couldn’t keep still. And he couldn’t keep his eyes off the door leading to the backstage area. Please, oh please, oh please, he begged some invisible deity.
Nick and Abby were late. And Nick and Abby were never late. Well, Nick was…he was late all the time, but Abby…no way, uh uh… Abby was never late. She didn’t believe in ‘fashionably late’…thought it was rude. AJ remembered Nick saying that he was going to have to shape up a bit in that department.
“Calm down, Bone,” said Brian. “What’s the matter with you? Is it the…” He nodded his head at the bar. It was a cocktail party. Every person on the stage had a drink in his hand. There was a bar at either end of the stage and they were both doing booming business.
It took AJ a minute to get what Brian was saying. “Nah, that’s not it. I’m good with that. I wish they allowed smoking in here, though.”
AJ looked at his watch again and then at the door. James and Ronni walked through it, fashionably late. Wow! That was one good-looking woman! And she sure knew how to strut her stuff. AJ watched her look around the room, nodding and smiling at people. She took in everyone on the stage and then a slow, satisfied sneer crossed her lips.
She’s looking for them too, thought AJ. She knows something. As if she read his mind, Ronni turned and looked right at him. She raised her eyebrows in his direction. Take that, Weirdo!
“I gotta go have a smoke,” said AJ. “I’ll be right back.”
He made his way across the stage. It was a slow process. A lot of people wanted to talk to him, to say hello, to say thanks for the music, to shake his hand, to smell him. AJ always found that really odd. People said he smelled good. He didn’t get it, but that’s what they said. And so people... well, women…were always sniffing him, like trying to smell him but not let on that that’s what they were doing. Shit! And people said he was weird!
He was almost at the door when Nick and Abby walked through it. And it was perfectly obvious to AJ why they were late. Abby’s lips were slightly swollen. Someone had been kissing them a lot! Nick held Abby’s hand and looked around the room. And then he leaned down and said something to her, which made her blush and laugh. AJ guessed it was something like, let’s do one quick circuit of the room and then get back to what we were doing. He wasn’t far wrong.
Abby saw AJ looking at them. She pointed her finger at him and mouthed, “You!” Then she walked toward him.
AJ braced himself. He wondered if his name had come up in any discussions they might have had. Abby walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek. She whispered in his ear, “You’re my hero.”
“Really?” AJ stepped back and looked earnestly into her eyes.
“Yes,” said Abby with a small nod. “Really. Thank you.”
“It’s all good?” AJ figured he should quit while he was ahead, but he had to know.
“It’s all very good,” said Nick. He ran his fingers down Abby’s neck and then put his arm around her. She slipped her arm around his waist and leaned her head on his chest. They both sighed. Then Nick kissed her gently on the top of her head.
“Mmm,” said Abby, and then she stepped away from him. “We have to go work the room now. We’ll talk to you later, AJ.”
The happy couple walked away hand-in-hand to schmooze with the crowd. AJ’s eyes roamed the room until they found Ronni. She was staring at Nick and Abby. She felt AJ’s eyes on her and turned to look at him. He raised his eyebrows at her. Take that, Bitch!
And then he bounced back into the throng. He’d have a smoke later. He didn’t want to miss any of this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ronni couldn’t decide if she was in a foul mood or not. “Unzip me, James,” she said, turning her back to her husband.
“You looked fabulous tonight, Darling,” replied her husband, unzipping her dress and dropping a kiss on her neck. “As always.”
“Thank you, Baby. You’re so sweet. Especially since there were so many new women for you to check out…you know, the Backstreet wives.” Kristin and Leighanne were good looking women, thought Ronni. A bit vapid, in Ronni’s opinion, but…each to his own.
“They can’t hold a candle to you, Darling!” said James.
“Even Ducky was looking pretty good,” continued Ronni.
James gave her the look that told her how much he disapproved of the name. “Yes, she was. She was certainly in a good mood. She even hugged me. She’s never done that.”
Now Ronni knew she was in a foul mood. She’d thought she’d won the game when Ducky and Nick hadn’t shown up at the party. Abby hadn’t been the only one in the back hall at the Symphony earlier. Ronni had been there as well. She had heard the same things Abby did and had watched her leave. Ronni had followed her to the door and watched her sit with her head down on the steering wheel for a moment before driving off. Ronni had gone to her car to wait for Nick. She hadn’t had to wait long.
Surely the dumb bitch had figured it out. They must have had words about it. Even in a marriage of convenience…
“What’s this, Darling?”
Ronni looked up to see her husband standing by the dresser. In his hand he was holding a foil packet.
“It was in my jacket pocket,” he said. “I wonder how it got there.”
Ronni knew then that she had lost the game. Not only had Ducky won, she was sending Ronni a very clear message that the game was over.
Ronni ran her tongue across her lips and smiled. “How do you think it got there, Baby?”
James tossed the condom onto the bed and loosened his tie. God, he was a lucky man!
