If I was in Chicago right now, what would I be doing?
Nick told his first lie to the Boys about the whole thing, when he let them believe that he was going to Chicago. He found out when all the others were leaving town. Then he told them that his flight was later and that he’d booked a limo to the airport. Thanks, Bri, but I’m sure you’d rather spend the time getting ready to blow town with the wife and kid. He ushered them all off and then he retreated to his room to spend the weekend with Abby.
I’ve got the weekend off, he told her. Let’s pretend I’m there. What would we do?
Am I picking you up at the airport?
Yes, please, and wear your hat.
LOL! You nut.
I love that hat.
So you’ve said. When are you arriving?
Tonight. Where will I stay?
You want me to have John and Sharon throw a cot up in the garage, or would you like a hotel?
Hotel, please! LOL!
The Hyatt down on the waterfront is nice. http://chicagoregency.hyatt.com
Thanks.
While she waited for him to check out the site, Abby checked it out too, wondering if he would like it, what he would find interesting. She also wondered what the hell was going on. He was going to pretend to have a weekend in Chicago? A virtual weekend? And she was the virtual tour guide?
Yeah, that looks good. Okay, I’m all checked in. Let’s go out to dinner.
What do you feel like?
Well, it’s a weekend away from work, so screw the diet. LOL!
Okay, want to pig out on pasta?
Yeah, that sounds good.
Maggiano’s then. Check it out. http://www.maggianos.com/locations/detail.asp?sid=001%2E025%2E0047
She went to get a glass of wine from the mini-fridge she had in her sitting room. She knew that he would take awhile to peruse the menu selections. Maggiano’s was a big platter restaurant. You went with six people and you ordered three dishes. It wouldn’t be very realistic for two of them, but this was all pretend, after all. Or maybe he’d like to invite a couple of virtual friends along.
Nick approved heartily of Maggiano’s and they discussed menu choices. It was a lot of fun, thought Abby, if only it weren’t the weirdest thing she’d ever done in her life.
After dinner, they went for a drink in the hotel lobby bar and then Abby went home. But not before Nick had arranged for her to pick him up in the morning and take him on a tour of the city sights.
Okay, I’ll see you around ten.
Sure. Goodnight.
Goodnight.
Monty signed off at 10:38 p.m.
Abby sat for a long time staring at the computer screen. What the…? Had he been drinking? He seemed lucid and his typing didn’t have any more mistakes than it usually did. But…it was so odd. And was she really supposed to ‘pick him up’ at ten?
Why are you questioning it, Abby? It was fun. So what if it was weird! It was fun. Go online in the morning and if he’s there, great! and if he’s not, just remember that tonight was FUN!!!
She stared at the screen for a couple more minutes, and then with a sigh, she picked up a pencil. If he was going to be there in the morning, she’d better have some things to show him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Nick looked down at the yellow pages of notes. He had given up on hotel stationery and bought a ruled pad like Kevin’s. He’d transferred all of his notes about Abby to it, writing a neat point-form list. Then he’d started a new one, entitled ‘Chicago’.
Nick tapped the pencil on his teeth. He wondered why he was doing this. He had gone on-line – God bless the Internet! – and he had a flight number with time of arrival and departure for his “weekend”. He found one that left after everyone else and got back before them. He had a hotel and he’d had a nice dinner. He had copied the name Maggiano’s carefully. He wasn’t sure how to pronounce it. He wrote ‘how say?’ beside it to remind himself to ask Abby for a phonetic pronunciation.
Nick furrowed his brow. Why was he pretending he was in Chicago? Why didn’t he just say to Howie that he was going to L.A. and that yeah, the email thing was okay, but it wasn’t really a romantic thing, just friends. Nick sighed. You know the answer to that, Bonehead. Because then they would all start trying to find you a woman, a girl, a date, whatever.
And he just wasn’t interested. He stopped and thought about that. He just wasn’t interested. Yeah, that was it all right! He was perfectly content to be woman-free for the moment. Playing with Abby on the email and AIM was all he needed right now. Sure, he wouldn’t mind getting laid occasionally, but it wasn’t worth it when you had to deal with all the baggage that came with it. And what were hands for, after all?
He shut down the computer and went to bed, wondering where he’d take Abby for lunch the next day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~9:45 a.m.
Abby stared at the computer screen and the clock, her head swiveling from one to the other. Should she log in early and make it look like she’d been there forever…not just coming on-line for their supposed date…or would that make it look like she’d been hanging around waiting for him? Give your head a shake, she told herself. How will he know how long you’ve been online? She logged on at 9:50, opened up her AIM and her email, unaware that a little voice in the back of her head was whispering a prayer, Please, please, please.
Nick wasn’t on AIM, but there was an email from him. It was timed at 9:38 EST.
Hey, Abby!
I’m just getting in the shower. Don’t forget our date at ten.
Abby swallowed hard at the image of Nick in the shower. Then she wondered if he meant ten o’clock his time (Eastern) or hers (Central). She looked around the room. She had everything ready. Her little fridge in the corner was stocked with bottled water and white wine. A bowl of fruit sat on top of it. On the table next to it was a kettle and all the fixings for tea. A box of crackers and one of cookies completed the snack arrangements. Abby smiled. She could stay here all day if she wanted.
Hey, Abby!
Nick came online at 10:01, her time. And for the next two hours, Abby showed him Chicago. It was a fascinating technical experience for both of them, bouncing between the Internet and AIM. Abby would give him a website about an historical building or something. Nick would go there and while he was looking at the picture, Abby gave him some quick facts over AIM. She was unaware that he was taking notes.
Chicago is a beautiful city, architecturally-speaking, and Nick saw a lot of buildings and learned a lot of history. It was fascinating…not boring at all, like he thought it might be.
After an hour of buildings, Nick asked about shopping.
The Magnificent Mile, responded Abby.
Say what?
Abby explained that a long stretch of Michigan Avenue – it wasn’t really a mile, but it was close – held all the famous name-brand stores. She named a few. This time it was Nick who clicked in a website.
Let’s go shopping.
http://www.oldnavy.com/asp/home.html?wdid=0
This was a little trickier. Clicking back and forth between the pages of the website got them very confused. Look at the t-shirts. All I see are blouses. No, that was one page back. Go here.
Finally, Nick resent the original website and said, follow me. He led her through the pages step by step and then said:
There. Buy that blue one. What size are you?
Oh, that’s not me, replied Abby. Medium.
Yes, it is. It will look great on you.
Maybe if I had…
There was a long pause before she completed the sentence and hit Send. …a bust.
Maybe if I had a bust.
There was an even longer pause.
It will look great on you.
Hello! Flat-chested, here! Nothing!
They’re not nothing. They’re…
Tiny? Miniscule? Teensy?
No, they’re compact.
There was a long pause. Nick wondered if he’d offended her. Then came the response.
Omigod. I am laughing so hard I think I hurt myself.
Sorry. LOL!
My mother is probably going to knock on the door and demand to know what all the shrieking is about.
There was a very long pause.
What will you say?
I’ll tell her to go away and mess up somebody’s else’s life for a change. No, seriously…
He waited.
I’ll tell her I’m IMing with a friend.
So she doesn’t know who I am?
And now Abby told her first lie. Even though it was a teeny, tiny half-lie.
No.
It doesn’t matter. You can tell her.
No, it’s okay.
There was another long pause.
I want you to buy the shirt.
Get over it, Nick.
It’s your favorite color.
Keep this up and you’re not getting any lunch. And we WERE going to go to Water Tower Place.
What’s that?
Abby explained the layout of the fast food area at Water Tower Place, a seven-story shopping mall in the heart of the Magnificent Mile. The food area was sort of gourmet-fast-food. Abby figured Nick would love it.
brb bathroom
Abby took the cue from Nick and raced to the bathroom. She had had several cups of tea over the morning’s journey.
In Atlanta, Nick furiously typed in credit card and delivery information. Thank God, I took notes, he thought, running his finger down the page to her zip code.
Abby dropped back into the chair and waited. It was several minutes before she read…
Okay. Let’s do lunch.
