They took a deep breath and headed back into the party. He needs a name, thought Abby, as she followed Nick, holding tightly to his hand. If I’m Princess Penelope and I’m going to save him, he needs a name. She laughed to herself at the thought, but she also felt a frisson of panic. Her characters named themselves. Often, one would be ‘she’ or ‘the advisor’ for pages until suddenly, the name would be revealed to her.
I’m insane, she thought, I’m totally insane. But please, please, please, give him a name. Prince Valiant? No, taken. Prince Friendly? Yuck! The Duke of Cheesywax? A laugh came out of her that bordered on hysterical. Nick stopped and looked at her. You okay?
Yeah, yeah, I’m good. She waved him off. Who are you? Who are you? In all of her stories, the handsome prince had hovered on the edge. Because Princess Penelope just wasn’t a ‘handsome prince’ kind of gal, and she’d never made him real.
Sharon Fremont reared up in front of them. “Where did you go?” she hissed.
“Bathroom break,” said Abby, curtly. “We’re back now. What’s next?” Blue Eyes. He’s got blue eyes. Beautiful blue eyes. No, that’s dumb. Duke Blue Eyes. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
“The band will be starting shortly. You two will do the first dance.”
“Oh, God, Mother!”
“That’s great, Mrs. Fremont,” said Nick. “Maybe you and Mr. Fremont could do it with us.”
Way to go, Nick, thought Abby. Way to take charge. The leader of the pack. No. El Presidente? She didn’t think so. The Admiral of the Fleet? That had possibilities. Admiral Nick. No, that didn’t work. Too lofty. It wasn’t him. He was more of a…general? commander? colonel? captain?
That was it! Captain Carter! Esteemed advisor to the admiral of the fleet…Admiral who?…oh, who the hell cares, Abby, think about it later. Captain Carter, who had saved the Myopian fleet from a sure marine disaster. Captain Carter who was recovering from a broken heart after having been hurt by the evil Lady Vera. Captain Carter, who needed to be rescued by the bold, the daring, the dauntless…Princess Penelope.
“I’ll save you,” whispered Abby.
Her mother looked at her oddly. “I beg your pardon?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~There wasn’t one person who left the party thinking that Nick and Abby didn’t love each other. Well, that’s not really true. There were three…Nick and Abby, of course, who knew better… and Ronni, simply because she refused to believe it, all evidence to the contrary. And there was a lot of evidence.
Nick and Abby returned to the room hand in hand. They spent the next three hours stroking each other, with their hands, with their eyes, with their minds. Their abrupt departure had been noted and when they returned, all eyes were on them, albeit obliquely. Abby’s mother accosted them and was immediately disarmed and charmed by Nick. No one heard the conversation, but they could all see Sharon Fremont visibly relax.
Sharon motioned to the leader of the quartet to start the music. “Wait,” Abby said. Then she picked up a paper napkin from the table. She dabbed at the corner of Nick’s mouth in a gesture so intimate that all the women in the room licked their lips. “Lipstick,” she said with a shy smile.
Then Abby looked at her mother and gave a tiny shrug. A tiny shrug that told the assembled guests what Abby and Nick had left the room so hurriedly to do. To put their mouths on each other. So it was true. Abigail Fremont had done it! She had found herself a man, a handsome pop prince.
The supporting evidence poured forth. When they danced, he held her tightly and gazed into her eyes. She ran a finger down his face. He kissed her forehead. When they danced with other people, their eyes wandered the room until they found each other and then they smiled.
Abby made sure she knew where Ronni was the whole time. She watched her out of the corner of her eye. Ronni stalked Nick like a tiger. She danced with James and with other men, but she didn’t take her eyes off Nick when she was doing it. If Nick left the dance floor…which was rare, there were a lot of women wanting a dance…Ronni left too, often to head for the bar.
Abby was drinking soda water. Princess Penelope needed to keep her wits about her. Nick had had one drink that Abby could see and then had switched to water as well. Ronni wasn’t drinking water, that was for sure. She’d had at least four glasses of wine that Abby knew about.
James watched Ronni watch Nick. He hadn’t heard her last statement to Nick in the receiving line and so he hadn’t figured out that he was the guy she’d been living with, but he could see that there was some kind of connection between the two of them. California! Goddamn California! The more Ronni grew to dislike her life in Chicago, the sweeter her memories of California became, and the more she talked about them to James.
Ronni had changed in the last month or so, thought James, and he wasn’t happy about it. The sexually charged life they led had dwindled. It was almost as if the episode in his father’s den was the start of the downturn. Like maybe they couldn’t top that or something. James didn’t really know. At first, he’d been somewhat relieved. It was a busy time of year for him and he needed his sleep.
Ronni kept nagging him about the house until he said fine, get a real estate agent. Let’s buy a house. He would do anything for her. He had hoped it would be a child that would settle her down, but nothing seemed to happening there, although Ronni had promised him that she was no longer taking the pill. So if it was to be a house, let it be a house. Anything to keep her happy. Or to make her happy again.
“Aren’t you going to ask me to dance?” Ronni came up on Nick’s left and slipped her arm through his.
Abby did not want Nick to put his arms around this woman. Nick was afraid to. He was afraid he might not let her go.
“Come on, Abigail,” said James, pulling her out onto the dance floor, leaving Nick little choice but to follow them. “Let’s just hope it’s a short song,” he added as they started to move.
“Ah, James, always the diplomat,” replied Abby.
James thought about his words. “I didn’t mean because I didn’t want to dance with you,” he spluttered. “I meant…” His eyes wandered over to Nick and Ronni, floating in each other’s arms nearby.
“I will be charitable, James,” said Abby, “and not assume that you think one dance with your beautiful wife will be enough to end my engagement.”
James didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he sighed. “It isn’t your relationship that I’m worried about, Abigail.”
“Ahh,” said Abby. “I see. I’m sorry to hear that, James.”
She was sorry to hear that. The last thing she needed was Ronni on the loose. She looked over at her. Ronni had her eyes closed and her head on Nick’s shoulder. Nick was staring straight ahead, concentrating on breathing. Suddenly, Ronni shifted her body up against him and ground her hips against him. Nick’s eyes got wide with panic. Help me!
Abby looked at the band leader. She swiped her hand across her throat. Kill the music. The man did. Abby grabbed Nick by the hand and dragged him over to the microphone.
“I…um…we…” Abby took a deep breath and started again. “We, Nick and I, just wanted to thank you all for coming tonight and for the good wishes that you have extended to us. We appreciate them all.” She waited through the polite applause, trying to think of something more to say. She hadn’t planned this and she didn’t know how to end it.
Nick nudged her away from the microphone and leaned in. “Yeah, I’d like to add my thanks. You’ve all been really nice to me and I…well, thanks.” More polite applause, during which Nick took Abby by the hand and walked her away from the spotlight. He knew how to make an exit.
Nick walked Abby right through the crowd to the door, leaving Ronni and James by the band. One of the security officers motioned to Nick and they had a whispered conversation.
“The fans out front want to know if there’s any chance I’ll stop when I come out,” Nick explained to Abby. “They’re getting a little cold, but they’re willing to hang in, if they think they might get a glimpse.” Nick blushed and shook his head.
“Care for a breath of fresh air?” asked Abby.
“What? Leave the party?”
“Well, I’d sure as hell like to get out of here for a few minutes. And what could it hurt? You know you want to.”
“Yeah, yeah I do. If you don’t mind. You have to come with me, of course.”
“Oh! Oh, I don’t know about that. Wouldn’t they rather see you on your own?”
“Who cares? I’m not going out there without you. How would that look? They’d say I was so full of myself that I left my fiancée behind so I could go get slobbered on by fans.”
“Good point. Well, you know more about this kind of thing than I do. My fan range is quite limited.”
The security guard brought them their coats and found their driver. They drove down the long lane and stopped at the gate. Abby could see the girls’ interest perk up. They were huddled in blankets in their lawn chairs. Some of them were in cars along the side of the road. The candles had burned out. But the sight of the limousine brought them back to life. The driver stopped the car and came around to the passenger door. Nick stepped out first and reached his hand in to assist Abby.
Abby could hear the cries from inside the car. “It’s Nick. Nick. Nick came to see us. It’s Nick.”
Nick walked over to the gate. He nodded at the security guard to open it. The girls were very polite; there was no pushing or shoving. Mostly, they bounced from one foot to the other in excitement and an effort to keep warm.
“Hi, girls,” said Nick. There was a chorus of ‘hi, Nick’ mixed with some moans and squeals. Camera flashes blinked in the night.
“Congratulations,” yelled out one of the girls.
“Thank you,” said Nick, pulling Abby forward. “This is Abby,” he said simply, putting an arm around her.
“Hi, Abby!”
Abby waved shyly and leaned her head on his chest. Awwww, ran through the crowd. Abby gave Nick a squeeze and stepped away from him. Go to work. Abby stood by the car and watched Nick work. He made sure he got to every girl. He asked for the name and addressed the autographs personally. He posed for pictures patiently. He smiled shyly and said ‘thank you’ every time one of them said that she loved him. One of them said that she loved Ribbons of Light and a chorus of agreement rang out.
“Abby inspired that,” said Nick, looking over at her and smiling.
Omigod, how sweet! Wasn’t he just the most adorable guy!? The girls exchanged looks and fanned their hearts.
“Well, I gotta get back,” said Nick, when he’d signed everything and posed with them all. “We kinda snuck out.” He made a face, wrinkling his nose, like a guilty child. “It was her idea,” he said in mock petulance, pointing at Abby. The girls swung their heads around to Abby who just shrugged and smiled.
“Very interesting,” said Nick as they were driving back up the lane.
“What?”
“None of them asked for a kiss. That’s never happened before.”
“Well, maybe they had too much class to ask for a kiss from you at your engagement party with your fiancée standing right there.”
“I guess…”
Abby looked up at the front entrance to the club. She hoped the women inside the building had as much class. Nick helped her out of the car and then he pulled her into his arms. He kissed her softly on the lips. “Pretty soon we can get out of here, right?”
Abby nodded.
“Good,” he said, kissing her again. “You know what we’re going to do then?”
Yes, Abby knew what they were going to do then. They were going to talk about Ronni.
