Well, I’m safely back in Chicago. The weather here is awful, one of those blinding snowstorms. Thank goodness it didn’t hit until after we landed.
Thanks for your hospitality on the coast. And double thanks for providing the beautiful weather. That made a nice change from a Chicago winter. Now I guess I’m back to drinking hot chocolate and wearing socks to bed. LOL!
I’m looking at some apartments tomorrow. Time to get my show on the road. And speaking of which, have fun in Orlando!
Take care,
Abby
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hey, Abby!
Writing to you from my home state of Florida. It’s good to be home, even though I’m not really from Orlando. All the guys agree with me, I think. We spent a lot of time today talking about the good old days. Of course, that meant that there were a lot of ‘stupid little Nicky’ stories that got told, but that was okay. I had a few memories to share of their less than perfect moments too! LOL!
It was fun having you in California. Sorry about the whole parent thing, but it’s not like I didn’t warn you! LOL!
I liked
Nick stopped typing. What could he say? I liked having you there with me all the time. I liked sleeping with you and making love to you. I liked you waking up beside me, making me breakfast, scolding me about leaving my clothes around. I liked knowing there was another person there, that I would never be lonely. I liked living with you.
Nick stood up and walked away from the computer. He had to get this straight in his head before he said it to her. California. It had been everything he expected to be and nothing like he expected. He laughed to himself. Only he could come up with that sentence. It was what, Nick, unexpectable? He rolled his eyes at himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Nick picked Abby up at the airport and made a big deal of it, teasing her in the email that he wouldn’t do this for just anyone, you know. He went out and bought a piece of red rug, and man, if you didn’t think that was hard to find, think again! When he parked the car, he hung the rug out the side of the car and let it trail three or four feet down onto the ground. It had seemed like a good idea when he thought it up, but it just kind of looked dumb when he did it. But he left it. Dumb or not, he wanted to see Abby’s reaction.
When the doors slid open to let out the arriving passengers, he couldn’t see her at first. The people poured through the doors, desperate looks on their faces, like they had to get some California sunshine right now or they were just going to die!! Then he saw her, pulling her wheeled suitcase along behind her, taking it all in, looking at the posters on the wall, the faces of the people rushing by, the bored skycaps waiting for some business. Nick smiled to himself. She’s writing in her head, he thought.
Then she saw him and the smile that lit her face caused his heart to lurch. Nick. She mouthed the word.
He didn’t even bother trying to be cool. He wrapped her in a hug and held her tight. Then he kissed her forehead and stepped back. He arched his eyebrows. “Princess Penelope Goes to California?” he asked.
She knew exactly what he meant. “I’m just a keen observer of human nature,” she said haughtily, putting her nose in the air. Then she stuck her tongue out at him.
“Missed you,” he said, before he could stop himself. Then, “this way,” as he grabbed her suitcase and turned away from the potentially embarrassing situation. Of course, he forgot to slide the handle back down into the suitcase and he almost caused himself an indelicate injury.
Man, he was so nervous! His armpits were damp and he was jittery. He guessed he knew now how she had felt introducing him into her world. He took a couple of deep breaths and then stopped walking. He looked at her and could see that she was fighting back the laughter. He made a face at her.
Abby grinned at him. “I never realized that picking someone up from the airport was such a traumatic experience here in the sunny south…west…southwest…where the hell are we?”
Nick laughed and picked up her hand. “We’re in California,” he said. “Land of sunshine and movie stars.”
“Gosh,” said Abby, looking around. “Do you think I’ll see any?” she asked in voice full of wonder.
“Not at the airport,” said Nick. “They don’t do pickups!”
“Oh,” Abby retorted in a resigned voice. “Guess I’m stuck with you then.”
“Yep,” he said and squeezed her hand.
They walked hand-in-hand to the parking lot. Nick stepped in front of her as they were approaching his car. He wanted her to see it at the last second. “Your carriage awaits, Your Highness,” he said, stepping aside and letting her see the red carpet.
Abby’s eyes took in the car, the piece of rug hanging out the door, the expression on Nick’s face. “You’re too much,” she said, laughing. Then she shook her head and assumed the persona and the regal British accent. “Thank you, Captain Carter. How gracious of you.”
“Captain Carter?”
“Oh, I never told you, I guess,” said Abby. “That’s who I turned you into at the party. So Princess Penelope could save you from Lady Vera.” She paused. “Okay…” She held up a finger, signaling him to wait while she gathered her thoughts. “Okay, that sounded insane, didn’t it?” Her eyes got big and her mouth opened and closed…twice.
Nick stared at her. “Mmmph…” he said, a strangled snort. And then, they were both laughing so hard, they couldn’t stand up alone. And so they held each other up, heads back, roaring with laughter and feeling…
Suddenly, they stepped away from each other. “I’ll try and stay in the real world with your parents,” promised Abby.
“You might like it better if you don’t,” said Nick. He put Abby’s suitcase in the car and they drove into L.A.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The drive in from the airport started out well, but Nick got twitchier and more nervous the closer they got to the house. Abby sat quietly and let him concentrate on driving. It was the first time they had been in a car together where Abby wasn’t behind the wheel. She observed him out of the corner of her eye.
His tan was deeper than it had been ten days ago. It suited him, made him look healthy. It made her look sickly next to him, with her pale sun-starved Chicago skin. She hoped that she could do something about that in the few days she was going to be here. She looked around her. It was so bright out. Even through the tinted windows, everything looked white, washed out by the sun. It was only in the mid-sixties but the sun was shining. After the bitter cold of Chicago, it seemed like summer to Abby.
Nick pulled off the freeway and stopped at a light. He glanced over at her. He smiled. “Glad you’re here,” he said. He reached over and squeezed her hand. The light turned green and he turned his attention back to driving.
He looks so sad, thought Abby. She knew that Christmas had been awful for him. Both he and Aaron had gone overboard on gifts, probably out of guilt for having stopped the flow of money to their parents. The two brothers had talked it over through their P.A.’s and decided on gifts for the kids and cheques for the parents. They had agreed on items and amounts. They had divided up the time carefully between their parents, planning carefully on meals and tree time and other festive things. They thought they had done it so well and it all blew up in their face.
They spent Christmas morning with their mother and their siblings, gathered around the tree, trying to pretend they were a happy family. Jane had obviously drilled it into the kids that it wasn’t going to be a Christmas like other years. She had made them think that they were hard-pressed financially and she blamed it on their father and their brothers. She gave them small gifts and apologized with each offering that it couldn’t be more.
Nick and Aaron were pissed. Their mother had given them the list for the kids and expressed her gratitude that they had bought everything on it. Now she seemed to be holding it against them. They could see the resentment in the faces of their siblings when they opened the gifts… resentment combined with the guilt of being happy to get the gift. And Jane sighed and made some sly comment with each gift…wasn’t it wonderful that they had a successful brother who could give them something like this, because she couldn’t…oh, that’s so great, it must have been expensive, probably a week’s groceries or more…
And when she opened the cheques, she was even worse. She fanned the envelope before she opened it and made a comment about how she guessed this would be money and that would be nice, but gee, it would have been nice if they’d put some thought into a gift for her. Then she opened the envelope and burst into tears, saying, ‘Oh, this is wonderful. Now we won’t lose the house.’
Nick was so angry he thought he might kill her. What the hell was she talking about? The house wasn’t in any danger. It was fully paid-for! By him! Why was she doing this to the kids? Wasn’t it hard enough to live through your parents’ divorce without all this emotional blackmail on top of it? What kind of crap had she been feeding the kids all these months?
But it was Aaron who flared up. When Nick had talked to him about his parents a few months ago, Aaron had checked into his finances and found that his mother had been helping herself to his money…without his consent. Aaron was still too young to break all the ties completely. He couldn’t face it emotionally or legally. He was finding it very difficult to cope with his parents’ marital troubles, the physical and psychological changes of growing up and life in general. When Nick had called him to tell him of his engagement to Abby, Aaron had tried to sound enthusiastic, but it had been a shock. One more part of the things that made his life stable was falling away.
“Why would you lose the house?” asked Aaron angrily. “It’s paid for. I oughta know. I paid for it.”
“You didn’t pay for it,” said Nick, “I did.”
The two brothers looked at each other, then at their mother. She couldn’t meet their gaze. “Start tidying this all up,” she said to the younger children.
Nick looked at Aaron. “I paid cash for this house. It’s been paid for all along.”
Aaron looked confused. “I paid off the mortgage last summer. A hundred thousand.”
Jane tried to brazen it out. She had taken out a mortgage, she said, because they needed the money. The legal fees and the cost of living and all…
“But all of that has happened since,” said Aaron. Then he paused. “Are you telling me that you’ve taken out another mortgage?”
“How many goddamn times are we going to have to pay for this house?” shouted Nick.
Jane started her sob story, about being on her own with the kids, it was so difficult now that the boys weren’t around as much, and now Nick would be moving to Chicago…
“Moving to Chicago?” This was news to Aaron. It was news to Nick too, but for some reason, he didn’t deny it.
“I’ve sold my house,” he said to Aaron. “I hated it. It was too big and…” He waved his hand through the air. “And I’m going on tour and…”
“…getting married,” added Jane, thankful for a change of subject. “Have you met Abby yet, Aaron?” Aaron shook his head. “Well, you will next week. She’s coming to California to meet the family.”
Aaron looked at Nick. “What the…?”
Nick realized that he hadn’t mentioned Abby’s visit to Aaron yet. He'd intended too. Aaron was the one person Nick wanted Abby to meet.
It was all too much for Aaron. He stood up. “I can’t do this,” he said. “I’m calling a cab. I gotta go.”
“Where are you going? It’s Christmas,” said his mother.
“I’m going to Dad’s,” he said.
Nick didn’t blame his younger brother for bolting from the scene. He would have liked to do that himself. But they couldn’t both go. It was too early yet. “Tell Dad I’ll be over later,” he said to Aaron. “And I’ll call you. About meeting Abby.”
“Suit yourself,” said Aaron with a shrug.
Nick spent the next couple of hours playing with his siblings, helping them set up their new toys and electronic games and stealing surreptitious glances at his watch. He bit his tongue to stop himself from telling off his mother in front of the kids, but man, he sure wanted to. Every sentence was a double-edged sword, seemingly innocent but taking a swipe at someone. Nick knew that if he called her on it, she’d stare at him innocently and say, “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean” and then get all hurt that he was looking for bad in her.
He finally escaped and went to his dad’s for a few hours, promising to come back for dinner. Aaron was still there and the three men sat around staring at each other. Bob expressed gratitude for the cheques and said that he hoped everything would get straightened out soon because he was sick of riding this roller coaster. Don’t fall in love, he said bitterly at one point. It ain’t worth it.
“Yeah, I hear ya,” said Nick, thinking of Ronni. Then, in response to the quizzical glances from the other two, “I mean, it’s all good now…you know, with Abby and all…but you know…in the past…it wasn’t always wonderful.”
Nick persuaded Aaron to come back to his mother’s house for dinner. He told his dad that he was sure he’d be welcome there too, but they all knew that was a lie. Bob told him that the rest of the kids were coming to spend the next day with him and that they were welcome to come back too.
“So what about Abby?” asked Aaron on the way back to Jane’s house.
Nick told him when she was coming and the two of them tried to decide what would be the best way to handle things. Should Nick just throw them all into the mix together…father, mother, kids…and hope she’d survive? Or should she tackle them one at a time, separate agonies over a couple of days.
“I really want her to meet you,” said Nick sincerely. “I kinda hoped we could do that separately, or at least additionally, if we decide on the group approach.”
Aaron said that would be great, he was looking forward to meeting the girl who had finally stolen Nick’s heart. You won’t be meeting her, thought Nick, you’ll be meeting the girl I’m going to marry.
