Maggie blushed. That couldn’t be a good sign.
“Nothing,” Parker shot back, and both he and Maggie started giggling. Yes, that was the only way to describe the noise coming from Parker, giggling. Though Maggie at least had the decency to appear a little embarrassed about being called out.
“What’s so funny about nothing?” There went Abbie again. Asking the questions Toby couldn’t.
“Well, obviously,” this came from Maggie, “it’s something. It’s just something we aren’t telling you.”
“Sounds juicy,” Abbie retorted and was Toby imagining it or did she sound a little miffed? She had nothing to be upset about, though, so it must have been his own thoughts being put upon her. “But remember it’s a little rude to tell secrets right in front of everyone.” Surely that wasn’t in his mind. That had been said a little cattily. But Parker and Maggie didn’t seem to mind if their comments were anything to judge by.
“Haha, Abs,” Maggie said. “As if we haven’t spent countless hours talking about people sitting at the table with us.”
“And we weren’t even talking about you. So we’re being even nicer,” Parker quipped.
They clearly thought it was a joke. So Toby would assume it was as well.
Earlier that week, Toby had been planning on ending things with Abbie, but that was before Parker had started dating Maggie. He wasn’t using Abbie now that he had decided to keep seeing her. He just figured he had been a little confused over the whole Maggie thing and almost ruined a good thing over it. He had liked Abbie a lot before, and he would again. He was sure of it.
If Toby had to watch Maggie and Parker share one more plate of food, he was going to lose it. Okay. Technically there had only been one (or would you say two since they each had a plate?) meal, but that was obnoxious all on its own.
She had ordered the fish, and he had ordered the steak, and then they had split the dishes in two so that they could both have some. Why couldn’t people just pick one thing they wanted and stick to it? You should have to eat what you ordered. That was just fair.
“Do you want any more of my fries? I can’t eat any more.” Abbie commented, and he dutifully scooped up the rest of her meal and put it on his plate. So what if he was being a hypocrite. It would be suspicious if he wasn’t and besides, he was hungry and Abbie wasn’t. That was hardly the same as purposely ordering food to share.
“You’re welcome,” Abbie said and this time there was no doubt. There was definitely a little bit of snip in her voice. Toby grumbled a ‘thanks’ around the fries in his mouth, and shot a glance over at the happy couple. This night couldn’t end soon enough.
He couldn’t handle all this drama. It had long been too much, and he couldn’t take it anymore. He had to break up with Abbie and cut all ties to this situation.
“I think we should stop dating.”
It wasn’t him who had voiced those words. He looked over at Abbie. She looked like she had meant it. Finally, they appeared to be on the same page.
“Oh, finally,” Toby said. “I’m glad one of us had the courage to say it. I agree completely.”
“That was easy,” Abbie told him, the surprise evident in her voice.
“Well, it is about time something is easy around here. I’m sick of working so hard to be happy. I mean, no offense. You’re great.”
“None taken,” Abbie said and they were both smiling when he dropped her off at her house.
So that was over, and it wasn’t even difficult. He let himself imagine for just a moment that everything would turn out that well. He and Maggie would get together, and Parker wouldn’t be hurt by it and Abbie wouldn’t care. But there was only one way he could think of to have all that. Parker and Abbie would have to get back together. And Maggie would have to be okay with it because she would have Toby instead. It was a strange twist of events that made him hope for his best friend and his ex-girlfriend to hook up. But that was the way fate worked, he guessed.
29
Parker got off from a long shift with the plan to fall asleep the second his head hit the pillow. But when he finally got there, he couldn’t sleep. He was too anxious and sick of his current life to turn off his brain, which was something that had never happened to him before. Never before had this been a problem, but never before had he gotten himself into such a dramatic, ridiculous situation.
When Maggie had first told him her plan, he thought it had flaws, but that it was full of potential. He had been an eager and willing participant. And objectively, it appeared to have served its purpose. When he had told Toby about his plan to ask Maggie out, Toby had not been happy despite his best efforts to pretend he was. And Maggie had reported a similar reaction from Abbie. And then on the ridiculous, first date/double date, there was no doubt that poorly veiled jealousy was ruling. Abbie made mean jokes that clearly weren’t really jokes and Toby was barely civil. That had been the plan.
But then Parker remembered something. He was a grown up, about to become a doctor, and here he was acting like a twelve year old girl. That wasn’t sexist. If his experience at twelve was anything to go by, boys were no better than girls, but they weren’t planning romantic espionages, either. Mainly because they didn’t really care to, not because they were above such things.
At any rate, though, the point was he was acting like a child, and not even a very clever child, and it had to stop. Which is what he had told Maggie as he drove her home for dinner. He had somewhat expected her to protest, but she was in complete agreement with him.
“You’re right,” she had said with a shaky voice. “I don’t know what I was thinking. It had seemed like such a good plan at the time.”
“I thought so too,” he tried to reassure her.
“Maybe,” she said after a moment of reflection, “we should just forget all of this mess and move on. If it were meant to be, it would be. If we have to work this hard for it, maybe that means we are trying too hard to force something that isn’t going to work.”
So when they arrived at her house and he walked her to her door and wrapped her in his arms, it was not a goodnight hug, it was a goodbye hug.
He was getting rid of this horrible, ill-conceived phase of his life and moving on to greener pastures. But first, he needed some closure. He was going to have it out once and for all with Abbie.
The knock on the door startled Parker for just a second even though he had been expecting it. He had called Abbie and practically begged her to meet him. Toby was out of town, so she had asked if she could just come over instead of Parker going to her house, as had been his original plan. Though Maggie had told her that she and Parker just weren’t going to work out, he was still pretty sure Abbie wanted to keep them from seeing each other. Thus the change in meeting location.
It had been surprisingly easy to convince Abbie to come over, but she had completely agreed. In order to completely clean up this giant mess they had created, they needed to apologize to each other and hear each other out. Then they would be able to move on. Finally.
“Hi, Abbie,” he said as soon as he pulled open the door. He wanted to say that she looked nice, beautiful more accurately. He wanted to give her a hug and smell her hair. But that wasn’t what today was about, and so he would refrain.
“Hi,” she returned and stood hesitatingly on the porch.
“Come in,” he moved out of her way as she entered the house, and then he guided her to the kitchen table.
“Toby told me what happened,” he started once they were settled and he had asked her if she wanted anything to eat or drink. Manners worked in every situation, even the weirdest, most awkward ones.
“That we broke up?” Abbie asked, a hint of concern in her voice. Did she think he had meant that Toby told her about the whole revenge plot she had going? Had she told him about it? Maybe he should say yes, and just go ahead and get all of their shit out in the open.
“Yep. And I’m sorry,” he could talk to her about her plan later.
“It’s okay,” Abbie
told him, blushing. “It was pretty mutual. I know that’s rare, but it actually was. It just wasn’t working.”
She looked at him, eyes large with embarrassment, and he couldn’t deny his heart sped up just a little. He swallowed and ignored it, though.
“Listen, Abbie. I need to apologize to you. And if we all want to move past this whole mess and start acting like adults again, I need to do it now. So that’s why I asked you here today. To say I am sorry for the way I have treated you. I’m sorry I ever got involved in Toby’s plan. I knew he was acting in a way he’d regret, and I should have stopped him. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth right from the beginning. Bad as it is, I’m sorry I got caught,” he was on a role, now, and he was quickly building up steam. “I’m sorry that you didn’t pick me when you found out the truth. That you didn’t trust me enough to believe me. I’m sorry about that, but I understand that it was my fault that you couldn’t trust me. I’m sorry that when you picked Toby, I handled it so poorly and didn’t leave you alone. Even though I have good reason to believe that you didn’t really want me to. I’m sorry that when nothing else seemed to work, I pretended to date your best friend to get back at you.”
The color drained from her face and Abbie’s eyes grew even bigger.
“What? How? Why?” But before she could get too upset, he moved back to his apology.
“Maggie hadn’t told you? It’s true. And we are both sorry for it. I’m sorry for everything I have done to you or since I met you. But I’m mostly sorry that we didn’t work out because I think under any other circumstances we would have. And that makes me feel worse than anything.”
Abbie sat there staring at him, and it made him nervous. He had told himself all he needed to do to close this chapter of his life was to apologize. If she forgave him, great. But if she didn’t, then he had still done what he needed to do. Now the moment had arrived, and he realized it wasn’t true. If he was going to forgive himself, he needed her to forgive him to.
He watched her, watched various emotions play across her features as he wished he could name them all. Some were easy. There was surprise and hurt and anger in there for sure, but what were the others? Hope? Acceptance? Understanding? Was he only kidding himself by thinking those emotions flashed across her face?
After a seemingly long time, she finally spoke.
“I’m sorry too,” she told him in a voice so quiet he had to lean in to hear. “I’m sorry that I treated Toby so badly he felt the need to get back at me in such an awful way. I’m sorry I didn’t just move on once I learned the truth. I’m sorry I faked dating Toby just to punish him and make you jealous.” She paused to let that sink in, not realizing he had already figured it out. “I’m sorry I got so mad at Maggie when she dated you. And I’m sorry we didn’t meet under different circumstances too. Because I agree. I think we would’ve worked.”
They sat there in the kitchen staring at one another as they each processed the other’s words. This was it. They had apologized. They had closure. They could leave each other now and get on with their lives away from all this toxicity. Only Abbie wasn’t moving towards the door, and Parker wasn’t trying to get her to go. Then they were kissing.
It was unexpected. Or at least they both pretended it was. One second they were sitting there in a stare down, and the next, their lips had found each other. If there had been an objective third party in the room, they would say it hadn’t been that quick. It wasn’t innocent one second, heated the next.
If there had to be a beginner, Parker started it. He had slowly, possibly unconsciously, leaned in towards her as if an invisible pull drew him closer. As soon as he started the lean, she responded in kind. They hesitated, lips inches apart, and then centimeters. Finally, the space between them was nonexistent.
She moaned into his mouth the second his tongue moved to part her lips, and it sent electricity down to his groin. He pulled her out of her seat without ever breaking contact with her, and then she was on the kitchen counter, her legs around his waist. He pushed her shirt up, over her breasts, over her arms and head and threw it in a ball on the floor before moving right back in for more.
His tongue danced with hers as his hands re-explored her waist. It had been too long for him. He hadn’t been with anybody but his own hand since he had met Abbie, and he hoped that wouldn’t lead to any embarrassing situations when this night went to where he was pretty sure it was going.
The little pants that she was making might just do him in right then and there. Somehow, his shirt was off. Had he removed or had she? Who cared how, just as long as his bare skin was touching hers. She reached between them and undid the front clasp of her bra, and then it fell to the side with the rest of the rapidly growing pile of clothes.
He kissed down her neck and her collarbone; licking a trail to almost her…he skipped past there and moved on to her stomach. Making a trail down to her bellybutton and claiming her for his own.
Then his hands were on the front of her jeans. He moved back to her lips, but he left his hand there, slowly rubbing her through the fabric. He could feel the heat of her, and it was almost enough to make him finish right then. He took a deep breath to gain back his control, and then deepened the kiss again.
Finally, after he felt he could handle the stimulation, he moved his mouth to her perfect breasts, and he drew the tip of one of them into his mouth, gently sucking down on the nipple. And now the noises she made were getting better. He needed more. His hands moved up from her center and to the buttons on her jeans. When he had unclasped them, he pulled them down over her legs and suddenly shoeless feet. She kicked them to the side along with her thong, and then there she was, sitting on his kitchen counter, gloriously, completely naked.
He wanted to stand back and just stare at her beauty, but he wasn’t patient and also, he didn’t want her to change her mind. So his lips captured hers again, and then moved back to her breasts, and then lower, lower. His tongue reached out and gently flicked over her center.
That sound. The one she just made. He couldn’t describe it if he wanted to except to say that it was the sexiest sound he had ever heard. His tongue moved deeper inside of her, mimicking the motions he would soon be doing with another, larger organ. Her hands grabbed onto his hair, and gently tugged as she pushed him deeper.
She was panting harder, spewing out little “more, more, please. There!”s as he went. She grew louder, and he knew she was getting close to finishing. Her more’s were turning into yes’s, and she sang them out in a constant rhythm, getting shakier and shakier as she went.
“Yesyesyes, ah, there, oh, yes,” and then finally, with a entire body shudder, she let out a “Fuck, YES. Oh, Parker, yes,” and hearing his name screamed from her lips right then was an incredible experience.
He was going to give her a minute to recover before he moved back to the next stage, but she hopped off the counter as soon as she was done and moved right back on him. She pressed him up against the wall, as she kissed him hungrily. Her hands ran up his sides and down his abs and then to the front of his jeans. Somehow, she had unbuttoned them, and she stuck her hand inside. She began to stroke him in tiny little motions, and he had to find a way to get these restricting jeans off as soon as possible.
He didn’t need to worry about that. Abbie pushed them down to the ground almost as soon as she started touching him, and he kicked them off the rest of the way. She kissed down his chest, and kneeled in front of him. And payback could be sweet if this was any indication.
She licked up the side of his shaft and twirled her tongue around his head before taking the tip of him into her warm mouth. Slowly, she sank down even farther, and she bobbed her head to the tune of whatever it was she was humming. His head was spinning. When she had taken him as deep as she could get him, she used her hands to make up the remainder.
His breathing was becoming shallow, and after what seemed like too short of a time, he knew he was almost done.
“Abbie, stop,” he some
how managed to spit out even though her stopping was the last thing he wanted. “I’m close.”
“Then let me finish,” she lifted her head up just long enough to say before bobbing back down on him. Up and down, up and down.
“No. I don’t. I don’t. Not now. In you,” he was speaking gibberish but she knew what he meant.
“You’ll recover,” she told him and moved back in to finish the job she was so pleasantly performing. Who was he to argue with her logic? Finally, he let out an incomprehensibly cry, and paradise was over. At least for a second. Abbie stood back up and swallowed and licked her lips, and if Parker hadn’t still been hard, he would have been again after that.
“See?” she asked him. “You’re still good to go.” She smiled at him and moved back in to kiss him, and if he could have spoken right then, he would have said it was rare, and it was all because of her and how she made him feel. But he was not in a place where words were coming, and so instead he was content with placing soft kisses on every inch of skin he could find.
At some point, he would remember the need to scrub off the counter and turn off the lights before exiting a room, but that time was not now.
As their kisses once again grew more heated, Parker picked her up and she straddled his hips. She was sitting precariously close to him. If he dropped her just an inch, he could be inside her. And he soon would be, but he wanted to be with her for the first time on an actual bed.
They couldn’t keep their lips apart even as he moved her from the kitchen into his bedroom. They only broke contact long enough for him to drop her onto the bed. He looked down at her greedily. Her high breasts were rising and falling, and her pale skin was covered in a light sheen of sweat. She looked up at him with lust filled eyes, and he couldn’t wait another second.
He was on the bed with her, over her, his tongue parting her lips and seeking entrance that she happily granted. Then he looked back up into her eyes. They stared at each other for one miniscule second before with a thrust, he had worked his way inside of her.
The Abbie Diaries: The Complete Series Page 17