by Lexy Timms
“I wish you were here,” I said.
“I know, sweetheart. Use this time to get to know Colin. If you feel awkward about having a wedding this year, then tell him. Be honest. Open communication is key to any relationship, not just marriage. Date one another. Open up to him over dinners. Make yourself available sexually when all else fails.”
“Mom. Geez,” I said, snickering and only slightly grossed out to be having such a conversation with my mother.
“Even when two people who love each other don’t like each other very much, sexual experiences can bring them together in ways that words sometimes cannot.”
“Ew. Can you please stop talking about it?” I asked.
“Why? Hard to picture your mother getting hers?”
“That’s it, I’m hanging up,” I said flatly.
“My point is, no matter how fast or slow you take a relationship, it takes three things—trust, work, and communication. Do you trust Colin?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Do you communicate with Colin?”
“I think so, yeah.”
“Does he know the content of this conversation?” she asked.
“Well—no.”
“Then you’re not communicating with him. I should’ve been the second person you talked to about this. Colin should have been the first.”
I sighed as I placed my forehead on my knees.
“If you don’t trust your own judgement right now, then trust mine. I’ve seen how Colin makes you smile. I’ve seen how you light up his eyes. I saw the joy in your face the minute he got down on his knee. You can’t fake that, sweetheart. No one can. You’re scared because you think you’ve become engaged to a stranger. In some ways you have, so have a long engagement if you like. There’s nothing wrong with that. The two of you will go on to do wonderful things together, and I can picture the life you’ll build. But none of that will happen if you don’t talk with him.”
“I hear you, Mom,” I said.
“Good. Now, is there anything else?”
“What? You got a hot date or something?” I asked.
“You didn’t want me saying that word anymore, so I’ll simply say yes.”
“Oh, yikes. Okay. You—uh, never mind. Love you.”
“Love you, too,” she said, giggling.
Hanging up the phone, I tossed it down the hallway. I felt a little better after talking to my mother, but not by much. I wished she was here so I could talk to her face to face. To make sure she wasn’t telling me what I wanted to hear versus what I needed to hear. I still felt apprehensive—as if something was wrong. There was something looming in the air, I could feel it. I was experiencing Colin’s world for the first time. The business side of him that dominated his life when he wasn’t trekking across the country in rental cars with crazy women.
And I wasn’t sure I was enjoying it.
My phone started ringing down the hallway and I sighed. It was time for me to start getting ready for my dinner with Colin and I couldn’t find the box I’d packed my towels in. I couldn’t even remember if I’d packed towels, and as I went to get my phone I made a mental note to make a list of shit I needed.
“Hello?” I asked.
“Hello there, beautiful. I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
“Don’t tell me California’s broken off from the rest of the country. I don’t think I could handle another earth-shifting event today,” I said.
“That bad, huh?” Colin asked.
“Your voice is a great comfort.”
“Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but something’s come up and I have to cancel dinner.”
“Business meetings?” I asked.
“Not quite,” he said.
“Does this have something to do with that fun little phone call you took in the pizza restaurant a couple of days ago?”
“You remember that?”
“You physically got up and left the table. You’ve never done that with a phone call,” I said.
“It is. It’s an emergency and I need to handle it before things get any worse.”
“Colin, is something wrong?” I asked.
“It’s nothing. I shouldn’t have even mentioned it. I just feel like every time I turn around I’m putting out fires instead of planting more trees.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“It’s not your fault. I want to reschedule, though. Tomorrow night, maybe? I’ll take you out somewhere wonderfully special. Somewhere that requires a little black dress and some dazzling jewelry I just might buy you.”
“Colin, you know none of that’s necessary. Why don’t you just bring over a bottle of wine and we’ll order takeout?” I asked.
“Let me treat you to something nice, okay? I love it when you let me spoil you.”
I sighed, as I laid down in the carpeted hallway of my new apartment.
“Okay,” I said. “But you be careful with—whatever this is.”
“I will, I promise. Call you later on?”
“Okay.”
“I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
I hung up the phone and it felt hard to breathe. There was suddenly this loneliness that sat on my chest, robbing me of the very breath that I needed in order to cry. What was the big deal? What was the massive emergency? Here my mother had just got done talking with me about how communication was important and shit, and now Colin was openly hiding some emergency from me. Was he okay? Had something happened with his business?
Oh holy hell, had something appeared on the news?
I scrambled for my television and quickly began setting it up. I cut myself screwing in cables and shit before I plugged the television in. I got the cable box installed and finally had the thing running the setup routine scanning for channels. The longer it took the more impatient I became.
“Come on, you piece of shit. Work with me.”
After what seemed like ten hours of searching for things, the channels started appearing. The local news popped up with a worldwide news feed scrolling underneath it and I began flipping through channels. I memorized the number of every news station I had on the cable provider I’d selected, but there was nothing to me that signaled any sort of emergency.
Whatever it was, it was a private matter, and it only fueled my worry.
What if we had jumped into this too soon?
Chapter 5
Colin
“Talk to me, Arthur. How bad is it?”
“So, I have some dirt on the lawyer Abby tried to hire.”
“Wait. Okay. You’re going to have to backtrack further than that,” I said. “I wasn’t aware that Abby retained a lawyer for anything regarding her ex.”
“Backtracking. When her ex stole from her, she tracked down a lawyer. A seedy one, too. He gave her a free consultation and filed the paperwork accordingly, but it looks like when she tried to retain him for the case he kept turning her down.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because her ex hired him before she could.”
Arthur slid some papers across my desk as we sat there in my office.
“Wait, this is the same lawyer that’s gonna be issuing Abby papers,” I said.
“Yep. The same one. He took Abby’s free consultation and used it to help her ex. The quote the lawyer gave Abby is much less than the agreement that he now has with her ex.”
“He ditched Abby when he found out he could get more money from her ex,” I said.
“Yep. That’s a conflict of interest if I’ve ever seen one,” Arthur said. “But you gotta be careful with this guy. He’s known in the State of California do to all sorts of seedy business. Gets bad guys off on charges for fun. Rumors are circulating that he takes payment under the table for all sorts of shit.”
“Is there any way to prove that?” I asked.
“If we could, he wouldn’t be practicing. He’d be in jail.”
“Did you find a lawyer we could use for Abby?” I asked.
&n
bsp; “I did. The best L.A. has to offer. Her name’s Deidra Prowler, and her name suits her well. She’ll take wonderful care of Abby, and she’s discreet.”
“Good, because I don’t want Abby to find out any of this,” I said.
“Sounds like a wonderful basis for a relationship.”
I whipped my gaze across the desk as my face hardened to stone.
“You make many more quips about my engagement, my fiancé, or my decisions, your services will no longer be required,” I said.
“Whatever you wish, Mr. Murphy.”
“I just don’t want her stressing out about this when we should be enjoying our engagement,” I said.
“I trust you know what’s best,” he said.
“Now you’re mocking me.”
“Hardly.”
“You’re dismissed,” I said.
“The name and number of the lawyer is on that top sheet of paper. I suggest giving her a call right away. She’s a late worker, like yourself, and her schedule fills up fast.”
I watched Arthur exit my office before I picked up the phone and dialed her number.
“Deidra Prowler speaking.”
“Miss Prowler, this is Colin Murphy.”
“I was expecting your call, Mr. Murphy. I assume you want to set up a meeting?”
“I do. When is the earliest I can see you?” I asked.
“I’m not free until next Friday,” she said.
“When can I see you if I double your rate?” I asked.
“Monday morning,” she said coolly.
“You have nothing this weekend?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, no. Family emergency. I’ve had to clear my schedule as it is. But I have you down for seven Monday morning. Your office, mine, or neutral ground?” she asked.
Abby typically didn’t come in to the office until nine, so I figured meeting here at seven would be just fine.
“At my office. I’ll have coffee available,” I said.
“I take mine black with plenty of sugar. Sweet tooth and all.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. See you Monday morning at seven.”
Even though I apparently had the best lawyer in all of Los Angeles, I was frustrated that I couldn’t have access to her right away, like today. I was ready to get to the bottom of everything right now. I was ready to tear Abby’s ex to shreds so we could begin our life together. I wanted to get all of this figured out before it all surfaced and upset Abby.
And eventually, it would.
Sitting there in my office, I got to thinking. What was it that sparked this lawsuit in the first place? He cheated on her with her best friend, and that was eight or nine months ago. Why was he just now coming forward and asking for the lawsuit? Was it really possible for him to take half of everything she owned?
I picked up the phone and called Arthur just to clear my head.
“You need me to turn around?” he asked.
“No, just let me talk. When this first came about, you said something insinuating this lawsuit came about because we got engaged.”
“That’s the only motive I’ve got for now, yes,” Arthur said.
“So, if he drags out the lawsuit waiting for Abby and I to get married, then all we have to do is— not get married.”
“I’m not sure I’m following you,” he said.
“When we were talking over the phone last week, I mentioned that Abby didn’t have anything to sue for, and you said something like, ‘until she marries you.’ right?”
“Yes. If the two of you get married while this is all going on and there isn’t a prenuptial agreement in place, then he can technically sue for half of everything you have, because when the two of you marry, what is yours is hers.”
“I’m not making Abby sign a prenuptial agreement. I love her and I’m in this for the long haul. But if that’s his endgame—to wait us out until we’re married—there’s a chance that simply not getting married would fix this.”
“Are you talking about calling off the wedding?” he asked.
“Abby mentioned something to me about postponing the wedding until next year. Maybe I should take her up on that offer.”
“It would help the situation, but it wouldn’t make it go away. They could still serve her papers and sue her just to tank her public persona. You know how the media is. They’d have a field day with it. And, he has the option to sue for half of everything she owns.”
“So he’s going after this as if they were common law married,” I said. “How long did they have to live together for that?”
“In the state of California, it’s not about living together for a length of time. It’s about meeting certain criteria. I’ve been looking into it, and what I’ve found so far doesn’t look good.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Well, we know he was on her bank accounts. He also co-signed for her car, which eventually got repossessed when she lost her job. That meant paying for the car defaulted back onto him, which took $9,824.32 of the $40,000 he drained from her account. It doesn’t look like they filed any taxes together, but many of their finances were intertwined. Cell phone plans for example. They both used the same joint account. There’s all sorts of stuff of that nature which will hold up in court.”
“Fuck,” I said, groaning.
“It’s not hopeless, Mr. Murphy. Not by a longshot. Just give me some time to piece everything together. In the meantime, I do think you should tell Abby what’s going on, and I do think you should take her up on her offer to postpone the wedding.”
“I’m not telling Abby, but I’ll give the latter some thought,” I said.
“Be careful, Colin, okay? This is a sticky situation, and no one else needs to get hurt by it.”
“Just do your job, Arthur, and it won’t be an issue.”
I slammed the phone down and closed my eyes. Her ex was a sack of fucking shit, and if it wasn’t for him being a greedy bastard I’d be spoiling my fiancé instead of trying to shield her from more of his bullshit. He’d put her through enough and made her life a living nightmare last year, and I wasn’t going to allow him to impact her in any other way.
Protecting Abby like I knew I could was exactly what I was going to do.
Chapter 6
Abby
A loud knock at my front door woke me from my slumber. I rolled over in bed and tried to ignore it, but when it didn’t stop, I figured it was Colin. I grabbed my phone and saw it was close to nine in the morning. Not nearly as late as I had wanted to sleep. The knocking persisted and I was about to call Colin and tell him to go away, but I could smell coffee slowly piercing the air of my apartment.
Oh, that man knew how to get me out of bed.
Tossing my robe around my shoulders, I padded to the front door. My apartment was nowhere near the caliber of place that Colin had on the ocean, but it was cozy and it was growing on me. I ran my fingers through my hair and swallowed hard, trying to rid myself of my morning breath.
Then I quickly pulled the door open to receive my gift.
“This coffee better be divine beca—”
I looked down at the large coffee, but the hand holding it wasn’t the one I expected to see. My gaze followed up the lanky arm of a man that abandoned me almost nine months ago. My eyes trailed up to his face and I found him smiling at me. That sweet, innocent smile that drew me in on day one of my college career.
“Derek,” I said, breathlessly.
“Morning, Abby. I see you still can’t tolerate mornings.”
My eyes glanced over at the peephole in my door before I silently chastised myself.
“Still take your coffee with cream and sugar?” he asked.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I asked. “And how the hell do you know where I live?”
“I’m here to talk with you, Abby. Is that all right?”
“That only answered one of my questions,” I said.
“Please?”
My eyes fell to the coffee in his hands. My
body was screaming for caffeine. Begging me to reach out and take it. I knew what he was doing. He was trying to offer some sort of peaceable agreement. I didn’t know why he was here and I didn’t know how the hell he found me, but now I had the chance. I finally had the chance to say everything to him that I’d wanted to say. I had the chance to get the closure I needed before starting my new life with Colin.
Maybe this conversation would give me the gumption I needed to set a wedding date.
“Come in,” I said.
“Your mother gave me your address,” he said, as he stepped in. “I had to admit, I was shocked when I found out you were living in L.A.”
My mother didn’t give him shit, but that was okay. Now I knew he was going to lie to me and say whatever he needed to in order to keep me comfortable. But I wasn’t the idiot he had dated, and I was no longer blind to his piggish ways.
I sighed at my first sip of coffee as he turned around and smiled.
“Yep. Still a coffee drinker,” he said. “I always loved that about you.”
I choked on my coffee as that word pounded to the front of my skull.
“You said you wanted to talk. So talk,” I said.
“I miss you, Abby.”
I snickered as I shook my head.
“Why the hell are you really here, Derek?”
“I’m here to talk with you because I miss you,” he said.
“Well, I don’t miss you. So if that’s all, you’re free to exit the same way you came in.”
I watched his face melt into a puddle and I closed my eyes. He was trying to pull those lost little puppy dog eyes on me. Derek was the epitome of innocence. At least, that was what I thought. He was tall, lanky, a goofy weirdo with a funny personality. He had big hazel eyes and shaggy light brown hair. Pale skin and a gleaming white smile that had always made me weak in the knees.
And every time he flashed me those puppy dog eyes I had a hard time turning him down.
“Come sit with me,” he said.
“I never said you could sit down.”