chapter 9
“And where do you think you’re going?” Abigail heard a voice behind her and she whipped her head around to see Sarah standing in the door way of her office. Abigail removed her hand from the doorknob and turned to face her smirking friend.
“Into my office to do some work,” Abigail said. “Last I checked, I was supposed to be in there working by 9 every morning, Monday through Friday. It is now 8:58 and it’s Monday morning, so it’s time for me to do some work.”
“I don’t remember the last time you got to work early,” Sarah replied skeptically. “Usually you’re scrambling to get up the stairs before the clock hits 9:05 and people start coming around to check and be sure we are actually working and not gossiping about what we did the night before.”
“Us? Gossip? Never,” Abigail replied sarcastically.
“Speaking of gossip,” Sarah said, her smirk growing wider as Abigail prepared herself for what was coming, “you never called me after your date Friday night.”
“You’re right,” Abigail responded. “Because I was kind of busy this weekend. My sister came to visit me, since she’s going to San Diego this week to visit some friends. So I was a little bit preoccupied.”
“You could’ve called me Friday night,” Sarah said. “I was up. Unless...you didn’t get home until Saturday morning...”
“I’m not one to sleep with people on a first date,” Abigail shot back, “unlike some people I know.”
“That was once, and he totally got me drunk on purpose,” Sarah said, crossing her arms over her chest as the smirk on her face vanished. “But girl, you have to give me details on this date. Like...where’d you go, what’d you do, how was the kissing--”
“How about we talk over lunch later?” Abigail asked, glancing down at her watch. “Because now it is almost 9:05, and I don’t need to get yelled at again for not doing work. It’s Monday, and I don’t want to start this week off badly.”
“Fine, but we’re getting Chinese,” Sarah said as Abigail turned back towards the door to her office. Abigail shouted back a quick response before opening her door and walking into the room, shutting it behind her. She walked straight over to her desk, setting her purse down on top of it.
“That skirt might be a little too short in the back,” she heard a voice from behind her, and she let out a quiet scream as she twisted her head around, her heart racing. She let out a deep breath as she saw Joe leaning against the wall a few feet to the left of the door, a c.ocky grin on his face.
“Don’t you EVER do that again,” Abigail said angrily as she leaned back against her desk for support. “You could’ve given me a heart attack.”
“Honey, if I wanted to give you a heart attack, I could think of much better ways to do that,” Joe said with a wink, making Abigail’s heart flutter for a moment before she shook her head and regained her composure. She felt her hands clench around the edge of the desk.
“How the hell did you get in here?” Abigail asked, trying to steady her breath.
“You’d better watch your mouth,” Joe warned as he began to walk across the room towards Abigail. “I could probably get you in trouble for using that kind of language.”
“And I could probably get your ass kicked for sexually harassing me,” Abigail shot back, giving Joe an icy glare. He just smiled in response.
“But you won’t,” he replied.
“Just answer my question,” Abigail stated again. “How did you get in here?”
“It’s really easy when you offer a janitor a fifty,” Joe said. “Then I stood where I knew you wouldn’t see me, because you’re too ignorant to glance around your office when you enter the room to be sure there isn’t a man with a shotgun waiting to--”
“Just shut up,” Abigail interrupted him, crossing her arms over her chest as Joe took another step towards her. “Why are you even here? We don’t have a meeting scheduled until next week, and it’s supposed to be you and both of your brothers.”
“Maybe I’m here because I had some ideas about the album,” Joe said simply, shrugging his shoulders a bit. “Or maybe I’m here because I wanted to see you.”
“Well couldn’t you go take your assy attitude somewhere else?” Abigail asked. “I mean, I actually have work to do. You know, so I can make money. I’m sure there are plenty of other people you could go annoy.”
“But none of them are as fun to piss off as you,” Joe said, taking yet another step closer to Abigail. “So tell me, Abby--”
“Don’t call me that,” Abigail muttered, annoyed by the usage of the nickname, although she wouldn’t admit she loved the way it sounded coming out of his mouth.
“I’ll call you whatever I want,” Joe continued, “but I want to know, how was your night on Friday. You know, your little date?”
“It was great,” Abigail replied with a smile. “Even after you interrupted it by dumping Frankie on us.”
“I was hoping you would’ve given Sarah some details on your night before you came in here,” Joe said. “These walls aren’t very soundproof. But...then again, maybe it’s good you didn’t answer all of the questions. I mean, if you’d answered her question about whether or not you’d kissed Kevin...well....”
“Well what?” Abigail asked, her patience running out with Joe as he took another step closer to her, this time putting himself within an arm’s reach. Abigail unfolded her arms from her chest and returned her hands to grasping the desk.
“If I knew you’d kissed him, I think you’d be way less attractive,” Joe finished softly, his lips curling up into a smirk. Abigail stood there, transfixed, her eyes focused on the smirk he wore on his face. She felt her heart begin to race again, and she couldn’t think of a response. She felt her grip upon the desk grow tighter, and she couldn’t figure out why. Suddenly, however, she realized that Joe had now taken another small step closer to her, and his face was only a mere 6 inches away from hers, which brought her back to reality.
“Get out,” she muttered, furrowing her eyebrows. “Now.”
“Abby,” Joe whispered, grabbing onto the desk with his hands on either side of hers and leaning forward, his face now only a few centimeters away from hers. “Do you really, really want me to do that?” Abigail was once again speechless as Joe’s lips, no longer smiling, hovered barely separated from hers. She knew that she should be pushing him away, yelling at him for what he was doing. She knew that she’d just kissed Kevin only a few nights ago, and yet, Joe was here, blatantly hitting on her. She knew he was just messing with her, but she couldn’t force herself to push him away. She stood there, letting her heart race, his breath hot on her face as she bit her lower lip, trying to stop herself from leaning forward and closing the gap between their faces. “That’s what I thought,” Joe breathed huskily, before pushing himself away from the desk and turning around, walking out of the room and shutting the door behind him without a glance back in her direction. Abigail stood in the same spot, her heart still racing, unsure of what to do or what to think. Only one thought could process through her brain.
What the hell just happened?
The remainder of the morning passed quickly and uneventfully as Abigail turned to her flooded inbox to get her mind off of Joe’s surprise visit. After getting through the first hundred emails, with the prospect of another hundred awaiting her return from lunch, she grabbed her purse and walked out of her office towards Sarah’s. She knocked on the door and heard a muffled ‘come in’ from the other side, and pushed it open as Sarah stood up from her chair.
“I am starving,” Abigail said as Sarah tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and straightened out her blouse. “We’re definitely getting as much food as we can afford today.”
“Good, because I feel like I haven’t eaten in days,” Sarah said as she picked up her own purse. “Did you have to spend like your entire morning going through emails too?”
“I had like two hundred,” Abigail complained as the two girls walked out of Sarah’s office, “and I only got through like half of them. I never have this many emails after the weekend.”
“Me either,” Sarah said with a sigh. “It’s like they’re trying to make us miserable here or something.” The two girls laughed together as they walked towards the elevator and rode it down to the lobby, still chatting aimlessly about work as they walked out onto the busy street. Two blocks down was their favorite Chinese restaurant, and after a short walk and a quick wait, they were seated at a table glancing at menus.
“So we’re getting our usual, plus some extra lo mien and pork fried rice,” Abigail decided as she closed her menu and set it down next to her.
“Works for me,” Sarah said as she did the same with her menu. Almost on cue their waiter came over and took their order. After he left, Sarah took a sip of her drink and then focused her attention on Abigail. “So, it’s lunchtime. Which means you need to spill.”
“There’s not really much to spill,” Abigail said nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders for a bit of added effect. “We went out to dinner at this nice restaurant, but then about halfway through dinner J—we got interrupted and we had to go back to his house to watch Frankie,” Abigail said, catching herself before she said the cause of their interruption. She didn’t know why she stopped herself from saying Joe, but she didn’t feel like she needed to get into a discussion with Sarah at the moment about Joe’s actions that night.
“So you went back to his house, huh?” Sarah asked with a raised eyebrow. “What’d you do there?”
“Well, we ended up taking Frankie out for some ice cream,” Abigail said, “and he is like, the cutest little kid ever. Seriously, I wish that he was my little brother, he’s hilarious and--”
“We aren’t here to talk about Frankie, Abs,” Sarah interrupted. “We’re talking Kevin. So you went out to ice cream, and then...”
“We went back to his house and put Frankie to bed,” Abigail continued.
“So you two got a little alone time,” Sarah said with a smirk. “Now it’s gonna get interesting.”
“Shut up,” Abigail said, trying to get Sarah to lower her voice a little bit. She could feel herself blushing and her palms sweating a little bit as Sarah continued to smile at her. “So we talked for a little bit...and then--”
“You kissed, obviously,” Sarah said. Abigail looked down at her lap, trying to not let Sarah see how red her face was at the moment. “I totally knew it. You were too giddy this morning to not have kissed him, I just want to hear you admit it.”
“Well...fine, we kissed,” Abigail said quietly, causing Sarah to let out a squeal of delight.
“That’s so exciting!” Sarah chirped. “How long was it? Was there tongue? Was it any good?”
“Sarah, shut up,” Abigail said, shaking her head as she giggled slightly. “I’m not going to give you a play by play of kissing Kevin.”
“Oh come on,” Sarah said. “Last time you kissed someone you totally gave me all the details, so why won’t you this time? Did it really suck that bad? Because I mean...you really don’t seem like you’re too excited about it.” Sarah furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at her friend, who just shrugged in response.
It’s not that I’m not excited about it, Abigail thought to herself as she tried to avoid eye contact with Sarah. She pondered for a moment about telling Sarah about Joe showing up in her office earlier that morning, and asking for her advice. She wanted a second opinion on what Joe was doing, and if it was really just him being a jealous ass, or if he actually wanted more with Abigail. But she quickly dismissed the thought of telling Sarah- it wasn’t something that she needed to know. For the time being, at least.
“I’m excited,” Abigail said slowly as she watched their waiter approach with their food. “I just...don’t want to jinx it,” she continued, satisfied with herself for coming up with a good answer. “I don’t want to jump into anything too fast, or get all excited about something that might not happen.”
“Whatever,” Sarah said as the waiter set the food down in front of them. “You know, Abigail, sometimes you are really a confusing person.”
Maybe I’m confusing, but it’s only because I’m so confused, she thought to herself as she chose not to respond, instead digging into the food in front of her and letting the conversation evaporate into silence.
