Colin

It had been twenty four hours since Abby had barged out of my office telling me she needed a few days. The news was running headline after headline of her on the street with some guy. But it wasn’t just any guy. I recognized that slimy little face.

Derek had cornered her on the street, and I was infuriated.

I couldn’t get Abby’s face out of my mind. How scared she looked in that last shot just before she ducked into the car. Why she didn’t get into the car sooner was beyond me, and what the fuck had the driver been doing? I felt like firing someone. I needed to regain control of the situation again. My driver was done, and I’d post a security guard outside of her apartment door. Maybe this would convince her to move in with me. Maybe this would convince Abby to see that I could only protect her as much as she let me. My fears weren’t unfounded. People out there would want to attack her like this for the rest of her life now that she was successful and attached to me.

Where the hell had my fiancé gone?

That man didn’t have any right to tell Abby what he did. I called up my lawyer and asked her if this encounter had been a breach of the paperwork he had signed. And of course, there wasn’t. I’d paid this damn lawyer thousands of dollars to take care of this, and she’d forgotten to put the one clause in that damn paperwork that mattered.

Best lawyer in L.A., my ass.

Sitting in my office, I picked up my phone again. I dialed Abby’s number in the hopes that she would pick up. I wasn’t going to try and convince her to come home, nor was I going to try and make her talk. I would simply ask if she wanted him try to figure out where she was. I needed to know she was okay. I needed to know she was safe.

Especially since Derek was apparently just wandering the fucking streets with fifty grand, and nothing to keep him away from Abby.

Then, after calling her for the third time that day, she finally picked up.

“Colin, what do you want?” she asked.

She sounded exhausted, and it only fueled my desire to know where she was.

“I just want to talk, if you’ll let me,” I said.

“I told you I was taking a few days to myself. I don’t think bosses would call their employees like this,” she said.

“Good thing I’m not calling as your boss, then.”

“I’m just not sure I want to talk with you right now. Why can’t you respect that?”

“Because you won’t pick up your phone to tell me anything,” I said.

There was silence on the other end of the line and I was praying she wouldn’t hang up.

“Are you safe?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Where are you?”

“Colin—”

She was begging me to stop, yet something inside me just couldn’t drop it.

“I just want to know you’re safe,” I said.

“Then trust me when I tell you that I am.”

“I’m just—”

Groaning, I ran my hand through my hair as I stood at the window of my office.

“Are you having second thoughts?” I asked.

“I am,” she said.

I felt my heart shatter and fall into pieces on the floor in front of me.

“Why?” I asked.

“Colin, we don’t know each other.”

“Then we take the time to get to know each other,” I said.

“That’s not the point.”

“What is the point?” I asked.

“The point is you won’t shut up and listen so I can get it out.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, sighing.

“It’s not that we don’t know each other, it’s that we were seeing each other in our spare time. On our off time. You don’t seem to hear me sometimes. Like when I tell you I don’t need your money.”

“I just want to spoil you. What’s wrong with that?” I asked.

“Nothing, if you’d ask me how I wanted to be spoiled. But you don’t. You send me flowers that eventually crumble, then they’re just a hassle to clean up. You buy me an SUV, then you send a car to take me to work because you’re afraid something will happen to me. I haven’t even experienced this new city I’m supposed to call home because you’ve got me trapped in all these ivory towers.”

“But you know why I do all that, right? It’s because of encounters like the one you had with Derek,” I said. “It’s to keep you safe.”

“And all these cameras, Colin. There’s so many of them. All the time. We can’t go anywhere. I can’t do anything—”

“I don’t know what you want me to say about the cameras. I can’t pay them off, too.”

I cursed myself the moment it flew from my lips.

“Are you serious?” she asked, breathlessly.

“Abby, I didn’t mean that how it came out.”

“Then how did you mean it?” she asked.

“I just meant that there are some inherent hazards that come with me. Just like there are hazards that come with you.”

“And what hazards do I come with?” she asked.

“Does Derek count?”

“You’re fucking unbelievable, you know that?”

“No, he’s an example. Hear me out. Derek was a hazard. A hazard that came after you. And instead of running or backtracking, I tackled it head on with the one weapon I have at my disposal. Did I go about it the wrong way? Yes. That’s pretty obvious now. But at least I didn’t take a few days off and run.”

“I’m done with this conversation,” she said.

“Abby, would you just listen to me.”

“That’s the problem, Colin. Now that you’ve got me chained to this ring, you think you can just bring down the ban-hammer and I’ll listen to you like the obedient little girl I am. But you don’t get to absorb my life just because we’re engaged. You don’t get to control my life just because I work for you. Your rigidity is coming out again and it is stifling me in the process. I will leave you before I let that happen.”

The mere mention of her leaving shot panic straight down to my gut.

“Whatever you need, Abby. I’ll do it. Just tell me what I can do to make this situation better.”

“I need you to leave me alone for a few days so I can clear my head. One thing you can learn about me now is that I’m wonderful at articulating everyone else’s existence. But not my own.”

“Then take all the time you need,” I said. “I’ll be here when you get back.”

She hung up the phone and I threw it across the room. I was no longer in control of this situation. Derek was free with fifty grand in his pocket, Abby was somewhere within a twenty four hour vicinity of Los Angeles with nothing but her clothes and some money. And I was here. Up high in a tower with no control over what happened to her, where she went, or whether she was even safe.

At least when we went on our road trips, she let me drive.

I needed to get out and clear my head. I needed to get a drink. I slipped by Ted’s office and knocked on his door, seeing if he was free for the evening.

“I’m always free for a drink. Abby joining us? I’ll ask Maggie to come with us if she is.”

“Nope. Just us,” I said.

It was my tone of voice that must’ve tipped him off, because his face fell immediately.

“Come on. I know a place with a strong drink and stone-cold silent bartenders,” Ted said.

I followed Ted to the bar and we sat down in a corner booth. He grabbed a beer and I ordered a whisky neat. My mind was at a standstill as I stared out the window. I could feel Ted’s eyes studying me before he took a sip of his beer.

“Where’s Abby?” he asked.

“Gone for a few days,” I said.

“Does this have anything to do with the news story Hadley had to combat this morning?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“What happened? Who the hell was that on the sidewalk?”

“Her ex,” I said.

“Good thing we’ve got Hadley on that story. She’ll squash it by the morning,” he said. “What was her ex doing cornering her like that?”

“Probably showing her the money I gave him to skip down.”

Ted choked on his beer as I picked my drink up to my lips.

“You what?” he asked.

“Let me just preface this by saying I know where I fucked up.”

“Oh, this’ll be good,” he said.

“I hired the company’s P.I. to look into Abby’s past.”

“So fucking glad you prefaced this conversation,” he said.

“I wanted to make sure there was nothing the media could dig up and spin. If there was, I wanted to be prepared. One of her main concerns was how the media portrayed her at the conference, but an engagement speech like that only works once. I wanted to craft spins on stories to stay ahead of the game.”

“Your head was in the right place, but that was a shitty move.”

“I got that, Ted. Anyway, the P.I. found the lawsuit and I squashed it before he could serve Abby any papers. Paid him fifty grand in return for signed papers saying he had to get the fuck out of town.”

“But not before he cornered Abby and told her the whole story,” he said.

“Yep. And she was irate.”

“And rightfully so. You went poking around in her past and then tried to buy her.”

“I didn’t buy her, Ted.”

“Not how she’s gonna see it,” he said.

“I know. We’ve talked.”

“How did that go?”

“Not very well, but she hasn’t left me yet so that’s a thing,” I said.

“A thing. Okay. What did she say to you on the phone?”

“Among other things, that she’s having second thoughts.”

“Well, of course. Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Wait, what?” I asked.

“Colin, seriously? You’re acting as if this is some sort of fairy tale. You’ve proposed to a woman you’ve known for all of four months, and in that whole timeframe you’ve seen each other for how long? Two or three weekends?”

I sat back and ran the numbers as my face slowly began to fall.

“And she’s a small town girl, right? Minnesota? You’ve ripped her from her home and dropped her into L.A.”

“She lived in San Diego for a spell. Worked for Popular Faces magazine,” I said.

“Los Angeles. It’s a whole different ballgame here. And she’s having to relearn it. Except you’re piling her into cars and shipping her to work. I’m surprised it took her this long before she could admit she was having second thoughts.”

“Do you think I’m going to lose her, Ted?”

“She’s freaked out. She’s scared. And if I know you well enough, you’re still pushing. Trying to get her to pick up the phone. To tell you where she is. Probably trying to convince her to come back. The best thing you can do right now is give her space.”

“That’s what she told me on the phone,” I said.

“Then why the fuck are we sitting here shooting the shit trying to figure it out if she’s already told you this?” he asked.

“Because I don’t know how to stop being so controlling!”

I threw back the rest of my drink and the waitress promptly sat another one in front of me. Ted traded his empty beer bottle for a full one, much to my relief. I didn’t want to go home and lay in my bed. I didn’t want to go home and sit in front of the fire. My penthouse apartment was laden with memories of her, and it would just make me want to call her even more.

“I just wanted her to have the car until she became familiar with the city. This place is prosperous, but it’s dangerous, Ted. You and I know that. How many times have we had to visit our employees in this building because something happened to them on the streets?” I asked.

“More than we care to admit. But you’re engaged to a woman who’s independent. Who doesn’t need or want your money or your protection. There’s a good chance Abby’s the type of woman that carries mace or a Taser around. Did it ever occur to you that she could protect herself?”

“No, it didn’t.”

“That’s why she’s scared. Because you don’t really know her. You have an image of her that you’re trying to get her to fit, but you’re not taking the time to know her. Is she complaining about the money you’re spending on her?”

“How did you know that?” I asked.

“Maggie has a big mouth. Okay, she’s not actually complaining about the money. She’s complaining about what you’re spending it on.”

“She said something about that on the phone call.”

“What did she say?” he asked.

“That I don’t listen. I send her flowers, but then they die and it just makes a mess.”

“Okay, it’s a good thing you pulled me away for the night. I’m practically the woman whisperer.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” I asked.

“It means Maggie’s been a blessing in so many ways. She’s not a flowers kind of girl, so stop sending them. Why you’re doing it doesn’t matter. She doesn’t like the mess they create once they die. What does she like?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you serious? What the hell does Abby like? What are her hobbies? Does she collect anything? Does she read?”

I racked my brain for answers to any of the questions he’d thrown my way. But I was coming up with nothing. Was Abby really this foreign of a concept to me? Did I really know so very little about the woman I’d proposed to a couple of weeks ago?

“Colin, a word of advice?” Ted asked.

“Yes?”

“You don’t fucking know her, and that’s why she’s having second thoughts.”

“Then what do I do?” I asked.

“What any two people at this stage would do,” he said. “You take the time to get to know each other. Not intimately. Not sexually. But just on a base level. Trust me, asking someone about their favorite movie seems boring, until they tell you the story of why it’s their favorite. That’s where the meat of all this shit is. That’s where the good stuff lies.”

I turned his words around in my head as I finished my second drink.

“I’d say I agree with you,” I said.

“Huh?”

“Maggie is good for you,” I said, grinning.

“Don’t go getting that look in your eyes. Not all of us fuck our employees.”

“Talk like that about Abby again, and I’ll have your job,” I said.

“Spoken like a true protector. Only Abby doesn’t need protecting.”

“Then what does she need?” I asked.

“From you?” he asked, chuckling. “She needs your support. That’s all.”

We finished our drinks before I clapped Ted’s back, thanking him for his advice. I had a lot to think about as I headed back to my apartment, but the instant the elevator doors opened I was bombarded with her. Memories of her scent, her smile and her presence. Her warmth pressed against me, her body encompassing mine. I slowly walked around my home and closed my eyes, running my fingertips along the perimeter as I conjured the memory of her.

A memory that included the fact that her eyes lit up whenever she saw me.

I felt a bit better as I opened my eyes. We were still engaged, which meant I still had a chance. If time together to get to know one another is what we needed, then that was what I would make sure we got.

I would give her all the time in the world if it only meant she wouldn’t leave.