Abby

 

I couldn’t believe this was happening. I followed Colin as he held me close to him. We stepped out of the bathroom and into a crowd of people, and they moved with us as Colin headed back into the conference room. We took a couple of back hallways that led us backstage, then Rohan sealed off the door and shrouded us from the press that was trying to follow us everywhere.

And no matter what I did, the tears wouldn’t stop.

“What do you want us to do?” Rohan asked. “Hadley’s blowing up my phone.”

“Ted sent me to help,” Maggie said. “He’s gonna be here in a second.”

“You tell him to come with a different attitude than the one he showed me via text message. Then, we’ll talk,” Colin said.

I had no idea what that meant and I didn’t want to. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me as I pressed myself into Colin, but I no longer cared what they thought. Well, I did. But I was more concerned about the media that was hounding to get back here and talk to us.

Talk to me.

“Colin, I need to know how you want to approach this,” Rohan said.

“It’s a good question,” Ted said. “I’ll give you my apology later. Is she okay?”

“No,” I said, sniffling. “I’m not.”

“In her defense, she was concerned we would get caught. I was the one who told her we would be fine. This is my mess to clean up,” Colin said.

“She doesn’t need a defense,” Maggie said. “Not if she enjoyed the date. Did you enjoy it, Abby?”

I peeked out from Colin’s chest and I nodded lightly. I knew what she was insinuating and I needed to thank her later for it. She’d been around businessmen long enough to know that sometimes men in Colin’s position propositioned women like myself. Held our careers over our heads or used some other means to get women in their companies to, well, keep them company. She was trying to make sure I hadn’t been pushed into a situation like that, and I wanted her to know that I hadn’t been.

In fact, I had a wonderful time, and despite the outcome, I would do it all over again.

“Hadley’s calling me,” Rohan said. “What do you want me to tell her?”

“Should I talk to her?” I asked. “I mean, she is my boss.”

“I’m sure the two of you will talk later,” Rohan said. “And by the way, Abby, good job holding your own in that conference room.”

“How do you know about that?” Colin asked.

But all Rohan did was turn his phone around.

He rejected Hadley’s phone call in order to show us the news stories popping up in droves. Pictures of me standing in the media room. Quotes I’d given that tried to bat the media hounds away. Reassuring statements that nothing that had happened between Colin and I would in any way jeopardize anything to do with the company.

The articles kept popping up as often as we fucking blinked.

“If we wait much longer, we won’t be able to get out in front of it,” I said.

“Spoken like a true public relations hire,” Rohan said, grinning.

“None of you need to worry,” Colin said. “I know what to do.”

“What?” I asked. “Brief me so I know how to handle the situation out there.”

“Oh, you’re not going back out there. I’m slotted to give the farewell speech that dismisses the conference after the last keynote speaker gives his final speech. Until then, you’re staying back here with everyone. You don’t move anywhere unless you’re with me.”

In any other world and at any other point in time, I would have fought back. I would’ve asserted my independence and made sure this man understood I could hold my own. But I was overwhelmed and woefully underprepared for how to handle a situation like this.

So, I nodded in agreement before he kissed my forehead.

“Good. Now, I gotta go get mic’d. Stay right here,” he said.

My eyes widened at the gesture, especially given the situation we were in. I could tell everyone was taken aback as well, but Ted had a telling grin on his face. I swallowed hard and pulled my coat tighter around my body, trying to shield my heart that was currently slamming up against my sternum.

It felt like the entire world could see it on a silver platter.

Rohan picked up a phone call and walked away as Maggie and Ted stood at my side. They tried to make idle chit chat while the last keynote speaker took the stage, but I was too distracted. Colin had made his way to the other end of the stage and was smiling at me, trying to offer me any solace he could as the last keynote speaker rambled on.

Part of me wanted to know what he was closing the conference with, but part of me knew that it was wise if I wasn’t in the loop.

Colin eventually took the stage to wind down the conference as a whole and the audience went silent. A hushed anxiousness settled over the entire auditorium and I thought I was going to vomit on my shoes. My hands were shaking in my coat pockets as tears rose to my eyes. Maggie wrapped her arm around my shoulder and tried to calm me down, but I shrugged her off so I could breathe.

I felt stifled and sick, and the only thing I wanted to do was find myself back in the protective embrace of Colin.

“I want to thank everyone for coming to this conference. It’s been wonderful and eye-opening, to say the least. I don’t know about any of you, but I’ve learned a great deal from the wonderful speakers we had this year.”

There was a polite applause that trickled across the audience before Colin drew in a deep breath.

“But there is also a person here that I’ve learned a great deal from. While she didn’t speak today, you all know of her by now, but I’ll introduce her anyway.”

“What the fuck is he doing?” I asked.

“He’s fixing things the only way he knows how,” Ted said.

“Which is—?”

But all Ted gave me was that shit-eating grin of his.

“Her name is Abby Thompson, and she’s the woman in the picture that has been circulating for the past hour. You know, the woman in the bar with the winning basketball team jersey on.”

A murmur ran through the crowd.

“Go KSU!” someone from the audience exclaimed.

“There we go!” Colin said. “That’s the spirit. Let me tell you a little something about Abby Thompson that the press doesn’t know. Abby Thompson is not only intelligent and well overqualified for her job, but she can also admit when she’s made a mistake. I learned that she has this insane talent for taking fluent and legible notes without once looking down at the page she’s writing on, and she has this uncanny ability to pick apart people while making herself look like she doesn’t know a damn thing.”

A small chuckle rose from the audience as a lazy smile crossed my face.

“I first met Abby on a plane ride over the holidays. Ironically enough, our plane landed prematurely right here in Wichita because of bad weather. She begged, cajoled, nagged and shamed me for a ride into her hometown, which happened to be only thirty minutes south of Minneapolis, which was where I was headed. So, despite my reservations, I caved to the holiday pressure and gave this strange woman a ride.”

The audience warmed considerably, and several smiles could be seen on the faces of the crowd.

“Thanks,” I said, murmuring.

“Oh, this is gonna get good,” Maggie said.

“I learned two things from her on that road trip back into Minnesota,” Colin said. “I learned that I’d allowed my business to take over my life and that I’d allowed my business to harden me to the beauty life could afford me. You see, over the course of the last four months of last year, well before I had ever met her, Abby endured several life-altering events, including heart break, eviction, and theft. Yet with the genuine smile she always had to offer me, you would’ve never known any of it.”

“You were stolen from?” Ted asked.

“Long story,” I said, murmuring.

“Then,” Colin said, chuckling. “In a bizarre coincidence, we found ourselves on the same plane a few days ago, flying out of Minnesota to come here. And guess what?”

Laughter rolled through the audience as Ted, Maggie, and Rohan all chuckled alongside me.

“The storm grounded our plane, and once again, I was on a road trip with this woman. And once again, I found myself learning two very important lessons.”

Colin looked back at me and he offered me a bright smile before he continued.

“I learned that it is possible to change, though change is gradual. It doesn’t happen over the course of a few days, or even a few weeks. It takes time and practice to implement changes once they’re brought to your attention, and that’s assuming you even want to change.”

He turned his body back out towards the crowd as the very breath I was breathing caught in my lungs.

“The second thing I learned was that I had fallen in love.”

“Did he just say love?” Rohan asked.

“Oh—my—gosh!” Maggie said, sounding out of breath.

“You old son of a bitch,” Ted said, smiling.

I felt my heart go silent in my chest as tears of joy started welling in my eyes.

“I had fallen in love with the most intelligent, eccentric, infuriating woman on this planet. I learned that love could be found in the most unexpected and strangest of places. On our first trip, we lost ourselves in each other in dingy motels with flickering power and little to eat, and when I saw her get on that plane in Minnesota a few days ago, I knew I had a second chance to get right what I had failed to get right the first time.”

I pulled my hands from my pockets and threw them to my mouth as a giddy smile crossed my cheeks.

“Abby Thompson, you mean the world to me,” he said, as he looked at me. “You gave me a new perspective on life and you showed me that it’s possible to change. That it’s possible to be the man I’d always wanted to be, yet still be the businessman I know I need to be. You changed me, Abby. For the better. And there isn’t a moment we’ve spent together that I would ever take back.”

I started giggling into my hands as tears started streaming down my cheeks.

“That is what you guys don’t know about the woman in that photograph. That is what the press will never be able to tell you. Abby Thompson did not acquire her job because of her romantic disposition with me. She acquired her job because she was more than qualified for it. And if there’s anything you can take from her story, take this—none of the greatest things in life are easy to come by. Thank you all for attending this year, and we hope to see you again next year.”

The crowd erupted into applause and jumped to their feet as Colin waved at them from the stage. I could feel my entire body shaking as he turned and made his way off stage. I watched as he exited and turned back towards me, his eyes begging me to stay there.

But then, the press descended onto him like vultures and Rohan grabbed my arm.

“Come on, we need to get you out of here,” he said.

I was speechless with happiness but still paralyzed with embarrassment. I allowed Rohan to drag me from backstage as Ted and Maggie hustled me out of the back of the building. A car was there to take me to the back of the hotel so the press standing outside wouldn’t find me, and I found myself alone again as Maggie shut the door.

Colin’s words were echoing heavily in my ears as the car pulled away from the conference building and went to take the long way back towards the hotel.

The hotel that was right across the damn road.

The second thing I learned was that I had fallen in love.

Colin had fallen in love with me.

The impossible man with the impossible Christmas dreams and the impossible demeanor I had broken through loved me.