Chapter 18

Ian

I was frying up some eggs and hash browns on Tuesday morning when I heard Abigail’s excited squeal from her bedroom. She flew out into the kitchen, and fortunately, I had the forethought to move away from the stove before she barreled full force into me, flinging her arms around me.

“I got the job, I got the job!” she said excitedly.

I squeezed her tightly in my arms. “That’s amazing!” I told her. “I’m so happy for you.”

“I can’t believe it,” she said, pulling away, her eyes shining. “Sandy said they were going to wait until Thursday before letting me know, but she just called me to tell me that she was so happy with our interview yesterday that she wanted to go right ahead and offer me the job.”

“Congratulations,” I said. “So, when do you start?”

“Next Monday,” she said. “I don’t even know what I’m going to do with myself all week now that I don’t have to run around town giving out my resume.”

I laughed. “Watch, you’ll probably get ten different people calling you for interviews now that you’ve already got something else lined up.”

“I don’t even care,” Abigail said, shaking her head as she fell into a seat at the table. “I’m so excited, I’m shaking. That’s how excited I am.”

I smiled at her, genuinely happy for her. “We need to celebrate,” I said as I moved back over to the stove to stir the hash browns.

“Absolutely,” Abigail agreed, nodding vigorously. “Oh my god, it’s been a long month. I can’t believe it’s finally over, and I can’t believe I finally get to start working in my field.” She laughed a little. “This month has really sucked, but it’s been, like, the best thing to ever happen to me, too.”

I wasn’t entirely sure how to take that. Did she include moving in with me as one of the best things to ever happen to her? I wanted to make a joke about it, but I couldn’t seem to find the right words. Instead, I let the comment slide.

“I’ve got a late client today,” I told her. “He’s a new guy, an older guy. He can only train in the evenings.” I wrinkled my nose to let her know what I thought about that. I much preferred the early morning clients to the late-night ones. It was nice to get my hours done by three or four in the afternoon so that I could just come home and relax in the evenings, but I wasn’t given a choice with this one.

“That’s okay,” Abigail said. “How about tomorrow night instead?”

“Sounds perfect,” I said. I paused. “You can invite whoever you want, or it could be just the two of us. Whatever you want to do.”

“I’ll invite Brittany,” Abigail said with no hesitation. “And you can invite Zach. And, of course, Mikayla can come as well.”

It was her celebration, so it was up to her if she wanted to invite others. I knew she was excited to share the news with everyone, but at the same time, I felt strangely upset that she didn’t want it to be just the two of us. Maybe it was just Jason getting to me. I shrugged and tried to let it go.

Speaking of Jason, he fortunately had canceled his appointment for that afternoon. I hoped our previous session was the last I would ever see of the man, but somehow, I doubted I would be so lucky. Anyway, it wasn’t really advantageous to lose that lesson that afternoon since I still had the late-night client. I ended up putting myself through my paces as I waited for the guy to show up, working myself harder and harder in an attempt to forget about my complicated relationship with Abigail.

“Is this how you show all your new clients that you’re serious about hard work?” the new guy, Rob, asked when he showed up.

I laughed and wiped sweat from my forehead. “Nah. Don’t worry. I’m not going to make you do anything you’re not capable of. But we are going to push the limits a little, if you’re okay with that.”

“Sounds perfect,” Rob said.

It was actually a good session. I liked Rob; he was pretty chill and laid back. But even as I was working with him, I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about Abigail. Why was I even upset that she didn’t want to celebrate alone with me?

I couldn’t seem to answer that question any more than I could answer all those questions that had plagued me since Friday night. I hadn’t asked her earlier when she told me about her new position if she planned to move out. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer. But at the same time, we needed to talk soon. There was too much tension between us, almost like we’d been back at the start.

But where at the start it had all been about the forbidden attraction between us, now it seemed to be more and more about the uncertainty of our future.

What did I want? I had spent some time over the weekend trying to figure out the answer to that question. But it was so silly: I wanted exactly what we already had. I wanted our fake engagement and our breakfast routine and randomly pulling Abigail into my arms and sexing her into oblivion. Was that too much to ask for?

And was that too much like a relationship?

I had never been the relationship type of guy. One-night stands were just so much less messy. We each got what we needed, and I didn’t have to worry about the morning after or the next night or our future or any of that. It wasn’t that I was afraid of commitment or that I didn’t grow up with strong role models in my life. I was close to my parents, and my parents still had a great relationship with one another. They’d been happily married for nearly thirty-five years.

So why was it so hard to pin down what I wanted from Abigail? Was it because of Zach or because I’d known her forever?

“Sorry to interrupt your deep-thinking session, but what did you want me to do next?” Rob asked, clearing his throat awkwardly.

I snapped back to the present, looking around in surprise. It was only the two of us in there. Everyone else had already headed home for the day. I glanced at my watch. “Let’s do some stretches, and then we’ll call it a day,” I said. “Come on, I’ll show you what I want.”

On the way home, I was still thinking about Abigail, though. Was it possible I had feelings for her? I mean, I had always had feelings for her. She was a nice girl and very attractive, and she was Zach’s younger sister. I’d known her forever, and I couldn’t imagine my life without her. But were those relationship sort of feelings or just normal friendship feelings? I didn’t have any other female friends, so I didn’t really know.

I shrugged, trying not to dwell on it, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how upset I was that she didn’t want to celebrate with just me.