***
“So, that’s pretty much my life,” Abby says as she places her arms behind her head, her eyes still on the stars that are shining above us.
For the past hour, as we lay on the ground beneath the night sky, she’s been giving me more details about her childhood and how she grew up, about her mother and the men her mother was with. And I’ve been more than content to listen, fascinated by her tales and changes in expression and glad to know all about her, even the sad things like how her mother was found dead in a motel room with her boyfriend when Abby was seventeen, a tragedy which, according to the police, stemmed from a lover’s quarrel gone from bad to worst.
“I’m sorry about your mother,” I tell her, reaching for one of her hands.
She shakes her head. “She had it coming, and I already lost her a long time ago.” She sighs. “My life would make a good tearjerker on Broadway, huh?”
“I’d watch it,” I tell her. “And at least now, I know why you don’t like men with mustaches.”
They remind her of her stepfather, who she largely blames for her mother’s downfall.
She turns her head to look at me. “Your mother didn’t marry again, did she?”
“No. She loved my father too much.”
“That’s good.”
“Not entirely. She loved him so much that after he died, she stopped taking care of herself and standing on her own feet. I think she might have lost her will to live when she lost him.”
“But she still had you. Didn’t she take care of you?”
“Not really. It was mostly my grandparents who raised me and the maids who looked after me.”
“And your grandfather didn’t like you?”
I shake my head. “I look too much like my father, too American. I guess when he sees me, all he sees is the mistake my mother made, the crime she committed against him.”
Abby squeezes my hand. “I guess we both had a miserable time growing up, huh?”
We do seem to have a lot in common.
“How about now?” she asks. “Does your grandfather like you now?”
I snort. “Nope. I’m still rebelling against him, after all.”
She raises an eyebrow in surprise. “You are?”
“He wanted me to take over his company but I refused. I told him I’d start my own. If not for my mother begging him to give me a chance as she was dying, he wouldn’t be giving me one. He has to see at least fifty million in profits in a year, though.”
“And if you don’t make that much?”
“I have to go back to London and do as he wants. Otherwise, he’ll make sure I don’t get a single cent of his fortune.”
“Wow. Talk about pressure.”
“Nothing would give him more pleasure than to see me fail.”
“Well, you won’t.” She lifts her head and holds my hand in both of hers. “You have good ideas, excellent apps in the making.”
“I have to sell them, though.”
She leans on her elbow. “You know what? You said something about making a line of apps for women, right?”
“Yeah. That’s one.”
“Well, why don’t we have a female celebrity to endorse them or, better yet, have her name on them? Someone famous. That will sell them more quickly, right?”
“That was precisely what I was thinking.”
Abby lies back down. “She can’t just be any celebrity, though. She has to be a role model, an inspiration. Now, let’s see. Who’s inspirational and famous?”
I wait for her answer.
“Ah. What about Lindsey Holland?”
I pause. I know we have a lot in common, but we think alike, too? I mean exactly alike?
“No.”
“Why not? She’s amazing. Every woman wants to be her.”
I sit up. “Do you?”
“I look up to her,” Abby admits. “I’ve read a few of her books, too.”
I resist the urge to slap myself in the forehead and laugh. Is this some sort of joke? All this time, I’ve been planning on convincing Lindsey to endorse my apps, of using Abby to that end. And now that I’ve started to abandon that plan because of how I feel for Abby, Abby wants to pursue it?
“Well, why not?” Abby asks.
“Because she doesn’t want to endorse our apps.”
“So, you’ve asked her?”
“Pretty much.”
Well, I haven’t exactly. I know if I did, she’d turn me down outright, so I’ve sent others to no success.
“Hmm.” Abby sits up, touching her chin. “So even you have a woman you can’t get to say yes, huh?”
“You did reject me, you know,” I remind her.
“Well, I still think she should be the one to endorse those apps. So how about I try convincing her?”
I give her a look of surprise. “You’ll do that?”
“Why not? Maybe she’ll listen to me.”
Well, if Abby was the one who came up with the idea and she wants to do it, I can’t say I don’t want her to.
“You think you can convince her?” I ask her. “It’s not going to be easy, you know.”
Abby gives me a confident smile. “I’ll give it my best shot.”