Tempting Fate (11 page)

“Yes, I got lucky and don’t have a suite mate, so it’s all yours.”

Abby excused herself and went in to the bathroom; everything inside was dark blue. She closed the door and turned on the water to wash her hands.

When she came out of the bathroom, he was sitting on the futon and he had cleaned up the table and put it away. Westly reached out for her hand as she walked toward him. She sat beside him and he put an arm around her.

“Because Abs I knew that you would like them, and I wanted this evening to be perfect. What makes it perfect for me is that you were here and that you are happy.”

“Westly, are you…” Abby paused this was going to sound stupid, but she had to ask. “Can you even really be real? I feel like I’m going to wake up any second, in another time and place, and then you’ll be gone. I was not even looking for anything and here we are. I know it sounds cheesy but I just keep thinking that you are too good to be true.”

He said nothing for a moment and just touched her cheek. His thumb lightly caressed her bottom lip; then he kissed her deeply, a sweet kiss that that kicked up every butterfly that had settled down to rest in her stomach again.

“Abs if this is a dream, and I’m pretty sure it’s not, I don’t want to wake up either.”

Abby curled into his chest and stayed there for the longest time. What did he have planned now, anything? She would be happy just to lie there in his arms again all night.

“Would you like to go for a walk? It’s a nice night out.”

Abby looked up at him and smiled. She nodded but did not move.

A few minutes later they stood up and were going out the door. They walked around campus for awhile holding hands but mostly with his arm around her keeping her warm. They walked around campus, mostly silent, only talking from time to time about nothing in particular at all.

By the time they arrived back at her dorm, it was nearly two in the morning. Paul was in the lobby of her dorm pretending to read. Abby waved hi to him and he looked annoyed at them, answering with just a nod. When they got to her room, Abby invited him in and he accepted. The doorway barely closed when Abby was back in his arms and kissing him again. If he was a dream, he was the most perfect one she had ever had.

Chapter 10

That night and most of Sunday morning was spent just lying in his arms. They watched a movie in the early afternoon, not that either of them had paid much attention to it. They went to lunch in the cafeteria. She saw Melanie and Jamal sitting together across the room and just smiled at the two of them, she could only imagine what Melanie was telling him. Abby wasn’t quite ready to share Westly with her friends. Plus she should get to be the person to tell her friends about him, and she was not going to do that till she knew it was becoming something more than it was right now.

It was good to see the two of them together though. Maybe she wouldn’t have to play set-up for Jamal anymore. After lunch he came back to her room with her and they lay in bed together again till almost six in the evening. Abby never wanted to be out of his arms.

“No that’s okay, I’m getting bored with you anyway.” A shocked looked flashed across his face before she smiled and hugged him tighter. “You’re lucky I am going to let you go now, next time I might not be so willing to let you leave.”

“You are beautiful when you smile, you know that?”

What could Abby say to that? She kissed him again and then reluctantly walked with him to the door, her arms firmly around his waist the whole time.

“I’ll be back later. I have some things to take care of. Miss me while I’m gone.” He kissed her on her forehead and started to leave.

“Westly.”

He turned back to her with his crooked smile and waited, “Yes?”

“Never mind. I’ll see you later.” She couldn’t say it. Did she want to admit that she would miss him or that she wanted him to miss her? He walked back the couple of steps to her door and wrapped his arms around her waist lifting her up just slightly so that her face was level with his own. All it took was the smallest whisper into her ear and the feel of his lips brushing against her cheek, and she melted into him.

“Tell me Abs, what did you want to say?”

“I’ll miss you,” she confessed. When he did that she just might have told him anything. It’s a good thing she didn’t have any government secrets to keep.

Slowly her feet were back on the ground, one of his arms was around her waist holding her close. The other hand was gently holding her neck and he was kissing her deeply and softly. Abby’s legs became jelly under her and he held onto her tighter.

When he pulled away, she tried to fight it and threw her arms around his neck and got on the tips of her toes, pulling him closer. He pulled away and gave her a little laugh, “I better be more careful whispering in your ear. Don’t worry I’ll miss you the moment that I get into that elevator, but I’ll see you soon.”

All Abby could do was nod at him and smile. The dangerously wonderful haze from his kiss was still potent in her head, making it hard to think of anything but the feel of his lips on hers. She watched as he walked away down the hall, wishing she had a reason for him not to leave.

Without him by her side time began to drag by, but she had a smile on her face the whole time. Around seven she decided that she should make better use of her time than daydreaming. The first thing that came to mind was to get a start on her paper for Greek Mythology. She turned on the computer and made a quick call to her aunt while she waited for it to boot up. When Melissa didn’t answer her phone, she just left a message, “Hey Missa just calling to say hi and see what is going on with you. I had a great night and it was beyond perfect. I’ll tell you more about it soon; I was just going to get some work done for class. He is going to come back over later I think, so I’ll give you a call tomorrow. Love you.”

Abby sat back down at her computer desk and pulled out the notes she had taken in class about the paper. She had never been a big movie watcher, she preferred reading a story and playing things out in her head. Movies never seemed to tell a story the best anyway; if there was a book and a movie of it, it was just a fact that the book was going to be better.

There really was so much to do for this paper. The first part was going to be the hardest to figure out. Where was she going to get an idea for this? She logged onto the school’s website and found her class forum. She started reading through all the other topics that students had posted for their papers. Someone was comparing the story of Icarus and a movie she had never even heard of. Another was of Aphrodite.

Toward the bottom someone had listed a website they had found that might be of help to others. Abby couldn’t open another window fast enough and type in the site. There were pages and pages of comparisons of movies and stories from Greek Mythology. Abby wanted a movie that she had seen before or at least one that would be easy to find at the video store. It took no time for her to find a movie that she knew:
My Fair Lady
and clicked on it. It was in some ways related to the story of Pygmalion.

Abby wrote down the name and pulled out her textbook to look for the story. She had never heard of Pygmalion before, she was going to have to read that first. It was not in her book, so she looked it up on the Internet and flipped to a fresh page in her notebook where she could make notes while reading it. Halfway through reading the story there was a knock at the door that made her jump.

“Come in Mel, it’s unlocked.” The knob on the door to the hall jiggled which startled her again. She had thought it was Melanie at the bathroom door. Abby went to the door with excitement on her face, hoping it would be Westly on the other side.

Rachel bounced into the room smiling. “I just had the best weekend ever. I had to come over right away and tell you all about it. What are you doing?”

“Getting started on my paper for class. Did you leave town?”

“Abby I told you Friday before class that I was meeting some friends in Florida. Didn’t you listen to a thing I was saying?”

“Sorry Rach, my mind was somewhere else I guess.” They sat down on the bed and Rachel started going on and on about her weekend at the beach. Abby just sat and listened.

“So Abby what did you do this weekend? Please tell me it was more than just staying in his bland beige colored room and studying.”

Before she could say anything, Melanie was knocking on the bathroom door and opening it. “Hey Abby I heard Rach’s loudness and figured it was safe to open the door this time.” The smile on Melanie’s face was devious.

“Hi Mel,” Abby and Rachel said, almost in sync with each other.

“I was just asking Abby about her weekend; how was yours? And what do you mean you figured it was safe to open the door?”

“Abby’s weekend huh? I want to hear this too. She was so
busy
I just have to know how it was,” Mel said sitting down on the computer chair she had pulled over and smiled looking from Abby to Rachel.

The look on Rachel’s face said it all; she was curious what Abby had been up to. “Busy, and not with studying. That’s not like you; we usually have to pull you away from your books. What did you do?” Abby’s cheeks were turning scarlet red and she knew that Rachel could see it happening by the look that was developing on her own face.

After a few embarrassing seconds of silence from Abby, Melanie took it upon herself. “Miss Abby was with
him
all weekend long.”

“‘
Him
’ who Mel?” Rachel looked back and forth between the two girls waiting impatiently for an answer. Then she slapped Abby on the leg, “Oh, you
have
to tell me! I want to know everything!”

Abby didn’t even need to talk; Mel smiled then proceeded to tell Rachel what she wanted to hear. She started with how she had walked in on them Friday night making out on the bed and then how he was still around the next morning. “He knocked on the bathroom door and said that he had to leave and did I mind locking ‘Abs’ door behind him. He didn’t want to wake her up because she looked so peaceful.”

Rachel bounced twice on the bed, both times smacking Abby’s leg and squealing with excitement, “Oh my God! How sweet is that! So, what does he look like - total hunk or what? Hey wait!” She turned her attention to Abby, “Where did you meet him?”

Abby was smiling now; she wasn’t going to be able to keep Westly a secret anymore even if she had wanted to. She let out a low grumble and tried to make it sound like she wasn’t excited about telling her friends about Westly, “I met him in my history class kind of. He is in the class, but I really started talking to him the other day. I was studying over by Waders Lake when he came up to me.” Then she smiled and gave a little squeal of her own, “And yes, he is a major hunk!”

“Abby, I knew you had a wild side to you! My psychic told me something I didn’t expect was going to happen this month. She is so good.”

Abby went into the story of what had happened at the little pond on campus and what happened the next day. She even told her about their first kiss. Abby went on and on not thinking and just telling them everything: all the things he had done for their date last night and how she felt when he kissed her. Melanie and Rachel sat quietly and just listened, glancing at each other from time to time.

“
Wow
, Abby I’m like, in shock. Good shock, but I mean, come on. Just, wow!”

“Thanks Rach, I think. All right, I have to get back to work on this paper. I don’t want to be rude, but I would like to get something done before he comes back over tonight.”

Melanie got up but Rachel stayed firmly planted, “I need to work on mine too I’ll just stay and work also until he comes back over.” Rachel smiled and grabbed an extra notebook off the shelf under the desk and a pen from the drawer.

Melanie laughed on her way into the bathroom, as Rachel jumped up and down singing over and over again, “Abby has a boyfriend, Abby kissed a boy.” You would have thought they were thirteen talking about meeting their celebrity crush.

Rachel opened the door to the hall to leave and stopped dead in her tracks, looking up. Abby walked to the door to see what she was staring and grinning at. Pulling the door open wider, she found that it was Westly leaning against the door jam one hand in his pocket and the purple roses from the night before in his other, a sly grin on his face. Abby wondered how long he had been at the door. Rachel was the first to speak up.

“Oh Abby, a real Greek god to help with your paper; you lucky girl.” She was giggling as she slipped past him into the hallway. Skipping down the hall, she turned around to look at him again and could not help, Abby was sure, one last comment, “Don’t forget about the Human Anatomy project you need to work on Abby.” With a laugh she rounded the corner and was gone, only the sound of her continued giggling echoing through the hall.

Abby didn’t even care to respond. Her eyes were locked onto Westly’s now and the rest of the world was melting away around her. Abby pulled him into her room and shut the door. She barely gave him time to get in before she was jumping into his arms and kissing him. He carried her to her bed and sat down with her on his lap facing him. Abby felt his hands on her, moving up and down her back, caressing her legs, her arms, touching her cheeks, getting lost in her hair. His touch was surreal; it felt like he was leaving streaks of heat as his hands moved from one place to the next. Every touch and every kiss was perfection, as though they fit together like two pieces of a puzzle.