Tempting Fate (12 page)

When he pulled away slowly, she let out a slight moan before she opened her eyes. “Abs, slow down. We have all the time in the world.”

“No we don’t, you might disappear; I swear you have to be a dream. A wonderful, wonderful dream.”

Westly let out a laugh from deep inside. “I’m right here, I’m not going anywhere. Now what’s this about a Greek god helping with a paper?” He asked her in a whispered voice with that crooked smile and one eyebrow up.

“That is just Rachel’s idea of being funny. I was doing some research for a paper when she came over. It’s for Greek Mythology.”

“Well don’t let me stop you, get back to work. I’ll sit here with you. I have a book in my bag. Or I could go, if you would like me to?”

Westly fell back on to the bed and Abby lay with him, resting her face in the crook of his arm and looking up so she could see his face as he told the story.

“I’ll tell you, but I know you would have kissed me again anyway.” Abby giggled and waited for him to start. When he did she was transported instantly into the story.

Westly was Pygmalion and she was the beautiful sculpture made from ivory, which he had created with his own hands. She could see him placing jewels and pearls upon her. Then she was watching him at the festival of Aphrodite begging for his love, his ivory virgin, Galatea, to be real. The farther Westly got into the story, the more she was there watching it, a part of it. She could see him lean to kiss the ivory woman and feel that she was warm, no longer cold, hard, sculpted ivory. Abby’s cheeks blushed just like the ivory statue that was now human, and a tear slowly rolled down her face.

“Pygmalion and Galatea were married and their union was blessed by Aphrodite. A son was born to them and was named Paphos, from whom the city Paphos, sacred to Aphrodite, received its name.”

“That was more than wonderful Westly, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, but why are you crying?” As he asked her, he gently wiped a tear from her cheek.

“The way you told the story, even the stories about New York that you told me last night, you have this way of making me feel like I’m there. Watching it all happen, last night I felt like I was in your shoes and looking at everything through your eyes. Now it was like I was watching Pygmalion come to life.” There were more to her tears than that, but it was something he did not need to know right now.

“Where did you have in mind?” Westly looked confused as he spoke. She could see that he was racking his brain for what was closer and still open on a Sunday night.

“You stay here I’ll be right back.” Abby kissed him on the cheek and laughed as she jumped off the bed.

She disappeared into the bathroom and knocked on the door to Melanie’s room. After a moment Melanie was at the door. “Did he leave already?”

“No, I was wondering if you had any hot coffee?”

“Of course I do.” They both laughed and headed over the where her coffee pot was. Melanie grabbed two big mugs off of the shelf above and filled them.

“Thank you.” As she opened the drawer, she wanted to laugh - a couple? There were way more than a couple small packets of sugar and creamer, Melanie had two full boxes of each. Abby only grabbed about six of each, he couldn’t need more than that.

“Hey, I thought I told you not to move.” Abby handed him a mug and set the packets of cream and sugar on the nightstand by her bed. “I didn’t know how you liked your coffee so I brought some of both for you.”

“Black is good, thank you.”

“Mel has a coffee pot in her room, she lives off it. She’s a pre-law major with 21 credit hours and works forty or more hours a week at two jobs. Coffee is her lifeline. She probably drinks three to five pots a day, maybe more.”

Westly pulled her closer to his side, and told her he wanted to know everything about her. The two of them sat for a very long time drinking coffee and Abby telling him about high school. He asked questions every so often which made her stories longer.

“I never dated anyone before, to tell the truth. I have never met anyone like you. I guess that is why I think you are like a wonderful dream to me. All of this is kind of unreal. Something in the back of my head just keeps saying you are going to disappear, and I will open my eyes in another place or time.

“I’m here Abs, and I’m not leaving. That you can trust. I am real and I will always be.” Westly took the coffee cups out of her hand and set them both on the nightstand. He laid her back slowly, never taking his eyes off of hers and kissed her again.

Chapter 11

“Brady baby, what’s wrong? What doesn’t feel good?” She scooted over so he could crawl into bed with her. He hugged her tight and didn’t say a word. Abigail put her wrist on her son’s forehead but didn’t feel a fever.

“You didn’t come back from your business trip because a mean wizard put you under a spell. There was big dragon that was breathing fire and the wizard wouldn’t let you leave.” Tears started to roll down his face as he buried himself into the crook of her arm.

“Oh baby, it’s okay I promise there are no wizards, dragons or anything else like that in New York.” Abigail smiled and held him tight to her.

Even though Brady quickly fell back to sleep in Abigail’s arms, she was awake now, left to think about Westly and the dream she was having of him. She had gone three nights without dreaming of him, but now he was back. I have to shake this off and forget about it, she thought to herself. She felt her husband stir beside her in their bed and place his arm around her. Now that was the love she knew, the man that she loved.

Her mind slowly wondered to her project and all the work she had left to do on it. She was having a real problem all of a sudden, the original design she had been working on just wasn’t right. She had been racking her brain for something new but was coming up with nothing. Her trip to New York City was less than a week away now.

Unfortunately, most of the home preparations for being gone weren’t taken care of either. Aunt Melissa was going to come over Monday afternoon and stay for the week to help out with the kids. Everything else though was yet to be planned. She could go to the store Sunday and get the groceries for the week; things for easy meals would be great. Melissa was never much of a cook and there was no way she wanted the kids eating fast food every night.

Abigail looked at the clock again; it was four-thirty now, and she knew there was no going back to sleep. She decided to go work on the project a little, maybe the peace and quite would help her think of something new.

She quietly carried the sleeping Brady back into his bed and went downstairs. In her office, Abigail went back over the work she had done. It was good but something was missing. What was it though? She pulled out some old books from college classes hoping for inspiration. As she looked through the pages of buildings in her book, nothing was jumping out at her. Her favorites were the pencil sketches that were very old. That was it, what she was missing! The feeling of being old; new but like it had been there since before the 1950’s. An old classic style of architecture brought to life in a new way.

With that the ideas started flowing from her head into her hand and she couldn’t get things down fast enough. She was writing and sketching things out as fast as she could to get every little thought down on paper. Soon there was not enough room on her desk and Abigail started to spread things out on the floor in front of her.

A short time later she sat down in her chair to take a breath and closed her eyes for just a moment to let the building develop in her mind.

Chapter 12

Abby opened the curtains to find what must have been over two feet of snow on the ground with more coming down. It was already five in the afternoon and the news was forecasting that the snow would not stop till well into tomorrow afternoon. She had never seen so much snow in her life. It was almost mesmerizing to her.

Suddenly there was snow falling on her and she looked up to see gloves rubbing together and sprinkling it down onto her. When she turned around, Westly was smiling with a red rose.

“I will let you know,” Abby said putting her hands on his chest and pushing him backward until she stepped on a wet footprint. “I changed my mind, first to go better be those shoes. You’re making a mess of my room.”

“Oops, sorry.”

Abby just laughed at the pout on his face, “Off with them, let’s go.”

The two of them sat on her bed for hours doing schoolwork and studying; on occasion one would bump the other on purpose or push the other’s paper away from them. They were quiet with the exception of occasional laughter.

“Well I had an idea, but you have to wait now.” Abby yelled out for them to come in thinking it was Melanie at the bathroom door, but the front door opened and Rachel bounced in. She looked fashionable, as always, wearing a white coat with fur around the collar and high white boots that matched. Abby thought the leggings and short jean skirt where an odd combination with it, but that was Rachel for you - fashion before function, always.

“Hi Westly, I’m Rachel, Abby’s best friend. We all think she has been hiding you from us long enough, so I am here to take you away for some fun.”

“And what would you like me to do with myself Rachel?” Abby said with an attitude. Rachel had some nerve she thought to herself.

“Abby you are more than welcome to join us. Unless you would rather study.” Rachel took it upon herself to grab Westly’s hand and pull him up from the bed. Well, she pulled as best she could anyway, he didn’t make it easy for her but not as hard as he would have made it for Abby to pull him up. He probably would have used his strength to wear Abby down and then with one quick pull, had her on his lap.

“Well we were studying; what’s goin’ on anyway?” Westly looked a little worried when he heard the agitation in Abby’s voice as she spoke. He reached out and took her hand in his giving it a gentle squeeze.

“Fun Abby; that is what is going on. Now get dressed to be outside for awhile…lets go!”

Westly helped her up with a smile and kissed her sweetly on the nose. Ten-thirty at night, on a Tuesday for that matter, was a bit late to be having fun, but why not? With all this snow classes were sure to be canceled tomorrow. Abby and Westly put on their things with Rachel waiting in the hall. Before they walked out Abby knocked on Melanie’s door in the bathroom.