Tempting Fate (20 page)

Westly nodded his head and kissed her again. “I love you Abigail Nickole. Forever. No matter what happens or where we are in the world.”

“I love you Westly.”

He pulled her back into him, kissed her gently and held her tightly as she fell asleep.

Chapter 19

Abby awoke the next morning and stretched her arms; it only took a second for her to notice that Westly was not beside her. She opened her eyes immediately and looked around. At first she was confused as to where she was and then shocked. How did she get into her room? Her hand pressed down on a piece of paper as she sat up quickly. She looked down moving her hand to see the familiar heart around his nickname for her, Abs, and knew at once that it was from Westly. She felt her hands shaking as she opened it slowly. Tears started to roll down her face as she read his small handwriting.

My Dearest Abs,

I carried you home, I wanted to tell you everything last night, but I just didn’t know how. I have to go my love, and I could not ask you to go with me. I just couldn’t. I know you don’t understand and I am sorry.

Just know that you are my love. Our love has been the best thing that has ever happened to me, like it was designed perfectly or written in the stars. I know that it will never die. You will always be in my heart, my mind and my soul. Abs you are my other half and I will love you until the end of time.

I am sorry that it is this way. I hope some day you will understand. I just have to go; some things are… the way they end up. I can’t ask you to carry the burden of what is to come in my life. It’s too much to ask you to do. You have given so much to me already.

I’m so very sorry my love. Keep me in your heart forever. Forgive me for leaving like this. If fate brings us together again someday, I will give up anything to be with you. Right now I just cannot ask you to do that for me.

So sorry my love,

W

Panic hit Abby’s chest the instant she was done reading the letter. A thousand questions starting racing through her mind, all of them competing to be answered first. What did he mean by “carrying a burden”? Didn’t he know she would do anything for him? Go anywhere as long as she knew he was going to be with her. Tears were smearing the ink on the page now, making it even harder to read over the second and third time. She dropped the paper as she stood; the clock said it was after 11:30 in the morning. Her first thought was to stop him and she raced for her door. She didn’t take the time to put on shoes or even close her door. She hit the staircase running, her face soaked with so many tears that they were streaming down her chest and onto her shirt.

When she got to the lobby and headed for the doors, she didn’t even hear Paul call out her name. As she raced out of the front door of the building, she took off running at top speed. Abby didn’t look at anything around her; she just needed to get to him before it was too late. Melanie and Jamal were holding hands walking back to the dorm and Abby pushed right past them, throwing them apart from each other.

She got to his dorm faster than ever before, busted through the door and only stopped for a moment to look around in the lobby. She didn’t see him through her tear-filled eyes, so she ran up the stairs taking two at a time.

When she got to his floor, she could see his door was open and she raced inside. Looking around her legs gave way from under her and she fell to her knees. The room was empty, except for the wooden desk and bed that was in every room upon move-in. Abby’s brain was going in a million different directions. She thought of more questions every second and no one was there to answer any of them for her.

Where was he? Did he go home to New York? He was not supposed to leave till later in the afternoon. How was everything already gone? He had barely packed anything yesterday. Why didn’t she wake up on the way to her dorm room, or had she? What time did she get back to her dorm? It was already close to two in the morning when she had started to fall asleep in his arms.

Something shiny caught her eye from the top of the desk, but she was frozen in place. Abby tried to stand up but her knees would not support her weight. She heard the half-scream, half-cry escape her lips, but it sounded like it was coming from far away. Everything was getting further away; the room started dissolving around her. She knew she was going to go with it; when the room was gone, she was going to allow herself to be consumed within the darkening walls. She waited, frozen in place, until everything went black.

The next thing she knew, she was in someone’s arms and being carried. Sunlight was blinding her already stinging eyes. She didn’t care who was taking her away because she knew it was not Westly’s arms around her. If only she had been left there to disappear with the room, all the pain inside would be gone. They should never have saved her. The blinding sunlight faded and she heard Paul’s voice ask what was going on and Melanie and Jamal’s mumbled answers to him, “We have no idea.”

“I’ll call someone to cover the desk then I will be up in a minute.”

“Abby, it’s ok.” She could feel Melanie’s hand squeezing lightly around her arm as she spoke. “Jamal and I are here; we have you now. Everything is going to be ok, please relax. Just take a deep breath hunny.”

Abby squeezed her arms tighter around Jamal’s neck and cried into his shoulder. The whole elevator ride back to her room she muttered the same words over and over again, “Gone, letter, Westly, why.” None of the words were more than a whisper into Jamal’s shoulder.

Jamal sat Abby on her bed and Melanie was instantly at her side, holding her upright. She had picked the note up off the floor and was reading it silently. Jamal pulled over Abby's computer chair and placed his hand on her knee to comfort her. Melanie handed him the note and then pulled Abby’s face up to look at hers before pulling her into a tight hug.

Paul busted into the room almost out of breath and practically yelling, “All right; what the HELL is going on? Someone tell me now!”

Abby barely heard the whispered response from Melanie. But she clearly heard Paul start cussing, saying that he was going to, “Find that asshole right now.”

Abby looked up to tell him no, but he was already gone.

“I’m so sorry hunny, there was this computer disk in the room. Do you want us to see what is on it? Maybe it's something important.”

Abby saw the disk in her hand and grabbed it, screaming, “What the hell am I supposed to do with this huh? He just leaves like that with no explanation. What the hell is this stupid thing supposed to do for me?” It took all of Abby’s strength to break it in half and her rage peaked as she threw it across the room at the wall. She fell into Melanie’s arms and cried more.

Chapter 20

Abigail jolted awake in her hotel room, covered in sweat. She reached up to wipe her face with the back of her hand and realized it was more than just that. Her eyes felt swollen and her cheeks were covered in tears. She sat up slowly and looked down at the tear-soaked pillow that was under her head as the memories of her dreams came back to her. Everything clicked into place in one second and she started to remember everything.

He was not just a dream and more than just a memory. Westly was a ghost from her past. Everything started to come back to her from the past couple of weeks: the dreams, the way Rachel had not responded to her email and the way she had acted on the phone the last time they spoke, her aunt’s behavior in the kitchen insisting she forget it all and stop talking about it. This is why she had put it all out of her mind. She could feel her heart breaking all over again and she grabbed at her chest. It felt like it was caving in now, squeezing her till she could not breath. She laid back down balling up and crying like she had so long ago, letting everything she could remember about the weeks that had followed that day come back to her.

Rachel had postponed her trip to Europe and brought Abby to her apartment. She lay in Rachel’s bed for days and days sleeping, crying and refusing food. She didn’t say a word to anyone; Rachel had to force her into the shower at times. She remembered the tears stopping at some point, but she still didn’t move from the bed. There were whispered sounds of Rachel in another room talking on the phone like she was not even there.

After three weeks, Abby awoke fifteen pounds lighter. The sun was coming in through the window and pouring onto her face. She was done; it was time to leave this place and never look back again. Never to return again to the place that had killed her sprit and her heart. She changed her clothes quickly and gathered her things. It was time to go home now; she would never think of him again. He was just a dream and was never real. It took only minutes to convince herself this was the best solution and she left a note for Rachel on her way out the door.

Rach,

This never happened; it is never to be spoken of again! PLEASE!!!! It was all a dream, it never really happened. It has been just another normal semester. I am going home. I’m sorry, but I will not be coming back next year, or ever. Hope you can come visit me some day. Thank you for everything.

Love you, Abigail

Abby was gone from that moment on; she would be a new person now, Abigail. That is who she would be from that moment on; it was the start of a new life for her. By the time she got on the plane she was smiling again. All memories of an anything to do with Westly were gone.

At least he was for the past 13 years or so. She had only locked him away in a drawer in the back of her mind and thrown away the key. The past two weeks the drawer never stopped rattling until it broke the lock and opened. He was back now filling her heart with the feelings of the strong, powerful love they had shared and ripping it apart at the same time. She cried thinking of him, every part of him. She let her body fill with love when the waves of it came over her and did the same when the heartache came. Her heart was mended and torn open from the memories over and over until she was asleep.

The phone in the room rang which made Abby jump up quickly. The wet spot on the pillow was bigger now and her eyes stung more than before. Even in her sleep the tears had poured out of her eyes. She reached for the phone slowly, her hand shaking, “Hello?”

“Hello my love. I thought I would call and wish you luck one more time before your presentation.” It was her husband, his voice warm and loving.

“You’re welcome my love. Well I should let you go so you can get ready. Just remember, this idea is the best you have ever had. You are going to do great, I know it.”

Abigail hung up quickly, relieved to be off the phone with him. She had sounded groggy and startled on the phone, but she had tried very hard not to sound hurt or sad. The way he had asked if she was all right was enough to let her know she hadn’t done a good job of it. She wanted to sit for a few minutes and think about everything but time was short. There wasn’t the time to think anymore about last night’s realization; she had things to do. She jumped into the shower and washed all the tears and sweat off herself. Abigail needed to cleanse everything from last night off of her so that she could go into her meeting with a fresh mind and get the job done. The memories of Westly would have to wait for another time.

Her suit out and ready, Abigail placed her wet hair into a tight bun and put on makeup. Most of it went to cover the dark circles under her eyes. She gathered her cards and sketches and was out the door.

Thankfully, Abigail got there ten minutes before she needed to be. She waited in the lobby till she got called into a small conference room on the first floor. She had just finished setting things up when three men and a woman walked in and introduced themselves.

The whole time she felt like she had them interested. The men kept nodding at her and the woman looked very pleased. Her presentation only lasted about forty minutes, but she was enjoying showing them all she had come up with. Her own excitement overflowed and she had to stop herself a few times and slow down a bit. The man who had introduced himself as the vice president of the company told her when she was done it was wonderful. They wanted to go up and brief the president and share with him a few details from their meeting with her. They assured her that someone would be back down to see her shortly. Abigail nodded as she gathered some of her sketches together for the vice president. Abigail graciously thanked them again for their time before they left her alone with her thoughts.

Abigail sat in the small conference room waiting; she organized some of her papers over and over again nervously. She was almost in shock that this was all happening so fast. Sometimes fast was a bad thing. The pleased look from her crowed though made it look like news was going to be good. She wanted to stand up and pace back and forth, but she needed to look calm, collected and together. The president of the company himself might walk in at any moment to see her.

Could it really have been this easy? The last time she went with a coworker to do a presentation they had to change things three times before they met with the owner of the company.

Ten long minutes passed before the door opened again and a young woman came in. “Hi, Mrs. Dalton if you could please follow me.”