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Chapter Four
Abbey and Leah watched their mothers fuss over Cassie as they waited for the wedding ceremony to begin. They were all tucked away in a conference room left of Grace of God’s main entrance. Angel and Vanessa calmly listened as Abbey’s mother made suggestions for Cassie’s hair and makeup. Cassie looked perfect and Abbey was impressed at how Cassie kept her cool despite all the fussing around her.
Madison and Roxanna were seated at the conference room table, chatting and busy on their cell phones. Madison looked over at Cassie and nudged Roxanna with her elbow. They both stood up, gesturing to their chairs. “Moms, how about we do a quick touch up on your makeup before the ceremony starts?”
“Good idea, Mad. You ladies have been so teary-eyed, with good reason of course. But let’s make sure you two look perfect before you’re escorted down the aisle.” Roxanna winked at Abbey and Leah with a smile on her face. Nice save.
Jake’s and Abbey’s moms stopped fussing. “You’ll both make sure Cassie’s ready, right?” Abbey’s mother asked Angel and Vanessa before she and Jake’s mother took Madison’s and Roxanna’s seats at the table for their touch up.
“Don’t worry, Mom, we’ve got everything under control.” Cassie mouthed a thank you to Madison and Roxanna.
Leah snickered next to her while she typed on her cell phone. Abbey’s own cell phone chimed and vibrated with a text message as it lay on the table. Her heart skipped a beat, thinking it might be Luke. The guys were in an office somewhere on the other side of the church getting ready themselves. She knew she shouldn’t care if the text was from Luke or not, but she couldn’t help it. Luke had been her first love. Today would be the first time she saw him face-to-face in ten years. It wasn’t all that surprising she was a little nervous to see him again.
Tom Murphy: Hey how are things going? Ready to walk down the aisle with Luke?
Abbey chided herself for being disappointed it wasn’t Luke who texted her, but instead, one of her co-workers, the Support Desk Manager at OSG. Abbey had confided in him and a few others at the office about Cassie’s wedding and her nervousness about seeing Luke again after ten years.
The women she told were excited for her, going on about how Abbey should strut her stuff and consider hooking up with Luke for old time’s sake. What happened at a wedding stayed at the wedding and all that.
The men couldn’t have cared less about how Abbey felt and only wanted details about “Strike ’em Out” Stryker’s workout regimen, eating plan, etcetera. They wanted to know if Abbey could score them tickets to Cobras games, team gear, and so on.
Being the masochist Abbey was when it came to Luke, she knew a lot details about Luke’s professional life, in part from her own research and from what Cassie and Jake shared with her. Cassie worked for the Cobras as a Manager for Season Ticket Services. She’d been with the Cobras for seven years. Jake joined the organization a year ago as a corporate attorney.
But Tom Murphy hadn’t cared about Luke’s personal information, tickets, or gear. No. Tom had offered to be Abbey’s date to the wedding, her plus one. Why? To make Luke jealous.
Leah peeked over Abbey’s shoulder to look at her phone. “Oh, who’s Tom Murphy?” she whispered. Abbey looked up to find her mother and Jake’s mom still busy with Madison and Roxanna.
Abbey whispered back, “No one.”
Abbey: Ha, ha. Ceremony starts soon.
Tom Murphy: You sure you don’t need me to be your date tonight? Make Luke squirm a little?
Leah giggled beside Abbey. “What an awesome idea. Make Luke jealous. Good plan. So who’s this Tom guy?”
“Shush. Tom’s just someone I work with.”
Abbey had worked with him, up until Wednesday afternoon. She wouldn’t dare mention she’d been laid off now. She had enough to deal with as it was.
Tom Murphy was thirty-one years old and OSG’s resident IT bad boy. He had thick, wavy, light-brown hair kept a little too long, was six-feet-two of solid muscle, had tattoos running down both arms, and rode a Harley. Abbey saw the appeal Tom presented, but the guy was an enormous man-whore. No two ways about it. So much so that OSG’s HR department had to step in, demanding he not “date” anyone from their IT department because his playboy antics resulted in three very upset female employees leaving the company after discovering he was seeing them all at the same time.
Tom’s manager had gone to great lengths to ensure he wasn’t fired because even though he had no couth when it came to women personally, he had an amazing technical mind and was an exemplary employee otherwise. He ran their Support Desk like a well-oiled machine.
Abbey: What? No hot date tonight?
Tom Murphy: Nah, left my day wide open for you. J
What was wrong with him? Although Abbey had no romantic feelings for Tom,why would he risk his job even pretending to be her date? She had been careful to never encourage him personally. She’d always kept her interactions with Tom professional but friendly.
They worked rather closely as the Support Desk employees were power users of the software system Abbey managed. She and Tom had redesigned processes that improved efficiencies and significantly reduced call resolution times. A few weeks before being laid off, they had worked with their retail store support vendor to integrate OSG’s help ticketing systems, allowing both companies to create and pass ticket information back and forth between both systems. It was a huge accomplishment and a significant process improvement.
At least it’s something I can add to my résumé.
“Tell him you accept, Abbey,” Leah whispered, acting much too nosey.
“No. I don’t want to play those kinds of games, especially at Cassie’s wedding.”
“Fine, be a spoiled sport.” Leah went back to her phone and left her alone.
