AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I didn't know which surprised me more.
After a glance at my watch, I went home first. I’d rented a condo with an ocean view in Santa Monica my first week in Los Angeles. I could have stayed a while in a hotel, but I needed a space that was my own.
I needed something completely different from what I’d left behind. I needed a drastic change to try to make me not realize what had been missing.
Which was Abbie.
I grabbed a shower, threw on a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt, and sat on my couch. I reached for the business card I’d picked up with her name on it.
A surge of pride filled me. Abbie Thornton…Photographer.
I brought up the search engine on my tablet and typed her name in, hitting enter.
The first thing up was her website.
I clicked on, for a moment not expecting much, but as the page loaded in a vibrant wash of color…I was surprised. I knew she’d had the domain for years but really hadn’t done much other than put a few of her award-winning photos from her school career on there.
And now…
Now, she had it all set up with photos and a bio. She had sections and a headshot in the corner done in black and white, her in a button-down shirt and jeans, leaning against a pillar, amusement in her eyes…that coy little smile of hers playing on her lips.
I clicked through the site, taking in everything. The photo she’d taken of Marnie and Jimmy in front of the diner.
She had a new home in Los Angeles. She had events booked, a show of some of her Curaçao photos, including some of her first shots she’d taken there—I recognized the food market. She had a portfolio of recent pictures taken out in Malibu, cityscapes.
She’d been busy.
I was so proud of her. So happy.
She was doing it, stepping out of her little box.
I clicked the next page, taking me back to the Curaçao photos.
And then, I saw it, under one of the photos in the space for a comment box.
A comment by my mother, asking for a print.
I set the tablet down for a moment. Had everyone but me known about her move?
I picked up my tablet and started looking for some amazing place that I had a chance of getting on such short notice. I didn’t want it to be a different day and give her a chance to back out.
I had a fear that the longer she had to rethink things, the bigger the chance she’d change her mind.
I couldn’t just bring her here, even though the views were amazing. I wanted us on neutral ground. I didn’t want her to think things were going down a path we’d already been down, moving too quick, too fast.
Although I knew what I wanted.
Abbie.
If I’d been honest with myself all along, she was the one for me from the moment we met. The feelings had always been there. It was why I never stayed with one woman too long. I wanted Abbie. I had since that first meeting, since that first time we’d talked at that showing.
Every time we had movie night on her couch above the Chinese restaurant and she ate all the candy she was supposed to be sharing, all the times in law school when I’d fall asleep on the couch halfway through movie night and she’d tuck me in and I’d wake up to her making breakfast in her little kitchen in an over-sized tee and shorts.
It was her. Always.
***
I booked the boat. I picked the food, the wine, everything in record time. We were going to meet at the dock a little after seven, and we’d set sail before eight. I wanted everything perfect. I told them that, that I would happily pay extra for perfection. Abbie deserved it.
