Story: Getting To Know You
Chapter 1
Disclaimer: The characters depicted in this story belong to NBC, WB, and Aaron Sorkin. We're just borrowing them for some fun :)
Josiah Bartlet was a determined young man with goals and a clear vision of where he was going in life. He would get his degree in Theology from Notre Dame, then devote his life to his maker. Of course he had doubts, but he brushed them aside. After all, this is what he'd basically been groomed to do. This was his calling. And up until that moment, it sounded perfectly reasonable.
What he didn't count on now was meeting her.
Abigail Barrington. She was the auburn-haired, green-eyed beauty he saw that cold December evening. Abbey, as she was known to her friends, was looking forward to the New Year's Eve party her friends were attending. She looked radiant in her sparkling silver strapless cocktail dress. So radiant, in fact, that no one would believe she had been abandoned by her date.
She waited for Ron for an hour that night before she finally gave up. If he hadn't done this before, perhaps she'd be concerned. But he had done it before and she wasn't concerned. She was angry. This was normal behavior for him, at least since the day he moved away. He had graduated from Boston University just as she completed her freshman year. Now, a year and a half later, he was in his second year of law school at Yale.
Though they had only been dating for three months, they had been friends since high school. It was that familiarity that paved the road to the journey towards romance. When he lived in Boston, they didn't pursue an intimate relationship. Once he left for Connecticut and there was no real commitment, it became easier. It was safe and easy. That's what she wanted.
Ron made it back most three-day weekends, occasionally, she would hop in her car and drive to Connecticut to see him. But there was a peculiar strain between them. Every now and then, Abbey wondered if they weren't both alone, would they choose to be together?
They did have their problems. In the time they had been dating, they had never gone beyond hot, steamy kisses. Abbey insisted it was because her good-girl Catholic upbringing convinced her to wait until she was married, but the truth was the thought of going further was never a priority with Ron. She knew she loved him, but she wasn't in love with him and without that kind of love, the temptation of sex barely existed.
Ron claimed he understood, but he was openly filled with desire. He took many cold showers to suppress the hormones that raged inside him before his frustration eventually hit the breaking point. They would argue for hours, it seemed, and like a tedious cycle, he'd feel guilty and beg her forgiveness in the end.
Ron knew the New Year's Eve party was important to Abbey. She had gone every year since she was a freshman. This year, she had looked forward to bringing him, to finally having someone to kiss when the clock struck midnight, but now, he was more than an hour late and he hadn't called. After stewing in her house for another thirty minutes, she chose to leave without him, tagging along with her friend Millie instead.
What happened next was impossible to predict. She never counted on meeting him.
Josiah Bartlet, or Jed, as he preferred to be called had been wandering around, mingling with the other guests. He didn't really know anyone and he was only there at his friend Rick's persuasive urging. But Jed felt out of place. Uninterested in conversing with other party-goers, he was ready to pack it up and head out - until he caught something out of the corner of his eye. There she was. If there was such a thing as love at first sight, he had just discovered its true meaning.
Abbey was standing on the platform above, gazing down at the dance floor. She was a vision of beauty that entranced him instantly. Her dark, wavy auburn hair flowed comfortably on to her shoulders. Her emerald eyes sparkled in the light and every glittery thread on her dress hugged each curve of her body, making her look like an hour-glass-shaped diamond.
He made his way up the stairs just as she began walking away from the railing. A couple of drunken guys nearby ran into her, one of them stepping on her foot.
"Hey, watch where you're going!" Jed yelled as Abbey turned to see the strong-voiced stranger. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm okay. It just hurts a little," she replied, looking down at her foot and slowly removing her high-heeled shoe to reveal her red, swollen big toe.
"You shouldn't be walking on it," he warned.
"I really think it'll be okay," she insisted. "I'll just walk over here and take a look."
He took her shoe out of her hand and provided his shoulder as a crutch as he sat her down on one of the chairs to examine her foot.
"Do you even know what you're doing?" She donned an impeccable grin at the cute way his brows furrowed in confusion.
"Not really," he admitted.
She gently removed her foot from his grasp. "Then let me."
"Do YOU know what you're doing?"
"More than you, I'm sure. I've been taking First Aid classes since I was eight." When she was sure the toe wasn't broken, she slipped her shoe back on and returned Jed's stare.
He couldn't take his eyes off her. Amid all the flirtatious coeds and young adults struggling to be noticed, he finally found someone he actually wanted to talk to. She was different. Her style, her intellect, her looks were different. Everything about her was different and he silently wondered why in the world she was all alone.
"What's your name?"
"I'm Abbey." She extended her hand to shake his.
"I'm Jed Bartlet, Josiah actually. Josiah Bartlet. But they call me Jed." He was clearly nervous.
Abbey smiled sweetly, a smile that made Jed tingle. Never had a woman touched him the way she had and though they had only known each other mere minutes, he felt something with her he had never felt with anyone else - a comfortable connection.
They moved into a booth in an adjoining room in the club where it was quieter. This was going to be easy, Abbey thought. She dreaded striking up conversations with total strangers for fear of it leading to awkward silences, but with Jed, she felt a weird calmness she only ever felt with good friends.
"Are you at BU?" he asked.
"Yeah. I'm in my junior year. You?"
"I'm going Notre Dame. Also in my junior year." Not wanting to take the chance of silence ending the conversation, Jed continued. "What are you studying?"
"I'm majoring in Chemistry with a minor in Biology. Pre-med curriculum. I'm hoping to get into Harvard Med School. What about you?"
"Double majoring in Theology and American Studies with a concentration on Economics."
She was a bit surprised. "Really? That's an interesting combination."
"Yeah, I guess it is."
"What is it you want to do?"
"Teach maybe. I don't know for sure," he lied, purposely avoiding telling her his aspirations of becoming a priest. "Right now, my goal is to study hard and figure it out later."
They talked for hours that night, probing into each other's likes and dislikes, wants, and goals in live. Jed wasn't the only one who felt that comfortable connection. Abbey felt connected to him too and for the first time in months, she had forgotten she already had a boyfriend. Ron hadn't even crossed her mind.
The clock ticked closer to midnight and to Abbey's dismay, it was almost time to welcome in the New Year, something she didn't want to do. She wanted time to stand still so she could enjoy getting to know this dark, handsome young man sitting across from her, as enamored with her as she was with him.
"Let's dance," she suggested.
Jed was hesitant. "I'm not really good. Dancing isn't my thing."
"It's a slow song. Just stand there, hold my hands, and sway."
He reluctantly agreed. After all, anything that involved holding her couldn't be all bad. It took only seconds to reposition herself so her arms rested around his neck. He clasped his arms around her waist as they began moving to the music.
He gasped as she pushed herself into him. "This isn't as bad as I thought it would be."
"The dancing?"
"The party. I was afraid I would be sitting in a corner all by myself."
Abbey opened her mouth to reply, but instead, she took a sharp step back. "Ow!" she cried.
"Oh my God." Jed looked down at her injured toe, the one he had just injured again with his clumsy foot. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay."
"No, Abbey, I'm...oh God...I'm so sorry."
She began to limp back towards their table. "Really, it's okay."
Jed bent down under her arm so she could lean on him as they approached their booth. "I feel terrible. I told you I'm a klutz."
She stopped when they reached the table and looked up at him. Tiny strands of hair had fallen onto his forehead and were tickling his lashes. He was so cute, so demure. She had never seen such beautiful blue eyes before. Her heart fluttered when she noticed the regret on his face.
"You're not a klutz. The dancing we'll work on, but you're not a klutz," she told him as she gently brushed the hair out of his face and sat down.
"Abbey!" Millie called out from around the corner.
Abbey rolled her eyes, realizing they were about to interrupted. "Over here!"
"Where have you been? It's almost midnight."
"Hi," Jed greeted her.
"Millie, this is Jed. Jed, this is my friend Millicent."
Millie's eyes narrowed with suspicion as the two shook hands. "Nice to meet you."
"You too," Jed replied.
"Abbey, it's almost midnight," she repeated.
"I know."
"So come on!"
Abbey snatched her arm out of Millie's grasp. "No, Mill. I think I want to just stay here."
"It's my fault," Jed spoke up. "We were dancing and I stepped on her toe."
"And it really hurts," Abbey added, milking the injury for everything she could.
"It's not broken, is it?"
"No, no, it's not that bad. I just don't want to walk on it." Any excuse to stay in the private enclosure with Jed.
"Okay, but you're going to miss all the fun."
"I'll survive," Abbey replied sarcastically as Millie walked away.
"I really am sorry," Jed told her again once Millie was out of earshot.
Abbey tilted her head. "I was lying to her. My toe is fine. Really."
"Why did you lie?"
"Because I'm having fun with you."
It was only moments away from midnight, a scary realization for Abbey. If someone would have told her that when you meet the right person, you know it right away, she would have snickered at the thought. But after tonight, her skepticism was fading. Tonight, she felt like Cinderella and as long as it was 11:59, her Prince Charming would be right there. She didn't want the night to end, especially since it would take with it the warm wave of feelings that enveloped her.
"We're only a minute away," he said, bringing her out of her daze.
"What?"
"From midnight. Come on." He extended his hand, bringing her to her feet so they could stand up and watch the ball drop on the television in the corner.
As the crowd in Times Square began the countdown, Jed put an arm around her. She turned to look at him. "I'm sorry."
"No, don't pull away. It felt nice."
He pulled her in to a closer embrace.
"10, 9, 8..." the crowd chanted. "...7, 6, 5, 4..."
Abbey pulled her face up and her eyes locked with Jed's. Neither was counting. They were each mesmerized by the moment.
"...3, 2, 1, Happy New Year!" the crowd began shouting as confetti and balloons dropped from above to mark the very beginning of 1966.
Jed was so caught up in the excitement that before he could stop himself, he pressed his lips to hers and stole a quick kiss. And when he did stop and step away, she pulled him back for another -- a more sensuous, longer, steamier kiss than the one he had initiated. It was a kiss that took their breath away and isolated them from the hundreds of people celebrating around them.
TBC