"Abigail, hey honey," said Hope as she put her hands out to stop Abigail who had almost walked into her.
"Everything okay?" Hope asked.
Abigail gave a little laugh and replied, "Hey, Hope. Yeah, sure, everything is fine. I was just thinking about the christening and Nick coming back into town."
"I'm glad that Julie's fears can be put to rest now that Nick came back. Oh, just before he came in, you were going to tell me something," Hope said, raising her brow in question.
"Oh, it was nothing, really. I just wanted to tell you that I checked my texts and there weren't any from Nick. Well, I have to get back to work so I'll see you later."
As she turned to leave, Hope caught her by the hand and stopped her. She seemed to have something to say, but was unsure how to say it. Finally she asked Abby, "Honey, I couldn't help but notice that EJ couldn't keep his hands off you today? Is there something that you want to talk about?"
"No," Abby replied visibly shaken by what Hope had asked her. "You know EJ. He just wanted to wish me well and give me a congratulatory hug for being Ari's godmother."
"Hmm, okay honey," Hope replied not totally convinced by what Abby had just said, but she decided to let it go, for now. There was a story here, but she wasn't sure what. It probably had something to do with Chad. She promised herself, though, that she would keep an eye on EJ and make sure he wasn't harassing Abby. Chad wasn't a bad guy, but now that he was out of Abby's life, she needed to stay away from the DiMeras, especially EJ.
"Well, I see you later," Abby said as she dashed back in the direction of the hospital. She realized that she had dodged a bullet with Hope. If Hope had noticed the way EJ had been holding her and rubbing her shoulders while Hope and Julie had been questioning her, then she had made the right decision. This had to end before someone else became suspicious and started asking questions that neither her nor EJ could answer.
Abigail was having a dream. It was warm and so sexual it felt like she would crawl out of her skin. She felt his kisses against her shoulders, back, hips and her lips. She could feel him whispering against her hair, her cheeks, her neck, yet the words were a mystery to her. The dream was so sensual and she didn't want to wake up because she knew that it would all be gone. He would be gone and she would wake up alone in her bed with only the memories of her dream as well as the times they had actually made love.
Abby woke up suddenly, not feeling his touch anymore and she was filled with an aching awareness that her dreams were just that – dreams. EJ would never be hers. She stretched out on her bed again, not yet ready to get up. Her dream had been so real that it brought back all her doubts about staying away from EJ. Abby had managed to keep herself busy at work along with planning Will and Sonny's bachelor party. She had been so happy when Will told her that Sonny had proposed and he had said yes. He wanted her to be a big part of their wedding, her and Gabi. For a moment, she had been on the verge of saying no because of what she had done with EJ. She didn't know if she could be around EJ and Sami and be confronted with their happy family. She had realized that she was being selfish and that just wasn't in her nature. As hard as it would be to see EJ with Sami, Will had always been there for her and she would be there for him on his big day.
It had been two weeks since Abby had seen or spoken to EJ and each day was a struggle. Every time she thought about him, she felt a wave of longing overtake her and it was all she could do to keep herself from calling him. She had thought she had seen him one day as she was rushing through the parking lot on her way in to the hospital, but she couldn't be certain it was him. The man had been far away and she had quickened her pace in an effort to avoid him, if it was in fact EJ.
Abby sighed and then stretched once more before jumping out of bed. As much as she would love to stay in bed and bury her head under the covers, she had to get ready for work. Laying in bed thinking of what could or could not be with EJ DiMera would solve nothing and it would only make her more miserable and unsure than she was already feeling. She was startled out of her thoughts by a soft knock on her door.
"Abigail, honey, can I come in?" her mom asked when she opened the door.
"Yeah, sure. What's up, Mom?" she replied as she saw the worried look on her mother's face. She knew her mom was worried with JJ's trial coming up and she hoped there wasn't a problem or that JJ had done something to mess up again.
"Abigail, your Aunt Adrienne told me she saw you with EJ DiMera a few times," Jennifer said with that same worried look on her face. "You want to tell me why?"
"There's nothing to tell," Abigail replied. "EJ and I were talking about Dad's book, which he read, and he just wanted to tell me that he really liked it."
"Are you sure, honey, that's all it is?"
"What more could there be?"
At times, Abigail could be so naïve and trusting Jennifer thought as she replied, "He's a DiMera so there always something more. Just stay away from him, okay."
Abigail felt awful as she promised her mother that she would stay away from EJ. If her mom only knew the truth about her and EJ, Abigail thought. The time to stay away from EJ DiMera should have been weeks ago before she slept with him twice at the cabin and then again in the storage room. She could, however, take her mom's advice and do as she had promised her mom and herself she would do.
Across town at DiMera Enterprises, EJ was already in the office trying to catch up on some work that he had neglected. Between cleaning up Sami's mess and trying to contain Nick's reign of terror, he had let a few things fall to the wayside. A fact that had been brought to his attention by Stefano earlier. He had had a niggling feeling about something Stefano had said and, at the time, he had been to busy reassuring him, but now he tried to remember the reason for his worry. He leaned back in his chair recalling his father's exact words.
"Ah, Elvis, I've been meaning to speak to you about your work."
"What about it, Father?" EJ asked with an edge in his voice. He didn't like it when Stefano questioned his work at DiMera Enterprises.
"There are quite a few things that need your attention, my son," he had said.
"I'm well aware of that and I'm handling it," he had responded.
Stefano had stared at him with that look he always wore when he knew someone's deepest secret and had replied, "You're handling something, alright or should I say someone, hmm?"
When EJ had asked Stefano what he meant by that, he had said he was talking about his problems with Samantha and what else could he be talking about, but that look had been in his eyes again. Now, he sat here and wondered if his father could possibly know what he had done with Abigail, but he had been so careful so it must really be as Stefano had said. He had been talking about Samantha, not Abigail.
Abigail was the true reason for his preoccupation. He had been lying to himself blaming it on the situation with Sami, Kate, Gabi and Nick. It was all about Abigail and how he couldn't stop thinking about her since he had last seen her, touched her.
She was on his mind constantly and made it impossible to get any work done. Abigail clouded his mind and his judgement. At night, his dreams were about the times they had been together. The way she had responded to his every touch with innocent wonder and excitement. He imagined her hands all over him, holding his neck, stroking his arms and chest and then clawing at his back when he brought her to an orgasm. He could feel the shape of her, her softness and warmth and the sensation was intensely arousing. EJ took a deep, steadying breath before coming to a decision. He couldn't go on like this anymore. He had to see her, no he needed to see her and with that he canceled his appointments and left the office.
After what felt like an endless string of mini-disasters that morning, Abby finally made it in to work. Nothing seemed to be going right for her today. First, she had spilled coffee all over her and had to change into a new outfit; then when she was ready to go out the door, she couldn't find her car keys anywhere. She finally found them after a long search, hidden beneath her bed, and managed to make it to her car and out the driveway before she realized she had forgotten some important files in the house. It wasn't like her to be so careless and she refused to consider what, or who, was the cause for her carelessness.
Abigail had been in her office for the past few hours working, or at least pretending to. Work was something to keep her thoughts silent and her mind occupied, but it kept wandering back to EJ. She wondered what he was doing at this very moment and if he thought about her at all. Did he miss her as much as she missed him? Did he dream about her all the time just like she dreamt about him? Abby sighed to herself. Of course, he didn't miss her and didn't think about and sitting here thinking about him would only serve to drive her crazy. In a sudden fit of frustration, she swung her hands out at the files on her desk and watched as they fell to the floor in a shower of rustling papers. It was becoming clear to her that avoiding EJ wasn't helping at all. The problem was she wasn't sure how much longer she wanted to keep on avoiding him.
As Abigail bent over and started cleaning up the mess she had made, she heard her phone ringing. Maybe, just maybe, she thought to herself as she reached into her handbag to grab her phone, it would be EJ, but as she looked at the caller ID, she saw that it was an unknown caller. For a second, she thought about answering the call if it was, in fact, EJ calling from an unknown number, but before she could decide, the ringing stopped. It was probably just a telemarketer anyway, but she had desperately wished it to be EJ. Deciding that she wasn't going to get any work done today, she left a quick message for her mom, letting her know that she needed to take the rest of the afternoon off. She hoped her mom wouldn't worry, but in case she called her, she planned on telling her she had an appointment she had forgotten about. Abby hated lying to her mother, but she didn't want her asking any questions that she couldn't answer.
She had just grabbed her bag and was reaching for her phone, when it started ringing again. It was probably the telemarketer again, she thought, as she glanced down at her phone only to discover that, this time, it was EJ. Jumping away from the phone, she stood with her back against the wall. What should she do? Should she answer her phone or should she ignore that it was EJ on the other end? If she answered the phone, could she stop herself from telling him that she missed him, thought about him constantly, was desperate to see him again? That every night her dreams were of him making love to her? Abby knew that there was no way she could ignore EJ's call. She had been obsessing about him every day, all day and she needed to hear his voice.
"Hello, EJ," she answered, nonchalantly.
"Abigail, I need to talk to you. Can you meet me today?"
Abby hesitated for a second, wondering if meeting him was a good idea, but in the next breath, she replied, "Okay, but it has to be somewhere private. My mom doesn't want me anywhere near you, thanks to my Aunt Adrienne."
"What? Never mind. I wanted to talk to you in private, too," he said in answer to her request.
"If I give you an address of a place I know where we will have complete privacy, do you think you can be there in an hour?"
"It won't be a problem because I just took the afternoon off," she told him trying to keep the excitement out of her voice.
She was going to meet him and she felt giddy with the anticipation of finally seeing him again. Oh, how she had missed him. She couldn't lie to herself anymore about that.