Author's Note: I kept you waiting, didn't I? You all know what I'm about to say, but here it is anyway – I'm sorry.
PART SEVEN: LIKE YOU MEAN IT
With Abby looking up at him as she – he hoped – thought over his offer, he felt a kind of anxiety settle within him, and twist his stomach. He quickly decided he didn't like that feeling very much, and wished she would just answer him, and soon.
"Okay then."
Ray froze for a moment as she answered, and actually said, "What?" as if confused.
"Coffee," she responded. "Your place." She smiled, a faint but genuine expression.
Ray smiled as well, relieved by her response, and he actually let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding in since he had offered the alternative. "Okay then," he said as well, nodding, the expression on his face still of relief – if only subtle, or so he hoped – and contentment. "This way then." With that, he began to lead the way to his apartment. It wouldn't be that long a walk, and it would give him time to calm down. He suddenly found himself trying to remember if the apartment was suitable for a visitor… especially an Abby-shaped visitor.
And then he recalled Neela whining about a mess, and making him clean it up, so, he took comfort in that. Maybe having a pedantic, pushy roommate wasn't all that bad sometimes. He chuckled to himself, a noise that Abby either did not hear, or ignored altogether, because she did not react or look to him inquiringly.
"So how's it going?" Abby asked after a while of walking in comfortable silence. Well, Ray found it comfortable anyway. "Living with Neela," she clarified when he didn't respond straight away.
"It's not too bad," he responded honestly, trusting her not to rat him out to the person in question. "It has its moments, like anything, but sometimes… she…" He hesitated, not sure of the best way to describe what it was he truly felt about the situation and his living arrangement.
"She can be a pain in the ass?" Abby offered, and Ray laughed, looking to her as if searching for any kind of trap. He found none, and so, nodded.
"That's the one." He smiled at her, and she returned it. Ray noticed at that moment that the distance between them had closed, and the subject of the discussion – as short-lived as it had been – left his mind entirely. Neela and the apartment's condition were forgotten, and he focused on her for a while, and her alone. It was a pleasant sensation, he decided, and one he rather liked having fill him.
Focus… or you'll end up in the river.
His thought woke him from his reverie, and he concentrated on their route once again, noticing they had managed to cover quite some distance during their brief discussion regarding his roommate. As they turned a corner, he saw his building up ahead, and Abby did too apparently.
"No wonder you can hitch a ride to work. You don't live that far away."
He looked to her, and blinked questioningly.
"The skateboard."
"Oh…" He laughed nervously, remembering the few times he had used that – rather juvenile – method to get to work on time. "Hey, it works in the movies," he offered with a smirk, and she laughed quietly; his reward. "And apparently in real life too."
Dork.
Ignoring the odd fact that his own mind was making fun of him, he saw her smile, and nod. "Well, it's certainly different. Can't say I've ever seen anyone else try it that way."
"Oh, you should give it a shot," he teased. "You can borrow my skateboard if you like."
She laughed again, and contentment washed through Ray again, even as he looked up to the windows of the apartment where he lived. Everything was dark. Neela was at work… thankfully. The last thing he wanted was for him to bring Abby over and have the two of them descend into 'girl-talk' while he made coffee or something like that.
"I'm sure I'd fall on my ass, thank you," Abby responded, trying not to laugh again, even as he let them in. "But I've never been one to back down from a challenge," she added, perhaps jokingly, and Ray looked to her sceptically, seeing in her eyes that she probably would never set foot anywhere near his skateboard… let alone hang off the back of an ambulance. Butterflies chose that moment to start up inside of him, and he tried to swallow them down; quash the feeling. He closed the door behind them, and led the way up the stairs, every moment bringing them closer to the apartment.
And coffee, his brain reminded, almost drawing a laugh out of him for the timing. He quelled it, and pulled his key out of his pants' pocket, with Abby standing beside him. Pausing for only a moment, so as not to arouse suspicion, he turned the key, and opened the door.
To Be Continued
