Yes, it's here; chapter sixteen. I hope everyone is enjoying the extremely slow and steady progression of my story. Thank you to everyone who reviewed my last chapter; I love to hear whether or not you guys are enjoying where I'm going with this.
This chapter is in Ray's point of view.
I'm standing outside of Abby's apartment, fumbling with my keys when the door swings open. I look into Neela's tired face.
"Hey Neela," I say, "Sorry I woke you up." I step into the apartment and Neela shuts the door behind me. She sighs and pushes her hair behind her ears.
"Don't worry," she says, "I never went to sleep."
"Are you kidding?" I ask incredulously, "Carter let you leave early, very early, why didn't you go to sleep?" Neela sighs and collapses onto the couch in a sleepy pile. I sit down next to her.
"I was packing," she says. I nod while slipping my shoes off.
"Going to visit your parents?" I ask. I take off my jacket and lay it over the arm of the couch. Neela stands up and walks to the kitchen. I follow her and grab a bottle of water out of the fridge.
"Not exactly," she says, "I'm moving out." When I don't answer, she turns to me and smiles. "What's wrong?" she asks
"I don't know," I say, "I guess I'm so used to seeing you here that if you leave… the apartment would feel so incomplete." Neela eyes me suspiciously.
"Nice try," she says, "I know that inside, you're secretly doing cartwheels." I grin, she knows Ray Barnett too well. "Besides," she continues, "You'll see enough of me at work."
Neela and I sit in the kitchen for a while longer, talking about her plans. I can't help but feel that I'm driving her away. If it wasn't for me, she and Abby would still be living together and talks of moving out would be nonexistent. She excuses herself from the kitchen, saying something about wanting to sleep. I stand up from the table and slowly walk to Abby's room. I gently turn the doorknob and push the bedroom door open. I can't believe it; Abby is in bed with another man. She's lying on her back with the baby sleeping on her chest. I watch her gently rub Cosmo's back and whisper small phrases to him. I take a step into the room, and the floorboard squeaks beneath me. Abby looks over and smiles.
"Hey," she whispers, the smile never leaving her face. I walk over to the bed and sit down, being careful not to wake Cosmo. Lucky little boy gets to sleep in my spot. I lean in and kiss Abby. Her eyes flutter shut as the kiss deepens, and I part her lips with my tongue to gain access to her sweet mouth. Abby groans softly from the back of her throat, and one of her hands finds its what up my back to the base of my neck where her fingers dance in my hair. She pulls away and smiles with her chocolate eyes.
"Did you have a nice night at work?" she asks, a mischievous grin forming on her face. Her eyes are dancing, taunting me about a secret that she's keeping from me.
"I had a great time at work," I say, "I still want to know who ratted me out." I look at her suspiciously and she chuckles. "I know it was you," I say, "Don't try to hide it from me." Cosmo stirs when I raise my voice. He opens his eyes and stares at me for a moment before distorting his face and bursting into tears.
"Aw, what's the matter Cosmo?" Abby asks, sitting up in the bed and wrapping her arms around him, "Did Uncle Ray scare you? I know what you mean…" She walks out of the room, carrying the boy who is stealing my boyfriend position. I'm not immature for being jealous of an infant. I follow Abby out to the kitchen where she thrusts Cosmo into my arms and busies herself by making some sort of mushy breakfast for him. She walks back over to the table stirring a bowl of mush and sits down.
"So," I say, joining her at the table, "When do we get to ship our little guest back home?" Abby shrugs and smiles at Cosmo.
"I'm not sure," she says, "I told Susan to call when she wants me to drop him off. She's probably loving the time off right now." Abby pauses for a moment to wipe the excess cereal off Cosmo's lips. She looks up at me with a mischievous grin. "Who knows, maybe we'll get to watch him tonight too." I cringe at the thought. Abby laughs and turns back to Cosmo.
"Oh no, don't do that!" she exclaims. Cosmo has picked up his bowl of mushy cereal. And is swinging it around. Before Abby can grab the bowl from him, he throws it at her. I look at Abby and laugh. She is almost completely covered in cereal.
"Still want to keep him another night?" I ask. Abby grumbles and stomps over to the sink. "Hey, I'm sorry," I say getting up and following her. I grab the washcloth off the counter and wipe the cereal from her chin. "It looks good on you," I say with a grin. She pretends to pout, but I can see the smile hiding behind it. I lean in and kiss her, my attempt at making everything okay. She kisses me back, running her tongue along my lips. She's perfectly aware of what she's doing and seems to have no intentions of stopping. I put my hand on her lover back and pull her close to me. Her body is pushed up against mine and she slowly wraps her arms around my neck. This is great.
The intercom buzzer interrupts our kiss and Abby pulls away. She runs over to the intercom and buzzes the mystery person up. I take this opportunity to clean up in the kitchen. I pick the bowl off the floor and toss it into the sink and I grab the washcloth and wipe the cereal off Cosmo's face and hands.
"You are nothing but a little trouble maker," I say. He seems to think that it's funny and smiles at me. "You think you're a real smooth guy, don't you?" I ask picking him up.
Abby opens the door and Susan walks in. She takes one look at Abby and gasps. "Oh, I see that Cosmo had breakfast," she says, looking apologetically at Abby. Abby shrugs and grins.
"Yeah, we made a little bit of a mess," she says. Susan laughs.
"I'm really sorry though," Susan says, "He's just so naughty lately and he thinks he's funny. He knows that I won't stay mad at him forever and that fuels the fire." She glances over to me and smiles. "There's my big man," she says holding her arms out.
"Gee Susan, I don't know what to say… I'm flattered," I say. Susan, of course, rolls her eyes and wraps her arms around Cosmo.
"Thanks for taking care of him," she says, nuzzling her nose into his cheek, "You have no idea how much I appreciated the time off." Abby tickles Cosmo's cheek and smiles.
"It was no problem," she says, "He was an angel. I loved taking care of him. We had fun."
"Well in that case," Susan says, "I may be asking you to do this more often."
Great…
"I talked to Neela this morning," I say. I look over at Abby, there's no emotion on her face right now. She nods and continues to stare into her coffee. "How do you feel about her decision?" I ask, She shrugs.
"It's Neela's choice, I guess," she says, "I just can't get over the feeling that it's my fault that she's leaving, like I pushed her away." I nod. "Hey, are you hungry?" she asks, getting up from the table. She's very sneaky when it comes to changing the subject. "Pizza, Chinese…"
"Let's go out," I say, interrupting her, "Let me take you out somewhere, we'll have a nice meal, and we can talk."
"Alright," she says, trying to sound disappointed, "But I was really looking forward to pizza, soda, and sex." She pouts. "You owe me one."
"Ray, is this a joke?" Abby asks when we pull into a parking space, "Burger King?"
"Well, I figured that we could play in the ball pit after we eat," I say. She shoots me a look. "Relax Abby. We're going to Applebees; it's right over there." I point to the other side of the parking lot.
"Sorry," she says, her cheeks becoming flushed, "I didn't mean to get so pissed at you."
"I know," I say kissing her. She smiles, it's one of the best things she could do for me right now.
"Let's go in," I say. She nods and we get out of the car. Abby hooks her arm around my elbow and we walk to the restaurant.
The hostess takes us to a table near the back of the restaurant. Luckily, there aren't many people around, so Abby and I can talk about our issues without the whole restaurant listening. I glance around the restaurant, taking in the brightly colored walls and "antique" décor. Then I see our waitress approaching our table and I can tell right away that Abby is just going to love this girl.
"Hi, I'm Tracy, I'll be your server this evening," she says. I look over at Abby, and see her cringe at the sound of the girl's voice. "Can I start you two off with something to drink?"
"Coke," I say, picking up a menu.
"May I please have a diet coke?" Abby asks.
"Okay," Tracy says writing down the order, "I'll be right back with those." She turns and walks away. As soon as Tracy is out of earshot, Abby sighs loudly.
"Oh dear God," she says. I chuckle. "Just once I would like to go out without having a waitress like that." I can only shrug my shoulders in reply. It's going to be a long night.
Abby's eyes grow wide as Tracy places her plate of food in front of her. She's obviously ready to eat. After Tracy walks away from the table, Abby crams a fry into her mouth.
"So," I say grabbing the ketchup, "I wanted to talk to you about something." I look up at Abby and meet her curious gaze. Her brown eyes are round and questioning. "I was thinking that because Neela is moving out, you might get a little bit lonely and I don't want that to happen." She continues to stare at me. I'm having a little bit of trouble saying what I want to say. It didn't seem like it would be this hard when I was thinking about it earlier today.
"Okay," I say, "I might as well just get this over with, right?" Abby nods and takes a drink of her soda. "I'm over at your house all the time," I say, "And whenever we're not at your place, we're at mine. So I was thinking that with Neela leaving, maybe it's time we consider moving in together."
Abby stops drinking her soda and looks me in the eye. She doesn't smile; hell she's not showing any emotion at all. I knew I shouldn't have said anything.
"Ray," she says breaking the silence, "We just made up yesterday, and you already want to move in together? Are you even thinking?" I nod.
"Yeah Abby, I am thinking," I say, "I'm thinking about how much I care about you and how I want to be with you. Abby, Luka told me about how you were attacked by your neighbor a few years ago; I don't want to see that happen ever again. I want to be there for you."
"I'm not a baby, I can take care of myself," she mumbles. I can't help but wonder how many times she's used that line.
"I never said that you couldn't, Abby," I say, "I just want to be with you." She stares at me for a while, a skeptical look on her face.
"Wouldn't you rather stay where you're at?" she asks, "So you can practice with your band. I think I'd be in the way." I just shake my head while she talks.
"You're making up excuses," I say with a smile, "Why? What are you so afraid of? I mean, you're reacting the same way as if I had asked you to have my baby." She shrugs. Come on Abby, let me in. I say in my head.
"I really don't know," she says, "I guess I like how things are going right now. With you living at your own place, a break up would be easier to handle. My apartment wouldn't remind me so much of you, I guess."
"I don't plan on breaking up with you any time soon," I say. She smiles. "What were you thinking?" I ask, "Do you actually believe that I would break up with the girl who has given me the best sex I've ever had?" Abby laughs and her cheeks turn bright red. I follow her eyes to find Tracy standing next to our table, her mouth hanging open and cheeks slightly flushed.
"Um… I … uh… dinner okay?" she stammers. Abby nods copiously and puts her napkin up to her face. I turn to Tracy and smile and nod. She turns abruptly and leaves. Abby has her entire face buried in her napkin and is trying her best not to laugh. She looks up at me, there are small tears forming at the corners of her eyes.
"Now that I've humiliated myself in front of our waitress, please tell me that you'll at least consider my offer," I say.
"I don't know," Abby says, "I'm not sure that I want to live with a guy who views me as simply a piece of ass. I want to be respected."
"Abby," I growl. She gives me an innocent look. "You know that I don't think of you as a piece of ass." She nods and picks up her burger; once again, she's trying to take the easy way out of the conversation.
"Are either of you interested in having any dessert tonight?" Tracy asks as she clears our plates from the table. I look over at Abby who appears to be disinterested.
"You know, I think we're going to go home and have some dessert," I say. Tracy turns and practically runs from the table. Abby just stares at me with that sexy smile. She's probably mentally calling me an idiot right now.
"So, shall we go?" I ask putting the money for dinner on the table. Abby nods and slides out of the booth. We walk out of the restaurant, stepping into yet another cold night.
"God," Abby says, "When is it going to get warmer? I hate this cold, nasty weather!" I put my arm around her shoulder and pull her in, closer to me. "Seriously, I think I need to move to California, maybe Arizona."
We get into the car and sit there in silence waiting for the engine to warm up. I wish I could throw Abby into the backseat and warm her up. I glance over at her; she's staring into space right now. I put my hand on her thigh, and gently caress her leg.
"So, Abby," I say. Before I can utter another word, Abby is on top of me, kissing my lips, my cheek, my neck. I'm guessing that she's considering the backseat right now too. She pushes my jacket off my shoulder, and then quickly wiggles out of her own. She pulls away and gives me that beautiful, sultry smile.
"Can we take this to the backseat?" I ask, leaning in to kiss her neck. Abby nods and crawls over the seat. Within minutes, we have removed each other's clothing, and I am holding Abby's warm body in my arms.
"What's all this about?" I whisper into her hair. She looks up into my eyes and grins.
"I guess I just couldn't wait to get home for dessert," she replies. She suddenly sits up and reaches over the front seat to turn on the music. "I don't want anyone to hear what's going on in here." She resumes her position on top of me and plants long, sensuous kisses on my lips. I let my hands roam over every inch of Abby's naked flesh, thank God for tinted windows.
"Wait a minute," I say, breaking the kiss, "Is that the Backstreet Boys?" Abby shrugs and kisses me again. The boy band song slowly fades out and a new song starts. I can't help but smile when I hear the lyrics.
Well, just - a look at that girl with the lights comin' up in her eyes.
She's got to be somebody's baby.
She must be somebody's baby.
Why do I suddenly feel as if I should be in a teen movie from the eighties? I roll Abby on her back and kiss her. I move down to her neck; the place she loves. She moans softly and runs her fingers through my hair.
"Ray," she mumbles. I pull away and look down at her. "Yes," she says, "I'll move in with you."