AN: And now the plot thickens...
Chapter 2
When Jed arrived, Abbey opened the door with a big smile. "Hi! How are you doing?" she asked brightly.
"I'm fine, thanks. You seem to be in a good mood," he remarked.
She shrugged. "Well, it's always nice to spend time with you, Jed. Let's go to the library." She grabbed her coat, gloves, scarf, and book bag before exuberantly walking out the door.
They walked together through the snowy Ohio afternoon. Abbey had formulated her plan and was doing her best to ignore how nervous she was about possible rejection, or worse.
"So do you have any fun plans for Christmas?" she asked casually.
"Not really. My mother and I go to midnight mass. She and my brother decorate the tree. Sometimes we go to my grandfather's farm, but I don't know if we'll be going this year. He's been sick, so I don't think he's going to be up for entertaining guests."
"I hope it's not too serious," Abbey said with concern.
"No, just the flu. He's gotten past the worst of it. He wrote to me last week, telling me he'd just started helping out in the barn again." Jed held the door to the library open for Abbey. As they removed their outer layers and dusted snow off themselves, he asked, "Are you doing anything exciting for the holidays?"
"Mostly just spending time with my family. Although I was on the phone with my mother today, and she wanted me to ask if you'd like to spend the holidays with us in Massachusetts." Abbey silently congratulated herself for acting so calm and casual when her stomach was in such knots.
Jed stopped in his tracks as they made their way to their usual table, surprised at her words. "Really? Your mother wants me to spend Christmas with your family? Why?"
Abbey's brow raised.
He quickly retracted his words. "I mean, Christmas is such a family-oriented time and I was surprised your mother would invite me. It's a very gracious and generous invitation. I'm just surprised is all."
Abbey smiled. "I've told my parents about you. They know we're good friends. And my mother is just a generous spirit, I suppose." It took everything in her not to snort in laughter at that last statement.
"That's very kind, but I wouldn't want to impose."
"I'd really love for you to come, but I understand if you don't want to," Abbey said, putting her hand on his across the table, a kind smile on her face.
Jed was about to tell her that he'd love to spend the holidays with her but something stopped him. "Hang on, I know that tone. It's the same one you used when you got Professor Sloss to give you two more points on that O-Chem exam!" He narrowed his eyes at her. "What's the angle here? Why do you want me to spend Christmas with your family?" he asked suspiciously.
She made some kind of noise somewhere between a groan and a growl. She had been doing so well, but of course, she couldn't pull one over on Jed. "I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend." No reason to beat around the bush at this point.
"What!?" Whatever Jed had expected her to say, it wasn't that.
"I need you to come home with me for Christmas and pretend to be my boyfriend," she repeated. Abbey's voice was very matter-of-fact and not apologetic in the least. She figured she'd be honest and save a bit of dignity by not begging. Yet.
Jed was still lost. "Why on earth do you need me to pretend to be your boyfriend for Christmas?"
"I may have allowed my mother to believe that you were my boyfriend and have been for some time now, and she was very displeased and actually quite rude to me when I told her that my 'boyfriend' probably wouldn't be able to join us for Christmas. Because, you know, I don't actually have a boyfriend," she explained.
"Why did you tell her you had a boyfriend in the first place, let alone tell her it was me?"
Abbey really didn't want to go into detail on her exact motivation for this stupidity, but she did tell him, "She's been very upset at the idea of me dating around and 'not being able to hold onto a man,' as she puts it, so I just made up a story to get her off my back. I didn't mean for you to get involved." She almost asked him again just to add the word 'please,' but didn't.
Jed saw a deep pain in her green eyes that she couldn't hide behind her cavalier tone of voice. He hated seeing that pain, and he knew he had to do everything in his power to alleviate it. "What day do we leave?"
Her face brightened considerably. "Really? You're really going along with this?"
"I'm sure your family is more fun than mine, and you need help out of this mess, so I'll go. It'll be a fun story we can tell."
Abbey smirked, knowing the library was not the place to get overly excited and scream her gratitude to him. She'd find a way to thank him. He really was saving her on this one. And she knew that, even keeping up the charade, she'd have a great holiday if Jed was there with her. "By the way, my grandmother is knitting you a sweater," she added.