Using every ounce of upper body strength he possessed, Jay finishes his last pull up with a small grunt and drops to the ground, landing firmly on his feet. He yanked the earphones out of his ears when his music was suddenly cut off by the ringing of his phone. He didn't even bother answering; he didn't even bother checking to see who was calling him. He already knew. It was her. It was Abby. And this was not the first time she called him today.

It was the tenth. He answered the first time and all she wanted to do was talk about her day.

He answered the second time too and all she wanted to talk about was her plans for tomorrow.

He didn't answer the third or the fourth and so on, choosing instead to send her calls to voicemail. And every time he sent the call to voicemail, she would leave one, rambling on and on about how much she missed him. It's been another week since she barged in on his life; it's been two weeks in total since she dropped in out of nowhere and forced herself into his life, his new life, the one he worked hard for, the one where he traveled to an entirely different state to create. He left his family, his job, Wisconsin and all that it had to offer in order to take a chance and start over. And she followed him.

Jay approached the full-length mirror in the locker room of the gym he recently signed up for a membership in. His phone rang again. He ignored it again. Maybe he should change his number? Maybe he should change the locks to his apartment? Nah, that would be doing too much, that would be evil. He inspected his appearance. A light layer of sweat covered his skin and darkened his light gray shirt, the muscles in his sculpted biceps twitched and the exaggeration of his muscles appeared more pronounced in the tank top. It was the start of his new routine, one that if he were to be honest, was followed more faithfully now that Abby is here, breathing down his neck every chance she gets. It's crazy. She's always been clingy, but never this clingy. It's like once he left Wisconsin something in her snapped, something in her turned on and pushed her to do everything and try everything to be in his life and stay in his life.

She wants to know his friends. What are their names? How old are they? Where do they live? Where do they hangout? Are they single? Can they double-date? She wants to befriend his friends even though he refuses to even introduce the two parties. He's keeping his personal and professional life separate regardless of how often Abby pouts about it.

She wants to know the specific address where he works, how long he works, who he works with and his hours for working. One time, she even asked for the crime scene location when he was forced to leave his apartment near five in the morning. She knows a few of those answers; he only provided them after she promised him she wouldn't just randomly show up to his place of work. It didn't stop her from constantly texting him though, asking him to send her his location after swearing to him that she won't show up, she's only doing it because it's important for couples to know each other's whereabouts in case something were to happen. She would regularly send him her location even though he never thought to ask for it.

Throwing the towel around his neck, he grabs his workout bag and heads over to the shower to wash himself up before getting dressed to head home. It's going on two weeks since Abby moved in and he's already regretting the decision to let her move in. Technically, he wasn't really given a choice in the matter. She kind of just showed up without any warning and now that she's here, he couldn't find it in himself to kick her out. He wants her to move out but the guilt still heavily weighs on him so he takes it, he takes all of it because he felt bad for her. Her feelings for him aren't reciprocated. He's emotionally distant; she hasn't met anyone close to him. He avoids discussing long-term commitment with her. And to top all of that off, he slept with someone else…without protection. He's never done that before, not even with Abby.

Jay felt guilty. Every time he thought about what he did, bile rises up his throat. Abby calls again, and even though she's overbearing, he knows she doesn't deserve the silent treatment he's been giving her, so he answers, "Hello," his phone connects to the Bluetooth the second he starts his car, "Abby…" She deserves so much better. She deserves to be with someone else, someone who can give her the attention she needs, someone who will love her and someone who will open every aspect of their lives to her. He wasn't that someone, but he was too much of a coward to end things. Regardless of his lack of love for her, he does care about her enough to want to spare her heart from breaking. He wasn't evil despite what some may think.

"So I've managed to unpack the rest of the boxes, I even dropped the empty boxes off to the dumpster," she tells him, and all he can think is this could have waited to be said to him when he got home, "I also did your laundry. I'm about to fold and put your clothes away."

"…thanks," he whispers, attention focused on the road as he battled Chicago's traffic.

She sensed him distancing himself from her. She purposely overlooked it because maybe if she acted like everything was okay then it eventually would be okay. She invested too much time in this relationship for it to end because he's reserved and pulling away.

"I ordered dinner," Abby tells him, "I haven't gotten a chance to go grocery shopping."

"I'll go after work tomorrow."

"How about we go together? We barely spend any time together. You're always at work and if you're not at work then you're at the gym or hanging with your coworkers."

"…okay," he whispers. The least he can do is grocery shop with her.

"I called you a few times today."

A few times is an understatement. It's probably the biggest understatement of the century.

He's in bumper to bumper traffic, and it's one of the downsides to living in a big city, "I noticed."

"You didn't answer."

She didn't have to tell him that. He knows. He's well aware that he didn't pick up the phone.

"I was busy Abby and I know you just wanted to talk about what you ate, what you watched, what you did, etc. and I figured you could tell me all of that when I got home."

She was bored. She was always bored when he wasn't home. He has encouraged her to make friends, but she wanted to befriend his own friends and he refused that. He wanted her to go out on the town, enjoy the nightlife in Chicago, apply to accounting jobs if she's going to be here long-term and branch out, spread her wings and get out from under him. She wouldn't though; she was too clingy to even want to attempt to do something without him.

"I can just tell you about it now since I have you."

"I'm on my way back Abby. I'll just talk to you when I get there." He doesn't bother waiting for a reply. He simply hangs up. If he was going to be with Abby for the rest of the night then he needed to enjoy the solitude, the peace and quiet of being without her.

He purposely took the long way home, -the scenic route.

And by the time he's walking through the front door of his apartment, he smells the delicious aroma of whatever Abby decided to order. It was perfect timing too because he was hungry. He kicked off his shoes, dropped his keys near the table by his front door and walked further inside before being caught off guard by the weight of his girlfriend suddenly being in his arms. At some point she ran and jumped into his arms and to ensure that she didn't hurt herself, he was forced to wrap his arms around her, "Abby," she starts to pepper kisses against his neck, "Abby, stop."

She does stop. He helps her down. And she straightens her shirt and runs her hand through the length of her hair in an attempt to straighten it, "I'm sorry, I just got carried away. I missed you. I missed us. A lot actually."

"I'm sorry too," and his apology to her actually catches her off guard, "I…uh, I'm just exhausted and not really in the mood. Maybe another time?"

"Yeah," she smiles because this is actually a different side of him that she's seeing; he rarely ever apologizes, "…definitely another time."

Jay makes his way further into the house, craving the feeling of being comfortable in pajamas and filling his stomach with whatever Abby ordered for dinner. He had to work again the next day, and then go to the gym right afterwards, the sooner he can relax, then the better. And with the look of how clean and spotless his apartment currently is, it definitely takes some of the stress off his shoulders. He tucks his hands into his front jeans pockets and sighs, "It looks amazing."

"I know how much you love a clean home and since I don't work anymore and kind of just dropped in on you out of nowhere. I figured this is the least I could do since I'm mooching off of you," she cracks it like a joke.

"Thanks for cleaning up."

She nodded and then leaned forward to peck his cheek, "I put your clothes away. Go change into your pajamas, I'll make our plates and maybe we can turn on a movie or something."

"That sounds like a good idea."

It actually may be a good night. If the atmosphere stayed the same, the mood didn't shift, and Abby didn't resort to her typical overbearing nature, then he may actually have a good chance of a blissful night in his apartment. Jay shut his bedroom door behind him and immediately grabbed the pajamas Abby had folded and set onto his mattress. He changed. Desperately wanting to get out of his restricting clothes and into something more loose and comfortable, he grabbed the clothes he just changed out of and the gym clothes that were shoved into his duffle bag and moved to drop them into his empty laundry hamper in his closet.

He starts to walk out of his closet, not even paying attention to the fact that his laundry basket is completely empty until the thought suddenly occurs to him. He abruptly stops. He turns around and runs back into the closet, flicking on the light to see around better. The floor of his closet is completely spotless until he flips the laundry basket upside down and starts to search through the articles of clothing he had just added to the bin. Shit, he thinks because he doesn't see the lace panties anywhere. They would stand out, in color and in texture, and they were gone.

Abby did his laundry without him asking her. And when he initially found out, he was thankful and appreciative, now, not so much. It was an invasion of privacy. It was overstepping. If he were to analyze his emotions and dig deeper into his feelings, he knows that his anger is only a cover up, he's only upset because he thinks he's been caught. But, at the same time, maybe he wasn't? She never gave any hint or semblance of suspicion that she found them. She kissed him when he walked through the doors. She tried to initiate sex. She ordered dinner. She cleaned. She didn't act how he expected someone to act if they suspected their significant other of cheating.

Maybe the panties got lost in the hustle and bustle of doing laundry? Maybe they fell out of the hamper? Maybe they got left in the dryer? Maybe they disappeared like the matches to his socks did on occasion? Jay starts to search every inch and crevice of his closet, even though the floor was practically spotless, the white carpet absolutely clean and the panties would definitely stand out but it doesn't stop him from looking until he hears, "If you're looking for what I think you're looking for, they're in the trash. I threw them out."

His back is to her. He has the empty laundry hamper in his hand. He sets it down and starts to slowly place the dirty clothes he recently added back into it.

"I found them when I was doing your laundry," she added. But, he already knew this. He puts the laundry hamper back into the corner of the closet and then he finally turns around to face her.

Abby is leaning against the wall, her arms folded over her chest and one ankle crossed over the other. He meets her gaze and he doesn't know what he sees. He doesn't know what he finds because he's confused. She found the underwear, she threw them into the trash and then she acted like nothing happened. She pretended like everything was fine.

Jay clears his throat, "I would understand if you wanted to-" he never gets to finish because she finishes the statement for him.

"…break things off?" She phrases it as a question and he nods to let her know that's exactly where he was going with his words. "No," she shakes her head and the smile on her face freaks him out a little, "it was during a break in our relationship and I am not losing you over the actions of some whore," and that confuses him because it takes two to tango and he owed Abby his fidelity, and not the woman he slept with. And based on appearance, she was far from a whore but he knew that Abby didn't need him defending her right now.

"Abby," he starts to say but she cuts him off again.

"We've been together too long. We've come too far in our relationship. I'm too invested in this, in us. I know that it's going to take time for you Jay," she reaches for his hand and pulls him closer, "but I love you," and he dry swallows when she says the words, "and I'll always love you and I don't care about the past, about what you did when we were on break because I love you and I can't lose you and when you love someone, you're willing to overlook things," she's starting to get emotional, her voice is starting to break and her eyes begin to water, "and I can overlook this because I know you, I know you wouldn't intentionally try to hurt me, I know you're a good guy and even though you can't say the words, I know you love me too. I know that she probably threw herself at you. I know you wouldn't have done that to deliberately hurt me. I know that you probably thought we were going to break up. I don't blame you. I blame her, whoever she is, that's who I blame. Not you." She wraps her arms around him and buries her face into his shirt, smothering the rest of her words so he's unable to hear her.

Jay stands in disbelief. His arms hang stiff at his side. He didn't expect this. He didn't expect her to take it like that. He doesn't know what to say or do. He doesn't know anything about the woman he slept with but he knows that he's responsible for this, not her. He's the one in a relationship with Abby, not her. But, he knows for Abby's comfort she's blaming the other woman because it's easier for her than blaming him.

She deeply inhaled and then slowly exhaled, "I don't want to lose you."

"I'm sorry Abs," he whispers, because he hated to see her cry, he hated seeing any female cry, "I shouldn't have slept with her. It honestly didn't mean anything. It didn't. I'm sorry. It was just a moment of weakness after a long day at work. It was nothing special. I don't even know anything about her," He starts to rub her back in an effort to comfort her.

"You don't need to apologize. I want you to stop saying you're sorry. It's not your fault." And there she goes not blaming him in an effort to keep the peace. She looked up at him, her chin resting against the center of his chest and she whispers, "It's. Not. Your. Fault," she says each word with force, "You didn't do anything wrong," he opens his mouth to disagree but she doesn't let him, "You didn't, Jay, you didn't," and it sounds like she's trying to convince herself of this and not him, "it was her fault, that's what loose women do, they go after taken men."

"Abby," he starts.

"I just want us to pretend like it never happened. I want us to go on with our normal lives. I don't want us to ever talk about it again."

"Abs…" he tries again.

"I don't want to lose you," she sobs louder, her body contracting as the tears rapidly fall from her eyes and soak his shirt, "I can't lose you. I won't survive it." And even though his feelings for her are nowhere near as strong as her feelings for him, he still doesn't want to break her heart. She didn't deserve this. Even though she refused to blame him, he knew the truth; he knew the blame truly did fall on his feet and that guilt ate him up alive.

It was that guilt that pushed him to comfort her, to wrap her up in his arms and hold on tightly as he reassured her, "Don't worry, Abs. You'll never lose me." He kissed the top of her head.

She sniffs, "Do you promise?"

And unfortunately, he does, "I promise."

She tightens her arms around him and smiles into his chest as her tears finally stop falling, "I love you," she says it again and she waits in hopes that he'll say the words back to her, but he doesn't, he won't, but she's okay with that for now because he made a promise to her, she's never going to lose him and with his promise on constant repeat in her head, she burrows her face further into his chest, tightens her arms even more and smiles as the tear streaks start to dry.