As expected, Abigail focused solely on James and I didn't get any chance to talk to her at all. I didn't want to say anything in front of James but I needed to know what her problem was. When she wouldn't give me even the tiniest attention, I left them alone and stayed in my study room burying myself in work.
I called Antonio again and asked how Claire was doing. She was still unconscious. It worried me but since Antonio assured me she'll be fine, I had to wait for morning; no matter how tormenting it was. Usually, it's times like this I have Abigail beside me. Now, I'm alone and Abigail somehow hates me. We've never argued before so seriously, never. It felt as if we're just going around in circles.
I couldn't remember doing anything wrong, so why did she want to break up? Why am I saying breakup? We're not dating, right? Do I want to date her though? Yeah, definitely. Forget about dating, I want to marry her. She's the only person I want by my side every second.
Does she want to date me? I hardly think so. Now, she has her "Mr. Newman" who lives for flirting. I need to break that bastard's jaw. Come to think of it, I've never asked Abigail out or flirted with her. She has always been like Luciana to me but we both know we have stronger feelings for each other. Or at least, we knew. It's been fourteen years since we established that and I've been married to another woman and have two kids. Abigail on the other hand has never been married or even been on a date with anyone.
So, is that it then? Does she still have strong feelings for me and I'm too dumb to understand? Was she saying she doesn't want to be best friends anymore because she wants us to upgrade our relationship? It seems possible but why would she want to date Nathaniel now?
Wait! Is she accepting him because she's tired of waiting for me to realize that she's in love with me? Can I dare to hope that she has forgiven me for getting involved with Doris?
"Oh, damn!" I'm really dense when it comes to stuff like this. One thing is for sure, I'm not letting Newman anywhere near Abigail.
Dude! Your wife just died and you're thinking about another woman? Now, I'm sounding like my Mom. I want Abigail, but I can't rush things. I don't even know how Claire will react to Abigail and I being together.
"Shut up and create a plan." I coached myself and exhaled. I need to start from somewhere. First, I need to know if I'm not just assuming things and Abigail is still in love with me. Second, I need to tell her how I feel and we can start by simply dating. Third, we're not telling Claire anything until after Doris is buried and Claire likes Abigail even a tiny bit.
"Now, that should work."
"I can see your old habit of talking to yourself is back." Abigail was in the doorway.
"Ab..." She came in immediately and wrapped me up in a hug.
"I'm really sorry." She began to sob.
"What for? You haven't done..."
"I was really harsh. This is not your fault. I should have just told you the truth."
"What truth?" I would have liked it if I could see her face, but she wasn't showing any signs of breaking the hug any moment soon.
"I don't know how to tell you."
"Try, Abby. It doesn't matter how, just let me know." She didn't say anything, didn't move and stopped sobbing.
"Abby?" She pulled back and looked straight into my eyes. We were just a few inches apart in height and that made it so intense. I nearly lost myself in her eyes; I could see my answer. My assumption was right, She's still in love with me; she never stopped. I pulled away so I could take her hands in mine.
"I thought I ruined things when I got Doris pregnant. I thought..."
"What? No. I blame myself. You wouldn't have gone to the club if I was here for you. You always came to me when you were upset and that one time you needed me most, I was away for that stupid shoot!" Wait!
"Is that why you quit modeling?" She avoided my eyes.
"I couldn't forgive myself for... Maybe if I was here and you came to me, I would have been Claire's and James' mom."
"Abigail..."
"Please don't say anything. I just wanted to let you know how I felt. This is not the right time for us to be in a relationship. Your kids just lost their Mom, they wouldn't want another female figure so soon."
"No, I'm not accepting that. This is exactly what we did last time; 'I love you, you love me... fine then, we'll be together when we're ready.' It didn't go well." She smiled a little.
"I know. After what happened with Doris when you came back, I couldn't stop blaming myself. Your Mom was right about her and who knew? If Doris knew that your mother would disinherit you then and she'd not get any money, maybe she wouldn't have wanted to get married so much and maybe she would have given birth to Claire and let you take full custody of her." She stopped and exhaled. Those same thoughts crossed my mind. If only I knew.
"That's all in the past now. We'll do it right this time. You want to be Claire and James's mother? I want that too. We'll start slow; we'll start by going on dates."
"But Claire..."
"We won't tell her for now, or James. She's a good kid, I'm sure she'll learn to love you in time. As for James, I know he's crazy about you already. But we're not giving room for anything to come in between us this time. Agreed?" That's when I got the beautiful grin I've been craving for.
"Agreed." I crushed her lips with a very passionate kiss, which I quickly broke off the moment I remembered something.
"This also means you're not going on any date with Mr. Jackass."
"Was never even considered." She replied, laughing. "It wasn't even my number I gave him, it was my lawyer's."
"Wait, that means I was right. You were only trying to get me jealous."
"Yup!"
ClaireWhen I awoke, rays of sunlight were already peeking through the curtains. I sheepishly yawned and stretched on the bed, absentmindedly reaching for Antonio. He wasn't there."I might as well get up." I turned to the bedside clock, it was already past 7 am.I went to the bathroom to wash my face or maybe shower, but I didn't want to wear my old clothes on a clean body. Luckily for me, there were clean clothes on the bathroom sink with a sticky note on it. It wrote: 'It's a good thing we're the same size. You won't mind me lending you this, right? Tyler'. How sweet of him! I held up the tee-shirt and skinny jeans; definitely guy fashion but they would do. With little touch ups here and there, no one would guess they belonged to a guy.I took a quick bath and dressed up; I knotted the tee shirt at the side to fit me more and pulled up my hair in a loose ponytail. For all it's worth, I looked ready for a jog at the park.
I was so thankful when we pulled into my Dad's house. Dad stopped the car at the entrance and turned to me. "James believes you spent the night at your Uncle's because you missed Tyler. Nick dropped by with the stuff you got from..." He didn't finish that statement and turned to Antonio instead. "Lucy's here, she knows about yesterday. What did you see?" Antonio quickly put up a hand to his cheek, looking down. "She's in a bad mood, I'll definitely get slapped." "Then I guess I'll try to slow her down while you make a run for it." Dad said with a grin. I was like, totally confused. What were they talking about? "Too late, she's coming." I looked up at the entrance and Aunt Luciana was really coming towards us; James was behind her. That wasn't important; what I wanted to understand was, how could Antonio know that when he's been looking down?! "Seriously, Claire, not now." He snapped at me. Uhm, excuse me? "I didn't even say anything."
I decided to mind my business and finish my meal. Antonio did the same, although he had a huge frown on his face."What happened?" Aunt Luciana was by the door, looking disappointed."We had an argument about Dad." Antonio's reply was nonchalant."I've told you, don't indulge her. Jacey is fragile and this whole situation is not easy for her." Antonio threw away the egg he was about to eat and got up so fast, his stool fell over."You know, I feel like you care about everyone else more than you care about me. I'm a boy, I need to protect Claire, but you didn't think that I could have gotten hurt there as well. Rather than scolding Jacey for hiding important stuff from us, you want me to be less normal and do more. Now, Jacey is fragile and this whole situation is not easy for her, what about me? I'm an outsider, right? You don't think it affects me?" No one needs to be told how hurt Antonio felt; his voice was really pained. Aunt Luciana couldn't even say
Few minutes later, I had barely just finished brushing my hair and smearing lip gloss on my lips when Emma came in."Ooh! Someone looks pretty." She teased. I suddenly felt stupid. Why did I take Antonio's advice and dress up for Jason? He's definitely crazy if he thinks I can date my cousin and I'm more crazy to actually patronize him."Going somewhere? Because you have a visitor downstairs and he's so cute! Are you two going out? Is he your...""Cousin!" I shrieked. What the fudge is going on around here anyway?!"He's my cousin.""Aww, too bad. You two would have made a nice couple." Emma said almost sadly."Emma?!""I'm just saying." She laughed. "He's waiting for you though.""Okay, I'm heading down now." I took one last look at myself in the mirror before leaving my room to go find Jason downstairs. I forgot to ask Emma where he was and goodness knows I still don't know my way around the house yet."Claire!" That was Jacey; running up to me with a bi
"Did you forget you told me you were going to bring SM to the green house?" I shuddered. I just heard Jacey's voice in my head! What the actual crap?"If he leaves without seeing me first, I'm going to scream in your head non-stop!" What the..."Urh, Ja...Jason!" I grabbed his hand as he stood up to leave. "Maybe you should stay a few more minutes, there's someone who'd like to meet you.""Who?""My cousin, Jacinta.""Urh, okay..." I looked around to find the green house. Jacey said the fountain was by the green house, that would mean that the glass building with lots of plants in it was the green house. And here I was thinking it was a house painted green."How dumb!" Jacey said in my head."Shut up!" I mumbled."What was that?""Heh, nothing." I smiled awkwardly at Jason and let him to the green house. It was mostly plants and flowers but Jacey made a space for herself in the rose section; she had a little table covered with a dark quil
Matt It's two days before Lucy's divorce. She's been acting all calm about it but I don't need to be a psychic to know just how she feels, especially now she's had a big fight with Antonio and he's leaving her after the divorce is final.I don't know what caused the fight but it's the first time in all of Antonio's fourteen years he's angry with his mother. If it was Jacey, then I'd understand because she was more of the hotheaded one like her jerk of a Dad. Antonio has always been mindful of his temper and his words too; if he'd ever get upset, he would just walk away and after some time, he's back to his usual self.Maybe the divorce was getting him stressed out or maybe he'd just want his parents to remain together. I mean, who would want their parents divorced if they could help it? But I vote for them getting divorced;Thomas doesn't deserve my sister at all. He just wanted her for as long as it brought good publicity for him. Now that Ingrid is
"I just want you to make friends and have a normal teenhood. I'm just trying to look out for you.""My Dad abandoned me when I was ten, my mom then married a psychopath who abused us, four years later she is murdered by her husband, now my Dad is back again and I'm hearing that I might be a psychic! Please tell me, how I can have a 'normal teenhood'?!" I chose to stay mute; I mean, what could I say to that? She's already angry, there's no need to provoke her further."Do you like art?" I asked as a thought came to my mind. She glanced at me , then shrugged."Probably, I haven't seen much. I love photography and I sometimes wonder what my pictures would look like if I paint them instead." She loves photography? That's great, it was a favorite hobby for me as a kid."Photography is awesome! Would you want to learn more about it? Travel and take pictures? What kind of pictures do you take? Landscapes? P
I sat on a high stool and sulked as my eyes trailed after them. Richie gave her a blank canvas and a pallette, then he stood aside to watch her paint. She took a brush and dipped it in a paint, but I couldn't see what color it was as I sat away from them; just as she was about to make a stroke? Someone shrieked and rushed to hold Claire. "Oh my gosh! Archie, yo