Chapter Three

Chapter Three

As much as Abby didn't like to admit it, she hated how expectant she was. As the days went by she found herself unconsciously waiting on Anthony to call her or at least drop a text message but even after three days, nothing.

“He still hasn't called you?” Sarah asked, sipping her mango smoothie. “You just have to get your mind off of him. He's a jerk.”

“Can we not talk about Anthony right now?” Abby asked, her expression serious.

“We could go to his house and demand answers,” Sarah suggested, ignoring her sister's gaze. Abby's piercing look softened at the thought of Sarah confronting him.

Today, they'd decided to head down to the beach. Seated at Sandy's Booth, one of the local bars on the beach, they talked over glasses of mango tropical smoothies.

“How's Mike doing?” Sarah asked and Abby frowned.

“Don't you have anything better to do than interrogating me?” Abby asked, taking her shades off.

“What?” She grinned. “You're the one with the interesting love life. I'm just here to watch.”

Abby rolled her eyes, in no mood to talk about her marriage or the divorce proceedings.

“Maybe getting divorced won't be so bad after all. You'll probably find love again, this time with someone that actually loves you.”

“That's my husband you're talking about Sarah,” Abby warns, starting to grow irritated. Sometimes Sarah wasn't the smartest in the room and she had certain ways of showing it.

Getting divorced wasn't exactly a flex.

“I'm just saying, you never know. Where a door closes shut, another opens,” she shrugged.

Abby's eyes shifted to her wedding ring Mike had given her. The ring that was supposed to symbolize their love for each other. A sigh escaped her lips.

Never in her life did she envision getting divorced.

“Anything else ladies?” Sandy asked, approaching them.

By then, Abby's appetite was long gone. She shook her head, declining politely, while Sarah ordered a small platter of food.

“You're really going to loose your appetite over some pathetic guy?” Sarah asked, a disgusted look on her face. “Yes he's your husband but he shouldn't treat you like this. No one should.”

“If you keep bringing up my love life I'll walk out of here, I promise,” Abby warned.

So, for the next couple of minutes, lunch was silent. Sarah focused on her meal while Abby tried to diatract herself from her reality.

Just as Sarah had finished up her meal and was about paying, Anthony walked in, a lady following closely behind him. Abby frowned.

A happy expression sat on their faces as they talked to each other. Anthony didn't have a sister, so this was definitely a girlfriend.

“Damn, at least now we know why he hasn't called back in forever,” Sarah said, staring at Anthony and his female friend.

Abby's stomach twisted. She felt stupid. She stands to leave but Sarah grabs her by the hand, an incredulous look on her face.

“You're leaving because they're here?” Abby said nothing. “Girl, you haven't seen Anthony in years and he hasn’t seen you in years either. Don't tell me you're getting all attached again.”

Abby shook her head. Of course not.

Her brows suddenly draw together into a frown and then her face falls. “Wait, did you want to give Anthony a chance? Again?”

No. No, that wasn't what this was about. Right?

“Abby we're talking about the same guy who thought that embarrassing you in front of the entire school was the best way to show people that you two had broken up.”

She winced at the memory. It was a horrid one but a part of her wanted to come to Anthony's defense. He was young then and a jerk too.

Sarah rose to her feet. “You're at the beach. Why not have some fun, relax and forget about him. You've got a lot of things going on in your life already. This would only make things more complicated.”

She chuckled. “You'd probably end up using him as a rebound.”

Rebound. That word felt like a slap because Sarah wasn't exactly wrong. The whole point of her coming down here was to find a distraction and Anthony looked like the perfect fit for her type of distraction.

“Let's go for a walk,” Sarah suggested and led her out to the exit. Finally outside, Abby could breathe again. With her back to the booth they'd just stepped out of, she could feel a pair of eyes on her.

“Race you to the water?”

______

Several hours later and they're finally home, exhausted and satisfied with the turn of events.

Abby shook her sand filled sandals off and trudged upstairs to her room where she peeled her sweaty clothes off and hopped into the shower.

As she scrubbed herself clean and allowed the dirt to roll off her skin, she thought about Anthony and his female friend. They looked awfully close, surely, there weren't just friends.

Minutes later she stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel. A cold wind had picked up outside, dark clouds loomed in accompanied by lightning.

Just as she had tugged on some clothes and settled into bed— her laptop propped open on her lap— her phone rang.

She reached for it without stopping to check the caller ID, and answered. “Hey Abby.”

She froze. It was Anthony.

“Hey Anthony, how are you?” She replied, doing her best to steady her voice.

“I'm alright. I'm sorry I didn't reach out sooner. I've been so busy with a project that my company's been working on,” he responded.

“It's alright. I can understand.”

A bit of silence hung between them before he asked, “Are you free this evening?”

Her eyes shifted to her laptop where there was a ton of work mails to respond to, and then outside where there was a storm rolling in.

“No, why?” she asked.

“I'm waiting outside,” he said and hung up.

Stunned, she quickly rushed out of bed and over to her window which overlooked a section of the driveway and surely, there his car was, parked with Anthony Wells standing outside.

Shit.