Ian pulled up at in front of her apartment building and turned the ignition off. They sat in the car awkwardly, none of them not knowing what to say or do next.
“I really had a great time”, Abigail spoke first just when he was about to say something. He paused and smiled.
“I had a great time too, Abbie”, he said, and they sat in awkward silence again. He thought of making a move, but thought against it, it's way too early.
“I think I should go inside”, she smiled nervously
“Yeah, it is really late. It's a even way past your curfew”, he joked, and she laughed softly.
He then got out of the car to open the door for her. He put his hand out, and she took it before helping her out. As soon as she was out, not being able to help himself, he closed the door and pushed her onto her back and leaned to claim his lips with hers.
The feelings of having his lips between hers was electrifying, sending instant shivers down her spine and butterflies erupted in the bit of her stomach. His lips were warm towards hers as they moved in sync and his grip tightened around her. To him, all of this seemed like a dream he didn't want to wake up from, the last time all he could ever do was to imagine being close to her, hold her close to her and kiss her rosy pink lips. He better not be dreaming.
Abigail liked this. She liked how he kissed her, gentle at first, but it intensified with seconds as she had to hold onto him like her life depended on it, either that or she would fall weak to his feet. Having his body pressed onto hers.
But then, in a split of a second, Austin's face flashed before her eyes and she withdrew from the kiss abruptly. Leaving Ian's dark eyes staring at her, clearly confused at the sudden loss of contact.
“I can't do this. I'm sorry”, she said before she pushed past him and ran into her building.
“Abigail”, he called out as he ran after her, but it was too late
Ian couldn't stop thinking about her. The way she ran off last night was just...so confusing. He didn't understand. He tried to think of why she ran off, but it wasn't something he could figure out in his own, and now she wasn't answering any of his calls or responding to his messages. It drove him nuts. He just wanted to take his car keys and drive to her apartment so that she could maybe explain why she's pushing him away. He couldn't deny it, he was slowly but surely falling for her.
“Ian?”, he felt a hand on his shoulder
“Yeah?”, he peeled his eyes from his phone to see Luther's eyebrows knitted at him. Luther chuckled a little, seeing his friend looking so puzzled.
“Are you okay dude?”
“My guess is, it can only be a woman”, Ryan walked back to them from the kitchen with a packet of chips in his hand. They came over to watch a football match at Ian's penthouse. It was their thing, their time to hang out and rewind after a long week they all had.
“How do you know someone is ghosting you?”, Ian turned to Luther, who twisted his lips to the side, thinking of a way to approach his question
“I told you it's a woman”, Ryan reached his own conclusion as he sat down
“Is she ignoring your texts and calls?”, Luther accepted a bottle of beer from Ryan
“Pretty much, yeah”, Ian looked at his phone again, still nothing from her
“Then that's how you know she's ghosting you”, Ryan chipped in as he handed Ian a soft drink. Ian sighed heavily as he took a huge gulp from the can in one go.
“Slow down tiger, we don't want you dead beat drunk before the game starts”, Ryan joked as he took a sip from his beer. Ian threw him a glare of disapproval. Ryan quickly noticed and held out both his hands in a surrender.
“Bad joke. I'm sorry”.
It was days like this when he would turn to alcohol. He somehow felt it helped him cope with not being able to feel anything.
“Who is she?”, Luther quizzed. “Do we know her?”, he gave a mischievous look Ian shook his head.
“I doubt it”
“She must be something else is she's got you thinking overtime like this”, Ryan said as he and Luther exchanged looks
“She is”, he chuckled to himself as he thought of her. “She's beautiful, smart, funny-”
“And our boy is definitely a goner”, Ryan chipped in before he rolled his eyes
“It's been a while since we've seen you like this ever since-”, Luther started, but Ian glanced at him before he could finish, warning him not to continue
He quickly got the hint and cleared his throat.” All I'm saying is, if she's worth it, don't let her slip through your fingers”. Ian gave a short nod. Luther just gave him the push he needed.
“Is she though?”, Ryan quizzed as he took another sip
“Is she what?”, Ian's eyebrows knitted in confusion
“Is she worth it?”
He thought about her, he couldn't resist how happy even just mentioning her made him feel
“Very”
The sound of the dishes being thrown around in the sink made Stephanie cringe. The sound was definitely disturbing her peace. She picked up something was wrong, but didn't know how to approach the situation.
“I'm even afraid to ask how your date went”, she sipped on her morning coffee. The other woman roughly scrubbed the dishes.
“I'm such an idiot”
She felt Stephanie's soft hands take hers as she guided her to the couch to sit down
“What happened?”, she asked as she helped Abigail dry her hands
“I ruined everything”, tears welled up on her eyes. “We had an amazing night and I ruined everything”, she said as her voice started to break down.
“Calm down”, her friend encouraged softly, her voice was soothing. “How did you ruin things?
Abigail took a deep breath
“When he kissed me, I thought of Austin. It's like I wanted Ian to be him in that moment”, she sobbed. “Why can't I get over him Steph? Why can't I just move on from what we had just like he did?”, she finished before Stephanie wrapped her arm around her, pulled her down so that she laid her head on her lap as she comforted her.
“It's going to take time to move on from Austin. It's not going to be easy for you because you have a constant reminder of him”, she pointed at Emily who was sitting closely to the Tv, watching cartoons. “But it doesn't mean it's impossible. You'll have to try”.
“I don't think Ian is going to want anything to do with me after last night”, she sobbed as she pulled herself up
“I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you”
“Abigail, can I see you in my office?”, Debby called out to her as soon as she arrived at the diner. Her heart sank. Was she in some sort of trouble? She panicked while looking at Tracy and Ginger, hoping they could probably tip her off on what was going on but they both shrugged as they also had no clue of why she was being called in. She gulped heavily as she walked towards Debby's office, who was already leaning on the door frame, waiting for her. It was definitely about the day she sat down when she was talking to Ian. She shouldn't have let him convince her.
“Did I do anything wrong Ms Parker?”, she stuttered nervously and Debby didn't say anything as motioned with her head that she gets inside
“Go in”, she urged and Abigail strode into her office with her eyes dropped to the floor. She had no idea what awaited her. Where will she start looking if she got fired?
“20 minutes”, Debby warned the person standing in the far corner of the room, that's only when she realized Ian's presence in the office as he started walking towards her
“Thank you Auntie Debb”, he smiled a little before Debby closed the door behind her, giving the two of them some privacy
“Ian”, Abigail's voice came out a bit croaked from the surprise of seeing him, she wasn't expecting to see him so quickly, more especially after she avoided all his calls yesterday
“Abigail”, he said curtly as he sat opposite her on the edge of the table. “Excuse me for just stopping by like this, it's just that this is the only place you can't run away from me”, he spoke, his voice monotone. It was even hard to figure out what was going through his mind at that moment, he didn't even have that bright, beautiful smile on his face.
“About that, I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have run off like that”, she fiddled nervously with her fingers. While she was apologizing, he pushed the seat next to him, motioning she takes a seat, and she did, watching him heave a deep sigh.
“It's him isn't it?”, he asked and her eyebrow rose up in confusion of what was he talking about
“Him who?”
“Emily's father. He's the reason why you ran off like that the other night, right?”, he questioned before she slowly nodded her head.
“What did he do to you?”
“Nothing”, she spoke up. He knew she didn't want to talk about him, but he felt he needed to know why since he seemed to be the only thing standing between them.
“Then why is he holding you back?”
“I haven't found peace of how and why I left him”, she said before looking up at Ian, who was daring her to continue. She told him the short version of what had happened, with her and Austin being young enough to bring a baby into the world, and they were just never going to work out. She didn't mention anything about Angie involvement in the whole saga, it would just open up another deep wound. She watched his features soften towards her as explained to him what had happened.
“I found out he's married a couple of weeks ago”, she shrugged as she quickly wiped away the tears that were threatening to leave her eyes
“So yeah, that's my story”, she smiled weakly before she looked away from him
“Are you still in love with him?”, that was a question he didn't want to hear the answer to, but had to ask anyway. He wanted to know where does that put him.
“I don't know”, a half sob, half chuckle left her lips. He knelt in front of her trailing his hands down her arms before entwining their fingers together.
“I'm not going to put any pressure on you to pursue a relationship with me if you're not over him and I can't expect you to because the two of you have a child, your souls will always be tied together”, he said, looking up from their entwined hands to her eyes
“Even so, don't cheat yourself of an opportunity to be happy just because you're holding onto what could have been. You deserve so much better than that Abbie, you deserve so much more”, he gave her hands a gentle squeeze before standing up to kiss her cheek, and it broke him having to let go of her, but he felt there was nothing else he could do. He stopped by the door before turning to look at her again, seeing her already on her feet.
“I really like you Abbie, I could really make you happy if you just gave us a chance”, the light smile evident of his face masked the pain in his eyes as he turned around to walk out
“Wait,” she called out, and he stopped in his tracks and turned to look at her. She dropped her gaze from his piercing stare to her shaky hands.
“I come from a place where I know nothing but sadness and pain”, she noticed by the corner of her eye that he was slowly walking back to her
“I have a lot of insecurities and I come with a lot of baggage. I'm also far from perfect-”, before she could finish what she wanted to say, Ian had already connected their lips together to stop her from talking. He withdrew from the kiss and rested his forehead of hers as they stared into eyes.
“All of that doesn't matter Abbie, I want you and all of you”, he stroked both her cheeks with his hands, and she leaned into him touch
“Are you certain you want to climb into this rollercoaster called my life?”, she joked, and he chuckled before pressing his lips on her forehead gently
“No matter how high or low it is, you're worth it, I'll survive”