Page 8 of Picture Perfect Love

“It’s not that impressive,” she shrugged. “It will probably take me a million years to actually finish. Not only does work take up all my time, but it doesn’t make enough to pay for my courses as quickly as I’d like. It’s definitely not as impressive as owning your own multi-million dollar company.”

“There’s not much to what I do,” I told her. “I’m lucky to have siblings that are such control freaks, they don’t require me to be very hands-on. In fact, the less I do the happier they are, I think.”

“I’m sensing a lot of tension between you and your siblings.”

“Tension is one word for it,” I sighed. “But if I wanted to talk about them, we’d still be back at that stuffy party. I want to know more about you.”

With a little more prodding, Abby finally started to open up. She told me about her yoga and fitness classes, about all of her friends. She explained how they were very close and had weekly dinner parties. Her family sounded nothing like mine. They actually sat down together and talked, and not in a boardroom at the office.

Even before our father died, we had never been a very close family. At least not by my standards. We meddled in each other’s lives, a little too much for my taste. But mostly, money had afforded us the opportunities to go off and do our own thing. We lived separate lives and only seemed to take an interest in each other when one of us was in danger of messing up everyone’s reputations.

Abby’s life was busy, but somehow more full than mine. Full of things that seemed to matter more, anyway. I wondered how she did it. But maybe that was the thing that gave her that warm glow about her, the thing that drew me to her in the first place, aside from her good looks.

“I’ve been talking too much,” she blushed after a while. “Sorry. Once I start drinking, I don’t have much of a filter.”

“That’s okay. I prefer people without filters. Filters are suffocating. They keep you from really knowing someone.”

“Filters also do a lot of important things you know, like protect people’s feelings,” she shot back.

“Maybe we’d all be better off if our feelings were a little less protected,” I proposed.

“I’m not so sure of that.”

Our eyes met with a flirtatious stare that dared us to test each other… to see what else might come out of this random meeting. And I was not about to be the one to turn that dare down.

“Do you want to take a walk?” I asked.

She nodded. “I could use some fresh air.”

She slid back into her stolen fur coat and followed me out once again. Only this time, as soon as we made it outside, I felt her body crash into mine. I wasn’t planning on making the first move, and she didn’t make me.

My feet shuffled back to the brick wall as Abby threw herself on me, pressing her lips to mine. Her tongue still tasted like the syrup from whatever cocktail she was drinking last as it rolled across mine, unleashing all the pent up arousal I had been keeping bottled up for hours. With both of her hands clung tightly to the collar of my jacket, she pulled my face in closer to hers and deepened the kiss. We made out right there in the alley with drunken fervor until we were both breathless and turned on past the point of return.

“My place?” I asked the first second our mouths managed to break apart.

She sucked in a deep breath and took a few steps back. “I don’t know. It’s getting awfully late and…”

“It’s cold. Come back for one more drink. Then my limo can take you home if you want.”

“I think we both know that’s not how it’s going to go down,” she smiled.

“Do we both know that? I don’t think I got that memo. Come on, I know the tabloids paint me a certain way. But I really am a man of my word. One drink, then I’m sending you home. Whether you like it or not.”

She started to shiver even under all that fur and finally caved. “Alright, yes. Let’s go. I’m dying to know what your place looks like anyway.”

My place was an overpriced penthouse suite in the heart of downtown. An even more overpriced decorator had morphed it into something that kind of looked like home—the home of a rich bachelor anyway. With all the modern art and minimalist furniture, I always thought it was a little cold. But watching Abby walk around and study it seemed to bring a warm new life into the place.

“This is exactly like I imagined it,” she laughed as she walked around my living room with a glass of wine.

We had somehow managed to keep our hands off each other on the ride home, giving us both enough time and space to calm our racing libidos.

“I don’t know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.”

“Neither,” she shrugged. “It just… is what it is. Do you like your place?”

“It’s missing something,” I admitted as I looked around.

I noticed her swallowing down the last of her drink and was prepared to make good on my word.

“I better send you home now.”

She looked at her empty glass then back to me. “One more.”

“We made a deal.”

“And you still haven’t paid me for our first deal yet.” She shoved the glass into my hand and wandered off to explore the rest of the apartment.

I couldn’t stop smiling as I poured her more wine and went in search of her to deliver it. I really was prepared to send her home without expecting anything more, but her wanting to stick around made me feel good inside. It made me want to make her feel good too… in not so innocent ways.

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