Abbi... Read online

  “Hey listen. I can’t make it tonight.”

  “Oh.” There was silence on the phone.

  “Look I really want to go with you but my father has a business meeting at the hall in New Port Town to go to that he has to take me to and I can’t get out of it. I tried to get him to take my brother but he wasn’t having any of it. I really did try Abbi.”

  She still didn’t say anything. “I’m so sorry. I was really looking forward to tonight as well.”

  “It’s fine,” she said.

  “I have to go,” Mark said. “I will call you okay?” but he was talking to the dialling tone. Abbi had already hung up.

  Abbi looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. She had looked perfect. She had spent more than an hour curling her hair after she had washed and blow-dried it. She was wearing a little black dress and some black heels. She had on all her silver jewellery and it all worked together. However now she would just be sitting at home doing nothing instead of the wonderful evening she thought she would have.

  Her mother knocked then came in. “Darling you look wonderful! What‘s wrong?” she added seeing Abbi’s face.

  “I’m not going out. He’s just cancelled.”

  “Why?”

  “His father has pressed him into a business meeting,” Abbi said. “He said he tried to get out of it but he couldn’t and that he was sorry it was at the last minute.”

  “Don’t worry,” her mother said. “I’m sure he will call you to make alternative plans later.”

  “Yeah,” Abbi looked into the mirror. “Look, I’m going out for a walk to clear my head. I shouldn’t be too long okay.”

  Eleanor was about to argue but thought better of it. “That’s fine.”

  “I’m just going to slip on some more comfortable shoes then I’ll be gone.” Eleanor watched her daughter very quickly leave the house. She hated to see Abbi disappointed. Eleanor put the kettle on to make herself a cup of tea and then she sat down to think things over. Her ironing was all pilled up in the car and that would take all of tomorrow afternoon to deliver but maybe she could take Abbi shopping in the morning. That might cheer her up. That guy had known Abbi for less than a week and he had already upset her. Oh, things had started to get complicated concerning her daughter.

  After Mark called Abbi he picked a tie and put it on. Bang goes my plans he thought to himself. Steve came bounding into the room.

  “You look like you’re going to your own funeral, not out with the gorgeous blonde girl to Lily’s.” Steve looked at him.

  “I’m going to New Port Town for dad’s stupid “meeting” to introduce me to all the right people.” Mark looked very upset.

  “Oh God,” Steve looked surprised. “Did you already tell her that you were taking her to Lily’s?”

  “Yes,” Mark said through gritted teeth.

  “You told a girl that you got in too Lily’s on less than twelve hours notice and cancelled just before she was leaving?” Steve said incredulously.

  “Yes.”

  “She’s going to think you were lying,” Steve informed him.

  “Thanks for that. On that note I think I’ll go downstairs to meet my father,” Mark said and he walked out of the room.

  When he got to the lounge there was a myriad of people all very smartly dressed. He found his father almost immediately and was informed that all of these people were accompanying them to the meeting. Mark was beginning to see that “meeting” was a euphemism for booking a place were important people milled around each other while being laced with alcohol and bad dances.

  “Mark, this is Alan, my banker.” Mark shook hands with Alan the banker.

  “This is Anna my human resources contact,” and on and on the introductions went.

  “This is Stuart my main supplier for interiors,” and on.

  “This is Jessica, daughter of James an important business contact who couldn’t come tonight.” Finally Mark thought. Someone under forty. Jessica looked the same age as he was. She had a friendly face and Mark thought he could probably get on with her.

  “Hello,” she smiled. “I didn’t realise that there would be this many people here,” she continued.

  “No,” he said. “It is quite busy isn’t it?”

  At that precise moment a man Mark didn’t recognised announced that the cars were here and if they could all make their way outside they would go to New Port.

  Mark went to walk with his father as he assumed they would travel together. His father was right behind him and said, “accompany Jessica to the hall would you Mark? You two seem to be getting along so well. And she is a very nice girl.” Mark suddenly knew what was going on. He was being set up. However he couldn’t find anyway out of the situation without causing a scene, which was exactly what he didn’t want. He supposed he would have to go along with it.

  Jessica smiled at him and offered him her arm. Silently cursing his father he led her out to the cars.

  Without knowing where she was going Abbi raced out of her bungalow. Before she knew it she was walking along the beach again. She had headed that way out of habit. She wasn’t all that far from the hotel and she could see from this distance that there were quite a few smart black cars parked in a row outside. She suddenly got up and before she knew what she was doing she was halfway towards the hotel to see what was going on.

  She had walked along this street thousands of times so she knew where to hide herself if she didn’t want to be seen. She stood behind a little cottage and peaked out from behind it to watch. There were loads of richly dressed people getting into cars. She knew she was waiting to catch a glimpse of Mark. She just wanted to see him again.

  Suddenly he came into her view. God, he looked good she thought. No sooner than she had thought this she saw that he was escorting a girl into the car. She looked beautiful even from this distance. The mystery girl was a tall leggy brunette wearing one of the shortest dresses Abbi had ever seen. Mark gave her a smile as she elegantly sat in the back of the car.

  Abbi took one last glance and ran. She was extremely glad she had changed into flats rather than remaining in her heels. She got home and went straight to bed. However, the tears took a long time to stop before she went to sleep.

  Mark had been staring blankly into space for the past hour and a half. The girl his father had tried to set him up with had hardly uttered two words to him all night. She just stood next to him like a shadow he couldn’t shake off. She was trying to get on his good side, Mark could tell. Jessica kept flicking her hair and batting her eyelashes as if that was going to make any difference.

  He thought he actually might have gone to sleep with his eyes open. After the first half an hour his father hadn’t introduced him to anyone else so he had ended up standing in a corner of the room while everyone else made “business contacts.”

  “Jessica, I am just going to excuse myself for a minute”, Mark said. Before she could say anything else he made his way outside. Thankfully all of the company cars were waiting outside. Mark hopped into one.

  “Sunset Hotel”, he told the driver, who obediently drove away from that nightmare. He would call Abbi in the morning and arrange another time for them to go out together.

  As soon as Jessica got out of her cab at her house she could see her mother twitching the curtains waiting for her to return. She knew that her mother was expecting a romantic fairytale of an evening. Her family was almost bankrupt. They still had a bit of cash flow but their finances were quickly dwindling away. Her parents were so desperate to make a match to the heir of the Hammond fortune they had even called in a favour and got a professional make up artist and hair stylist to make sure that the first time Mark saw her, he would be impressed.

  It had all fallen flat on its face. Mark had barely even looked at her all night. He hadn’t asked to dance with her and mortifyingly what was worse was that he had ducked out very early. Embarrassingly early. It was her duty to make an advantageous match as she was constantly reminded. The hei
r to the Hammond fortune was about as good as she could aim.

  Her mother especially was going to be very disappointed. Jessica’s father and been tied up in business affairs with George Hammond for as long as she could remember. They were not going to be happy.

  Jessica opened the door and met her mother in the hall.

  “Well? How did it go?” She looked at Jessica with her complete faith that nothing could possibly go wrong.

  “It was an absolute fiasco mum.” Her face crumpled. Jessica hated letting down her parents. However her father was still in London so it was only half as bad.

  “What happened?” Her mother was convinced this would merely be a blip on the horizon of her rosy future with Mark.

  “Oh God, where to start?” She took a deep breath. “He kept trying to leave without me, he didn’t even want to take the same car as me to the event. He never even said more than three words to me at a time. He looked bored all evening. You know your stylists you got to do three hours work on my face and hair? Barely even a glance. My dress is so short you can almost see my knickers and he didn‘t look at my legs once. He left really early as well.”

  Her mother’s mouth fell into a frown during Jessica’s retelling of the evening. “Look. We will just have to plan again. There is a ball coming up in a few weeks. A society event. You will just really impress him at that okay?”

  “Mark isn’t interested in me. He just doesn’t like me mum”, Jessica said. “To be honest I’m not particularly keen on him either.”

  “You don’t know him,” her mother started. “You can’t dislike him when you don’t know him. Also…” She paused for a moment and then went on. “Jess I love you okay? But your personal feelings are not what is important here.”

  “That’s just great,” Jessica said sarcastically. “Tell me, if this all works out the way you want, the way you are planning and I ended married to a person I hated and who hated me, would my personal feelings be important then?” Before she could get an answer she ran upstairs away from the mess.

  Mark woke up really early the next morning. He went downstairs for breakfast and bumped straight into his father, who looked like thunder.

  “Hello dad,” he said. “You’re looking in a charming mood this morning.”

  “Don’t take that tone with me!” His father was furious. “What were you playing at last night?”

  “What are you talking about?” Mark was a bit confused. He had made an appearance and met all the important people his father had wanted him to. His father took hold of Mark’s arm and led him outside so no one would overhear their conversation.

  “Jessica!”

  “Ah.” Mark was not looking forward to this conversation. “What about her?”

  “Come on! She was drop dead gorgeous and you hardly even looked at her all evening. From what I could see you spent the entire time trying to escape from her. You even left early. That looks incredibly bad for me. The heir to my fortune can’t be bothered to stay with all the people who have helped me over the years get to where I am! What is wrong with you!”

  Mark was starting to get angry now. He wrenched his arm out of his fathers grasp. “What is wrong with me is that I didn’t appreciate being set up with someone who I am completely not interested in. Just because her father has helped you doesn’t mean that I am going to fall for her. Also while we are at it I only left there ridiculously early because after the first half an hour no one even looked at me. I had made my appearance and that should be good enough for you.”

  “You didn’t even talk to Jessica. How do you know that you didn’t like her?” His father countered. Mark didn’t say anything. He just glared at his father.

  “There’s someone else isn’t there?” Mark still didn’t say anything. “Oh come on Mark! At least admit it.”

  “Yes there is,” Mark said. “Before you ask, it is no one that you know. She is not one of your business contacts daughters or anything like that okay? Her name is Abbi. Just drop it. I mean it.”

  They both said nothing for a while. His father took a deep breath. “What’s her last name?”

  “Wilkins, Why?” Mark asked.

  “I just wondered,” his father said. “I won’t interfere. I do think that you should bring her to the summer ball though.”

  Mark hadn’t thought of that. Maybe he should invite Abbi. She might enjoy it after all. “I’ll ask her.” His father looked much more happy. “If she doesn’t want to come, though, the subject’s dropped, okay?”

  “That’s fine”, his father said, evidently assuming that every girl would want to go to a ball. He left Mark on his own to think things over. He decided he would give Abbi a call. Despite the fact that she might be asleep, he really wanted to talk to her and make plans to make up for last night.

  Abbi’s phone ringing woke her up. It was eight o’clock in the morning she saw as she glanced at her clock. Before she thought about it she answered the call.

  “Hi its me.” Mark’s voice burst out of the phone. She hung up as quickly as possible while the feeling of unhappiness spread through her. His voice had brought it all back to her. She now remembered what had happened last night that her sleep-ridden head had tried to forget. She heard her phone go again and looked at caller ID. It was Mark again. She ignored it and got dressed.

  By midday it was getting ridiculous. Her inbox was filled with text messages ranging from “I’m really sorry for cancelling please talk 2 me” to “y r u so angry wiv me. I didn’t mean for it to happen. I really wanted to b wiv u.” Even one or two in the vein of “Come on pick up ur fone!! I need to talk 2 u!”

  Abbi also had six voicemails begging her to talk to him and asking why she was ignoring him. He had been trying to talk to her for the best part of four hours. Her phone rang again. She finally gave in and picked up the phone.

  “What do you want,” she said sharply when she answered.

  “Thank God you actually picked up,” Mark said. He sounded genuinely relieved.

  “What do you want?” She repeated.

  “Why are you ignoring me?” Mark asked. “I’m really sorry about last night and I did try to get out of it.”

  “I am not mad that you cancelled,” she said furiously. “I’m mad that you were helping a gorgeous brunette, in the shortest dress known to man, into a taxi and you were laughing with her while telling me you were at a business meeting.” He didn’t say anything for a moment. His silence for that second was damning.

  “I can explain that,” he started.

  “Don’t bother,” and Abbi ended the call.

  Mark waited about a minute before he tried to call her again. How on earth had she seen Jessica and him together. She must have followed him when he cancelled their dinner plans. He called her. It rang and rang until it went into voicemail.

  “Hi Abbi. I really want to talk to you but you won’t pick up the phone. The only reason I was even within throwing distance of that girl was because it was a event where I am in effect showcased. I am the heir to a very rich company and these girls just act like it’s open season. I don’t care if I never see her again. I do want you to call me. Just…Call me. Bye.”

  Mark thought that that was just how he wanted it to sound. It was the truth anyway. He had noticed it for a couple of years now. Girls seemed to throw themselves at him simply because of the state of his father’s bank account. It had never bothered him before. It just seemed to be a fact of life for him. The way things were. They were starting to do it to Steve now as well. Not as much as towards Mark himself because Mark was going to get the lion’s share of the company, money and properties. He hoped she would listen to his message.

  “Just…Call me. Bye.” Abbi had just finished listening to the message. She didn’t know what to think. He actually had several good points. After all why wouldn’t girls want to ally themselves with all that wealth. She knew enough about the rich and powerful people to know that money was a serious enticement for those circles. Also she hadn’
t seen him doing anything romantic with her. They were just getting into a car. She realised she was already talking herself around to his way of thinking.

  She was going to call him. Abbi picked up her phone and pressed speed dial to call him. Mark picked up before the first ring had died away.

  “Hi,” Mark said.

  “Hi,” Abbi replied. “I’m sorry I jumped to the wrong conclusion. I just saw a gorgeous girl getting into a car with the guy I like. I was knocked for six a bit.”

  “That is more than okay.” Mark said. “So you’re not mad at me any more?”

  “No,” she replied.

  “I do have a question for you though,” Mark began. “How did you see me? Did you follow me?”

  “That’s two questions”, she said. “But no I didn’t follow you. I was disappointed that we weren’t going out to Lily’s so I went for a walk. Before I knew where I was going I just walked to the hotel where I work. It was out of habit rather than anything else.”

  “Are we okay?” Mark asked her.

  “Yeah.” She was smiling.

  “Do you want to go out tonight?” Mark asked. “I promise I’ll show up this time.”

  “No I can’t tonight.” She was quite disappointed. “I’ve got to work.”

  “Okay then what about tomorrow night? How about a movie?”

  “Yeah, that sounds great. See you tomorrow Mark.”

  “Bye.”

  Chapter 5

  Meeting Eleanor

  It was one o’clock in the afternoon and Eleanor was working on her stack of ironing while listening to the radio. Abbi had gone out somewhere. Eleanor had no idea where she had gone. Suddenly there was a huge banging knock on the door. Eleanor stood the iron up on the board and switched off the radio. When she opened the door she had no idea who the man standing there was.

  “Can I help you?” Eleanor asked. He was a tall man who looked in his late forties and he was wearing a suit.“Are you Eleanor Wilkins?” the man asked.