Beautiful Abyss (California Dreamers #3) (2 page)

“No thanks. I’m pizza-ed out.”

***

My heart pounds in my chest as I approach the nursery. Maybe today will be the day that I get to see her again. The girl of my dreams. My fantasy girl. My Snow White.

The older lady who is always behind the counter gives me a polite smile. “Back again?”

I nod. “I was wondering if you had something with yellow flowers.”

“What about a Black-eyed Susan?” She looks at me through her thick glasses.

The woman’s long hair is what I’ve heard people call salt-and-pepper. It’s both dark and gray at the same time.

“It’s a hardy plant,” she tells me. “And it’s easy to grow.”

“Okay. Can I see what you have?”

She nods. “Just give me a moment.”

Once she has the register locked she circles to the front of the counter. “Follow me.”

Just as she’s about the take me over to the Black-eyed Susan’s the telephone rings. She shakes her head. “Never fails.”

She circles back behind the counter and answers it.

“Right now?” she says into the phone. “Fine. Give me a few minutes.”

When she finishes the call she turns her attention back to me. “Let me get my niece to help you. She’s in the office. I have to deal with a landscaping emergency.”

Niece
. I like the sound of that. The woman looks like she’s in her 50s so her niece could be the girl I’ve been hoping to see. And if she works in the office that could explain why I haven’t seen her again.

“Great,” I tell the woman.

“If you don’t mind waiting a few minutes.”

I shake my head. “I don’t mind at all.”

I’ve been waiting weeks to see my Snow White again. I can wait a few more minutes.

When the older lady disappears through a door behind the counter I can feel my heart thumping again.

I don’t ever get nervous at acting auditions, why am I nervous now?

The place is so quiet it’s kind of creepy as I’m standing here by myself. Most stores play some kind of music, but for some reason this place doesn’t.

I decide to listen to some tunes while I’m waiting.

I remove my earbuds from my pocket and attach them to my cellphone. A song I’ve never heard before starts playing on my Pandora. It could be the most beautiful tune I’ve ever heard.

I can’t quite make out the words the guy is singing, but the melody reminds me of everything I love about living in California in the springtime.

I gasp when I see her walk out of the door behind the counter. It’s the beautiful dark haired girl. I can barely breathe when I realize that my memories of her have not been completely accurate.

She’s even more attractive than I remember. 

She’s so gorgeous it hurts to look at her.

At the same moment I hear the singer say:
Beautiful Abby S
, I look at her name tag and it says:
Abby S
.

How is that possible? Is this some kind of sign? 

When I glance at her face I can see that her lips are moving, but my music is too loud for me to hear her.

I quickly remove my earbuds.

“This must be
symphony
,” I tell her.  

She frowns. “What?”

“Symphony,” I repeat. I hold up my earbuds.

“Are you listening to classical music?” she asks.

I shake my head. “No. I meant the song playing and your name. He sang beautiful Abby S. just as you walked out.” I point to her name tag. “It’s symphony.”

“I think you mean
synchronicity
,” she says.

I nod. “That’s what I said. Synchronicity.”

She takes the earbuds from my hand and puts them up to her ears. She listens to the song for a few moments then laughs. “That’s Beautiful Abyss by The Heart Strings. Abyss, not Abby S.”

That’s two words I totally screwed up in less than 10 seconds. I should have a blinking sign over my head that says
idiot
.

She hands the earbuds back to me. “My aunt told me you were interested in a Black-eyed Susan.”

I nod. “I’d like a yellow flower.”

“For your girlfriend?” she asks.

I quickly shake my head. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”
Where would she get an idea like that?

“Oh,” she looks flustered. “My aunt said you come in here a lot. I guess I just assumed…”

“I like plants.” It’s not a lie exactly. I don’t dislike plants. I guess I never actually thought about plants until the day I saw Abby.

“Follow me.” She makes her way from behind the counter.

I follow alongside of her as she heads down a long aisle of plants. I don’t have any particular reason for buying a yellow flowering plant other than I’ve already purchased one of every other color I could think of.

“Here they are.” She points to the small selection of Black-eyed Susan they have in stock.

I grab the smallest and most pathetic looking of the bunch. “I’ll go with this one.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

I nod. “Definitely this one.”

“Okay.”

As I follow her back to the cash register, my heart starts beating wildly again. Now that I’ve finally met her I don’t want this moment to end. Once I pay for the plant it will be weird if I don’t leave.

I try to think of something to talk about. I really don’t know anything about plants. And I don’t know anything about her.

I never have problems picking up women. Maybe it’s because I never actually talk to them. I don’t have to. All I have to say is, “Want to come back to my place?” and they always follow me home. The only other conversation that’s usually necessary is, “Want to get naked?”

I place the plant on the counter so she can ring it up.

“That’s eight dollars with the tax.”

I can’t stop looking into her big dark eyes.

“Eight dollars,” she repeats.

“Right.” I take my wallet from the front pocket of my jeans, remove my last ten dollar bill and hand it to her.

She hands me back two singles and a receipt.

If I didn’t have some money coming in for a commercial I shot I’d be worried. I’ve spent nearly all of the money I have on plants just so I could meet Abby.

Luckily Roscoe doesn’t ask me to pay rent or utilities because he knows my situation and he’s got plenty of money from his inheritance when his mom passed away.

Of course all of that is going to change when I find a new place to live. I’m sure whoever I live with next will expect me to pay my fair share, which I’m more than willing to do.

I just have to earn it first.

I really don’t want to go back to doing odd jobs and day labor if I can help it. It’s hard work and the pay sucks.

Plus I feel like I’m right on the edge of breaking out. As Penny likes to tell me it’s all about timing. I just have to be at the right audition at the right time.

The two bucks I have left in my pocket isn’t even enough for me to take her out for coffee. If she’d even go out with me after the fool I’ve made of myself so far.

“Would you like to go for a walk sometime?” I ask. As soon as the words leave my mouth I realize how ridiculous they sound.

She’s probably got guys asking her out to fancy restaurants, or concerts, or clubs. Why would she want to go for a walk with me?

“A walk?” she actually sounds confused.

“Forget it,” I tell her.

“Okay…”

We both look at each other for several seconds. All of the air seems to have escaped from my lungs.

“I have some work to do in the back,” she tells me. But she makes no move to leave.

“I just thought since you like plants that maybe we could go for a walk in the park.”

“My aunt and uncle own this place and they gave me a job. I don’t have any sort of affinity for plants.”

I’m not sure what
affinity
means, but it sounds like she cares about plants as much as I do, which isn’t that much at all.

“Plus I don’t know really know you, so I’m a little hesitant to go to the park.”

“I never thought about that.” I hope she doesn’t think I’m some kind of mugger or rapist who wants to get her alone in the woods. Suggesting the park was another stupid idea. Too bad they don’t give prizes for saying stupid things. I’d take first place every day of my life. “Sorry.”

She shrugs. “It’s okay.”

I don’t want to blow my chances with her, but I’m not sure what else to say.

“Do you want to go out for a snow cone?” I ask. I know there’s a vendor down the block who sells them for two bucks. It’s my last shot, so I throw it out there.

“That’s unusual,” she says. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a snow cone before. And I’ve definitely never been invited to have one.”

“They’re good,” I assure her.

When she bites her bottom lip, I think about kissing her. And that starts some action downstairs that I wasn’t expecting.

I push my hands deep into my pockets so hopefully it’s not too obvious that I’m getting hard.

“I’ve really got to get back to what I was doing.” She points to the door behind her.

“You must get a lunch hour,” I say trying not to sound as desperate as I feel.

She smiles. “I don’t think I want a snow cone for lunch.”

I glance down at my phone. It’s only eleven. I have plenty of time to go back to the condo and borrow money from Roscoe to take her on a real date. I know he wouldn’t mind.

“I could take you out for Chinese food. There’s a place right around the corner…”

“China Moon,” we both say at the same time. “I love that place.”

“Then it settled,” I tell her. “We both love it. We have to go.”

She scrunches up her cute little nose as if she’s giving the suggestion some thought. “I don’t date.”

“Why not?” Abby is young and gorgeous. She probably has lots of guys asking her out. Why wouldn’t she go out with them?

She gulps. “I can’t.”

That seems like an odd thing to say. I don’t think it’s a religious thing. She’s wearing short shorts and a pretty tight top. From what I’ve seen most of the religious girls keep a lot more hidden. 

Of course now that her shorts and top have my attention I can’t seem to keep my eyes off her lovely little curves.

Then it occurs to me that maybe it’s just her way of telling me that she just doesn’t want to go out with me.

I have to know the truth, even if it hurts. It’s supposed to be like ripping off a bandage, right? Just get it over with as fast as possible.

“Do you not date at all, or do you just not want to date me?”

“It’s not you,” she says quickly. It should be a relief, but there’s still so much hesitancy in her eyes. There’s definitely something else going on. Something she’s not telling me.

“Then what is it?” I search her face looking for clues.

She presses her lips together. “I’ve actually been hoping I’d see you again. I noticed you walking by one day a few weeks ago. I was watering some plants outside.”

That’s the same day I first saw her. From the moment I laid eyes on her I had a feeling my life would never be the same again.

“Go out with me,” I press. “I’d really like to get to know you better.”

She glances behind her at the door then turns back to me. “I don’t know if I can. I’ll have to ask my aunt.”

That seems like such a strange thing to say. Does she have to ask for permission to go out for lunch?

“I have to take care of a few things,” I tell her. “But I’ll come back at noon. If you can get things sorted out I’ll take you to China Moon.”

She licks her lips. “I haven’t been there in a while.”

“Neither have I. It’ll be fun. I promise.”

She smiles. “You haven’t even told me your name yet.”

It’s just one dumb thing after another with me isn’t it
? “Chris Rhodes.”

She looks at me for several long moments. I can still see the hesitancy on her face.

“What’s your last name Abby S.?” I ask. 

“Sullivan.”

“Abby Sullivan.” I like the sound of her name on my lips. “I’ll see you at noon.”

***

“Dude, I need to borrow twenty bucks.”

Roscoe is typing away on this laptop. He doesn’t even react to my request.

“Did you hear me?”

He stops typing and turns to face me. “Why do you need twenty dollars? We give you food and shelter. What else do you need?”

“I sort of have a date.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You don’t date. You pick up chicks and bang them. You don’t even give the illusion of ever wanting to see them again.”

“This is different.”

Now I have his full attention. “I’m listening.”