I watched her closely as she picked up her fork and her knife. I watched with flagrant curiosity as she began to cut into her pizza. Small chunks made it from the plate to her mouth, and not once did she try to pick it up with her fingers. There weren’t too many meals I’d had with her where there wasn’t something she ate with her fingers, and now it was like she was afraid to touch it.
“Abby, please talk to—”
My phone rang on my hip and I groaned in frustration. I should have given us more time off to bond as a couple before throwing us back into this hectic world. I pulled my phone from my coat pocket, and once I saw who was calling, I knew I would have to excuse myself to take the call. I held up my finger to Abby as she gave me a weird glance, and I could feel her eyes on the back of my neck as I got up and walked away from the table.
“Hey there,” I said. “You got anything for me?”
“Yes, but I’d rather do it in person. You at your office?”
“I will be after lunch. Gimme twenty minutes?” I asked.
“I’ll be here. And trust me, it’s just as grimy as you thought.”
I hung up the phone and stuffed it back into my pocket. I turned and made my way back towards the table, watching Abby slowly cut into her pizza. I knew she was hungrier than that, she had to be starving. I’d been near her all morning, and all she’d had was the cup of coffee I brought her.
Still, I figured pushing her would just make matters worse, so I dropped the topic.
Fifteen minutes later, I paid and we were back on the road. I tried to convince Abby to take her pizza with her, but she said she was full. She kept making excuses about not wanting greasy fingers or greasy papers and shit like that, and I was no longer in the mindset of trying to argue with her.
Something bigger had come up, and now I had to figure out how to protect Abby.
With a chaste kiss, I dropped her at her office where she slipped inside and shut the door. I listened as she dropped her coat and walked across the room. I continued to listen as she sat down into her chair, and heaved a massive sigh before she picked up the phone and called someone.
I wished she would just talk with me.
“Colin.”
“Coming,” I said.
I backtracked to my office across the hall before I shut the door.
“What is it, Arthur?”
“It’s bad,” he said. “And it’s probably why she’s been so preoccupied.”
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Her ex is suing her,” Arthur said.
“Excuse me?’”
“Yeah. I know you hired me just to make sure there was nothing in her past that could surface in the media, but let’s face it. They’ll always find something. But as I was digging, I found all sorts of shit on her ex.”
Arthur handed me a manila envelope filled with pictures, official paperwork, and bank account statements with negative values in them.
“How the hell could this fucker be broke?” I asked. “He stole forty thousand dollars from her.”
“Not technically, since they’d lived together for a year and his name was on the bank account. But that’s the problem. Since they were together for so long and since his name was on the bank account, he’s suing her for half of everything she has.”
“Which isn’t much,” I said.
“Until she marries you.”
“Wait, that’s a thing?” I asked.
“You’d be amazed at how complex California’s state laws are.”
My eyes slowly panned up to Arthur’s as I started to bite my lip.
“Abby mentioned something to me this morning about pushing back the wedding date,” I said.
“I wouldn’t jump the gun yet,” Arthur said. “According to the paperwork, he’s lawyered up but he hasn’t served her with any papers so far.”
“So she doesn’t know what’s going on?” I asked.
“Not officially. If she keeps in contact with him, or if he’s contacted her in any way, he might be holding it over her head. I stopped searching when I came across this because I felt it was more important.”
“Is there anything that shows he’s tried to contact her?” I asked.
“That’s my next route.”
“And you say he’s lawyered up?”
“He has. His lawyer’s decent enough,” he said.
“It’s not a company issue so I can’t use in-house counsel. Start looking into lawyers. The best L.A. has to offer. I want someone on standby when this fucker decides to get real,” I said.
“Will do.”
“In the meantime, look into his communications. Not Abby’s, but his. I trust Abby, but not him.”
“Do you?” he asked.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Look, I know this started as you wanting to make sure nothing could blindside Abby in the media when they started picking her apart or whatever, but isn’t that mistrust anyway? Instead of just getting to know her and having her tell you herself, you resort to hiring a P.I. to dig up her past?”
“This how you keep clients? Because from one businessman to another, it’s a shitty pitch,” I said.
“Just something to think about. I’ll work on the other stuff in my spare time.”
“Thanks,” I said.
I escorted Arthur to the elevator and turned around to see Abby walking out of her office. She offered me a smile and a kind wave before she made her way to my secretary, her body hunched over at the desk. My mind started running through the conversations we’d had over the past few days. The hesitation that was slowly surfacing over the wedding and the insistence on everything being separate for now. If she knew this was going on with her ex, it made sense for her to be acting this way. But that also meant she was keeping a very large secret from me.
However, if she knew nothing about this, then it meant her hesitation and her
