Encounters With Abigail

Chapter Thirty

When I awake later that afternoon, I'm met with an A4 sheet of paper filled with hobbies for us to try out;

Reading is an instant failure as my permanently exhausted mind won't focus long enough to finish a page, - without the motivation of work behind it my brain just refuses- Abi lets me scroll through her Kindle I try horror, autobiographical and even romance but sadly reading is not my forte, however when Abi's smooth voice begins to read her favourite book to me it almost instantly lulls me into a peaceful sleep.

Next we try a wine and painting class, which we are in with a hen party they are a great laugh and are obsessed with our accents, the maid of honour slips us both some whiskey from her hip flask which makes the class much more enjoyable for me since my sunset looks shit in comparison to Abigail's, in fact all of our painting's pale in comparison to Abi's to the point that I insist that she takes this up as a hobby when we get back.

  A couple of different dance classes were next on the itinerary all of which were a fail for both of us but I think we both laughed more in them than we have our whole lives (co-ordination is not our friend.)

  Ballroom had both our toes crushed within the first few minutes we were so uncoordinated that a poor little lady in her eighties felt compelled to leave her partner to intervene and rescue our toes but when even she can't save us she simply says "dance isn't for everyone" making Abi and I cackle so much that we have to leave the hall since we can't get control over ourselves again, leaving the teacher exasperated.

 Not to be deterred by our disastrous ballroom dancing experience we next tried Zumba it gave us both bruises in the strangest of places and when we clattered into each other after a misunderstanding about what is left, we both realized that neither of us know our left from right. This is the first day that a lightness, I'd forgotten existed begins to fill me.

  I enjoyed the baking class we made red velvet cake, and it was apparently good as it was decimated less than a half hour after we brought it back to the house. Baking brought back memories of times in the kitchen with my gran when I was a kid, but I have never really had a passion for cooking -aside from making sure Anna and Thomas ate well back in the day- and Abi only had a passion for the icing.

  When our hiking group falls through, we last minute join a cocktail making class. Both quickly getting hammered and by the time we are making the Zombie I can barely see straight. Unfortunately for Mike he is our babysitter for the day so he has the fun job of rounding us up and somehow getting us to our room we ended up in bed by three PM. The ridiculous heat causing us to be in a constant state of dehydration and the strength of the cocktails was a disaster waiting to happen.

 The pottery class also had us in hysterics according to our ill-fated teacher one of us had too much water and the other had too little so as a result both our cups came out looking like a child had done them but Abi was instantly very protective of our "ugly children" and after we decorated each other's cups, she insists that we take them home with us.

  On our last day, we decide to go into Los Angeles with the intent to hike up to the Griffith Observatory, I understand about halfway up that we have made a disastrous mistake as it is hotter than hell and even although it's only half eleven our pastey British skin is already on fire.

 Abigail drags me off the trail so we can hide in the shade of a huge tree, guzzling our water though it does nothing to quench the permanent dry patch on my tongue.

"I'm going to go back into therapy once we get back" saying it casually doesn't stop Abigail's head whipping to me like I have just told her I'm planning a murder spree.

"What? Why?" she searches my face frantically for answers.

"Just realised that I've not been dealing with things as well as I thought I was. The way I've been living is a waste of the second chance Henry gave me when he saved me from the sea that day. I also want to be better so you, Anna, Edward and Thomas don't have to worry about me constantly." The need to hug Abigail is great but I fear we would melt into a singular pile of sludge, so I settle for taking her hands instead gently bringing them to my lips dropping a light kiss.

"Could probably use some therapy myself to be honest" she muses aloud before squeezing my hands tight "right when we get back home, we will look into therapists" she gives me one of her wonderful wide smiles before jumping into my arms.

We slide together our bodies stick humidly to each other, my body temperature skyrockets about twenty degrees instantly. "Ew! This is so gross" Abi shrieks diving back out of my grasp as we both giggle like school children.

When we finally hit the end of the trail both our tops have been removed Abi is wearing a sexy black sports bra and she is lucky that we would probably die of heat exhaustion if I attempted it or we would currently be way off this trail and she would be wearing way less clothing.

 It feels like I have more water outside my body than inside. How does anyone work in this heat. Once we have been successfully rehydrated, we mingle with the other tourists snapping pictures.

 I get a truly beautiful picture of Abi in front of the Hollywood sign, I help her sit on a wall taking another of her with a smoggy Los Angeles behind her, Abigail is stunning as always if not a bit sweaty.

 While Abi looks through a telescope, I find myself drifting off to take pictures of the flowers and trees loving the way the sun shifts and filters through the leaves. A small white butterfly lands on a beautiful pink flower I don't recognise from either Anna or Abi's educational talks, I quickly grab a picture of it seconds before it flies off.

  I turn to Abi who is staring at me curiously "eh, I think I might like photography."

She nabs the phone out of my hands flicking though my pictures "Alex these are really good, you have a great eye for this!" she is bouncing up and down looking utterly adorable and I'm kind of annoyed that she has my phone since I want to video this moment to keep forever.

  I know what brought us here was horrendous, but this trip has solidified what I have thought for a while, I am going to marry this woman.