“ABBY!” She heard the voice before she saw her face. God, it had been too long since she’d seen one of her closest friends and Kara looked even better than when she’d last seen her. She was smiling so bright, that it lit up the whole room.
Abigail put down her suitcases to properly hug Kara. “You cut off your hair!” Abby didn’t want to let go. It felt so good to have one of her longest friends in front of her again, seeing her smile and hugging her body.
“I figured it looked better this way.” Kara finally let go and looked her up and down. “And apart from looking exhausted, you look thin, really thin.” A frown puckered her forehead.
“I know.” Abigail sighed when she bent down to take her purse off the ground. “I’ve been under a lot of stress the last days and I already hadn’t had enough to eat while we were in the outback. But I promise you that I’ll eat properly from now on, okay?”
“Good.” Kara nodded as she took one of the suitcases. “Perfect.” The smile re-appeared on her face. “And now let’s get to my place. I invited friends over for dinner, because I want you to meet them. But if you want to sleep that’s okay and I’ll tell them to come by tomorrow.”
“No, it’s okay.” She’d slept more than she’d expected during the flight, so now she was a bit tired from too much sleep. “I only need a shower and fresh clothes, then I’m all set for company. Am I right in assuming that one of these friends is your guy?” Kara’s blushing cheeks said it all. “Thought so. Well, then I’m looking forward to meeting him.”
“You’ll like him. And if you don’t, please don’t tell me.” They put the suitcases in the trunk of Kara’s car and got inside. “Because I’ve never been this happy. But I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow, okay?”
“Perfect.” Abby got in. She was dying to know all about this new boyfriend, or whatever Kara wanted to call him, of her, but that way she was able to get to know him without getting information first. She could go with her gut feeling and the way he behaved towards her.
Abby had to realize how cold it really was in Boston. A few hours ago she’d gotten on the plane in shorts, a tanktop and a flat pair of shoes, her sunglasses on top of her blonde head. During her layover, she’d changed into jeans, a t-shirt, Hoodie and proper shoes. At the airport she’d taken her jacket out of the suitcase to put it on, but she was still freezing. It would take her some time to get used to the climate again. After all she’d just arrived from 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
Boston hadn’t changed much while she was absent. It looked pretty much the same, which was comforting for her. It made her feel at home immediately. Staying at Kara’s place was only temporary. Tomorrow she’d start looking for an apartment and a place to rent for her bakery. She already knew what she wanted it to look like.
“I even tidied up the whole apartment for you”, Kara said as she pulled in her parking spot. They both got out and took the suitcases, to haul them over to the elevator. “Except for my office room.”
“That is and always will be a mess. But it’s your mess and as long as you find everything you need, it’s fine.” Abby smiled and pressed the button. “And you really didn’t need to do that because of me.”
“I really had to do it. It looked so bad in there.”
“Well then…” Both women got off the elevator and walked to the door. After all this time not a lot had changed. Kara had gotten a new, more comfortable sofa, but apart from that all the furniture were the same. She had some more colorful pillows to go along with the sofa and her DVD shelf was nearly filled.
Together they put the suitcases in the guest room. Kara excused herself to get some towels for Abigail. Meanwhile Abby opened one of the suitcases and got everything she needed out. Her shampoo, body scrub, toothbrush, but most importantly her clothes. Fresh underwear, socks, a pair of jeans and a black sweater to keep her warm.
“You go ahead and shower and I’ll get the dinner ready. Take your time.” Kara said and vanished again. Abby smiled to herself. She’d missed this. All those people envious of her had no idea what it was really like. Travelling around the world to write articles sounded fascinating and it was on the one hand, but it was frustrating at times as well, because you hardly ever saw your friends and family. Of course you meet new people, but you still miss the people who’ve been in your life for some time.
Abby took her time under the shower and stepped out of it feeling refreshed and happy. It started to sink in that she was back in Boston for good. No more travelling except for her own pleasure.
She quickly dried off and put on her clothes. With a bit of looking around she found the blow drier and dried her blonde hair, that reached the middle of her shoulder blades, in no time. She finger-combed it, put a bit of mascara and lip gloss on and she was set for dinner. She felt like a whole new person, not somebody who’d just spent hours and hours on a plane.
“I’m in the kitchen”, Kara said when she heard her friend in the living room. Abigail joined her and looked around. It smelt wonderful and her stomach growled, because the last thing she’d had, had been some sort of meal on the airplane. “It should be ready in about fifteen minutes.”
“I can wait that long. I think.” The doorbell rang and Kara asked Abby to open the door for her. “Sure, no problem.” She pressed the buzzer without looking and opened the apartment door. She didn’t want to wait there, because she felt more comfortable in the living room, closer to Kara. Normally she didn’t have a problem with getting to know new people, but Kara really wanted her to like them, so she wanted to make a good first impression.
“I know, I’m early, Kara, but Benny said I should go ahead because he had to pick something up and he thought I could help you with something.” The voice sounded vaguely familiar to Abigail, but she only realized it, when she saw his face. Gregory Campbell hadn’t changed a lot in the past six years and it was more than a surprise to see him here, in Kara’s living room. This couldn’t be real. It had to be some sort of sick joke.
“Oh, hey, Kara didn’t say-“ Gregory broke off and looked at the woman in front of him a bit closer. “Abby?” He put down the bag and walked towards her. “Oh my God.”
“Oh my fucking God indeed”, Abigail muttered and took a deep breath. This was not happening.


Surprise didn’t even begin to describe what Gregory felt. All kinds of feelings and thoughts were running through his head. The last time he’d seen Abigail had been more than six years ago after he’d asked her to become his wife and then had run away without a word. Why had he done that? Because he’d freaked out. He hadn’t handled the situation well, he knew that, and when he’d returned to Florida, Abigail was gone and her aunt had only told him that he should leave her alone after what he’d put her through. She had been right. He’d wanted to explain Abigail everything, but she’d needed to be away from him.
“You look good.” Thinner then when he’d last seen her, even a bit too thin. He didn’t like it, because it was close to unhealthy from what he could tell.
“You don’t have to be nice, mate.” She turned away from him to get her phone out of her purse and put that in her pocket.
Mate? Since when did she use that word? He’d never heard her say it. Then he remembered that Kara had said something about a friend coming back from Australia. She must have picked it up there.
Her attitude didn’t matter to him right now, because the sensation of seeing her again after all this time made him remember what they’d had, what they’d shared. All the long nights they’d spent talking. They’d started off as friends, became closer and closer until they both fell in love.
“I owe you an explanation.” He stepped closer only to see her take a step back. “But we need time for that.”
“I honestly don’t know whether I want to hear that or not.” She pushed her hair back from her face and looked him in the eyes for a second before turning away again.
“You’re early, Greg.” Kara put down the food on the table and came over to them. After kissing Greg’s cheek, she turned around to Abby. “You’ve introduced yourselves to each other?”
“We didn’t have to. We already know each other.” To Gregory’s surprise Abigail’s voice was cheerful, breezy. She didn’t want to ruin her friend’s night. “I know Gregory from back in Fort Lauderdale.”
“Oh right! He played for the Panthers when you were still living there.” There was a knock on the apartment door and Kara excused herself. They heard her squeal when Benoit picked her up off the floor and kissed her. After all this talk about not wanting a relationship they’d finally admitted that they loved each other a couple of days ago. Soupy had it all figured out way before them, but it wasn’t his job to tell them what they felt.
“You must be Abby.” Benoit smiled warmly at her and took her hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you these past days. I must say, I’m impressed.”
“I’m sorry that I haven’t heard that much about you, but Kara didn’t want to tell me anything and they don’t talk much about ice-hockey in Australia.” Abigail smiled up at him, took a look at her friend and flat out ignored Gregory’s existence. He was pissed even though he shouldn’t be.
“It’s probably better that way.” Benoit grinned at Greg before he diverted his attention to Abigail again.
“Kara said the same.”
“And now, Kara says that we should eat before it gets cold.” Kara pulled Benny towards the table and left for the kitchen again. She returned with two bears for the guys and two glasses of wine for her and Abigail. Normally Abby preferred beer to wine, but tonight it went well with the food. They started talking while they were eating.
Kara still had to tell her how she’d met the boys. “My agents set me up with the Boston Bruins. Hockey should be a topic in my next book so I travelled with them and got to know the guys. They accepted me immediately and we got along pretty well. And here we are now.”
“Why not wogball though?” Abby asked, only to be met by three confused faces. “Sorry. Why not soccer? It’s always been your favorite sport.”
“Ahh.” Kara nodded. She’d never heard of the term wogball, but that showed that Australia had had a big influence on Abby. “Because we’re in America. And the ruins had won the Stanley Cup the year before.”
“Yeah, I remember something like that.” Abby took a sip from her wine and before one of the guys could say something she continued. “When you’re travelling pretty much non-stop, you concentrate on different things than sports. And for a couple of years now I haven’t been that interested in hockey anymore.”
“That’s understandable”, Benoit said and nodded at her. Kara chipped in again and asked how Abby and Greg had met.
“Years ago.” Greg shook his head with a smile. He caught Abby’s eye and saw the hint of a smile on her lips, but it vanished so quickly that he thought that he’d imagined it. “When I started in Plymouth, we ran into each other while we were both out for a run. We decided to have coffee together and became friends.”
Abigail chipped in: “Then I moved to Fort Lauderdale to live with my aunt. We stayed in contact and when he started playing for the Panthers we started hanging out again. When I got the job in Boston and then started travelling around, we didn’t talk anymore. We were both really busy.”
“Even better that you’re seeing each other now again. I guess there’s a lot to catch up on.” Benoit smiled at both of them.
“You have no idea.” Greg said, trying to keep the smile on his face. He didn’t know why Abby had told them this and not the real story, but he was grateful for that. Benoit would find out from him after dinner or tomorrow at latest. He couldn’t keep this from one of his closest friends. He’d never talked about this before.
Thankfully, Abby changed the topic and they talked about the season so far and about Kara’s upcoming book. These were safe topics.
The rest of the evening went by in a blur. Gregory was happy to get out of there and so was Abby. She would finally be able to breathe again. At least that was what she’d thought.
As soon as the door was locked behind the two hockey players, Kara turned to her. “And now want to hear the real story. You didn’t think I bought that bullshit, did you?”
Abby sighed. “Half of it was true though.” They walked back to the living room, where they settled down on the sofa. “You remember my story about that fiancé, who’d left me a day after the proposal.”
“How could I ever forget that?”
“Well, that guy was Gregory Campbell.”
“No way!”
“I wish it was different.”
“Holy fucking shitballs!” Kara stared at her friend. She’d gotten to know Soupy as one of the nicest, most generous people ever.
“That about sums it up.” Abby took a deep breath and looked at her friend. “But that’s my story with him. I hope it won’t affect the way you think about him. If you didn’t like him you wouldn’t have invited him over.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t fit together somehow.” Kara shook her head, trying to make sense out of it. “Maybe he’s changed over the years.”
“Maybe.” Abby hoped he’d changed, but that wouldn’t change her past and as much as she wanted and tried to forget it, she couldn’t.