Five days later Vivian sat with the memo still in her hands, she didn’t need more information than what was on the two-sentence message. She was needed in New York and knew she couldn’t possibly push it off any longer. She was waiting to be transferred to her VP to see if perhaps he could remedy whatever problem there was. “Hello, Vivian?” he asked.
“Yeah Mike it’s me, what’s the situation over there?” she asked anxiously. She heard him take a deep breath and then there was shuffling of papers. “Answer me Mike, I’m not going back to New York without good reason. So what’s going on?” she said getting impatient.
“Our stock has just dropped 10 percent,” he said. Mentally she calculated that and realized it was a significant change. “And why is that?” she asked wanting more information. “Well we think it has something to do with our CEO being MIA, but hey how am I suppose to know,” he said sarcastically.
“Mike are you forgetting you’re not irreplaceable? Now me being in London is not exactly a secret. I want the latest sales reports sent to me ASAP. And I want a meeting set up for two hours from now. Which would be 3PM your time, now get to work. And next time you decide to talk to me like that consider yourself unemployed,” she said hanging up on him.
Vivian looked at her watch she was supposed to have a date with Abs at seven but now she had to call and cancel. She picked up the phone and dialed his number. “Hello?”
“Hey babe, what are you doing?” she asked. “Well I just got back from the studio. Hey I thought of what we could do tonight, I got us reservations at this very eclectic restaurant where they serve you food in medieval clothes and…”
“Abs about tonight, I have to cancel,” she said interrupting him. “But Vivian I haven’t seen you in five days. You can’t just cancel my next free night is a week from now,” Abs said disappointment in his voice. “Abs I don’t want to cancel but I have to. They called me from New York it’s work related and I just can’t ignore it,” she said trying to explain.
“It’s 6PM how can you be thinking about work?” he said sighing. “That’s London time Abs, it’s only 1PM at home. I’m going to have a meeting with my execs in two hours. I’m sorry but this is important,” she said getting frustrated.
On the other side of the line she heard him sigh again. “It’s not like I get to see you everyday Viv,” he said in a small voice. “Yeah I know that Abs, but I’ve had to see you according to your schedule. And now that we have to arrange things according to mine you weird out on me,” Vivian said defensively.
“I’m not weirding out, it’s just that…”he couldn’t say what he wanted. “Listen Abs I really don’t want to debate this. What if I pass by your house when the meeting is over and we can just hang out together?”
“I guess, if you think you can schedule me in,” he said without thinking. “What? Why are you acting so immature about this?” she said hurt. Abs realized he was being a bit irrational and said, “I’m sorry luv, I just really want to see you that’s all.”
“Yeah whatever, anyway I’ll call you when I’m done ok?” she said not wanting to talk to him anymore. She didn’t even wait for him to reply before she hanged up. Arghh, this day was just turning out to be so awful.
Three hours later Vivian was pacing up and down her study trying to decide if to call Abs or not. “Uh oh, what’s up Vivian?” Liz said entering the room. Liz who had decided to stay in London when Nan went back to the States was now living at Vivian’s house. “I might have to go back to New York,” Vivian said massaging her throbbing head.
“I see and that would be a problem because?” Liz asked sitting behind Vivian’s desk. “It’s a problem because I don’t want to leave. I mean I love Becca and there’s Lyd and Ryan and Abs. I don’t want to go before I find out if maybe…I don’t wan to miss an opportunity. But they offered to move the offices here to London so I could stay here. And I know Nan would love to have both Lydia and I together again. I don’t know Liz, what do you think I should do?”
Liz looked at her and saw the worry and uncertainty writing on her face. “Wow that’s a lot to think about. Well do you know for sure that you and Abs are a long-term thing? And how much would you be risking if you change the offices here? It’s not just personal here, it’s also financial,” she said.
“I’m going over to Abs’s maybe he can help me decide,” she said getting her car keys. “Wait Vivian, I don’t think you should drive, let me,” Liz said taking the keys from her. “Yeah sure, some on,” Vivian said heading out the door.
Vivian knocked on his door and waited impatiently for him to open it. A sleepy looking Abs opened the door and was surprised when both girls just walked in without saying hello. “Abs we need to talk,” Vivian said standing nervously in his living room. “Hello to you too,” he said lying down on the sofa where he had been taking a nap.
“Get up you goof, this is important,” Liz said dragging Abs off the sofa. “Hey leave me alone. Why did you have to bring her along?” he said talking to Vivian but pointing at Liz. “Nevermind her, I’ve got to tell you something,” she said trying to show her seriousness. “What is it?” he asked now totally awake.
“I told you about the meeting I had today right?”
“Yeah,” he said waiting for her to continue.
“Well it appears that Silverly’s hasn’t been doing so well since I left. And the stockholders believe it’s because I’ve left. And they’ve kinda given me only two options as a solution,” she said stopping to look at him.
“They said that I either go back to New York because they can’t seem to function without me, or I move the main offices here to London. Which would make me closer to Lydia and her family. But I also have to consider the fact that my parents wanted the company to be American based. Then there’s the financial cost of moving the offices to consider. On my way over here I made a very important decision and I wanted you to be the first to know…” she was saying but got cut off by Abs.
“So you’re going back aren’t you? You’re just packing up and leaving us all behind. I knew that you’re work was more important than anything but I didn’t want to believe it. Marie told me that your first priority was Silverly’s but I said it couldn’t be. But I guess she was right,” Abs said not noticing Vivian’s stunned face.
“Oh no here comes the drama,” Liz said getting comfortable on the sofa.
“But I’m not going to beg you to stay, because you know what? I don’t need this, I don’t need to have my heart broken by you. All those talks about you being able to fall in love with me were lies weren’t they? This was just a fling, just for entertainment sakes,” he said sounding harsher with every word.
“No Abs you didn’t let me finish,” she said trying to reach out to him.
“Finish? I think we’re already finished, you can leave now,” he said looking away from her.
“What does Marie have to do with anything? She badmouthed me and you believed her? I cannot believe this, you didn’t even wait to hear the end of what I had to say. For your information Mr. Breen, I had decided to move the offices here but I guess I now have one less reason to do that,” she said walking out the door and slamming it behind her.
Abs stood with a shocked look on his face wanting to run after her but not being able to. “Dude you fucked up majorly,” Liz said. “Will you please just shut up!” he said trying to collect himself. “No I will not, I’ve been trying to help you keep your girlfriend and you’ve been too dense to see it. But now it’s too late she’ll never forgive what you just said. And guess what? I am not sorry that it happened,” she said trying to walk past him.
“No you don’t, you’re not going anywhere. I want to know how you consider treating me like shit helping me?” he asked disbelief filling his voice. “Just let me go,” she said. The look in his eye softened and it finally set in that Vivian had walked out on him, by his request. “What am I suppose to do to get her back?” he asked tears forming in his eyes.
Liz was about to leave when she noticed how really depressed he looked. “Oh for the love of…Don’t cry Abs that’s so not going to help,” she said leading him to the sofa.
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