His Step Forward, Her Step Back

Jacob has been thinking long and hard about what Michael had said to him the other day. At first he had been filled with a silent rage. What could Michael possibly understand of his situation? What right did he have to criticize when his own hands weren't exactly clean either? But no matter how he tried to ignore it, to forget it, Jacob couldn't help but hear those words replay in his head over and over again. 'If it wasn't for the chairman's last name or your sister's grace you wouldn't have anything'. Those words were undoubtedly true, no matter how much Jacob wished they weren't. Slowly his anger melted away into regret.

As he sat at his desk, reflecting on his behaviour Jacob suddenly heard a knock from behind him that pulled him out of his thoughts. He turned around, surprised to find Elle standing awkwardly behind him.

"What do you want?" Jacob asked bitterly. Her face was the last face he wanted to see right now.

"I want to ask why your girlfriend is so eager for us to meet up." Elle said as she held her phone up for Jacob to see the text messages exchanged between herself and Abby.

Her suggestions for Elle and Jacob to meet up were subtle at first but after Elle's polite declination they turned more obvious and insistent. Jacob immediately understood what she was trying to do.

"Just ignore her for now." He said.

Elle frowned and put away her phone. "Listen, you knew she was one of my best friends from the start and you asked her out anyway. You don't have the right to be displeased that our path's are overlapping like this. I don't want to tell you what to do in your own relationship, but whatever issue is going on between you two; get over it or break up and move on."

Jacob opened his mouth to argue but quickly realized he had nothing to say.

"She's your girlfriend." Elle said with finality. "Talk to her." With that she turned around and marched back to her own office.

Once again, even if Jacob didn't like it he couldn't deny that she was right. Most of the concern's he had with Abby right now were because of the lie he had told. The consequences of the truth couldn't be much worse than this could they? So Jacob put aside his bitterness and his pride and picked up his phone.

Abby was attending her professor's lecture when her phone began to ring. When she saw the caller ID displayed she quickly rushed out into the corridor.

"Hello." She answered in a hushed voice.

Jacob frowned. "Where are you?" He asked.

"I'm just attending a lecture."

"Sorry. You told me about it earlier and I forgot. I'll call you back later."

"No, no, no. You hardly ever call me in the middle of the day. It's important right? What is it?"

"Nothing really. I just wanted to ask if you wanted to meet after work today."

"I…" Abby trailed off.

"If you can't it's fine." Jacob said despite feeling disheartened.

"I want to. I really want to. It's just that I'll be finishing late today."

"I'll wait for you then. Just let me know when you're finished."

"Okay." Abby replied happily.

Later that night the two were walking through a park as the sun set slowly behind them. Abby enthusiastically told Jacob about the lecture she had attended earlier. For a moment it was like nothing had ever changed between them. Thing's were as they had always been. Then Jacob betrayed her fantasy by saying the words "Listen, there's something I need to tell you."

"What is it?" Abby asked nervously. Her heart dropped to her stomach. She closed her eyes. Was this it? Had he waited to see her tonight just to break up with her?

"I lied to you about my work." Jacob confessed. "I intentionally made it seem like it was Elle's overreaction when it was really just my own foolish mistake."

Abby listened with a blank face as Jacob told his story. All of it. The deal with Michael, the stolen sales, everything. Once he finished a silence fell over the two as Jacob awaited his sentence.

"So?" He finally asked when he could no longer bear the silence.

"That's it?" Abby asked.

"What do you mean?" Jacob asked, but Abby only laughed in response. A nervous laugh that relieved herself of all the tension of the past little while. He wasn't breaking up with her. All this fuss, all the distance they had created between themselves, all of it was just because of a little white lie?

After a moment Abby's nervous laughter died down. "What you did was wrong, but it's your work. There's no right for me to lecture you about what you do there. That's evidentially Elle's job. But you shouldn't have lied to me about it. So many hurt feelings over such a ridiculous lie."

"So…we're okay?" Jacob asked.

Abby paused for a moment as she thought on it. She didn't care about the lie, she cared about why he felt the need to lie about it in the first place. What did he think of her? What did he take her for?

"What do you even like about me?" Abby asked, returning his question with one of her own.

It was only for a moment, but Jacob hesitated. Abby saw the panic in his eyes as he tried to think of an answer while on the spot. "I - I." He stammered.

"Never mind it." Abby said, wearing a sad smile. "We're okay. Just never do something like this again."

"I won't. I promise." Jacob said earnestly.

It was hanging by a thread, but so long as that one thread held on Abby wouldn't give up on their relationship. Perhaps it was only wishful thinking, maybe it was just her being delusional, but she couldn't do it.