Chapter 10
Abby stuffed her hands deeper into her front coat pockets as she attempted to keep the biting Chicago wind from penetrating the black wool pea coat she wore. As she approached her apartment building, she noticed Brian ascending the front steps and entering the building. She stopped and stared at the front door.
Dammit, she thought.
It had been a week since the attack. Except for a hint of a bruise lingering under her left eye, her face had returned to normal. After their argument, Abby had left Luka standing on the sidewalk and had returned to her apartment. Stubbornly, she had convinced herself that she might as well get used to living with Brian the jerk right away. Luckily, her shifts had been odd ones and she hadn’t had the misfortune of running into him—until today.
Her anger toward Luka had soon cooled. Deep down, she knew he was trying to help her in his own way and she should simply be grateful and leave it at that. She also felt a good deal of regret for laying into him about going after Brian. Would Richard have done that? Luka surely wouldn’t have felt that much anger if he didn’t care somewhat about her, right? But the devil on the other shoulder kept reminding her that if Luka hadn’t lost his temper, Brian would be behind bars right now, and she wouldn’t be standing out in the cold hesitating to go into her own apartment building.
Work had offered a comforting sanctuary. She knew the routine, knew what to expect, and it didn’t afford her the time to worry about the Brian situation, as Chuny had come to call it on the occasions when she’d inquire about the status of things. Chuny had been quick to point out that she had yet to have a man go to battle for her, and that there might be a hint of romanticism in a man pummeling another man who assaulted a lady.
Abby and Luka had shared some overlapping shifts since their fight. He had asked her a few times if she was doing okay and how her eye felt. She had to give him credit – he hadn’t let her anger put up a completely awkward wall between them. Things for them in the ER had settled into business as usual, just as they had post-breakup. He had gone so far as to remind her she was welcome to stay at his place whenever she wanted.
The wind blew the ends of Abby’s scarf. Her feet didn’t want to move. Surely Brian was inside his apartment by now. Abby remembered that she could hear virtually everything from Brian and Joyce’s apartment, including a host of their many fights. She simply wasn’t in the mood to hear a single footstep from Brian. She ran her tongue over her upper lip as she looked up at the sky and exhaled. She then turned and began walking down her street.
***
As the elevator door opened, Abby could hear music thumping from behind the wall. She hesitated momentarily, but then pictured Brian’s smug smile and the possibility of running into him in her apartment building entryway. She walked to the green door and knocked loudly. She waited a few moments before turning back toward the elevator door.
This is crazy, she thought.
Just then the door swung open and a young, pretty blond quipped, “Hi, can I help you?”
Abby smiled and shook her head, turning back toward the elevator. She felt embarrassed that she had interrupted Luka when he was obviously otherwise engaged.
“Hey, Abby?” she heard Luka’s voice behind her.
She spun back toward him. He stood alone in his doorway. A smile pulled at his lips. “Come on in,” he offered.
“No, that’s okay. I don’t want to bother you. I didn’t know you had company.” Her words tumbled out a bit awkwardly. It was evident that she felt she was intruding.
“It’s just a couple of friends,” he happily reassured her.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Abby replied as she smiled and turned back toward the elevator.
“Hey, you need a place to stay?” he gently asked. “Let me help.”
She hesitated as she tried to come up with a response. “It-it’s okay,” she replied.
Luka knew she was conflicted and obviously didn’t want to be at her own place right now. He was happy she had come to him.
“Please? For me?” he tried to convince her. He took her left arm and rubbed it reassuringly. “Besides,” he playfully continued, “I need you. They’re kicking my ass in Pictionary,” he laughed. “Come on,” he coaxed as he tugged her inside the apartment.
Abby sheepishly entered the apartment. Along with the pretty blond were a brunette and two men, one of whom Abby remembered was Luka’s neighbor Ross.
“This is my friend Abby,” Luka introduced her while taking her coat, “and Abby, this is Ross, my upstairs neighbor, his girlfriend Erica who you met at the door, and this is my friend Vladimir and his wife Jennifer.”
“Wow, ‘Vladimir,’” she pronounced his name. “Sounds Russian.”
Both Luka and the man whose name was in question turned and looked at her, eyebrows raised a bit. Abby noticed Luka’s playful smile spread across his face as he began to chuckle a bit, as if there was some private joke she wasn’t privy to.
“Not Russian,” Vladimir clarified and took a long swig from his bottle of beer.
Luka laughed and turned to Abby. “Vlad is also from Croatia. We ran into each other at the Croatian consulate down on Michigan Avenue a while back. We both studied in Vukovar together. We had no idea the other was in Chicago until recently,” he explained. “It’s kind of been nice to have someone to speak to in my native language,” and he looked at Vladimir, throwing out a Croatian phrase Abby assumed was guy banter.
Abby gave him a sidelong glance and raised her eyebrows, expecting a bit more of an explanation.
Luka immediately knew what she was fishing for. “Since he moved to the States, everyone he meets immediately assumes he’s from Russia because of his name.”
“Ah,” Abby nodded.
“I’m Jenny,” the cute brunette approached Abby with extended arm. The two shook hands.
“Abby,” she offered. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” the girl replied sincerely.
“And you two are married? How did you meet?” Abby asked.
The girl nodded, as if she acknowledged questions about their meeting were inevitable, and she was well versed in the telling of their story. “A few years ago I was studying in Italy for my Masters in Art and instead of heading home for Christmas, I decided to do some traveling. I met Vlad at a bar in Dubrovnik . I tried to order a beer but the waitress and I were experiencing a bit of a language barrier,” she laughed and gave Vlad a wink. Abby figured there must’ve been more to that story. “Vlad was sitting close by at the bar, bought me a beer and we ended up spending the night drinking, playing pool and then sitting out on the beach. When all was said and done, he eventually followed me back to the States,” Jenny finished upbeat and downed the last bit in her beer bottle. She set the empty bottle down on Luka’s counter and looked back up at Abby, tilting her head slightly to one side. “And, yes, he
does have a crazy Russian name that I tease him about all the time, and no, I’m not totally fluent in Croatian, so I can understand little scraps of what these two guys are BS’ing about, but not all of it!” she laughed.
Abby immediately liked the girl. She looked to be in her late 20s or very early 30s and her dark blue eyes sparkled when she laughed. She had fair skin and a flawless complexion. Her shiny brown hair tumbled over her shoulders in soft, silken curls. Abby could see how any foreign man could immediately fall in love with her. The girl was darling and was obviously trying to make Abby feel welcomed. Abby always appreciated beautiful women who weren’t full of themselves.
“Okay, I think Luka and Ross are up,” chimed in Erica.
“Abby’s with us!” called Luka as he grabbed the marker and prepared himself for another American person or item he was not familiar with. His last selection had been the Mason Dixon Line, leading to a half hour discussion during which Ross and Jenny had tried to describe the invisible line of demarcation to the foreigners. Erica had been of little help, but that hadn’t surprised Jenny. The girl had long blond hair and a body to go with it, but she seemed to be more concerned with her lip gloss than with history, geography or art.
Abby enjoyed the evening as she listened to Vlad and Luka recount funny stories of life in Croatia. Jenny was always quick to tease her husband about the food or language, but it was clear it was in good fun, and they both seemed eager to include Abby and the others in the conversation.
After two hours of Pictionary, beer, laughter and storytelling, Jenny announced it was time they head home if they intended to get up in the morning to catch a flight to Boston to visit her family. Ross and Erica made their way to the door as well.
“It was so nice to meet you, Abby!” called Jenny as she wrapped her scarf around her neck while heading out the door.
"Yeah, you too!” Abby agreed cheerfully.
Luka wished his friends a good night and closed the door bhind them before turning back to Abby. He was glad they were finally alone.
[Guess what the next chapter will bring!]