“Seafood?” Her voice sounded funny, making me look over at her. Her eyes were wide with her hand covering her mouth in a look that could only be described as horror, but that couldn’t be right.
“Do you not like seafood?” I was going to be sorely disappointed if she didn’t. Seafood was one of my favorite foods.
“Liking it isn’t a problem. It’s that I’ll die if I eat it.” She chewed on her bottom lip, but I swore I saw her fighting a smile.
I wasn’t sure whether to believe her or not. Either Abbi was a skilled liar, or she was allergic to seafood. After our talk, I didn’t think she’d lie to me, though.
I could feel the tension in my brow as my forehead scrunched up. “You’re allergic to seafood?”
Before she could answer what could only be classified as a giggle slipped free from her mouth, and Abbi doubled over in laughter a second later with her chest to her legs.
“Oh my God, the look on your face when you thought I . . . couldn’t . . . ” After that, I couldn’t understand a single word she tried to utter as she cracked up. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and slipping off her chin and running down her leg, she was laughing so hard.
Damn, Abbi was good. She really had me going there for a minute.
To the left, I noticed a beachside restaurant, Shrimp by the Sea, with very little traffic. It probably helped that it was now three in the afternoon, and they were in between lunch and dinner service. Pulling in, I parked the car before I turned to look at the woman beside me.
“You might want to wipe those tears from your face because we’re here, and I don’t want everyone thinking it was me who made you cry.”
If word got out that Abbi was seen crying and that I was fired on that day, God only knew what the world would think. It wouldn’t be good for sure. I dreaded calling Catherine once I got home to break the news to her.
Abbi sat up, stiff as a rod, pulling the sun visor down to take herself in. She swiped underneath her eyes and brushed away the wetness on her cheeks for only a second.
“At least my eyes aren’t all red and puffy, but I have to say it was all worth it because the look on your face when you thought you’d have to find a new place for us to eat was priceless.” Flipping the visor back up, she secured her ponytail and smiled over at me. “Ready,” she sing-songed.
If Abbi would have been any other woman in LA, she would have redone her makeup and applied a slick layer of lipstick on her plush pink lips. But not my Abbi. She was beautiful with or without, and I loved the fact she didn’t feel the need to conform to society.
When her hand went to the door handle, I placed my hand on her other arm. “Wait. Let me go around and get the door for you.”
Before she could answer or protest, I was out of my SUV and opening her door with my hand held out to help guide her out of the car.
With her hand in mine, Abbi smiled up at me. “I like the gentlemen side of you.”
“Maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll get to see another side of me.” I winked at her. Intertwining our fingers, I escorted us into a quaint little restaurant with the entire backside opened to the ocean and beach. The tables were whitewashed with dark green plastic chairs around them.
A tall, blonde hostess met us with a Botoxed fake smile. “How can I help you?”
“We’d like a table for two outside by the water. If you can make it as private as possible, that would be great.”
Without blinking an eye, she escorted us to an empty patio and let us have our choice of table. One thing I liked about Malibu was no one here cared if you were famous or had money because everyone who lived in the area was all of those things. They were used to it and never treated anyone differently.
The moment our hostess walked away, Abbi leaned forward, her gaze darting around the area before she whispered, “Have you ever been here before?”
I looked around, wondering why she’d ask. The place seemed normal enough, with the exception of there being very few customers. “No, and why are you whispering?”
“I don’t know,” she continued to speak softly. “It’s the vibe I’m getting.” Her hand shot up with one finger pointed up. “And before you say anything, I don’t believe in all that hooey, but I won’t deny my feelings either.”
“Hooey? I don’t believe I’ve ever heard that word uttered before.” I tried fighting back a laugh but lost the battle when Abbi’s eyes narrowed more and more with each twitch of my lips.
“Let it all out, funny guy.” I knew she wasn’t mad, though, going by the slight upturn of her mouth. I liked it when things were easy between us, and maybe they would be now that I didn’t have Alpha Blue hanging over my head and constantly putting me in a bad mood.
“I’m sorry,” I chuckled. “I know what you meant, but I couldn’t help myself.”
Stretching her arm out to my side of the table, she took my hand in hers. “It’s fine after the day you’ve had. I know you didn’t like the show, but it’s still got to sting that they wanted you gone because some of the cast and crew think you’re cursed.”
“Hell, for all I know, I may be. Maybe I’m not supposed to be an actor. Everything was fine between Poppy and me until I was away on a shoot. Once I got back, everything went downhill from there. Maybe I’m not meant for this.”
“Hey,” she smoothed her thumb over the top of my hand, “you love acting. I know you do, and I don’t want you to give up on something that you feel passionately about because you’ve had a shitty run. I have a feeling your life is going to turn around. You just have to give it time.”
How could she have such faith in me when she barely knew me?
“Thanks, I needed that.” I turned my hand over and interlaced our fingers together. “Surprisingly, it does hurt that they let me go. I know it doesn’t make sense when I wanted off the show and was hoping that bed would be my character's death bed. Not mine.”
“It won’t be; just give yourself some time.” She smiled sweetly over at me, and I felt it deep within my chest. I was in trouble if one smile from her could elicit such a reaction.
“Do you know what you want?” a raspy voice asked from beside us, causing both Abbi and me to jump. We’d been too immersed with each other to register him coming upon us. He placed our waters down and stared out at the water, not once making eye contact with us.
“Can you give us a couple more minutes to look over the menu?” Abbi asked with a blinding smile that I wanted only for myself.
“Sure,” he answered before walking off. He was the shortest, skinniest guy I’d ever seen with a voice so dark and gruff that if heard him on the phone, I’d have thought he was seven feet tall and broader than a barn.
Slipping her hand from mine, Abbi picked up her menu. “We should probably decide what we want.”
What I wanted at that moment was Abbi, but I didn’t think she was on the menu. Soon. Hopefully, very soon, before my dick got chafed from the overuse of my hand.
Looking up from her menu, she found me staring at her. “Do you know what you want?”
I shook the thoughts of wanting Abbi naked underneath from my head and looked down at my menu. “I’m not sure. How about you?”