Page 20 of The Meeting
Kailynn laughed. Abi had definitely heard her share of complaints that Kailynn had about Drew. If it hadn’t been for Abi, Kailynn may have imploded with her annoyances. Suddenly, the thought of dating Chase sounded better with each passing moment. She hadn’t really dated anyone in years. She had been with Drew, but the romance was long gone before they ended. They had gotten too comfortable with each other.
“I’m going to have to learn how to date again. I hate dating.”
“I hear you there. Dating is the worst. All the insecurities of, does he like me? Did he forget about me? What’s he thinking? Why haven’t I heard from him? Is he going to dump me?”
Kailynn stared at Abi. “Um… I don’t recall ever questioning thingsthatmuch.”
Abi laughed. “I guess it’s just me then. I always had trouble with it in relationships. I questioned Logan constantly. I still do. Just not as much as I used to. It gets on his nerves.”
“I just hate the uncertainty of it all. Trying to get to know someone without revealing too much of yourself in the beginning in fear of scaring them away. I mean, I want to get to know Chase and I don’t want to keep secrets, but how fast do you tell the other person your life story?”
Abi shrugged. “It depends on the person, I guess. You’ll find your way with him. You guys will get into a flow that works for you. It’ll all work out.”
Kailynn chewed on her lip. Dating sucked. She realized that part of the reason she had waited so long to break up with Drew was partially because she didn’t want to go back out into the dating world. It wasn’t that she felt like she needed to be with someone, but she didn’t want to be alone her whole life either. Drew was more of a convenience, since they already knew each other. She realized she had settled with less than the best, purely out of convenience.
“How are things going with Drew on the business side of things?”
Kailynn groaned and grabbed a throw pillow off the couch and set it onto her lap, picking at it. “He’s ridiculous. We’re still keeping the company running, but all communication is going through the lawyers. I don’t know why I was with him for so long. He’s such a child.”
“Sometimes it takes getting out of a situation to see the truth of it all.”
“I suppose so.” She sighed. “Enough about me. How are you and Logan doing? Tell me what you’ve been up to.”
A smile beamed across Abi’s face. It had been close to a year since she and Logan had begun dating, and she still lit up whenever she spoke about him. “It’s going great. It really is. I honestly couldn’t be happier. Next month, Logan and I are going to travel to San Francisco for a craft fair.”
“Wow! That’s amazing!”
“Yeah, I’ve decided I need to branch out to other, bigger areas and see how my art does. I’ve been spending a lot of time painting when I’m at Logan’s place. He’s been so wonderful! He makes me dinner and basically dotes on me while I paint. We’ve gotten into a great routine, too. He spends a lot of his free time working on his house and I paint. We both stay busy.”
“I’m really happy for you, Abi.”
She blushed. “Thank you. We’ve decided we are going to rent a minivan to drive all of my paintings to the show. I’m getting nervous that they won’t sell and it’ll all be for nothing.”
Kailynn shook her head. Abi was the last person who needed to worry that her art wouldn’t do well. She was an incredibly talented painter despite how much she doubted herself. Abi had always been someone who needed a lot of reassurance about her artwork, and Kailynn always tried to be the person to give it to her even though she hadn’t been the greatest friend about it in high school—something she still regretted to that day.
“I bet they’ll all sell.”
“Oh please,” Abi said. “You can’t say that since you don’t even know what I’m bringing with me.”
Kailynn gave her a look that said Abi was being completely ridiculous. “You have never painted a bad piece.”
“You haven’t seen all of my work.”
“I don’t have to to know that you have never painted a bad piece. You shouldn’t doubt yourself so much, Abi. You’re incredibly talented and, deep down, you know it too.”
Abi furrowed her eyebrows but stayed silent for a beat before finally speaking. “Thank you for all of your encouragement. You’ve always been really great at that. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have had the courage to show anyone my work.”
Abi was referring to a bet Kailynn had made with her the previous year when they had reconnected after their high school reunion. Kailynn bet Abi that if she showed five people her work, she wouldn’t get any negative reviews. If she didn’t, she would have to try selling her art. Kailynn won the bet.
“Well, it’s the least I could do since you didn’t go to art school because of me.” Kailynn had been behind a rumor with Jessica that had started in high school saying that Abi wasn’t talented. Instead of going to the art schools Abi had applied to, she decided to go to school for dental hygiene. The rumor had crushed her, and it was all Kailynn’s fault.
Abi leaned over and put a hand on Kailynn’s knee. “It’s all water under the bridge.”
“Thank you.” Kailynn smiled. “So, did you decide you aren’t going to move to Florida?” She asked it jokingly, but part of her was still curious. Abi had looked at real estate where her parents live in Florida when she and Logan had split the previous year. But after Logan flew to Florida to get Abi back, she returned, and Kailynn hadn’t heard about it since. Whenever it was brought up, no straight answers were given, and Kailynn always wondered if it was still in the back of Abi’s mind.
Abi slowly shook her head. “No. I think I’ve finally realized my life is here and I really would like to see where it takes me. I miss my parents and everything, but now that I’m doing art shows, I’m planning to spend a few weeks at a time with them to paint and sell items at shows down there.”
“That’s great, Abi. I’m really happy for you.”
