Man Enough

“Oh, Lucy, please be sure to bring the plate I set aside for Aberleigh. Thank you.” I opened my mouth to ask what that meant; did Abby have allergies she didn‘t tell me about? I shut my mouth when I felt Abby gently pinch my arm, warning me not to talk. I turned to her, about to ask what was going on, but she shook her head and looked back down at the table. Not before I could see the tears in her eyes. What’s going on?

Lucy, the maid, brought out all the plates. The ones that were set in front of Braeden, James and myself, were piled high with delicious smelling food. Veronica, Abby’s mother, picked away at a single slice of beef and salad; Abby had a few pieces of lettuce. I looked around the table as I dug in; Abby was the only one without beef - does she not eat meat? How did I miss that?

“So Marc… how are the Polar Bears doing this year?” I took my gaze away Abby; looking right at her father.

“Umm… Penguins… and we’re doing ok.” I said slowly, turning my eyes back to Abby.

“Only ok? What position do you play?”

“Goalie.” Abby continued to push the lettuce around her plate. I reached out and put my hand on her knee, giving it a gentle squeeze.

James cleared his throat, “Goalie? So you’re not one of the big tough guys then? Don’t do a whole lot during the game…”

I knew he was insulting me, but I was too focused on Abby to truly care. “Daddy…” Abby said quietly, ending the conversation.

I ate quickly, trying to get Abby alone as soon as possible. I was getting the impression that she hadn’t been exaggeration when she explained to me how complicated this weekend was going to be.
Finally finished, I leaned back in my chair; glancing across the table at Braeden. “Well,” He said finally, pushing his chair away from the table. “I’m exhausted, think I should call it a night…” I nodded my head in agreement, following Brae’s lead and rising from the table.

I scooped up my plate from the table, causing Veronica to laugh. “Please Marc!” She cried, grabbing my wrist. “We have people for that…” She added softly, grinning at me through Botox’d features. I gave her a small smile in return before setting the plate back down.

“Of course.” I said glancing at Abby, who was also rising from her seat.

“I had them put Marc’s stuff down in the east guestroom… you can show him where that is Abby.” Her dad said slowly, not bothering to look up from where his plate.

“Sure… night daddy. Night mom.” Abby turned and walked animatedly from the room; with me hot on her heels.

We headed up the banquet-style staircase in silence, Abby walking a step ahead of me until we reached a deep red bedroom on the far side of the house. “So this is it…” She sighed, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

“Let me guess… it’s a 5 mile trek to your room?”

She started to laugh quietly, the action shaking her body gently. “Something like that… Look Marc, I’m so sorry about that…” She motioned towards the other end of the house.

“Don’t, don’t worry about it… it’s gonna take a whole lot more than that to get rid of me.” I laughed too, sitting down beside her. “… is that what you’re worried about? Why you were crying at dinner?”

She looked surprised and then embarrassed before nodding slowly. “Yah… I was scared you were going to leave…”

I shook my head, grinning; as I pushed her down on the bed and climbed on top of her. She let out a squeal, before clamping her hand to her mouth. “Shh… you’re gonna get us caught.” She giggled silently as her hands wrapped around my neck, pulling me into a deep, passionate kiss. I sighed into it and began to search for the bottom of her shirt, shoving my hands up along her the smooth, firm skin stretched across her stomach.
She shifted slightly, pushing herself downward until my hands were resting on the lace of her bra. I grinned and flipped her shirt up; causing goosebumps to rise on her skin. I put my left hand underneath the lace scooping her breast out and gently rubbing my thumb around her in tiny circles.
She sighed happily and I headed south, placing gentle kisses along her stomach. I pulled my face back, smiling down at her body, “God you’re beautiful…”
She began to recoil from me, pulling her shirt back down over herself and shooing my hand away. “What’s wrong baby?” I asked, pulling her towards me until she was in my lap.

“Nothing…” She sighed. “I just don’t want to get caught… that’s the last thing we need.” I nodded in agreement. I’m pretty sure her dad hates me already…
I smiled to myself as I thought about how great it was going to be over the Christmas break; all that time off and being able to sleep with her in my arms for all of it.

“Alright well… you should head then…” She nodded and I allowed her to get up, staring at her body as she shuffled towards the door. I smiled as I followed after her, kissing her once again before I watched her disappear down the hall.
I wanted to walk her to her room, spend as much time with her as I could; but I didn’t want to risk a run in with her parents, it felt like I was on rocky grounds already.
Plus not knowing where her room was made it a lot easier for me to ignore any thoughts I had about sneaking out to see her. “Marc… got a minute.” Lost in my thoughts I didn’t notice James approach me.

“Umm… of course.” I gave him a fake smile, hoping he didn’t know the difference.

“How much money do you make a year?” The bluntness of his question caught me off guard.

“I’m sorry… what?”

“Do you invest it? Do you have any kind of portfolio set up for yourself?”

“I invest a bit… stocks aren’t really my thing though. I mean, I save all of the money that I make…”

He exhaled loudly and appraised me for a minute before speaking again; where the hell is this conversation heading? “Listen, I’m sure that you’re a really good kid but… do you really think you’re man enough for my princess? I understand that you don’t come from money so making a couple hundred thousand a year is probably a big deal; but what if you get injured? Can you do anything else if you have to stop playing games?”
I opened my mouth about to say something, but closed it abruptly as her father continued.
“Now here’s what I’m thinking. You get yourself out, now, before my daughter gets anymore attached to you… and I won’t have a problem, ’reimbursing’ you for your trouble.”

I stared at him in astonishment, trying to wrap my brain around what was going on. “Are you trying to bribe me?”

“I wouldn’t call it that… besides, I’m sure there’s a nice girl out there for you; that you’ll be able to take care of-”

“I can take care of Abby.” I spat back harshly, trying to remember to control my temper. Normally it wasn’t an issue but this… this was beyond crude. “First off, I make over 3 million a year, thank you, and secondly, I love your daughter and nothing in this world is going to make me leave, so… you’re wasting your time.”

He glared at me, taking a step back as a look of pure disdain formed in his eyes. “You have some nerve-”

“No.” I snapped, cutting him off mid-sentence. “You have some nerve believing that your daughter can be replaced by money.” I sighed a shook my head, looking down the hallway to where Abby had disappeared a little while before. “I make her happy… isn’t that enough for you?”

I didn’t wait for an answer. I said goodnight and headed into my room, closing the door behind me. What the hell?! This has to be some kind of a joke… I thought miserably as I paced around my room. I sighed and walked back to the door, checking to see if anyone was there.
When I was sure the way was clear I headed down the hallway. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to find Abby’s room but I knew I needed to try. Her dad already hated me so, there was no real point in trying to stay on his good side.
Luckily for me; Abby’s room appeared to be the same as when she was a child - a small plaque that read ’Aberleigh’ was tacked to a door.
I pushed it open slowly to find that the room was dark; Abby’s shape was visible on the bed, tucked under the blankets. I walked over slowly and crawled in beside her. “Marc?” She whispered into the darkness.

“Yah it’s me babe. Don’t worry, I’ll be gone before anyone wakes up… I just wanted to hold you. Is that ok?” She let out a soft sigh and rolled over, wrapping her arms around me. “Goodnight Abby.” I said, kissing the top of her head before falling asleep.



Saturday we left the house, going to visit some of Abby’s friends and the places she use to hang out at; barely seeing her parents at all.
It became pretty evident based on the places she took me; that Abby wasn’t a huge fan of the ’old money’ life style - something that made me a lot more happy than it should have.
Obviously I couldn’t dislike her parents. They clearly loved her and were willing to do anything to make sure that she was safe and protected; I just hated the fact that they didn’t think I was the person to do it - at least to her father I wasn’t.

We left on Sunday, earlier than planned; but I was just as glad as Abby was to be gone. I felt horrible even thinking it, but I couldn’t wait to get away from New York.
The drive home felt longer than the drive up. I knew it was just because I wanted to be alone with Abby; go back to being happy and, for the most part, carefree. I could tell she felt it too, the need to get back to Pittsburgh, get back to our life together.
I never told her about the conversation that I had had with her father. I wasn’t exactly sure why, but it just seemed like one of those things she shouldn’t know about. No matter what her family said, it wasn’t going to effect the way I cared about her so, why overwhelm her down with the details?


“Ugh! What am I going to do!?” I yelled, flopping down on a bench in the middle of the mall.

“I don’t know.” Came the unanimous response from the people around me.

“You know… I brought you guys here to help me look for something, and you’re not doing a very good job.” I sighed as Sidney sat down beside me.

“I told you, Flower! Girls love jewellery.” He repeated for the fifth time that afternoon.

“That’s boring! Where’s your creativity?” Max said, sitting on the other side of me. “Now, there’s a little store back there called Miss Behavin… and I’m sure we could find something great-”

“Max! I’m not buying my girlfriend’s Christmas present from a sex store!” I dropped my face into my hands, what was I thinking inviting Max? “Geno agrees with me.” He smiled, pointing at the Russian that was towering over us.

“He’s only agreeing with you cause he doesn’t know what we’re talking about. He heard sex… that’s it. I doubt he’d buy something for Oksana from there.” At the sound of his girlfriends name, the grin faded off Geno’s face and he glanced around fearfully; as if somehow she had been magically transported from Russia. “It’s alright man, she’s not here.” I laughed, pushing myself off the bench.

“I’d much rather go to the sex store but… I listened to Max last year and Heather wasn’t too excited about that…” Jordan shook his head, raising his eyebrows like he was still surprised by that fact.

I appraised my friends a minute longer. “Jewellery it is.” I said, heading back towards Tiffany’s, Crosby falling into step behind me.



“Hey! When you turn this one sideways it looks like a pair of tits!” I glanced around to see Max holding a pendent on it’s side, laughing with Geno and Jordan.

“Max! Put it down!” I sighed, turning back around to the lady behind the counter. “Yah, I think I’ll go with this one…” I said slowly, looking at Sidney to make sure he was still in agreement.
The lady smiled at me and took my credit card, heading to the back of the shop to box the pendent. “I need something else man…”

“Why do you say that?”

“I don’t know… a necklace… that’s so lame. It’s a cop-out.” I sighed, trying to make Sidney understand that I needed to get her something special, something that would show her how much she meant to me. “What do you buy the girl that has everything?” I said to myself, starting to feel self-conscious as I ran her father’s words over in my head. I was the guy that made her happy, right?

“What about time?” Sidney asked suddenly, a grin appearing on his face.

“Time?”

“Yah… why don’t you give her some time for a present?” He pointed behind me and I turned around. There was a travel store across the hall from us.

A smile spread across my face. “You know what kid, that’s not a bad idea.”

I waited for the lady to come back with the necklace before heading across the hall with Sidney.
An hour and $54,000 later, I was feeling much better about Abby’s Christmas gift.

Christmas, I smiled to myself. I couldn’t wait. I couldn’t wait to introduce her to my family, show her off to my cousins and let her learn about where I came from. It was going to be a blast; and on the plus side, it had to go a lot better than Thanksgiving, right?