Chapter 21 Naomi #2
Will put his arm around Naomi. “We already have the marriage license. We need an ordained minister to marry us and two witnesses.”
“I think the three of us can handle those things,” Abby said.
Will nodded. “How do we do this then?”
This was happening so fast, but at the same time, it felt like things were moving so quickly because everything was falling into place.
Naomi stepped forward, drawing eyes to her.
“Here’s the plan.” She began, pointing decisively.
“Will, you go change into your suit. I’ll go home and change into my wedding dress.
Riley, you’re in charge of alcohol. Becca, you get us some flowers.
Abby, you figure out how to get ordained.
We’ll meet back at my apartment in an hour. ”
“You’ve put the right person in charge of the right job,” Riley said dutifully.
“I’m less excited about flowers.” Becca sighed. “I’d rather be in charge of finding strippers. Are you sure you don’t want a quick bachelorette party first?”
“I’m sure.” Naomi couldn’t help but smile. She wasn’t only sure about the strippers. She was sure about all of it.
Will must have caught it too, because he bent down and gave her a kiss, saying, “Me too.”
“Well, if we’ve only got an hour, we need to get moving!” Abby said. “Come on, Naomi. We’ll share a ride back.”
She wasn’t positive her feet were touching the ground as she walked to the road and got in a rideshare with Abby.
“I’m no-words-for-it thrilled for you right now,” Abby was saying. “This is the happiest happy ending I could have wished for you.”
“It’s really happening, right?” Naomi said, turning to face Abby. “I’m not dreaming?”
“I can pinch you to make sure.”
“I’m good!” A burst of laughter escaped her lips, bubbling up from within her, like an uncorked bottle of champagne as the joy spilled out.
“I don’t know what to do with myself! Should we be telling other people?
My parents couldn’t make it from Michigan in time, but we could do a video call.
And his parents. Oh, and what about Freya? ”
Even as Abby nodded enthusiastically, Naomi didn’t miss the quiet sigh that accompanied it.
Not the usual dismissive and annoyed sigh she gave whenever Freya was involved.
This was something else entirely. It was a sigh Naomi had been hearing from Abby a lot lately this past week.
Abby had claimed it was a reaction to everything that had happened to Naomi.
But Naomi had suspected there was more to it, and that sigh only served to confirm her suspicions.
She gave her friend a stern but gentle frown. “I know you’re covering something up to protect me. But in an hour, you won’t be able to use my situation as an excuse, and you’re going to have a Confession Cam Interview, with me as the cam.”
Abby met her gaze, a momentary flicker of vulnerability flashing before she masked it with a small smile.
“It’s nothing. I promise. All this has got me thinking, that’s all.
Life’s funny, isn’t it?” she said with a lightness that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“You encounter these odd coincidences that take your life in totally unexpected directions. I mean, look at you and Will and how this all worked out. Sometimes you have to trust that even when things don’t go the way you think they will, maybe a different kind of happiness is waiting for you around the corner. ”
As Naomi tried to decipher Abby’s uncharacteristically enigmatic reply, she couldn’t help but wonder if it had something to do with whoever Abby had been texting at her parents’ house that day.
Had Riley been right? Had she been in love with someone?
And were her sighs now the sign of a broken heart?
Abby had never been one to keep her relationships secret, at least not from Naomi. Unless …
Her mind took her back to the restaurant, to the pocket dial, to Freya.
There was only one person Naomi could imagine Abby would try to keep a secret.
One person she had espoused so much hate for that she might not want to admit she really loved.
Could all this really be about Freya? Had they gotten together and then broken up?
She considered saying something again, really trying to get to the bottom of it. Maybe without Becca and Riley there, Abby would feel like she could talk about what was going on without the extra banter and teasing.
Naomi looked out the window. They were only minutes away from their apartment, not enough time to coax Abby into opening up. She could wait a few hours to grill her best friend. Lovingly, of course.
“You know,” Abby said, obviously ready to change the subject.
“My mom loves to remind me that she has the chuppah from her wedding in her basement, as if the offer of using the chuppah from her failed marriage is going to hurry me along on my search for true love. But I know she’d be equally as happy to lend it to you.
If you’re okay with it, I could see if she could come by with it.
With the understanding that she would stay for the wedding, and the news will spread shortly afterwards. ”
“I’d love that.” Abby’s Mom had served as her second mom on many occasions. This seemed the best occasion of all.
“She’s going to think this makes her the center of attention, just so you’re aware,” Abby said as the cab pulled up in front of their place.
A cold gust nipped at them as they stepped out of the car, and they hurried inside the lobby.
“I was thinking maybe we’d try to do this in a park somewhere.
” Naomi shivered as she stepped into the elevator.
“But inside will have to do. My place looks like a bomb went off in my living room. What about yours?”
Abby looked up at the ceiling, trying to remember. “Nothing a garbage bag and a laundry basket can’t solve in a few minutes.” She looked back at Naomi. “How does a wedding in my apartment sound?”
“Perfect,” Naomi said. And it was.
The elevator doors opened, and Abby strode towards her apartment with purpose. Naomi followed.
“Give me a few minutes to figure out this ordained minister thing,” Abby said after she reached up to touch her mezuzah. “But come over whenever you’re ready.”
Naomi felt something tap her shoulder and instinctively turned around.
Her mouth opened when she saw Simon’s hard face staring back at her.
But her throat closed when she saw what he was holding.
A gun.
She prayed, pleading that Abby had made it inside. That somehow she hadn’t noticed Simon, and he hadn’t noticed her. But, then she heard Abby’s voice behind her.
“What is it?” Her words dissolved into an incomprehensible gargle.
Simon flicked the gun, indicating he wanted them to walk into Abby’s apartment.
His eyes crackled with a terrifying intensity, a dangerous spark that Naomi knew too well.
His silent fury was only the eye of the storm, a controlled rage that promised to unleash destruction.
In those moments, she could only bend to his will, like a tree bending in the tornado, enduring the chaos while rooted in the resolve to survive.
And so she did what she knew how to do. She lowered her eyes and let him usher them both into Abby’s apartment, moving mechanically while her mind raced for answers.
She had embraced the possibility of being the person her friends saw in her—strong, deserving, capable of happiness.
She had even allowed herself to dream of a fairytale ending, a life filled with love and joy.
But now, as the door slammed shut behind her, sealing off her escape, she knew those dreams had been illusions.
As she turned to face Simon, she felt as if the vines of shame and sadness that she had worked so hard to throw off had grown back, entwining themselves around her, their thorns digging deep into her heart.
“Simon … no …” she said, her voice choked with pain.
“Shut. Up,” Simon spat out, inching towards her.
Reflexively, Naomi tried to make herself even smaller. She needed to keep him calm, at least long enough to get Abby out. After that, whatever happened was of her own making. “Simon, please,” she said softly. “Just let Abby leave.”
Naomi hoped, for a fleeting moment, that Abby might, this one time, relent to the situation and let Simon have this moment of control.
But she was Abby. Of course she wouldn’t. “Naomi, I’m not leaving you,” Abby said defiantly, stepping next to her. Naomi's eyes implored Abby to stay quiet, but it was too late.
Naomi barely registered Simon's arm swinging until Abby's cry of pain echoed through the room.
“Abby!” Naomi screamed as Abby plummeted to the floor.
Naomi dropped down beside her, shielding her friend with her body as she tentatively inspected the gash across Abby’s forehead.
The wound was deep, with rivulets of blood already flowing across her cheek.
Abby looked up at her, eyes clouded and dazed from the blow.
“Get up,” Simon growled behind her.
Naomi flinched at the sound of his voice. But she didn’t move. Amidst the cacophony of fearful and panic-ridden thoughts echoing in her mind, a different voice emerged, clear and resolute—her own voice, echoing the words she had once written to Will.
I am done letting Simon make me feel like I am the one who committed the crime by loving him. I am done believing that his abuse can define me or my future. I am done hiding from him or anyone else. Today, perhaps for the first time as an adult, my life is my own.
She had always acquiesced to Simon’s will, hoping that someday her love and obedience would be enough for him. But it never had. Her compliance had only fed the monster in him, emboldening him to go further. To go this far.