Celtic Magic (4 page)

“
I’m a virgin.” She
blurted out.

He pulled completely away from her, sitting
up next to her on the couch.

“
I’m so sorry, I didn’t
know. I wouldn’t have moved so fast if I had known
that.”

She blushed, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I
am very attracted to you but I’m just not quite ready to go any
further yet.” She told him.

He nodded, “I understand, no big deal, I
need to get home anyway.”

She stood up and walked with him to the door
and before she closed the door, he turned around, “So, would you
like to go bowling with me tomorrow? There are some friends of mine
going and bringing their girl friends, and I just know they will
love you, so what do you say?”

Abby gasped as her heart started beating,
she never thought that anyone would want to take her on one date,
much less keep asking her on multiple dates.

“Wow, Tom, I am honored you want me to meet
your friends, and yes, I would love to go bowling with you. What
time tomorrow?” she asked him.

He tilted his head as he smiled, “How about
noon? We can grab some lunch before we meet them.”

She nodded, “Sounds great, I can’t
wait.”

He smiled and leaned forward and kissed her
lightly on the lips, “See you tomorrow Abby.”

Chapter 7

That night Abby had trouble falling asleep,
she kept looking down at her hands, wondering how they had glowed
red the way they had. She went to the living room and looked
through the shelf that had all of her movies and found one of her
favorite old movies on the shelf. She put it into the DVD player
and laid down on the couch to lose herself in the movie.

She must have fallen asleep about halfway
though because suddenly it was as though she was standing in a
field that had tall orange flowers that were so tall, they nearly
reached her knees. She looked around, not knowing where she was or
if she was dreaming and she finally saw a large gazebo off to her
right, so she made her way through the flowers, trying hard not to
step on any of them, toward the gazebo.

When she finally reached it she noticed a
woman with dark red hair sitting on the bench, looking out at the
flowers with her back to Abby. She sat down next to the woman and
waited silently for her to turn around, and as if sensing her
there, turned to her as soon as she was seated.

Abby nearly gasped when she saw the woman,
it was almost as if she was looking into a mirror, with the only
differences being in the color of their hair. The woman had the
same deep green eyes, small and slightly turned up nose, full lips
with a deep cupid’s bow, and even the same small dent in her
chin.

Abby reached up and touched the woman’s
face, partly expecting to feel the cold glass of a mirror, but
instead feeling smooth warm skin under her touch.

The woman grabbed Abby’s hand and smiled at
her, “Hello child, I am happy to see you finally” the woman said to
her.

Abby was mesmerized by her beauty and didn’t
even realize she was going to speak, when she heard herself saying,
“Who are you?”

The woman looked up to the sky, as though
she wasn’t sure what she was going to say and after what seemed to
Abby like an eternity, she finally replied, “I am Aine.”

“Aine? That’s a different name” Abby
said.

“Yes, it’s an old Irish name, but you are
saying it wrong it is pronounced more like Anya” the woman told
her.

Abby hurriedly asked her next question,
“Where am I?” she asked her.

Aine shook her head, “That is not important
right now, for now you just need to know one thing.”

Abby nearly burst waiting for her to go on,
“What is it that I need to know?” she finally asked her, tired of
waiting.

Aine once again looked up to the sky, “You
need not be afraid of love, and you need not be afraid of your
sexuality. You are destined for great things Abby. For now just
know that the Gods are with you, in your heart.”

Abby felt confused over these words, and
just as she was about to ask her to elaborate she started to
disappear, and then suddenly she was back on the couch, breathing
heavily.

She looked over at the TV and noticed that
the movie was over and the credits were rolling. That had seemed
awfully real to have been just a dream and she noticed that she
could still smell the sweet smell of the tall orange flowers at her
feet.

She shook her head, telling herself to get
over it, it was just a dream, and after turning off the TV, went to
her bedroom and fell right to sleep.

***

The next day while sitting on her bed after
getting dressed for her date, she looked down at her watch and
noticed that she had a few minutes before Tom was supposed to be
there, so she decided to give her dad a call. She dialed his phone
number and listened to the playback song her dad used instead of
the usual ringing and had to laugh to herself. Her dad was more
tech savvy than she was, always had the newest phones and computer
gadgets.

She finally heard the click that signaled he
had answered the phone, “Hey Abby, I’m so glad you called” he said
when he answered.

“
Hey dad, I just wanted to
call and check in with you since it’s been over a week already
since I left” she told him.

“Well, I am happy to hear from you. So how
is the store going, and do you like your apartment?” he asked
her.

She smiled; her father knew she was scared
about starting something new. “Yes dad, the store is really cool,
and Jasmine is so nice. The apartment is a little smaller than I’m
used to, but it’s really nice, and super close to work” she told
him.

He laughed, “Yes that is probably why
Jasmine lives there. So, what’s on your mind?” he asked her.

She sighed, “I had a really weird dream last
night, and it’s still bothering me a little bit.”

She could hear the TV in the background turn
down, “What was it about sweetie?”

She told him about the dream, even
explaining to him how the woman had looked exactly like her, but
with red hair and he listened to her explain her entire dream
before he spoke.

“Did she tell you her name?”

Abby thought that was a weird question for
him to ask her, but figured he must have assumed she would have
told him.

“Yes, she said her name was Aine.”

Her father gasped, which wasn’t something
she had ever heard him do.

“
Do you know someone by
that name or something?” she asked him.

“Oh don’t listen to me, I’m just getting
easily excited lately. It must be because I miss you.”

Abby smiled, “I miss you too dad.”

The door bell started ringing and she wasn’t
quite ready to tell her dad about Tom so she told him the first
thing that came into her mind.

“
Oh I have to go dad,
someone is at the door, maybe its Jasmine. Gotta go! Love you!” she
shouted at him and waited for him to tell her he loved her back
then hung up the phone practically running to answer the
door.

As she opened the door, she was relieved to
see Tom wearing jeans; she had dressed down and didn’t want to look
out of place again. He leaned forward and gave her a kiss and as he
was pulling away pulled a single red rose out from behind his back.
Abby felt her body melt, she had always seen friends of hers get
flowers from guys all the time, but she never dreamed anyone would
be doing that for her someday.

She blushed as she took the rose and put it
in a vase with water. He put him arm around her and left it there
until they had made it all the way to his car, which had the top up
this time. After sliding into the car they made their way to the
bowling alley. Abby looked over at Tom and smiled, thinking that
she was lucky to have found someone so sweet to date. As though
sensing her thinking about him, he grabbed her hand and held it as
he drove with his left hand.

They made idle chat as they drove and it
wasn’t long before they pulled up into the bowling alley parking
lot. Once they walked in, Tom started to introduce her to all of
his friends and she noticed how all of the girls were all really
nice and easy to talk to, though they seemed to be much older than
she was.

When they found a table next to their lane,
the waitress came up and started to take their order and Tom came
over to her.

“Abby, did you want something to drink?” he
asked her.

She shrugged her shoulders, “Just water is
fine” She told him.

He laughed, “No, I mean an alcoholic drink,
did you want a beer or something?” he asked her.

She shook her head, “No, Tom, I’m only
twenty, I’m not old enough to drink yet.”

Tom looked at her funny, “Are you sure you
are only twenty? You act much older, I thought you were about
twenty four.”

Abby’s heart dropped, she just knew that he
was going to tell her she was too young for him to date and she
would never hear from him again.

She was waiting for the words when he said,
“That’s okay, at least I can brag that I’ve got a young
hottie.”

Abby smiled, relieved that he didn’t decide
he didn’t want anything else to do with her.

***

After bowling, where Abby did really
horrible, they grabbed a pizza and headed to his apartment. She had
never seen where he lived and was excited to be able to check his
place out. What she wasn’t prepared for was when he pulled up to a
parking garage behind a row of two story restaurants a little
further uptown than her apartment was. She looked at him with a
confused look on her face.

“Why are we here? We already have a pizza”
she told him, holding up the box she was holding.

He laughed, “I can tell you aren’t used to
downtown yet. These aren’t just restaurants, the top floor of each
building is a loft apartment. It’s really convenient when I don’t
want to go very far to eat” he told her.

She had never seen anything like this before
so was surprised when he opened a small door behind the restaurant
and saw a little room with an elevator. This elevator was different
though, instead of having a button to push to get the elevator to
come to you there was a place to put a key. He put his key in and
turned it and the elevator doors opened up, showing a large black
interior. They stepped inside and pushed the only button
available.

“So, if you have to use a key to get into
the elevator, what happens when you have guests? Or a pizza
delivery? How do they get to your apartment?” she asked him after
the elevator doors closed.

“Oh, did you notice the door next to the
elevator?” he asked her.

She shook her head, “No, I didn’t see a
door” she answered.

“Well, there is a door, and it leads to a
stair case that comes out next to the elevator upstairs” he told
her.

“So, if you anyone can just walk up the
stairs, then what’s the point of the elevator having a key?” she
asked.

He laughed, “You have to have a code to use
the stairs, I give it to guests, or the delivery people when I need
to.” He explained.

When the elevator opened, they stepped into
a small foyer that had only one door. As Abby waited for Tom to
unlock the door, she looked behind her and saw that there was a
door next to the elevator that said stairs on it, right in the
middle. Finally Tom opened the door to his loft and she nearly
gasped at how beautiful the place was.

The entire floor was open, with no walls
separating his living room from his bedroom, but he still had the
separate furniture arranged as though there were walls. All of his
furniture looked like old oak wood with grey and black accents
everywhere. It really did look like a man’s apartment, and his bed
had to be one of the largest beds I had ever seen; it took up
nearly an entire wall on the right side of the loft. She looked
over at Tom, who was watching her expression as she looked over his
place.

“How big is that bed?” she asked.

He laughed, “Everyone asks me that when they
walk in. It’s actually a specially made bed, so it doesn’t actually
have a size. I just know that it’s bigger than a King, which is the
largest you can buy retail.”

“How many people are you bringing up here to
see it?” she asked quietly.

“Oh, well not that many really, mostly
family, and a few guys that come over for poker games once in a
while” he told her.

She smiled as they walked over to where he
had his living room setup and sat on the couch, opening up the
pizza box and diving right in.

“Where did you get it made, and why do you
need such a big bed?” She asked him.

“Actually, my dad gets those made, I’m not
sure where exactly, but that is the bed they have in all of the
penthouse suites at the hotel. He gave it to me when I refused to
live in one of the suites when I finished college.”

Abby nodded, “It was nice of him to give you
the bed.”

He shrugged, “I guess so. Wanna see what it
feels like?” he asked her.

She nodded and he jumped up pulling her
toward it. He stopped her about halfway across the room and turned
toward her.

“
The only way to truly
experience how great it is would be to run and jump onto it. It’s
like falling into a cloud” he said.

She looked from the bed back to him, “Are
you sure?” she asked him.

He nodded and she started to run and jumped
as high as she could and landed somewhere in the middle of the
massive mattress. She had expected to bounce back up like she
usually did at her dad’s house, but instead she sank into it as it
molded toward her body. It felt like little cotton balls were
packed around her body and she nearly fell asleep laying there and
enjoying the feeling. Finally Tom slid in beside her.

“So you think the bed is worth it?” he asked
her.