Chapter 25 #2
She nods. “Look, like I said, I don’t know the whole story, but it was over a woman.
He was serious with someone, but then his boss hooked up with her at the brewery’s holiday party.
Everyone found out, because the fire alarm went off and the building had to be evacuated. They were both only half dressed.”
“She cheated on Liam?” I blurt. I can’t imagine ever cheating on anyone—a betrayal like that would eat a hole right through me—but to cheat on Liam? Unthinkable.
“That’s what people say. But it went deeper. I guess Liam didn’t go after the guy until later. I think maybe you should ask him about all of this, though.” She laughs. “Or we could bribe Cormac to do it.”
I take a sip of my drink, buying some time. I want to confide in Nora, but it feels like a betrayal of Hannah and Sophie to share something so personal with a new friend first. At the same time, I can hardly call Hannah to complain that I asked her brother for sex and he gave it to me.
Even in my own head, it sounds stupid.
I asked for this.
I knew he wasn’t interested in a relationship. It’s irrational to be angry with him because he made me want one.
“Nora?” a woman’s voice calls. “Nora, where are you? We’re about to start the cookies.”
Nora leans over to open the door, calling into the hallway, “I’m in my room with Briar. We’re having a private conversation.”
“Oh, did Briar arrive?”
She rolls her eyes at me. “Yes. We’ll be out in a minute.
Go ahead and get started without us.” She shuts the door again and plops back down.
“See? They always get lost in this dreamy realm where they don’t remember other people exist. Did you know Mr. Peebles was my elementary school principal?
It’s super weird, but I am happy for them.
My mom deserves a good guy, and God knows if she would have ever even tried dating again if not for Hannah. ”
“Please don’t tell Hannah I asked about Liam,” I say, my chest tight. “I don’t want her to think I have…you know, inappropriate feelings for him.”
Her stare is pointed. “But do you?”
I take a deep breath, hold it, then let it out. “Yes. But I need to get over them. You’d think I’d learn.”
She laughs, deep and throaty, and lifts her glass to clink it to mine.
“I hear you there. My dad was a dirty cheater, so you’d think I’d have recognized all the tricks when Jonah came sauntering in and asked me out.
But it’s always different when you’re in the thick of it.
” She’s silent for a second before asking, “You think maybe you’re displacing your feelings onto Liam because he’s helping you like you thought Jonah was going to do? ”
It hadn’t occurred to me, so I sit with the idea for a moment.
“Maybe partly,” I say, “but he’s also…”
“A hot, sexy asshole who rides a motorcycle and gets into trouble?”
“He has a tattoo that winds around his leg,” I gush. “And one on his arm too. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
I also can’t stop thinking about how he stood up for me at my parents’ dinner, and his insane offer to keep going there with me even though he clearly hates my parents, and vice versa.
Or his encouragement of my dream. Or the excitement I feel every time I check our list of rules.
But the way those things make me feel is a lot more dangerous than the pure lust I experience every time he touches me.
“You slept with him?”
I sigh and nod before burying my face in my hands.
“It was good, wasn’t it?” she presses. “You wouldn’t be this wound up over bad sex.”
“It was the best I’ve ever had. If it was just sex, though, there wouldn’t be a problem.
I like him…a lot, but I don’t think he’s interested in me like that.
Even if he was, I’d be worried about ruining our dynamic.
You told me it was awkward when things didn’t work out with you and José.
I’m…oversensitive. If we tried dating, and it blew up, I don’t think I could be around him every day. I couldn’t do it.”
“So unfuck the situation, my friend. You think he can forget about what happened? You both need to be on the same page for that to happen.”
“I think he wants to. He told me he can’t care about anyone like that. It must be because of the woman the Mountain Morning fight was about. He’s probably still in love with her.”
The words feel painful coming out, as if each of them is covered in shattered glass.
“I doubt that very much,” Nora says, adjusting her position in the beanbag chair. “I saw you and Liam together. There’s definitely something there. But my advice is to give him what he says he wants. You’ll see soon enough whether he meant it.”
“He gave me boxing gloves for Christmas,” I confess.
“Good,” she says with a grin. “So you won’t hurt your hands if you need to hit him.”
Shouts erupt outside the room, and Nora springs up from her beanbag chair. Worry written all over her face, she hurries out the door, and I follow her.
“Nora? Nora!” her mother is shouting from the kitchen.
We burst into the room, which smells like gingerbread and is no longer spattered with wine. Cormac is in the corner, guzzling his mulled wine and shaking his head, while his father and Nora’s mother are embracing over a sheet full of cookies.
“What is it?” Nora asks, stopping so abruptly I almost bump into her. “I thought you were dying.”
Cormac finishes the wine and sets the cup on the counter with a smack. He mumbles something like “close enough.”
Then Nora’s mom, whom I still haven’t properly greeted, gestures her over to the cookie sheet.
“Just look at what this beautiful man did for me. Just look.”
Eugene is watching her like she’s every dream he ever had pressed into one person. “It’s the first cookie I ever decorated,” he says proudly.
I walk over and see one of the cookies on the sheet has a crown—a diamond ring.
“Oh shit,” Nora says, her expression full of shock. But then she forces an incredibly fake smile. “Congratulations.”
“Let’s all have a congratulatory drink,” I say, because she deserves a moment to gather herself.
Nora’s mother gasps. “Who are you?”