54. NATALIE
54
NATALIE
Now
Emerson’s my best friend. If I were to look in the dictionary for the word friend, Emerson would be the definition.
Or so I thought.
I felt this way until I knew she was lying and keeping a secret. We didn’t do secrets, her and I. But she kept Liam from me.
After I saw her three summers ago putting away those photos, I thought back to our summer in Europe and when she returned.
She’d take a call, stepping away or running to her room. She’d return glowing. Emme would get a package and hide it, but a grin would be plastered on her face. Even her personality was lighter, as if she wasn’t chained down to her past anymore.
All of it makes sense. It was Liam. Liam Hayes was the one who got my best friend to love.
After they ‘split,’ she took a few steps back, shifting into an in-between version of herself. I actually missed the in-love version of Emme from those summers.
I always wanted a way to get them back together.
I would have stolen his number from her phone, but I deleted it on her birthday three years ago. I was mad at her but wanted to protect her from being hurt by him again—a big mistake. I should have let her speak to him when he called to fight for her. I answered the phone and immediately acted on protection and anger.
When I met him, it was as if the stars aligned, giving me a chance to fix my mistake. Of all the people I could have met at a bar in Costa Rica last summer, I met Liam Hayes .
I’m buzzing after an incredible photoshoot earlier that day. The feeling of doing what I love with a brand that I had dreamed about working with for years had me on cloud nine.
The entire team from the shoot and all the influencers were meeting up for our last night together. My flight home wasn’t for another two days, but most people were leaving the following morning.
Walking into the bar, I felt all eyes on me. Wearing my favorite green, sequined minidress, I noticed the lights reflecting off it. Showstopper Tinker Bell—exactly how I wanted it. I twist my hips to the music and smile, seeing the group I’m meeting across the place. Before heading to them, I stop by the bar to order an Aperol spritz. Call me basic, but at least it wasn’t an espresso martini.
Turning from the bar to head to my friends, I catch a gentleman behind me staring down at me. I had never felt so petite in my life. I lift my gaze to meet his.
He’s sexy. Tall, dark brown hair, and a jawline that looks like it breaks hearts. He has money and a good job, but his hair and outfit tell me he’s here for a good time. His fitted t-shirt shows off the firm muscles underneath. Everything about him is beautiful but eerily familiar.
“I’m Natalie,” I said without needing to be asked.
“I’m Liam,” he replies. His British accent piqued my curiosity.
Huh, Liam. A British Liam. “What’s your last name, Liam?”
“Hayes.”
Liam Hayes in the flesh.
Haven’t seen or heard that name in about two years. That phone call was the last time.
Seeing him now, he’s even more attractive than the photos—they do not do this man justice. He’s a drink of cold water on a hot summer day, an electric shock to the system that makes you want another. I can’t take my eyes off him. He’s the type of guy that will age like fine wine, and my girl missed out big time.
I never made it to my friends, but none came to find me. I spent the entire time with Liam, and it made sense why Emme was obsessed with him. And why she’s been heartbroken since whatever happened between them.
“Your mood is better,” Liam’s friend George said to him.
“I guess so,” he replied, eyes flicking toward me.
Liam and I were sitting next to each other at the table with his friends Callum and George. He leans down and whispers in my ears. “You remind me so much of someone I used to know. ”
Used to know a.k.a. Emme, a.k.a. Emerson.
I don’t need to ask Emme if she missed him to know she did. If they both miss each other, there’s no reason they aren’t together.
At that moment, I thought about telling Liam who I was. I didn’t, obviously. Instead, operation get-the-two-of-them-back-together was born. I thought I was some Machiavelian apprentice.
The plan? Great—kind of. I figured I’d invite both of them to dinner and surprise back together.
The execution? Not as great. My best friend now hates me and made that pretty clear as she stormed out of my apartment. And there might have been a few roadblocks.
I didn’t see Liam after that night. On the plane home, we were seated next to each other. He told me about his hotel empire and expansion in Chicago.
I thought fate was going to do my job for me.
Till I landed and I had a text from Emerson. I’m engaged, it said.
I was shocked. I didn’t think she and Brandon were at that stage, but I must have been missing something—I was.
I didn’t think she and Brandon would last, so I kept a friendship with Liam. Waiting for the moment to strike.
My plan was working perfectly until one of the days, I felt a tingle.
We hadn’t even touched, only flirted, but suddenly I wanted to.
I started feeling something for Liam. Absolutely unexpectedly and definitely wrong.
My feelings became conflicted. I wanted Emerson to be happy and to have Liam back, but I liked him. I didn’t expect to care this much for him, but trying not to was impossible.
I changed my plan. If she didn’t want him, then I’d take my shot, but as of then, it was all up to Emme. I waited to see if she’d call it with Brandon last summer and fall. She didn’t.
Liam and I stayed friends and became friends with benefits slowly.
I’d lie to Emme. Coming up with excuses when boys would come up or I had plans with Liam.
I liked Liam. I do believe he liked me, but never in the way he loved her.
That night in my apartment, I saw them together and noticed how they kept sneaking peeks at one another. It was as if they were trying not to make it obvious—they were doing a terrible job.
Jealousy crept throughout my body watching them. Liam was ‘with’ me, but I was jealous of Emme. None of this was right anymore.
I forced Liam to walk her home because I had to decide whether I could do this anymore. Or would he end it himself?
At first, it didn’t even cross my mind that I was literally handing him to her on a silver platter (which was the original plan). By the time it did, it was too late to rescind. While Liam was with Emme, I sat on my couch contemplating ending this entire charade. But would I end it to have him for myself or for them? He would have picked her. So, I decided not to end it at all. I didn’t want to lose. With Emme, I always got what I wanted, and she never believed in love—and was engaged!—anyway. Jokes on me.
Emme avoided me for a week after she and Brandon called off their wedding. I knew she wasn’t upset about the engagement but about Liam. I also knew the engagement was called off because of him, but no one wanted to confirm that for me. I just knew I was right .
But then something changed, and she was hanging out with us again. I assumed Liam had said something to her after I found a call to her on my phone that I don’t remember making.
Our threesome of sorts went on for weeks: Liam, my unofficial-boyfriend-whatever, Emme, my very official best friend. Orchestratedly placing the two of them next to each other. Chloe came when she was free. Callum, too, once he was in town.
Liam introduced the two of them as if they hadn’t even met before. No one needed to tell me they had with how attached to Emme he became.
The whole plan came crashing down that night at Parlor Pizza.
When Liam followed her to the bathroom, I knew something was up, but I did nothing. I never did anything; I let everyone think I was unfazed. I downed my cocktail and slammed the glass on the table slightly too hard. I reached over, took Liam’s drink, and I downed that, too. It was disgusting. Chloe’s head jerked to me and then to the empty side of the table. She was getting annoyed at me for my lack of care attitude.
Not even minutes after Chloe left the table, Liam came back. His face was flushed as if he had been caught—they were caught.
Liam confessed everything to me days later, and we called it off. At that moment, I was mad. I was furious that I was being played, yet I was the one playing him—playing them.
At work, my frustration settled. I wasn’t mad at him for picking her.
I explained everything that night to him. Liam wasn’t mad. He laughed about it. I clearly manipulated him, and the guy shook it off as if it was nothing. He must really love Emerson or is messed up in the head.
He loves her. That’s what it is.
I was happy. I was proud that someone like him wanted to be with my best friend. Liam cares about Emme the way any best friend would want their best friend to be cared for. He wants her fiercely. He understands her needs and fears but isn’t afraid of them. The way he sees her is beautiful.
If I were to have been with him, it would have been a loss. He never would have loved me as he loves Emme.
I can accept that.
What I can’t accept is how she now hates me.
I guess I get it. I didn’t tell her like I told Liam I would, but maybe Liam should have chatted with her about this before they decided to get together.
I don’t know if this is entirely my fault. No, it is, Natalie. You should have told her when you returned last summer.
Emme is hurting, and it’s my fault.
Not once did it cross my mind that she’d be this hurt. She feels betrayed by both of us now, betrayed by two people who love her, like a pawn in her own game of love.
And I’m not sure there is a next move.