12. Emma
CHAPTER 12
EMMA
A fter Liam goes, I jump in the shower and try to calm my racing thoughts. I know we got slightly closer over the last couple of days, but I still can’t quite believe that he would want to spend any real time with me. He looked so surprised when I said that I was staying, almost like he hadn’t been planning on it himself.
Why would he lie, though? What possible reason would he have for making up something like that?
Liam doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who likes to take vacation days. Maybe it’s been strongly suggested to him that he take some time off by his boss. Maybe he was forced to.
He seems too serious for anything else to be true.
I spend a while debating with myself about what to wear. All the clothes I brought are nice, suitable for summer vacation. Great for being a tourist or relaxing on the beach with a book and a cocktail.
But none of them really scream date .
Not that that’s what this is. This is just hanging out with a handsome stranger after we’ve only known each other for a few days. Nothing could sound less date-y than that, could it?
I’m starting to think I might be lying to myself.
Eventually, I settle on my green sundress. I love this dress; it’s got a faint leafy pattern to it, and a skirt that flows around my knees in a way that’s fun to move around in and keeps me cool. It also has a very flattering waistline, which is important when you want to look your best.
Which, despite this being decidedly not a date, I do. After all, if you’re meeting a handsome stranger, you don’t exactly want to look like you crawled out of a ditch, do you?
I meet Liam at the bar and stifle a laugh when I notice what he’s wearing. “What is that ?” I ask, pointing.
“It’s a shirt.”
“Yes, but why does it look like that?”
He frowns at me for a second. “And what is wrong with it?”
He’s wearing an incredibly loud print Hawaiian shirt, blue with pink and green flowers. Not only that, but the top two buttons are undone, flashing his bare skin to the world. “It’s cool,” he says.
“It’s cool?” I echo as a question.
His frown intensifies as if to say, I’m not going to dignify that with a response. “Shall we do lunch? If you’re done with criticizing my fashion choices.”
“I’m not criticizing,” I say. “They’re just… interesting.”
He raises both eyebrows at me but smiles, and I feel a giddy rush run down my spine. Smiles are something I’ve come to realize aren’t too frequent with Liam, so seeing him smile at me… I can’t help but feel like that’s special.
“Let’s go?” He gestures for me to step ahead of him. We’re going for lunch at the hotel restaurant, so even though it’s nothing special, it will still be nice.
I take a step and wince as I put weight on my foot. It still hurts from my fall in the forest, even though I’ve been trying my best to keep my weight off it. Fortunately, we’ve been doing a lot of sitting down during the training course, so that has helped.
“How’s it feeling today?” Liam asks.
I shrug. “Not as bad as it did. I can walk on it now, at least.”
“You shouldn’t push yourself too far,” he warns.
“Yes, thank you, doctor,” I say sarcastically, raising an eyebrow.
He huffs in mock offense, but it doesn’t make his smile waver.
It’s not busy when we get to the restaurant. I guess now that most of the doctors are gone, it’s back to their regular tourists and businessmen. It’s nicer though, not to be bustling. It feels more like a real vacation.
We get seated, and a waiter brings over some menus. “Thank you,” I say.
“What looks good?” Liam asks, staring at the menu.
The list is long, and everything catches my interest as I scan it: pork, figs, plantains. It’s a real mix of tradition and stuff that will appeal to the American palate, so of course there are fries as a side. I don’t believe in getting food I could get at home when I’m away, though.
I don’t go on vacation often, so I have to use this opportunity to try something new.
“I’ll probably get the fish special,” I say eventually. “It’s caught locally.”
Liam gives me a look to say how impressive , then waves the waiter over so we can order. To my surprise, he says please and thank you to the server. Maybe I’m rubbing off on him. I’d like it if that were true.
As we chat through lunch, I’m starting to see a totally different man than I did during the training course. Then he was, nominally, in professional mode, but now that he’s fully on vacation, he’s relaxed and almost a nice person.
And he tells the most outrageous stories about work.
“So this one nurse…” he says, leaning in over the table. There are tears in my eyes from laughing at him. “She has this unique laugh, and I feel bad sometimes laughing at it, but it’s like a little mouse, and sometimes she speaks to patients who are going through the most difficult stuff you can imagine, you know: chemo, grief, surgery. And she makes these dumb jokes with them and laughs, trying to keep their spirits up.”
He does an impression of the laugh, and my hand flies to my mouth to stifle my own. “Liam!”
“I know she means well and has a heart of gold. But imagine how hard it is not to laugh when you hear this nurse going ahee ahee ahee !”
“You’re awful,” I say, but the way I’m laughing is doing nothing to back up my words.
“And yet you’re still here with me,” he points out, a twinkle in his eye.
“Yes,” I concede. “Yes, I am.”
To be honest, it’s quite refreshing to be able to have these conversations with someone. Phoebe listens to me talk about work often enough, and as a lawyer she has more than her fair share of strange characters to deal with, but it’s not the same. Liam really gets the struggles unique to the hospital.
He’s making me see that I’m not the only one who gets frustrated or sees things as funny that others wouldn’t understand. There is at least one other person on earth who cares in the same way that I do.
As we’re finishing up our meal, Liam says, out of nowhere, “Come to the beach with me this afternoon.”
“It’s already this afternoon.”
“Yeah, so let’s go.” He has such a look of sincerity about him that I can’t look away from his face.
Not for the first time, I take in his sharp jawline and high cheekbones. He has an elegant nose and a dusting of stubble on his chin, like he’s not shaved in a couple of days. It makes him look more handsome than ever.
Surely it can’t be wrong to hang out with him? We’re having fun, aren’t we?
“Okay, yeah,” I say. “The beach. I want to change first, though.”
“Let’s head down in the next half hour? We can chill out there.”
Something in his smile is utterly infectious, and I can’t help smiling at him. “Great. To the beach it is.”