Chapter Eight #2
“You are such an overdramatic baby. It’s hardly noon. We still have a few more hours.”
Liam let out a defeated groan.
I wasn’t sure if it was because of the downright pathetic expression on his face, or, more likely, my desire to get a break from the whining for a little while, but I took pity on him.
“It is almost lunchtime. Why don’t you run and grab us something to eat?”
Liam looked at me like I had gifted him the sun.
“You mean it? Are you sure you’ll be alright on your own?” he asked, already standing up from his chair as if he had been given a new lease on life.
“I can handle handing out a few cups of coffee, but if you’re gone longer than an hour, I’m counting that as a forfeit—” I was cut off as he yanked me into a disgustingly sweaty hug. “—Ugh, get your gross, sweaty body off of me, Ashford!”
“A whole hour,” Liam said, ignoring me as he held me in place with a bone-crushing hug.
I shoved him with all my might, grimacing as I practically slipped out of his sweat-slick arms. “You are disgusting. If you ever touch me like that again—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Liam interrupted with a fake yawn. “I’ll be back in fifty-nine minutes. What do you want for lunch?”
“That is not what I meant, and you know it,” I said. It felt as though he had squeezed all the logic right out of me with that hug, because, for some reason, I was fighting back a smile.
“And you pick, but nothing greasy.” I felt sick even thinking about a greasy slice of pizza or a burger in the awful heat of mid-July.
“You got it. Thanks, Jessa,” Liam said with a smile brighter than the sun itself.
I almost missed the way he had just called me Jessa again.
Almost. If not for my heart skipping a beat.
I yearned to ask him why he had started calling me by my first name.
I wanted to know if it was an accident or if it meant something, but the thought of him answering either way made my stomach sink.
I decided that I didn’t really want to know. It was easier not to ask. “Yeah, whatever. Get out of here.”
Liam wasn’t gone for more than a minute before our next customer arrived.
“Hi!” a young woman with a bright smile said as she approached.
I recognized her from earlier when Liam and I were setting up our booth. She was the shop owner who partnered up with KC Donuts for the event.
“Hi, I’m Jess,” I reached out to shake her hand. “I run The Prologue down the street.”
“Val,” she said as she returned my handshake. “I own the bakery a few shops down from yours. Sweets by Val?”
“Right! I’ve been meaning to check your place out,” I confessed. “Do you want a coffee? Or we have a few books and board games you can borrow.”
Her eyes lit up. “Same here. And a coffee would be wonderful.”
I carried on our conversation as I stepped away to pour her a cup. “Iced or hot?”
“Iced. This heat is killing me.”
A giggle fell past my lips. “You’re telling me. My partner ditched me because he couldn’t take the heat anymore.”
“Oh, right,” Val said with a quiet gasp. “You two are the ones who have that competition going, aren’t you? Last shop standing wins?”
“Right,” I said, turning back toward her, iced coffee in hand. “Something like that.”
“Clara was telling me about it. That is seriously adorable.”
Adorable.
Of all the words I could use to describe Liam and myself, adorable was not one that would ever cross my mind.
“What do you—”
“I saw you guys bickering earlier like a cute old married couple,” she gushed.
“I wish I could introduce you to my boyfriend, Adrian, but he’s running the bakery right now while I’m here.
We should totally get together sometime and plan a double date.
Or even a regular hangout. I’ve been meaning to check out your boy’s shop too—”
I let her rambling go on for far too long.
“He is not my boy. Liam and I are not dating.”
Val seemed like a sweet person. Maybe a little overly excited, but sweet.
So I did feel somewhat guilty watching the bright smile on her face morph into a look of embarrassment, but I could not stand there for one more second and let her believe that Liam and I were anything more than two people competing with one another.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I thought—”
“It’s fine. Really.” I forced a smile on my face. “Don’t even worry about it.”
“You guys seem so—”
“We’re not,” I said with a breath of laughter, trying to make the words feel more casual than they felt.
Liam and I? Impossible.
An unreadable look shimmered in Val’s eyes. “I see.” It almost sounded like she was amused.
“Enjoy the coffee,” I said, finally handing the paper cup over to her.
“Thanks, Jess. If you get time later, you should stop by our booth!”
“Sure. I’ll try.”
Val wandered off to the next booth, sipping on her iced coffee, and I felt overwhelmed with relief that the interaction was over.
Bickering like an old married couple.
A chill ran up my spine at the idea. As if that would ever be Liam and me.
Impossible.
True to his word, Liam did wind up staying away for precisely fifty-nine minutes. He came jogging back to the booth, dressed in a fresh shirt and clutching a takeout bag, just as I was serving up another iced coffee.
“Finally,” I groaned as Liam approached. I was starving. The only thing I had eaten that day was a small breakfast, and that had been hours prior. “What’d you bring me?”
Liam plopped the bag on the table and began rummaging through the contents. He pulled out two of the biggest sandwiches I had ever seen in my life.
“Turkey or ham?” Liam asked, holding a sandwich in either hand.
“Ham.”
Liam smiled. I wondered if he had known that I would pick that sandwich. He always seemed to be one step ahead of me, even in my own mind.
“Thanks,” I said as he handed me the sandwich.
He nodded before reaching back into the bag. Out came two small bags of chips. One was his favorite flavor, and the other was mine.
I felt a swooping sort of feeling in my stomach as I came to the realization that somehow, I still knew his favorite chip flavor. Years of competing with one another, years since we last were friends, but there was a history there that simply couldn’t be erased.
My brain would likely cling to those useless little details about Liam until the day I died.
Finally, Liam pulled out two cookies. “I know chocolate chip is your favorite, but no way was it going to survive in this heat, so I went with sprinkles,” he said, all but confirming exactly what I had been thinking.
He knew so much about me—too much. If I thought about it, I probably knew far too much about him as well. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to feel about that.
“Okay. Thank you,” was all that I could say.
“No problem. Consider it my apology for earlier. In the heat, I always kind of start to act—”
Liam didn’t have to explain it. His one singular fault was one of the million useless details I had etched into my brain when it came to him. “Insufferable? Rude? Insanely annoying—”
“Okay,” Liam cut in with a laugh. “Yes. All those things. Now accept my apology and eat your sandwich.”
We ate in silence beside one another.