Chapter Eleven
Our fourth competition didn’t come until all the leaves had fallen and the world was blanketed in a thick layer of white.
In the months that followed our battle for reviews, Liam and I had fallen into a new type of rhythm. It was something I would almost dare to call friendship.
We did not talk about the kiss that almost happened. And we didn’t dare get that close to one another again.
Words were still laced with sarcasm and teasing more often than not, but in the cold overwhelm of winter, I found myself basking in the warm sunshine he brought into my shop. Something that tended to happen more frequently as time went on.
Liam had his own job. His own life. And yet, I couldn’t seem to get away from him. He was in my shop more than he was in his own, and I seldom found myself alone anymore. Despite what I would tell him, I didn’t exactly mind it.
As the days crept closer and closer to Christmas and the holiday rush of customers grew relentless, Liam’s company began to dwindle. I felt his absence more heavily than all the times I had before. Which is likely why, when the opportunity to draw him in a little closer arose, I took it.
It had been a busy day, right after Thanksgiving, and the holiday rush was in full swing.
A part of me had almost forgotten about our competitions altogether with how busy I had been.
I had just truly begun to find my footing as a shop owner when the whirlwind that was the holiday rush came and swept me right off my feet.
“You want me to host a charity event?” I asked Bree and the man standing before me. I had finally learned that his name was Peter.
“Yes, well, you and Mr. Ashford,” Peter said.
My eyes widened. “Oh, I’m honored, but why us?”
Bree smiled softly. “You and Mr. Ashford did such a wonderful job during the festival. The community loved you two!”
“Really?” I couldn’t hide the confusion in my voice if I tried.
It was something I had been stewing over for months now.
Why on earth would anyone vote for our booth above all the others?
Sure, we gave away free coffee and lent out some books and games, but we bickered almost the entire time, and Liam’s attitude was borderline unbearable.
Bree nodded. “Everyone adored you guys! The idea of a young couple teaming together for the good of the community—”
“What?” I couldn’t help but interrupt. “We are not a couple.”
It was starting to become almost comical how often this happened.
Bree and Peter’s expressions both fell. “Oh, I see. Well, ah—”
I didn’t want to dig into the topic deeper, and a part of me did feel guilty for clearly making them uncomfortable. So I opted to change the subject. “What exactly does hosting a charity event entail?”
The next forty-five minutes of my life were spent listening as the councilwoman went into great detail regarding the ins and outs of hosting a charity event.
It was beyond last-minute. They expected me to plan and host a Christmas gift drive for local youths with the generous timeline of exactly one week.
“How do you expect me to put this together with barely any notice at all?”
Bree smiled apologetically. “We realize this is a little last-minute. However, your cooperation would be greatly appreciated.”
I sucked in a breath. The problem wasn’t that I didn’t want to. It was that they were coming to me at the busiest my shop has ever been, and asking me to perform the impossible.
“Word has spread that you and Mr. Ashford have an… arrangement? A competition of sorts between your shops? I have no doubt the community would be thrilled to get a first-hand glimpse into such a thing. All the while, you both would be making such a difference for the children of Briarvale. Imagine the impact it would have on each of your businesses if you were to participate.”
There was clearly a reason Bree was part of the town council. She was good.
Her words worked like magic. “We’ll do it.”
Bree and Peter shared identical smiles with one another. My eagerness to accept was clearly the reason they had gone to me rather than Liam. “Excellent,” Bree said. “Now let’s get into the details.”
* * *
I sat across from Liam at one of The Galaxy Gamer Cafe’s long game tables. It was dark outside and well into the night. The shop was lit by nothing but the glow of the LED lights that lined the walls and the faint glimmer of the streetlights that came in through the front windows.
“You’re kidding me,” Liam groaned, dropping his head into his hands. “You did not. Please, Jessa, tell me you didn’t.”
“Why is it that you hate doing good for the community?” I asked. The slightest hint of a smile tugged at my lips. I knew that he wouldn’t be able to turn me down.
“You know that’s not it.”
“Do I? Come on, Liam. It’s for charity.”
“It’s the busiest time of the year, and you’re giving me no time at all to prepare.”
“Then you should probably get to work, huh?”
Another groan was emitted from the pile of Liam that was slumped over the table. “Nobody even asked me this time. Is it too late to back out?”
“Yup,” I said, a self-satisfied smile on my face. “And no one needed to ask you. It’s my turn to choose a competition. I choose this.”
Liam finally lifted his head off the table. A fake, melodramatic frown etched upon his lips. “Terms? You keep picking competitions where we’re expected to work together. How is that supposed to work this time?”
“Easy. We each host our own mini toy drive inside our shops. Whoever collects more gifts is the winner.”
His gaze bore into me. The heat was blasting inside the shop, but it was still a little chilly with how frigid it was outside. With his eyes on me, though, I could barely feel it. If anything, I felt like I was burning up.
That was one thing that I hadn’t been able to get control over.
In the months that passed since the kiss that didn’t happen, I realized that I was attracted to Liam.
Weeks of not being able to keep my eyes off him.
Of wondering why I couldn’t stop imagining scenarios in which his lips would wind up pressed against mine.
Of letting my thoughts drift to fantasies of his body draped over my own.
Eventually, it finally clicked that, perhaps, there was something there.
Whatever that something was, I refused to let it affect me. Attraction or not, Liam and I hardly worked as friends. The idea of a relationship was completely off the table.
“Fine,” Liam gave in at last. “But I need your help. I can’t do this alone in a week. I don’t know the first thing about hosting events like this.”
“Obviously, we’re doing this together. As if I would let you make me look bad.”
That agreement is how I wound up spending all of my evenings over the next week in Liam’s apartment. I would close up shop for the day, and then, once The Galaxy Gamer’s Cafe was closed for the night as well, I’d make my way over to his shop.
Though I would never admit it out loud, I quite enjoyed the routine we fell into.
Liam would always be waiting for me outside the front door of The Prologue. A thick puffer jacket, gloves, and a hat on. Way too bundled up for the thirty seconds I would leave him waiting in the cold.
I told him that he didn’t even have to wait for me. It was barely a twenty-foot walk from the entrance of my shop to his.
“I don’t like you walking around outside in the dark this late. Doesn’t seem safe,” he had said.
I didn’t comment on the fact that the street was decently illuminated by streetlights or that the area itself was probably one of the safest parts of Briarvale. I shrugged it off as him being overdramatic as always.
“Hey, Jessie,” he said with a warm smile as I stepped out of The Prologue on the last evening before the charity drive.
My boots scraped on the gritty salt that littered the pavement. “Hi,” I replied, my breath fogging up as I spoke. Earlier that morning, the weather channel had said that it would be the coldest night of the season so far. “What are you drinking?” I asked Liam as we made our way toward his shop.
In his hands was a steamy paper cup with his shop’s logo plastered across the front. After months of my constant pestering, he had finally invested in some better quality cups.
Liam’s steps slowed, but his gaze remained fixed on the front door of his shop. “It’s for you, actually.” The words sounded more like a question than anything else.
That was something new. Liam was confident and bold, oftentimes to a fault. Quiet, unsure words spoken without direct eye contact had never been his style.
“Okay. What am I drinking, then?” I asked skeptically.
Liam held open the door, offering me the mystery cup as I stepped inside. “Try it and find out,” he said. Like magic, all the uncertainty from earlier had been stripped from his voice. Almost as if I had imagined it.
If this encounter had happened a few months ago, I would have told him that there was no way I would be drinking that.
I took a slow, tentative sip. “Wow,” I said after a moment.
He turned to me, a dopey grin on his face that made my chest feel tight, as though my heart was being squeezed. “Good?”
The drink was slightly better than mediocre.
It was certainly an improvement from the hot chocolate he had given me when we had first agreed to compete with one another, but it was still nothing compared to the drinks Lily could make.
For some reason, I didn’t tell him that.
“Yeah,” I agreed, stepping into the stairwell. “It’s good.”
“I’m glad,” he said as we made our way up the stairs. “Guess I’m not a half-bad barista, huh?” I nodded in response, even though he couldn’t see me. “Were you able to get all your book dates sorted out?” Liam asked as he unlocked the front door of his apartment.
“Blind dates with a book,” I corrected. “And yeah, Autumn and Damien helped me finish wrapping all of them up this morning.”
I had grand plans for this event. Initially, it had all felt so overwhelming—having so much to do and so little time to do it—but I quickly came to the realization that if I was going to do this, I wanted to do it right.
The Prologue would do more than a toy drive.
I spent the better part of the last week painstakingly wrapping up stacks and stacks of books and carefully detailing on the outside a vague description of the story.
Tomorrow, we would sell them as blind dates with books.
All of the proceeds would contribute to buying more toys for local children.
If not for Liam and me winning the Rosewood Summer Festival, it would not have been possible.
I used all the prize money to order the books and to create several bookish raffle baskets.
For every toy someone brought in to donate, they would earn one ticket to be entered into a raffle for a basket of their choosing.
The Prologue would host the best toy drive, and I would crush Liam.
“That’s good,” he said as we stepped into his apartment. It was incredibly warm inside. Typical Liam, he must have had the heat blasting. “I have everything set up for tomorrow, too.”
In true competitive spirit, Liam followed suit after I announced all of my plans for the day.
Something about not wanting to let me show him up.
Whatever his reasoning, The Galaxy Gamer’s Cafe would now be hosting a massive gaming tournament.
The entry fee was a toy donation. The prize would be a brand new gaming console of the winner’s choice.
Since Liam did not win the revitalization grant, he was paying for that prize right out of his own pocket. A fact that I refused to let myself find attractive.
“Sweet,” I replied absentmindedly. I settled on what had, over the last week, become my spot on his couch. “I guess if we both have everything ready, I don’t even really need to be here, huh?”
That night felt different from all the ones before.
Charged with the same electricity as that evening in the park had been.
It was the first time since we were children that Liam and I were simply hanging out.
There were no excuses that either of us could use.
This wasn’t about work or the charity event or our competition.
“Guess not,” Liam said. “Want to watch a movie?”
“Okay.”
We watched a movie. Then another. And, at some point, an hour or two deep, a realization of sorts settled deep into my bones. For the first time in over a decade, Liam and I were friends once more.