Chapter Twenty-One
Liam and I sat across from one another in a small booth at the very back of the diner.
We each devoured a tall stack of pancakes.
Liam rambled on about his gaming trivia event, and then I went on about the event I had planned for the next afternoon.
We reminisced about old memories and threw around ideas of new memories we could make together.
He held my hand. I sipped a mug of hot chocolate.
It was as if everything between us had changed monumentally, but also stayed exactly the same.
Our very first date felt so similar to all the times we had hung out before. Only now, I could openly tell him I loved him whenever I wanted, or pull him in for a kiss just because.
Toward the end, when Liam slipped a few bills on the table, and then offered me his hand, I came to a realization.
“Me too,” I said vaguely as we stepped out into the parking lot.
It had rained while we were inside the diner. Now, the pavement was dark and glistening with the light of the moon.
“You too, what?” Liam asked, turning to face me.
“All my life.”
A look of realization swept across his face.
“I’ve loved you all my life, too, Liam,” I confessed. “I just never let myself think about it long enough to really let it click. Maybe it was my mind’s way of forcing me to wait until I was ready to love you the way that you deserved.”
Our love wasn’t fireworks or magic. I realized it at that moment, as I stared into his eyes in the empty parking lot. I realized it too when we were eating pancakes in the diner.
Our first date wasn’t a bouquet of roses and a gourmet dinner. Our love wasn’t confessed through carefully thought-out, romantic words. For every perfect moment we had, there were a thousand imperfect ones.
There is no garden without weeds. I had spent a very long time building my entire life upon that phrase.
The goal was never meant to be ridding the garden of weeds. The goal was always to learn how to accept those weeds. The dandelions and buttercups and little delicate flowers that grew in spite of it all and were equally as beautiful as the carefully cultivated parts. It all had a right to belong.
Liam smiled. “I’ll love you for the rest of my life.”
“I’ll love you for the rest of my life, too,” I promised before pressing a soft kiss to his lips.
* * *
The next morning, I awoke to a blinding stream of sunlight pouring into the room.
The first thing I noticed as the thick haze of sleep lifted from my mind was that I was not in my own bed.
The second thing I noticed was that it was incredibly hot.
A thick blue blanket was draped over me, and strong arms were wrapped around my body, holding me in place.
“Liam,” I whispered.
Liam groaned and tightened his grip on me.
“What time is it?”
His body heaved a slow sigh before he answered. “Do you always wake up so early and start asking about the time?”
Liam’s voice was deep and raspy in a way that sent memories of the night before rushing through me. Memories of him hovering above me, eyes glazed over with lust.
“Do you always trick every person who comes over into falling asleep on you?” I teased.
The corners of his lips curled up into a lazy smile, but he still didn’t open his eyes. “Only if they’re really pretty.”
I exhaled through my nose in a sort of laugh. “Come on,” I said, heaving Liam off of me. “I need to get to work.”
Liam groaned again.
My bare feet hit the softness of a plush rug as I forced myself out of his bed. If I didn’t have an event scheduled for that afternoon, I may have been swayed by the shirtless man stretched out in that bed to stay a little longer.
“Come by later,” I said before glancing at myself in the floor-length mirror that sat in the corner of his room. “And call the leasing office. You need to get everything sorted…”
My eyes widened, fixed on the purple marks all over my skin. They started just below my left ear and trailed down my neck, disappearing beneath Liam’s shirt that I was wearing.
“What’s wrong?” Liam asked, pushing himself up so he was now sitting in the bed, staring at me with that same hungry expression from last night.
“How did I not notice you doing this?” I asked, pressing a hand over the marks. At least, I attempted to. Half of them were still exposed as my hand wasn’t big enough to cover them all. “Oh my god.”
That smug grin I knew all too well stretched across his lips as he turned to reveal the right side of his neck and chest, which looked, admittedly, worse than mine. “Maybe because you were too busy doing this?”
“Whatever,” I scoffed, bending down to pick up my clothes that were strewn about the room. “I don’t know how I’m going to cover all this up.” My cheeks heated as I glanced back at Liam to find him enjoying the view as I was bent over. “Are you paying attention?”
“I’m always paying attention to you, Jess.” His words had my head dizzy with an overwhelming feeling of affection.
I peeled off the shirt he let me borrow and then tossed it at him. “Don’t cover them up,” Liam said as I tugged on my old clothes from the day before.
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Why?”
Liam’s confidence didn’t waver as he said, “I want everyone to know that you’re finally mine.”
“Is that what I am?” I asked, not able to keep the smile from my lips. “Yours?”
“If you’ll have me,” Liam said, finally standing up from the bed. “Because I’m already yours, Jess. And after last night, I don’t think you could get rid of me if you tried.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. “Then I’m yours.”
* * *
I was late to work that morning. Liam insisted that we eat breakfast together—our leftovers from the diner—and I couldn’t turn him down.
So we ate our reheated pancakes from their foam boxes. But then the quick kiss goodbye wound up turning into a twenty-minute ordeal that ended with me dropping to my knees in the middle of his living room for the second time.
When I arrived at The Prologue, Lily had already opened up shop for the day. Unfortunately, that meant that as I did my walk of shame, dressed in old clothes and covered in hickeys, I had to walk past each of my employees.
“No way!” Lily all but screamed from the cafe. In the split second it took for me to glance over at her, she had already hopped the counter and began barrelling toward me. “No way! No way! No freaking way!”
If I hadn’t braced myself for it, the hug she threw me into would have no doubt toppled me straight to the ground. Within a split second, her hands were on my neck, pushing my head to the side so she could get a better look at the marks that colored my skin.
“I can’t believe it. You guys finally hooked up!
Does this mean you’re dating now? How was the sex?
Good, right? It had to be good if you let him maul you like a freaking bear!
Oh my gosh, I want to have crazy good sex with a hottie.
You gotta set me up, Jess. Does Liam have a hot, broody older brother?
” The onslaught of questions and remarks came at me faster than I could process them.
I couldn’t help but smile.
“Coffee. Coffee first,” I declared, holding up a hand. Lily nodded frantically, continuing her rambling as she dragged me toward the cafe.
“I’m making you something special,” she said before getting to work behind the espresso machine.
A few minutes later, after obediently answering most of her questions—I had declared any sex-related questions off-limits—she was handing me a hot coffee.
The smell alone was divine, but the look of it was something out of a cartoon.
A massive swirl of whipped cream sat so high on top that the paper lid couldn’t fit.
The whipped cream was covered in a sprinkle of chocolate shavings as well as a ton of mini chocolate chips.
I took a slow sip. It was heavenly. A rich mocha flavor, almost like drinking pure melted chocolate. “This is incredible,” I said before taking another sip.
“Thank you. I call it, Jessa Finally Got Laid!”
If that coffee hadn’t been the single best thing I had ever tasted, I would have spit it out at that very moment. “We are not calling it that,” I scolded her.
“Boo, you’re no fun,” Lily whined. “How about Sex on the Books—”
“No.”
“That was a good one, though!”
“We get kids here.” Unamused, I lifted the cup back to my mouth and took another indulgent sip.
“Fine,” Lily huffed out. “I’ll think of something more boring, then add it to the menu. We must immortalize this momentous occasion!”
“You are ridiculous,” I told her with a snicker. “But thank you.”
Once I could finally pry myself away, I headed straight in the direction of my office. I had about a thousand things I needed to do before the event started, and not nearly enough time to get them all done.
Miraculously, through sheer force of will and the help of all my employees, we were able to pull it off.
Brunch with a book. The Prologue partnered with KC Donuts and the Italian restaurant down the street in order to design a brunch menu that worked perfectly with the books we were trying to sell—books written by local authors who would all be speaking at the event.
The cafe was converted to look like a bistro.
Round tables were draped with white linen tablecloths, and each was adorned in the center with a vase of fresh-cut flowers.
The entry ticket to indulge in brunch was simple: the purchase of one of the five books we had for sale, which would designate which meal the customer would receive.
I gazed over the cafe just half an hour after the event had begun. Nearly every table was already filled with people snacking and reading.
It was at that moment that a realization hit me.
My competitions with Liam were the greatest thing that had ever happened to me. Not only over the past year, but throughout our entire lives.
An old memory flooded my thoughts. Of the teenage version of the man I loved, an arm slumped over my chair at Ziggy’s Pizza just after graduation.
He loved me, even then.
I tried to remember what it was that Liam had said. Something about us making a good team. That neither one of us would have done half as well if not for the other.
Liam and I had spent years competing with each other, yes. But in doing so, we had spent equally as long pushing one another to greatness. Without him, none of this would have been possible. I likely never would have found the courage to open up The Prologue in the first place.
The Prologue—would it have succeeded half as much as it had if not for the constant pressure from our competitions?
It was surely possible, but even so, The Prologue and all of its success, that is what gave me the confidence to finally free myself from the shackles of perfection.
Without that, I never would have told Dad or Grandma how I felt.
I would have probably spent the rest of my life trying to live up to their expectations.
I never would have let myself accept that I loved Liam.
I never would have deemed myself worthy of his love.
Liam and I probably would have met again. A family event, or perhaps by chance in the grocery store or somewhere else.
But it would have never amounted to this.
“Jessa?” Liam’s voice snapped me right out of my thoughts. “Why are you standing here, staring off into space?”
My gaze drifted to him. Most of the marks I had left on him were hidden just beneath the fabric of his shirt, save for one that peeked out just above his collar.
“I’m thinking,” I assured him with a smile.
“What are you thinking about?” Liam asked, settling into the space beside me like he belonged there. Which he did. Right beside me was exactly where he belonged, be it next door or inches away.
“You.”
Liam snickered, his eyes scanning over the Brunch with a Book setup. His smile faltered. “Where’s your sign-in sheet?”
I made a face at him. “I didn’t put it out. Why?”
“You don’t want to know who wins?” There was something calculating in those deep brown eyes, silently searching for the answer to a question he hadn’t asked.
“No, but even if I did, I could easily tell you that one. We knew this would be a hit, so we kept it to reservations only. I figured—”
“You threw the competition?” Liam asked, an air of disbelief in his voice.
I nodded. “I need to be okay with losing. Plus, I didn’t really want you going anywhere—”
My words were interrupted by Liam pulling me into a kiss. His warm hands on my face, a thumb brushing over my cheek just as it had so many times before.
I made the right decision. I knew it with everything in me. I could win, or I could fail at whatever life had in store for me, and regardless, it would all be okay as long as I had Liam.
“I love you,” he said as he pulled back from the kiss.
“I love you too. Did you call the leasing office?” The question had been eating away at me all morning.
Liam’s smile fell.
“I did. They have already signed a contract with someone else.”
My heart sank. “You’re kidding. With who?”
“In three weeks’ time, I need to have the place completely cleared out. I guess some… cat store… that also sells coffee is moving in? But there’s a place down the street—”
“A cat cafe?” The words felt a little too excited coming from me. “Someone’s opening up a cat cafe right next door to The Prologue?”
Liam chuckled. “Glad to see you’re over all the doom and gloom of me moving away.”
Maybe my mind was still clouded over with a thick haze of love and Liam. Maybe I just had a knack for making impulsive offers. Or, maybe it really was as simple as when you know, you know.
Whatever the reason, the offer still fell from my lips without so much as a second thought. “Why don’t you move in here?”
Liam stiffened beside me. “Are you serious?”
I shrugged. “You’re always here, anyway. Why not?”
For one brief moment, I felt so nervous, but then he smiled, and I knew his answer before he could even open his mouth.
“Okay.”
“Really?” I said with a grin. He nodded beside me as I excitedly glanced around the shop.
“Okay, then. I bet we could probably fit your game tables over there,” I pointed to the lounge area.
“And the bookshelves are pretty spread out. If we just moved them all a little closer, we would have plenty of room. And—”
My entire body was lifted up and spun around by Liam. It was like something out of a rom-com. “You’re really serious,” he said with a breathy laugh and the biggest grin I had ever seen. “We’ve been dating for less than a day, and you want me to move in with you?”
“Haven’t we already spent enough time waiting? Plus, you already said yes. No take-backs.”
His fingers laced between my own. A bright grin was plastered on his face. “Okay, then,” Liam said before kissing me once more. “Let’s do it.”