“For a man who prefers country life, you are surprisingly addicted to social media.”
“Am not. I like to connect with friends I don’t see very often.”
“Two in particular.”
Liam reached for the laptop, but Nathan snatched it back.
“You have a beautiful night sky and lovely animals and a lovely family in the real world, right now. You don’t need the false sense of camaraderie of Facebook. I want you to go on a Facebook cleanse. If I am abstaining from alcohol, you will abstain from social media. Deal?”
Liam gritted his teeth, but then stuck his hand out for a shake. “Deal,” he sighed.
“Is your brother or Franny and Walt on Facebook? I don’t want them to tempt you.”
“Mark has an account but never goes on. And Franny and Walt think I’m a dinosaur for being on there.”
“You are.” Nathan handed back the laptop and breathed a stealth sigh of relief when Liam placed it on the table without a fight. He sat on the couch and rested his elbows on his thighs.
“I don’t know why I keep checking their accounts,” Liam said.
“Maybe you haven’t quite come to terms with it. How did it happen? Did you catch themen flagrante?”
Liam shifted uncomfortably, hinting to Nathan that this would be quite a story.
“You can tell me.” Nathan considered himself a good listener. He had learned something from all those counselors at rehab. “All you have to do is talk. I’ll just listen.”
Liam paced in the small space of the living room. He seemed to be having quite a conversation with himself.
“If I tell you, would you promise not to breathe a word of it to anyone, especially my family? I haven’t told a single person.”
“Of course. The benefits of being a stranger.”
“I also want to get your opinion,” Liam said.
“Then stop pacing and start chatting.”
Liam plunked down in his desk chair and leaned forward. “Kelly, Craig, and I were close for a while. We all used to work together at Weta, the special effects house. We worked on the rebootedPlanet of the Apesfilms. When Kelly and I were dating, he never felt like a third wheel. It was great.” Liam ran his fingers through his beard, then through his hair. “One night, we were drinking, and we decided to have a threesome.”
“And now it just got interesting. I think you need a drink.”
“I don’t have any alcohol in the house. I got rid of it.”
“Because of me?” Nathan found it sweet how much he cared about his sobriety. Now he couldn’t fuck things up. “How about some water?”
Nathan poured them two cups of water. He returned to his desk chair and motioned for Liam to keep talking.
“We figured it would be fun.” Liam shrugged. “We’re going at it, and I keep noticing Kelly and Craig getting very involved. They’re all over each other, and she’s moaning for him, and then I feel like a major third wheel. I tried to join in, but they were not into sharing the love. A few days later, Kelly broke up with me, and two days after that, she and Craig changed their status to ‘in a relationship’ on Facebook. I later discovered from other friends and through my own snooping that they’d been having an affair for close to a year. That night, they were pretty much flaunting it in my face.
“I feel like I can’t escape it. We have mutual friends, and their pictures pop up, and Facebook keeps suggesting I friend them. I know I should block them or just get off the internet.”
“But you can’t. We are all gluttons for punishment in some way.”
“I think that if I block them or if I leave the site, then in some way, I’m admitting defeat. I’m admitting they won.”
“There are no winners in relationships. You’re either trying to get in one because you don’t want to be sad and single, or trying to get out of one because you can’t stand coming home to same person.” Nathan tapped at the bottom of his glass. “I cheated on my last boyfriend.”
“Aye.” Liam raised his eyebrows but then tried to play it cool.
“Are you really that surprised?” Nathan said with a detached shrug. “And he was a good guy, too. I could see myself fucking up in real time, but I couldn’t stop. I’m not good at relationships.”
