“This is the last time you are allowed to listen to this. You can’t heal if you keep thinking you are even a little bit his anymore.”
I looked at him in surprise. I couldn’t believe he remembered I had told him about this song. He wouldn’t talk until the song ended, and I realized how much I really was stuck in my feelings for Marco. When the song ended, he looked at me to make sure I was still willing to continue.
The cost of having a chance with Liam: letting go of Marco.
I’m not sure where the thought came from, but it was so clear now. Then, a small smile came to my face because, well, my world was already getting entwined with Liam’s. Before Liam, I never thought of the cost of things. It annoyed me that he did, but now I was starting to see it was useful sometimes. Measuring the pros and cons. It was oddly balanced.
“Should I assume you have another song to replace it?”
“Tons, but I’m being nice and going against my good judgment. So, for the next two days, you are allowed to dwell, just a little bit.”
Liam looked through his phone again and played another song: Taylor Swift’s “Better Man.” I didn’t say anything, just listened. When it ended, Liam added, “You are allowed to miss him, but you aren’t allowed to keep thinking you did anything wrong. He should have been a better man.”
I nodded and then sighed.
“So, you said two days. What song is after that?”
“I will tell you in two days.”
Rolling my eyes, I hit repeat on his phone and sighed.
“What’s step two, since step one is ongoing?”
Liam shifted positions so he was laying down next to me. He was on his side and motioned to my book.
“Step two: Make me a list of the five places that most remind you of him.”
I frowned. That didn’t sound fun at all. It sounded painful. Plus, there seemed to be way more than five. Reading my mind, Liam touched my cheek for a moment before pulling his hand back.
“If it feels like there are so many, just keep narrowing it down. There will be a top five. Honest.”
Catching his gaze, I started to cross things off my mental list. Finally, I wrote the winners down in the notebook. Liam plucked it from my hand and looked at it. Then, he looked at his watch, got up, and motioned to my shoes.
“Come, we can actually have time to knock something off this list right now.”
I looked at him like he was crazy, but I had oddly trusted him from the start, so I slipped on my shoes and followed him out the door.
“What, exactly, are we knocking out?”
He ignored me and then tilted his head.
“Explain the bar.”
We were already in his car and he was backing out of the driveway before I could answer him.
“My Uncle Vinny runs a bar. They have a few pool tables and a dart board. He’s not supposed to, but he used to let me and Marco go there on weekends before it opened to use them.”
Liam nodded.
“Which bookstore? Like… the address.”
“I don’t know the address.
Tossing me his phone, he told me to look it up. So, I did. He took note of it and then tossed my notebook back to me.
“Step two, part two.”
I gawked.
