“Wow. LA? What’s he doing out there?”
Lily told him about Liam’s career and his “big break.”
“It must be hard for you,” Mick suggested, his voice tender. “I know it’s not easy to do long-distance.”
“We’re making it work,” Lily told both him and herself. “I’m overjoyed for him. Maybe down the road, we’ll have to spend more time in LA together for his career. Who knows? But I’m actually going out there this weekend.”
“That’s great.” Mick sounded genuinely happy for her. “Are you going to stalk any celebrities?”
“Maybe,” Lily said. “Which ones should I go after?”
“I’ve always been intrigued by Hilary Swank,” Mick said after a pause. “What’s going on with her? What’s her life like? What kind of milk does she buy?”
“All the hard-hitting questions,” Lily said. It occurred to her they were incredibly off topic, rolling so far away from Mick’s dating life that it would be hard to bring it back up. But it had been ages since she’d joked around with a friend. And evenchatting with Liam felt especially serious right now. Stress from the set was getting to him. She understood that.
“Let me know how your date goes,” she reminded Mick.
“I’ll call you every few minutes and tell you what’s happening,” Mick said.
“I’m sure she’ll love that,” Lily said. “Don’t sabotage me. I’m trying to build up a good matchmaking reputation around here!”
“I don’t think that will be a problem,” Mick said. Lily knew his smile was big and goofy, his hair in wild curls around his face. She hated that she wanted to stay on the phone.
It was up to Lily to get to the airport on her own. The Nantucket Memorial Airport was teeny-tiny with a single tarmac, a coffee kiosk, a brewpub and sitting areas, most of which were empty this long after the tourist season. She texted Liam that she was about to board, and he wrote back.
LIAM: Can’t wait to see you, my love! Get ready for the trip of a lifetime. You’re going to love LA.
But Lily wasn’t so sure about that. All the way from Nantucket Airport to Newark Airport, where she transferred to her flight to Los Angeles, Lily was jittery with nerves. She half-expected that she would get off the plane and Liam wouldn’t be waiting for her. She half-expected him to text her after she arrived, explaining that he couldn’t break up with her in person. He wasn’t strong enough. She wasn’t sure where this narrative was coming from.
The funny thing was that things were going amazingly with Liam’s friend and co-star, Bex Shepherd and the skateboarderinfluencer Lily had managed to set her up with. Bex had called her the day after their first date, gushing about how handsome, fun, and genuine he was. “I mean, he’s sort of famous, but he barely has any followers compared to me,” Bex had said on the phone. “It’s so refreshing that he doesn’t really care about that.”
Lily had guessed correctly that Bex saying that she didn’t want anyone famous was only a half-truth. Famous people wanted to be around other famous people; they just wanted to remain “important” in their presence. Dating a normie was not possible for many of them. (Of course, Lily knew that Liam didn’t think that way; that Lily being a “normie” was not a deal-breaker. Their love was stronger than that.)
So, if Liam was cheating on her, it meant he wasn’t cheating on her with Bex. Great.
At LAX, Lily grabbed her suitcase and wheeled it into the provocative sunshine. It was eighty-two degrees, without a single orange, yellow, or red leaf in sight. She’d escaped the frigidity of autumn. But she missed the Nantucket Sound, missed how close it always was on Nantucket. At LAX, the Pacific felt miles away.
She scanned the cars as they petered through the pickup line, searching. And then, there he was, Liam, waving like crazy from the driver’s side of a Corvette. Lily’s heart leaped into her throat. Liam stopped the car, swept her out of the car, and wrapped her in a hug and a kiss. Immediately, Lily felt all her fears disappear into the bright-blue sky above.
“My love!” Liam called everyone at LAX. “My love is here!”
Lily felt overwhelmed with joy.
Liam threw her suitcase into the back and opened the passenger door for her. Inside, he played a playlist they’d curated together last spring, songs that reminded her, achingly, of college and all she missed about the big city. But this was a brand-new, fully alive city, with its sprawling concrete, its rollingdusty hills, and its Hollywood sign. Liam talked a mile a minute, excited to tell her everything about his world. He kissed her knuckles between sentences.
It was late afternoon, which meant they had the entire evening ahead of them. Liam said he’d booked them a dinner with a few of his cast members, so that she could meet everyone. “They’re dying to get to know you,” he said as he parked the car in front of his rental house. “I mean, I talk about you all the time. And now that you’ve set Bex up with that skateboarder dude, more and more people want you to pair them up. I hope they don’t throw themselves on you. People are rabid, Miss Matchmaker.”
Although Lily was initially disappointed that the dinner wouldn’t be just the two of them, she couldn’t stop smiling. Liam gave her a tour of his place, kissing her in each room, each corner, next to the kitchen counter, out on the back porch.
“By the way,” he said between kisses, “I think my mother’s really falling for you.”
Lily’s heart stopped beating for a second. “What makes you say that?”
“She’s worried about you, for one,” Liam said, cutting a smile. “That’s how Japanese mothers show they care. They worry like crazy.”
“It was sweet to see her the other week,” Lily said. “I think everyone really liked each other.”
“Of course they did!” Liam said. “They’re our families, right? They’re going to be family soon! Time for them to get used to it.”
