Chapter Twenty
LIAM WENThome with Seth and Dinah as they’d planned and helped Dinah sort and unwrap her gifts while Seth drove the babysitter home. He made sure his Sleep Sheep was opened early, which was about the only real victory he’d managed that day.
Sure, there was the trophy. The man on top of it was bowling, and the plaque on the base was Magic Marker on masking tape, but, still,technically—but, no. Liam hadn’t even won that, not really, because stupid Ben had refused to play the final game.
They were about a third of the way through the massive pile of gifts before Dinah said, “So. Ben was pretty mad today.”
Tempting to deny or divert, but there was also appeal in talking about it. “I guess he was.”
“At you.”
“Seems like.”
“For a reason?”
Well, Liam knew betterthan to get into that. But knowing better didn’t seem to have too much of an influence on his actions these days. “I shouldn’t have been there. He and I are over and done, and he doesn’t want me hanging around.”
“Wow. That’s—” She pulled a boxed leather football out of the gift wrap and smiled. “I knew it was going to be a football. Katie’s been talking to Calvin.”
Liam had no idea who Katiewas, but he was suddenly almost overwhelmed withwantingto know. This Katie, this woman who took Calvin’s insane ideas and ran with them, who brought a smile to Dinah’s face, who was somehow part of this warm, weird, alcohol-drenched little community—Liam wanted to know her. He wanted to be invited to her house, and yes, damn it, he wanted the invitation to be for two people and he wanted Bento be his companion. He wanted—
“Write it down,” Dinah prompted, pointing to the pad of paper on Liam’s lap. “You said you’d be the secretary, so secretary up.Katie—football. I probably won’t need to be reminded of that one, but you still need to write it down.”
He did as he was told.
Dinah took a sip of her punch before she asked, “Do you think youareover and done? You and him?”
“I guess.I mean—if he says we are, we are. Right?”
“But you wish you weren’t?”
“Yeah.” It didn’t even hurt to say it.
“Why?”
The question came quietly and was simple enough, but it wasn’t easy to answer. Not with the depth Dinah probably wanted and definitely deserved. “Maybe I’m just chasing the past,” Liam admitted. “I think that’s what Ben thinks—he had some crazy theory about this being becausemy parents are getting divorced, but that’s not it. But yeah, maybe I’m just trying to go back to the last time my life was reallygood, you know? Maybe.”
“And what’s so not good about your life now?”
“I don’t know. I mean, it’s good, right? Good job—great job, really, as of a couple weeks ago. Nice lifestyle—good apartment, fancy parties with all the movers and shakers and artistic types. Yeah,I’m there as one of the—I don’t know, the supplicants? The ones kissing up, not the ones getting kissed up to. But still.”
“Friends?” she asked as she reached for another gift. “Romance?”
“Friends,” he agreed. Not great friends, maybe, but good enough. And romance? “I get laid all I want.” Which was probably a bit crude, but if this woman was married to Seth, surely she could handle it.
Andshe didn’t seem at all fazed. “But that’s not all there is to romance. I mean, Ben gets laid allhewants, too, as far as I know.”
That wasn’t something Liam really wanted to think about. Except— “Wait. Are you saying Ben isn’t totally satisfied, romancewise? Like, there’s room for growth there?”
She didn’t answer, just took a sip from her glass of lemonade, then began opening the present onher lap. As she worked she said, “So what’s missing from your life? What are you looking for, really?”
He sighed. Seth, bless his heart, had provided not only a glass of scotch but also the bottle in case refills were necessary. If this conversation continued, they definitely would be. “I think I got distracted by all the shiny things. Like, the things I’ve been chasing after—money, famous people,making a damn name for myself—I think they’re all surface-level. Does that make sense? And then after I chase them down? I’m like a dog chasing after soap bubbles—they look fascinating, and it’s fun totryto catch them, but when I do finally grab hold, they disappear and I’m just left with a bad taste in my mouth.”
“Nice analogy,” she said.
And then she waited. Damn her, she waited.
Into thesilence Liam said, “I think I worry thatI’mjust a shiny thing. Just a soap bubble. No depth, nothing beneath the surface. Easy to pop if I ever slow down, stop dodging and floating.”
