“And what if after tonight or our next meetup you decide you don’t want to carry on with this and then I canceled my last date for nothing?”
“I highly doubt that will happen.”
“It might.”
“It won’t.”
He’s certain. So certain, and I don’t know why. No one is ever fully sold on me, at least not without me putting in a tremendous amount of effort first.
“And you think it’s fine that we’ll be doing this behind Juliette’s back?”
“I think what goes on between you and me is up to you and me. Much as I love and respect my aunt, my private life is my own, as yours should be as well.”
“I’ve never really lied to her before,” I tell him quietly. “It feels wrong.”
“Don’t think of it as lying. You’re going to be passing along real stories, just through a slightly different messenger. It was unfair of her to put you in this situation in the first place.”
He’s not wrong. But I also know that I need to take ownership of this. Juliette presented me with a choice, and I made it. She’s a woman I admire and who I haven’t let down in five years, and I’m not ready to start now.
“I can’t,” I eventually say. “I’m sorry, but I can’t break Juliette’s trust like that.”
I could say more, but I don’t, and an accepting look crosses Liam’s face.
“I understand,” he replies. Silence goes on and on until he slides his hands into his pockets. “So, I suppose this will be it for us.”
“That’s what it’s looking like.”
“Well then, we should enjoy it while it lasts.”
I raise a questioning brow, but Liam says nothing, only nudges his head down the street and begins walking. I follow until we’re side by side. A minute later, we turn a corner and I stop in my tracks. Big Ben towers ahead just in front of us. It’s crystal clear and all lit up against the subtly darkening sky, and for a second, I forget to breathe.
“Wow,” is all I manage to say. I continue to stare, lost in its timeless beauty and still overcome that I’m even standing here. My heart feels as light and bright as Peter Pan’s, like at any moment, I just might fly away.
I look over after a while to see if Liam is as hypnotized as I am, but he’s not looking at the clock tower. He’s gazing down at me. “What are you thinking?” he asks.
I turn back to face ahead, smiling to myself and taking a deep breath. “I’m thinking how this is one of those incredibly vivid moments of happiness that I’m never going to forget. After something really good happens, people think how wonderful it is and that it’s important, but over time the memory slips, inch by inch, until finally you can’t reach it anymore. But this...now... I’m always going to remember it. This is unslippable.”
I peek up and a languid smile pulls at the corner of Liam’s mouth. We continue to stand there, drinking in the sight before us in comfortable silence until I feel his fingers brushing against mine, just skimming the surface until they slowly tangle together. His hand feels solid and strong in my grasp, almost like it’s supposed to be there. “What are you doing?” I ask, making no move to pull away.
“I’m holding your hand,” he says.
“I can see that, but why?”
“Because now I’ll be unslippable, too.”
The truth of his words hits me like a freight train. His thumb strokes the inside of my palm, and breathing isn’t as easy as it was a second ago.
“Are you always like this?” I ask, my voice betraying me with its breathless undercurrent.
“I’m never like this. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m actually having some kind of a mild, days-long stroke.”
I grin lightly up at him, happy in the knowledge that I’m not the only one losing my mind. “Well then, we really should enjoy it while it lasts.”
A bittersweet expression crosses his face, and Liam says nothing as we turn forward once again. My head somehow ends up on his shoulder, and his hand squeezes mine just a little bit tighter—sweetly possessive and not at all typical for two people who have only seen each other twice before. It sends a warm wave sailing through me, and I feel it in my knees, in my stomach—everywhere, really.
It should scare me, but it doesn’t. Instead, I feel anchored. Safe. And, unfortunately, I really, really don’t want it to stop.
7
