“You need it, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but . . . you’d do that for me?”
Liem needs his suitcase so he can go home, and I need to stay busy while I’m emotionally compromised and at risk of making poor decisions. Though, tracking down David’s side piece and showing up at her door sounds pretty good right now. So does setting fire to all of his belongings.Ooh, or his car.
Let me go and do a good deed before I catch a case.
“I would,” I say. “Let’s go.”
Three
Bri
Good thing Liem is more familiar with navigating subways than I am, or I would have been done for. Liem has been wringing his hands for our whole journey to his ex’s apartment, accompanied by theviolent bouncing of his knees while we were on the subway. Fearing he’ll make his hands bleed, I pull one away from the other and hold it between mine as we walk.
“Breathe,” I remind him.
With a nod, he takes my suggestion. It seems to work for a block, then he starts absentmindedly tugging at the strings of his hoodie instead.
Arriving at Liem’s ex’s building, a narrow townhome with the New York stoop I always see in movies, seems like a fever dream. It’s nice, newly renovated, must have cost a pretty penny. A tinge of envy hits me.
I thought I would be in a different place in my life by the time I turned thirty. Fuck an engagement or a wedding, I wanted the big-girl job and the big-girl house, living my big-girl dreams. If this weekend has shown me anything, it’s that I’m about as likely to get my shit together in six months as Liem is to look at his ex without crying.
Liem pulls me to a stop. “I should go in.”
“No, you shouldn’t.”
“But I need to talk to her. I need to—”
“No. You don’t,” I correct him firmly. “Maybe youwantto, but we discussed this. What will you do if you see her?”
He exhales a frustrated sigh. “Cry.”
“And?”
“Beg her to take me back and get dumped for a third time.”
“Exactly. You’re not going in.” The pain pinches his face and wells in his eyes. I pull his hoodie strings from his anxious grasp and tug on them myself. “I got you.”
He looks down at me and acquiesces with a nod.
Leaving him on the sidewalk, I bound up the stairs and buzzN. Phongin 201. She answers quickly. “Yes?”
“Hi, it’s Bri. Here for Liem’s suitcases.”
Her response is the eardrum-shattering buzz of the gate unlocking. I go in, follow the signage to the second floor, and knock on her door.
When it swings open, the woman from Liem’s lock screen seems surprised by my presence. She is as flawless as her picture. My height with more curves, ageless tan skin, dark hair cut blunt at her shoulders, and the same beautiful eye shape as Liem’s. She has a stoic, regal air to her. Boss bitch vibes. Drop your boyfriend in a heartbeat vibes.
“You’re Bri?”
“Yes. Hi. Thanks for letting me—”
“Good god, you’re gorgeous.”
Taken aback, I stammer, “Th-thank you. So are you.”
She eyes me. “How do you know Liem?”
