Page 41 of Unfinished

“I know that but Liam wants to keep me away from his mother. This is up to him, but he’s barely talked to me since that phone call. I don’t know what to say to him because I feel like he’s gearing up for a fight that I’m not even trying to have.”

“I don’t know either, babe.” Ashley looked over at Liam and his cousins, her brow furrowed and I turned to look.

Standing in front of Liam was some red-headed girl. She was obviously flirting and he was smiling at her while she talked. I looked at Ashley and she looked at me.

“Want me to cut a bitch?” Ashley joked.

Shaking my head, I looked back at Ashley with determination. “Nope, I’ll give him enough rope to hang himself.”

I spent the next twenty minutes holding a conversation with Ashley while keeping Liam and the redhead in my peripheral. He wasn’t stopping any of her advances and I was almost ready to ask Ashley to take me home.

I kept reminding myself that if this relationship was doomed I’d rather find out now. The biggest part of a successful relationship was trust but as I watched Liam the trust I had for him was fracturing. If he had the audacity to allow some girl to flirt with him in front of me, how far would he allow it to go if he was six hours away from me?

“Well, look who we have here,” a familiar voice came from behind us.

Ashley and I both spun and screeched as we ran towards our friend Oscar. I jumped up and he caught me in a hug. He spun me around and then set me down and did the same to Ashley.

“Oh my god Oscar, why didn’t you tell us you were in town?” I slapped his shoulder, which if I actually slapped him hard, would do more damage to my hand than to his shoulder. Oscar was on a football scholarship at Buckeye State University.

He was wearing a tight white t-shirt that showed the outlines of every single muscle. His hair was shaved close to the sides with a fade and his natural coils on top. It was dark, but I still saw the bronze undertones in his sepia skin and his rich brown eyes in the light of the fire we were standing near. The man was gorgeous, but he was never anything more than a good friend.

“It was a last minute trip. I was going to stay in Ohio for the summer but mama wanted me in town for my brother’s birthday. I was going to call you tomorrow to have lunch or something,” Oscar explained.

“It’s so good to see you.” Ashley smiled brightly at our friend.

We sadly haven’t been able to see each other since we all left for college. So this was the best surprise for us. Oscar was our best guy friend. He was the bisexual Damien to our Cady and Janis from Mean Girls.

“How’s FIT and Delany?” He asked us and we started walking down the beach together.

“I love it but I’m busy as hell with classes and working,” I replied.

“DSM is fantastic,” Ashley beamed, “how is Buckeye State?”

“Really good, we had some issues this year but I’m still going to perform well and hopefully go pro after I finish my degree,” Oscar said. He put his arms around us as we walked, “So what’s the gossip?”

“Hannah is dating Liam Teresi,” Ashley teased, like she was tattling on me.

“Oh really? How’d that happen?” Oscar prodded with a grin.

“He spotted me at a party then did a bunch of sweet stuff to win me over.”

“Is he still doing the sweet stuff now that he has you?”

“He’s in trouble,” Ashley sang.

“Ashley is fuck buddies with Bas Teresi,” I tattled on Ashley and she feigned offense by putting her hand to her neck and gasping.

“So why is Liam in trouble?” Oscar questioned.

“They are having a small disagreement, but it was made worse by some girl who has been flirting with him,” Ashley answered, and I glared at her.

“Want me to make him jealous?” Oscar waggled his eyebrows.

“You know I don’t play games.” I shook my head back and forth.

“Plus they are already jealous. They’ve been watching us for a while.” A mischievous grin spread across Ashley’s face and I groaned.

I really didn’t want to play games. I was letting him do whatever he wanted to do and we would talk about it all later when he wasn’t being a grouch.

---