Page 75 of Unfinished

“No, I’m a FIT student. I’m from a small town in southern California.”

After a few silent seconds, he turned to me, “So … how’d he lose you?”

“I don’t want to bore you with some stupid first love story.”

“I’m a sucker for a good romance. Spill.”

Over the next three hours, I sat at this bar with a hockey player getting drunk and sharing the entire story about Liam with Marcus. The bartender, Sean, was even interested in this story, throwing in his two cents and a question from time to time.

After talking it all through, and drinking a bit too much, I realized that maybe I was the problem here. My trust issues made it difficult for me to accept a commitment to Liam when we were so far apart.

I had fooled myself into believing we could just be friends in order to protect myself from getting hurt. In the end, all our agreement did was have me simultaneously pushing Liam away while also waiting for him.

“So he’s the one?” Marcus asked.

“Yep, he made me love him, fucking ruined me, and I’m fairly positive I’ll end up in a 100 square foot apartment with twenty-seven cats.”

Marcus and the bartender both laughed.

“So what are you going to do?” Sean asked.

“It’s over, at least until I’m done at FIT. I know I’m partially to blame here and I don't want him to suffer under my trust issues. He’s likely at my apartment right now waiting for me to get home.” I pulled out my phone and sure enough there were messages from Ashley wondering what the hell was going on and letting me know that Liam was on our sofa. Which begged the question how he even knew where I was tonight?

Ashley would have told me if he was planning on surprising me by coming in. She would have been the only one that could have told him. I also knew she wouldn’t have said anything to Bas about the dates knowing he would have told Liam. She supported me dating, but looking back on everything, I swear she was just trying to get me to admit my true feelings for Liam and finally commit to him.

“Called it,” I announced holding up my phone with a little wave.

“Well, if you want, I’ll make sure you arrive home safely. Plus, I want to meet this Ashley you told us about,” Marcus suggested.

I looked at Marcus and then Sean, then I shrugged and said, “Fuck it, Ashley will be thrilled to meet you,”

While I was closing out my tab, I texted Ashley informing her that I was bringing Marcus home. I practically heard her internal screaming through the texts that kept coming through.

We got back to my apartment, and walking in I held the door open for Marcus. I spotted Liam sitting on the sofa and the look on his face was damn near murderous when Marcus walked in. I guess Ashley didn’t give him a heads up.

“Liam, Marcus, Marcus, Liam.” I introduced them and then walked to the kitchen to grab our bottle of tequila.

“Hey man, I spent three hours listening to your entire story. Nice to put a face to the name,” Marcus greeted Liam.

“Mhm, and who are you?” Liam asked and Ashley walked out of her room.

“That is Marcus fucking Sorokin!” Ashley yelled and I cracked up laughing.

“He's a hockey player,” I told Liam as Ashley introduced herself to Marcus. I took the bottle of tequila and went into the living room where I sat down on a chair.

“So you meet some random hockey player and take him home?” Liam asked accusingly and I glared at him.

“Actually, I wanted to make sure she got home safe and to meet Ashley after Hannah told me so much about her. Hannah had a bit to drink,” Marcus interjected, sitting on another chair.

“You do this with all your fans?” Liam questioned his eyes narrowing.

“I'm going to stop you right there. I'm gay," Marcus announced.

Liam bit his lip and after a second apologized, "Sorry, man. Thank you for making sure Hannah got home safe."

I drank straight from the tequila bottle while Ashley looked at me with a bit of concern and asked, “How much have you had to drink tonight?”

“I dunno,” I slurred.

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