Page 18 of A Lesson for Laurel

It reminded him of Laurel and how fast things happened to her.

But she didn’t get married.

“Only work related,” he said. “Remember, I knew her first. And she thanks me all the time for setting you two up.”

“Not as much as I thank you,” Liam said. “I’m just glad she gave me a chance. Not all women want to be with a man not on the same level as them.”

That had been Liam’s worry in the beginning. That he didn’t have the earning potential Nicole did. “She’s not that way. Not all women are greedy.”

Like Rachelle was.

She wanted the money first. Then she wanted the attention.

He had the money, but couldn’t give her the attention she wanted.

He couldn’t be someone who just adored and kissed up to her no matter how much he tried.

She played him and he had to remind himself it wasn’t meant to be. He couldn’t be someone he wasn’t and if that meant getting his heart broken, then so be it.

He learned his lesson the hard way.

“No,” Liam said. “They aren’t. I just wanted to see how you were doing.”

“What did Nicole find out about Rachelle?” he asked.

Nicole and Rachelle had gotten close. It was a common enough thing with best friends’ significant others.

But when Rachelle left him, Nicole cut off that friendship like a hot knife through a Jell-O mold.

That loyalty thing.

“Not much,” Liam said.

“Don’t lie to me. We all know she’s engaged again.”

Though he didn’t get out much into an office, or even leave his condo, he knew enough people that when he ran into them or they talked, they’d let him know his ex was engaged to someone else.

“True,” Liam said. “She’s been posting things on social media. Nicole still follows her more to see what is going on rather than being a friend.”

“It’s Nicole’s choice to be friends with whoever she wants. I couldn’t be what Rachelle wanted and I know that. She seems to have found that elsewhere. Good for her.”

He wasn’t going to be bitter over this. He was beyond it.

“She wouldn’t stay friends with her. Rachelle has reached out a few times over the past six months. Just wanting to know how you are doing.”

This was news to him. “Not sure why she cares,” he said.

“She felt bad the way it all happened.”

“Nothing to feel bad about,” he said. “It’s better to know it all now before you spend more years with someone who isn’t happy.”

“You weren’t happy either,” Liam said. “Admit it.”

“I thought I was but guess not. Does it matter? We’ve all moved on.”

“I just want to make sure you’re not working yourself into the ground while you move on. I know you couldn’t predict your aunt getting hurt shortly after Rachelle got engaged, but I wonder if that isn’t why you volunteered to go there for a few months.”

“You know I wouldn’t be where or who I am without my aunt and uncle,” he said. “You know more than most about it.” Even though they’d met in college. They’d stayed in touch and when he moved to New York it would still be close enough to Liam who lived in Stamford. When he decided to move out of the city, he came back to where his friend was living and teaching at the University of Connecticut where they both attended.

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