Page 6 of Accidental Love

Chapter Three

After Liam and I showered together, which took us almost an hour, we finally got ready to go out and eat. Liam promised me that we would do all the things I wanted today, and that he had a surprise for me later on. To say I was excited was an understatement. I wanted to do so much that I didn’t even know where to start. But since it was already nearing noon by the time we finished showering and getting dressed, we wanted to eat lunch first and then fit in as much as we could after. If not, Liam said we had another two days to spend together.

The reason it took us so long to get ready was that every time I went to put something on, Liam would just pull it from my hands and hide it, or pull it off of me while kissing my bare skin. It was really distracting and made getting ready harder. I honestly didn’t mind, but after the fourth outfit being hidden or taken off, I wanted to slap Liam. If he had it his way, we would be staying in the room all day not wearing any clothes, but since I played the “it’s my birthday” card, we were going out.

We walked toward the main part of the hotel, hand-in-hand. His big hands fit perfectly with mine and I wanted to pinch myself, to make sure this was real. Liam finally let me get dressed, so I was now in a pair of dark skinny jeans and a cute red flannel shirt that had a tank underneath in case it got hot. Since I had only packed the one pair of tall black heels, I decided to wear them. I could have worn my flip flops or a pair of flats, but I felt like looking somewhat good for Liam. Even with him dressed casually in a pair of blue jeans and a grey t-shirt that hugged his body, he still looked like he just walked out of a magazine.

I came to a stop in front of the same front desk of the restaurant Liam and I were supposed to dine in the night before. While we were being led to our table, I knew I needed Liam to explain where he was last night. I wanted a real explanation too, not some half-assed one. Smiling in thanks to the hostess, I grabbed the menu. Glancing around, I noticed that the place just as busy as it had been last night. Families sat around randomly, and a cute young couple sat off in the corner, grinning at one another.

“You know what sounds good?” Liam asked. I jerked my gaze back to him. He sat across from me in the booth, holding his own menu.

“Don’t say me,” I said, looking down at my menu, trying to decide what I should order. Since it was practically noon, I wasn’t in the mood for breakfast anymore.

“Why can’t I? You’re mine. I can say what I want.” He smirked at me. I found it sweet how he said that I was his, and it was kind of a turn on. I’d never had someone say that about me, and I was starting to like it a lot.

“No dirty thoughts. We are here to enjoy our lunch, then go out to do some things,” I stated, sending him a pointed look.

“Who said you could tell me what to do?”

“It’s my birthday. I can say whatever I want.” Our waiter came over then. Thankfully, it wasn’t the same person from last night.

“Hello, sir and ma’am. What can I get you to drink?” he asked. I scrunched up my nose at him calling me ma’am. It made me feel so old.

“I’ll just have water,” I said.

“Same.”

“Are you ready to order?” the waiter asked.

“Yes, I’ll have steak, medium rare, steamed vegetables on the side as well, and a baked potato,” Liam rattled off. Without even writing anything down, the waiter now turned to me.

“I’ll have the chicken fingers with fries. And BBQ sauce on the side, please.”

“I’ll get that started right away for you. I’ll bring your drinks out shortly.”

“Chicken fingers?” Liam asked, amusement clear on his face as the waiter walked off.

“What? They are good,” I said defensively. “I saw some people having them when we walked to our table. It looked good.”

“You mean kids were eating them,” he said, smiling.

“Fine, yes! Kids were eating them, but I’m not taking it back. They sounded good,” I said, placing my hands on the table.

“Whatever the birthday girl wants.”

We sat there quietly for a few minutes, but the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. I looked out the window at the beach and saw people walking along the sand and a few kids playing in the water. The waiter came to drop off our waters, but I didn’t touch mine.

“Liam—” I said, wanting to get this conversation over with sooner rather than later.

“Yes?” he asked, but I knew he knew what I wanted to talk about. Playing with my fingers, I gazed at them, not wanting to look at Liam.

“I…I need to know what happened last night. Why were you late?” I spit out. Taking a glance up Liam, I saw he took a sip of his water before nodding at me.

“You deserve to know what happened. Promise not to freak out on me or accuse me of anything because nothing happened,” he said calmly. Okay, I could do that, even though he was making it sound like something bad happened.

“Well, first, my meeting ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated. I thought it would have ended sooner, but the dumbasses in the meeting kept talking about menial things. Anyways, as I was heading into the elevator, my ex-girlfriend appeared. She stopped the elevator, trapping us both in it.” At the word “ex-girlfriend,” I sat up straighter. I had almost forgotten that he had been with someone right before me. I remembered Julie saying something about him being with a girl named Carmen when we were “supposedly” together.

“You don’t need to know all of what she said, but after making sure she wouldn’t come near us, I hit the elevator button to make it start again, then went to find you. I tried here first but the hostess said you were gone, so I figured you would be back at the room. You know the rest,” he said, staring straight at me. His blue eyes seemed sincere. I knew I should be upset that his ex-girlfriend was here, but I wasn’t angry. I had been last night when I had sat here for two hours by myself, but now I wasn’t mad. Liam didn’t mean to be late, and if he really meant the things he said to me last night, then I knew he didn’t want to see his ex either.

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