Page 34 of A Forgotten Mistake

“I was trying to impress them.”

“They have no fucking idea what this cost! You’d have impressed them with a ten-dollar blanket! They’re like… literally the easiest people to impress! You could have made them acardfrom a fast-food receipt that said ‘Nice to meet you,’ and they’d have been over the moon!”

“Yeah, but Ireallyimpressed their dog.”

With the blanket clutched in my arms, I hurry off. I don’t even know where I’m going or what I’m doing. But as I slip into the kitchen, Layla follows me.

“Did… Did I just hear that he bought that blanket fromTiffany’s?” she asks.

“What’s that, honey?” Mom asks.

Layla shakes her head. “Oh, nothing. Just that Liam’s boyfriend is rich as hell and bought you a blanket from Tiffany’s and you’ve been letting your dogdrool on it.”

Mom stills as she stares at me like I’ve somehow betrayed her. “And you didn’t think to tell me it was fromTiffany’s?”

“How was I supposed to know?” I hiss.

“I’d love to see what he bought Gabriel if he bought you this,” Layla says.

Fucking hell, I can’t tell them he tried buying me a house. “J-Just some… normal stuff.”

Layla’s eyes lock on to mine, ready for the details. “Normal, my ass. What’d he buy you?”

“That glass dish… that wouldn’t… also be from there, right?” Mom asks.

“What are you doing with the dish?”

“I’ve been storing my keys in it.”

“Oh my god,Mom. You don’t toss your metal keys into a Tiffany dish!” Layla says.

“I didn’t know! I was going to take him to this little place for dinner, but now I’m like… what if it looks like a shithole?” Mom asks.

“He doesn’t care. I promise he doesn’t care,” I say as I peek back into the living room to find him talking to the dog.

“I bet you wipe your ass with golden toilet paper as well, dontcha?” Liam asks Buddy who is quite pleased by this and shows it by rolling onto his back and exposing it all in the hope that Liam will pet his stomach.

Mom grabs the blanket from me and rushes out. “I justlovethis blanket. Clark and I fight over it every night, don’t we?”

Dad, who’s just come in from the garage, looks confused. “Uh, yeah! We do. Fantastic blanket. Top notch. Where’d you get it? I’d love to get another one.”

“I can get you a second one so you don’t have to fight over it,” Liam offers.

“NO!” Mom says, quite loudly too. “Oh honey, nooooo. This one is… way more than enough. I’m going to… put it… up here, so we can all gaze at it from a safe distance.” She hangs it over the TV like they’re planning on spending their nights staring at it instead of watching TV because they love it so much.

“Really? I’m so glad you like it. I wanted to get you one of those cheaper blankets where you have a picture printed on it, but Gabriel told me it wasn’t enough. I… I didn’t want to disappoint my future parents. Gabriel said you’d only like the best… and I was afraid that even this wasn’t good enough after the talk he had with me.”

I stare at Liam and decide that I was a fool for even fretting over any of this. “You’re sitting in the car while we eat dinner.”

He beams at me before taking the blanket and laying it over the dog, who seems quite pleased by it. “Let’s go. I’m starving. Gabriel didn’t give me time to pack my lunch and then wouldn’t let me force the man who owes me his life to get me food, so I nearly starved.”

“I got you a burger,” I remind him.

Liam just smiles at me and then winks.

We head out to the car where Liam immediately slides into the middle seat in the back, but much to his sadness, my father doesn’t climb in next to him, Layla does.

“Liam, honey, please don’t spend so much money on gifts for us in the future,” Mom says.

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