Page 89 of Not That Impossible

It was time to face facts.

I’d spent two months pining and writing miserable little stories about us that kept going sideways and leaving me out in the cold.

Apart from the new Liam-is-a-caveman story. That one was going surprisingly well. I’d written a furious five thousand words on it last night, and it felt fantastic.

Getting over Liam was clearly a thing I was absolutely incapable of doing. Moving on, ditto. Where did that leave me?

I gazed across the bright and busy distance.

Nobody wanted to bethatguy, the one who doesn’t take no for an answer. The thing was, apart from calling him to ask him on a coffee date, Liam was the one who’d made all the moves.

He came to my house. Twice.

He kicked things off by kissing me.

Twice.

He ordered me up the stairs, onto my bed, and took me apart.

Then he rejected me and called me a hook-up, but still.

Maybe he was regretting it.

Maybe he was thinking,You know what? I was unnecessarily dismissive, I didn’t give us a chance, and Jasper is lost to me forever. Woe.

Maybe I should go over there and indicate that it wasn’t the case at all.

Adam was adjusting his plan to seduce Ray. I decided that it was time for me to be proactive about winning Liam. I wasn’t a quitter!

I stood up abruptly.

Adam glanced at me, startled.

“Going to the toilet,” I muttered.

“Okay,” he said. “Thanks for keeping me updated.”

“Cool.”

I smoothed my t-shirt down over my abs so it clung a bit better—my abs seemed to distract Liam a fair bit and I wasn’t above playing dirty—swiped a hand over my hair, and made it halfway across the room in a businesslike stride before I came to a sudden halt.

I’d been so fixated on Liam, I hadn’t seen the man approaching from the other side. He cut in front of me, walked right up to Liam’s table, and sat down.

I stood there like an absolute muppet until someone bumped into me and made a big deal about having to walk all the way around me to get to the bar. Turning on my heel, I marched jerkily back to my table.

I sat down.

“Ray’s here,” I said blankly to Adam.

“Yeah?” He broke off his conversation to a chorus of groans. Everyone knew how Adam felt about Ray. “Where is he?”

“Over there,” I said, and pointed. “On a date. With Liam.”

Adam made a noise like a growl that would normally have made me get him in a headlock and hold him back before he could do something stupid, but I was busy watching my future crumble to dust and blow away in the wind.

I sat there like a lump.

OfcourseLiam was on a date with Ray.

---