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“Thanks, I appreciate that.” He sat up against his dark leather headboard and scratched his shoulder. “So what do we tell the press?”
“You decide,” I said and felt generous for letting him fabricate our break-up story.
“Okay, let’s keep it simple,” he said and looked as serious as always. “You ran into your old flame and realized you weren’t done with each other and I encouraged you to be happy.”
“Wow, you really are a little Buddha, aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “It’s cool. Everyone deserves to be happy and I’ve seen how sad you’ve been. I just hope he’ll be good to you this time.”
In that moment, Adam came looking for me and I waved him closer. “There’s someone I want you to meet.”
Adam looked at the screen I was holding up and gave a sharp nod to Liam.
“Hey, man,” Liam said. “I heard you stole my girl.”
Adam’s brows rose up and he looked at me before he answered. “For a while I thought it was the other way around.”
“Nah, she was never really mine, but she told me how you left her – and you’d better not do that again. Cleo is a sweetheart.”
“I didn’t leave her, it was a misunderstanding, and you can be sure it won’t happen again.” Adam kissed my cheek and whispered. “Come find me when you’re done.” And with a quick wave at Liam he left us to talk.
I was just about to say something when I felt something touch my legs and looked down.
Darren was on his knees and with his hands clasped together as if begging me to let him talk to Liam.
“Liam,” I grinned. “There’s someone here who really wants to meet you, but before I let you talk to him I want you to know that I cannot be held responsible for anything he says.”
“Okay… who is it?”
“The craziest, funniest, gallery owner in Seattle. Do you want to meet him?”
“Sure, I’ll talk to him.”
Darren, who was back up on his feet, held out his hand for me to hand over my phone to him. I reluctantly did.
“OMG.” Darren’s eyes were dancing with excitement. “Liam Ladnier, I love everything about you.”
“Thank you.”
“And you’re really better off without Cleo, you know.”
“You think so?”
“Oh, for sure.” Darren’s tone turned conspiratorial. “I could get you some naughty pictures of her, if you need something to throw darts at. I know break-ups can be hard.”
“What naughty pictures?” I asked.
“Oh, did I forget to tell you and Faith about the surveillance camera in the back room?” Darren grinned. “Oops, my mistake.”
“Tell me you’re joking,” I said and was grateful that at least we had been wearing underwear the whole time we changed dresses.
“I’m totally joking,” Darren said to me in a serious tone before he looked back at Liam and shook his head and mimed, “I’m not.”
“It’s okay,” Liam said and was actually smiling. “There’s no need to send me pictures of Cleo, but I heard you have a gallery and I’m a big art lover, so tell me what you exhibit.”
“An art lover, you say?” Darren lit up. “Let me show you around in my humble gallery.” He took my phone with him as he moved to a painting, and I wasn’t sure what to do but figured that Liam was a grown man and hadn’t looked like he was doing anything important. He might actually enjoy a good laugh with Darren. God knew he could use it.
“I’m done.” I whispered in Adam’s ear when I sneaked up on him just as he was standing apart from the group and refilling his glass. He placed his arm around my waist and looked pleased.
