Page 30 of Wants and Needs
But the desire to talk to Liam doesn’t go away.
I feel my body unfreeze and I stand.
I’m going to be straightforward with Liam and tell him I’d like for us to be friends. There’s no reason why it should be awkward, in fact, it’s probably the only way to actually start a friendship with that brilliant man.
So I take a deep breath and then the first step out of the office.
8LIAM
“You need to come with me,”London insists, pushing my shoulder while I sit at my desk in my home office.
“I really don’t,” I insist.
“Your crisis has been averted. You found the issue and from what you said last night you even made the algorithm and the interface of the app better than before, so now you need to get up, take a shower, andcome with me.”
My hands stop moving over my keyboard and I slowly turn my chair to face her.
Even sitting down I’m almost at eye level with her.
“I didn’t know you knew most of those words.”
Her brows scrunch up in that adorable way that always means trouble.
“I listen when you speak, you dick,” she cries and shoves my shoulder again.
I smile up at her, my love for her bursting through even while I know I have to scold her.
“You know you can call me whatever you want when you turn eighteen, but before then you can’t curse.” I remind her of the deal we made.
I know for a fact that the second the clock strikes midnight on her eighteenth birthday she’ll make sure I’m within hearing distance while she calls me every name under the sun.
“Whatever,” she mumbles. “Just shut down for the day and go outside, touch some grass, and get some sunshine on that pasty-white face of yours.”
I frown at the second thing.
“Touch grass?” I ask.
“It means go feel the world and get back to reality. The reality where your world isn’t even close to coming to an end and life goes on.”
I think about it for a minute, and though I still can’t know if her interpretation oftouching grassis accurate, I nod and sigh.
“Fine.”
And that’show we end up having lunch at London’s favorite restaurant. She insists on telling me all the gossip about people from her school, even after I explicitly told her I don’t care, and she asks me if we could take a few days for a vacation before classes start back up.
Her month-long trip to England to go to an equestrian camp wasn’t enough for her, it seems, and though I know I’d rather doanything else, and I have mountains of work to do, my mind does start to think about where we could go for a long weekend or maybe even a week.
I’ll have to talk it through with my brothers—who would bitch at me forever if I leave them out of this plan—and our parents of course. Though I can more than take care of all four of us, they will insist on going or sending Paco and Eric with us.
They could have a “staycation” as Mom calls it.
The idea starts to take root in my brain and I keep thinking about it even while London goes on and on about the stupid drama of her peers. I know not to call it stupid drama out loud at least, because if I did, I’d earn a bruise on my arm that I don’t need since I have a session at the studio tomorrow morning.
We end up at some park and walk around in the shade of the trees, which I’m thankful for. She listens to me talk about the bug we found in the app again, and as always she lets me rant to my heart’s content.
I’m not sure what time it is when London grabs my arm in a strong grip and shouts as she points.
“Look, Liam!”
