Page 64 of New Girl in the City
Chapter Fifteen
“What’s wrong with you?”
I looked up from my glass of wine to Liam. We were in my apartment and there was some movie on. An action one, I thought. I hadn’t paid attention when he picked it out for us. I’d just slipped on a pair of sweats and climbed onto the sofa next to him, settling in for a night of relaxing together.
It should have been nice and perfectly normal. Liam had even brought some clothes with him and was in white shirt and gray sweatpants. What a look on a man like him. He had a takeout container in his hand. I’d ordered us Italian, but I seemed to be drinking more of my wine than enjoying the Bolognese I had picked for dinner.
“Nothing’s wrong with me,” I returned. An explosion in the background pulled my eyes from him and Liam moved quickly, turning off the television. “Hey, I was watching that.”
“Don’t lie to me, Princess.”
“I’m not lying,” I said. “I was totally watching that.”
“That’s not even the lie I was talking about, but now you’re lying twice. Why don’t you tell me the truth once then tonight, and answer my question, Mel? Now I’m going to ask you again, what’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing,” I said quickly, a little too quickly, because we both knew it wasn’t true. I sighed, leaning forward, elbows going to my knees. “It’s nothing, really.”
“If it’s nothing then why won’t you share it with me?”
I bit my lip and dropped my eyes to the floor. The sounds of the city were gone here, the television was off, and it was too quiet. The only thing I could hear was my pounding heart and the creak of my couch below us as Liam shifted towards me.
“Because it’s a lot,” I finally said. His hand landed lightly on my back, his fingers pressing gently there as he rubbed the growing tension in my muscles.
“That’s life,” he said.
I laughed, the sound of it too loud in the quiet apartment. I squeezed my hands together tightly. “It really sucks, and it’s not fair to lay this on you, so I don’t want to. Not tonight.”
Liam scooted closer on the couch and I felt his other hand land on my shoulder, this one massaging at the knot there. “Then you shouldn’t have been all pouty.”
I scoffed. “I wasn’t pouting.”
He rolled his eyes and kept rubbing my shoulders. “Babe, I’ve got a younger sister that I raised. I think I can recognize a pout when I see one.”
“Yeah, okay, that’s fair.” I leaned into his touch, because as heavy as what Madison had thrown at me was, Liam had magic hands and I wanted them all over me. “Just keep doing that and maybe I won’t pout.” I could do what Claudia asked me to, especially if I was getting a back and shoulder rub. Any woman would be able to ignore a little bit of an existential crisis with this man’s strong hands on her. “I wasn’t pouting,” I said again, and clarified when he snorted at me, “I was brooding. There’s a difference.”
“And what the hell do you have to brood about?”
“It’s just...it’s dumb,” I hedged.
“Then why is it ruining our night?” He stopped massaging my shoulder and back and put a hand on my knee. I raised my eyes to his. He was right, I was ruining what was supposed to be our first “night in”. My brooding was costing us cuddling, and take out, and whatever movie this was. I didn’t know what the hell was going on, but I wanted to enjoy it because he wanted to watch it.
And after that we were going to go to bed and have an awesome time.
“I didn’t mean to,” I told him, my hand coming to rest on top of his. I threaded our fingers together and grit my teeth. The sound of Madison saying ‘him’ was ringing in my ears, and I didn’t think it was going to go away just because I willed it to. I was going to have to tell him.
“I know that, Princess. Doesn't mean it needs to keep going just because you didn’t mean for it to happen though. You need to talk to me.” His words were gentle, softer than I had thought he was capable of. Once again, I sunk a little deeper into the idea of falling for Liam.
I was going to be lucky if I made it out of this week without it being a done deal.
“You know that I don’t see you as just some fun, right?” I asked. His brows knit together, and he frowned at me.
“Why the fuck would I think that?” His tone was indignant, and it was enough to make me relax. That tone told me everything I needed to know. It said I was crazy to think what I had been thinking. That no, he didn’t think I thought of him as temporary, or just something fun to distract myself with. That what Madison had said, and even what Martin had thrown in my face about being with Liam, wasn’t true.
They didn’t know me. They didn’t know us. It was enough to calm me. I let my breath out in a whoosh and put my hands to his face, cupping it, and let out a laugh. When I didn’t answer he put his hands on mine and met my eyes. “What the hell is going on?”
“I’m being stupid,” I told him. I kissed his lips lightly and then leaned back to look at him. “I’m being really stupid.”
“About what? Because you’re ‘brooding’,” he used air quotes and kept talking, “and then laughing like it’s nothing. I need you to talk to me.”
