Page 34 of Keeping Our Secrets

As soon as the door to the bathroom closed, Miranda turned to me, “Can we go talk somewhere private?”

“That’s not a good idea,” I told her. I didn’t want to leave Mairi in a strange house with people she had just met so that I could have a private conversation with my ex-girlfriend. The same ex that I had actively been trying to avoid for the past couple weeks.

I shouldn’t have slept with her again. I knew she still wanted me, but we didn’t work. It was a shitty decision but the last thing I expected was for Mairi to show up a week later.

She just wasn’t getting the hint.

“Just for few minutes.”

“I’m fine just where I am,” I told her. “Whatever you have to say to me you can say in front of them.”

“Liaaam,” she whined. “After everything we’ve been through, can you just give me this?”

“I don’t want to leave Mairi alone,” I responded.

"Liam, she's an adult. I'm sure she's capable of being without you for five seconds.” She rolled her eyes. “You never would have dated me if I was that helpless.”

“She’s not helpless,” I defended. “She’s never met the guys so I don’t want her to feel abandoned.”

“Please, just give me five minutes,” she argued. “Besides, these oafs will make sure she doesn’t feel out of place.”

I glanced over at the door to the bathroom.

“Five minutes,” I warned her.

I followed her down the hallway. When she directed me into the bedroom, I leaned against the door so she couldn’t shut it.

She walked partway into the room and when she turned around and noticed I hadn’t shut the door behind me; she made a face.

“Aren’t you going to shut the door?”

“Why would I?”

She crossed her arms in front of her and replied, “You want them hearing everything I say to you?”

“Depending on what you say, I’ll probably tell them everything you say to me,” I scoffed.

“Fine.”

“What did you need to talk to me so urgently about?”

“Why don’t you want to be with me?”

“We’ve been through all of this before. We’re better suited as friends.”

“You told me you didn’t want to date anymore because you wanted to focus more on school.”

“That’s right.”

“Yet when she shows up, you change your mind. And now, suddenly she’s pregnant and you’re all in.”

“It wasn’t sudden. I’ve known her for months.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

I furrowed my brows. “That’s the kicker. You don’t need to believe that I’ve known her for months. There is no you and me in that equation.”

“I don’t understand what you see in her,” she replied. “We could have been so good together.”