Page 20 of Charlie
“Here?”
“Yes. Her name is Sara and I met her my first week in Dublin. She’s a lawyer like me and I met her at the conference that I attended when I first arrived here. She was outgoing, charming, intelligent, kind, and I just had an instant connection with her.” I put down my fork and raised my lager again. “She was the one who introduced me to my mentor and the group of people I’ve come to like so much.”
“Nice. So, what happened? I’m sensing it didn’t work out the way you wanted it to.”
“No, Sara isn’t in a place in her life where she can commit to a relationship. She says it’s constricting for our souls and that love should be an energy shared without labels.”
Liv swallowed her food and lowered her brow. “What does that even mean? Is that a fancy way to tell you she wants you to have an open relationship?”
“Could be. But that’s not my thing. And besides, she shares her love with O’Brien, so…”
“Who’s O’Brien?”
“Conor O’Brien is my mentor. He runs a mastermind group out in Howth, where I live.” I leaned back. “Now show me one of your skeletons.”
Sucking in a deep breath, Liv seemed to think about it before she met my eyes. “Okay, but anything we tell each other has to stay between us.”
Chills ran up and down my spine from the intimacy between us. “You have my word.”
“My last boyfriend told me that…” She rubbed her forehead. “This is so embarrassing.”
I waited.
“When we broke up, he told me that I… snore.” The last word came out in a mumble and I didn’t understand.
“You do what?”
She whisper-shouted it. “I snore.”
“Oh.”
“Not all the time but enough that he threw it in my face when we broke up.”
“And you don’t think a man can handle you because of that?”
“It’s not very sexy, is it?” She looked around. “And I have this thing that drove him crazy…”
“Don’t tell me you crack your fingers. That would drive me crazy too.”
“No, but I get excited and I interrupt.”
“You haven’t interrupted me.”
“Yet. It’s something I’m working on, but give me long enough and I will.”
I crossed my arms. “I feel like I showed you a big six-foot-seven skeleton and you’re showing me these kid ones.”
“Hey, snoring and interrupting aren’t attractive traits in a person.”
“Sure, but you’ve got to have something worse than that. I’ve got twenty years of extensive therapy for all sorts of shitty disorders like OCD and ADHD, and my Asperger’s alone counts for a whole regiment of skeletons.”
“Why? Isn’t Asperger’s that thing that make people clever, like Rain Man? I’ll bet you were a straight A student.”
“I was, but being autistic is no joke, Liv.”
“No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.” She looked down.
“It’s hard for me to show my emotions and I can’t always read people. Sometimes I come across as insensitive and arrogant without wanting to.”
