Page 79 of Ashes of Us
I left.
Spent the entire afternoon wondering what he'd almost said.
And thinking about Daniel. About Portland. About the fact that Liam hadn't known.
The fourth time,he was the one who said it.
It was the following Tuesday, at the pool again. It was like this everytime our swimming schedules overlapped. We'd developed this unspoken routine of swimming in adjacent lanes, pretending we weren't hyperaware of each other's presence, reaching the wall at slightly staggered times to avoid having to make conversation.
Except this time, we hit the wall together.
I came up for air and there he was, three feet away, water streaming down his face.
We looked at each other.
"This is ridiculous," he said.
"What is?"
"This. Us. Pretending we're not... I don't know what we're pretending." He pushed his wet hair back with his good hand. "Can we talk? Actually talk?"
My heart was doing that stupid thing again.
"About what?"
"About…” He gestured vaguely between us. "Everything. Nothing. I don't know. I just… I’d like to talk to you. If you're willing."
I should have said no. Should have told him there was nothing to talk about, that what happened at the hospital didn't change anything, that him saving Daniel—even if he thought Daniel was my boyfriend—didn't undo the past.
But I was so tired of pretending.
"Okay," I heard myself say.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. We can talk."
He looked surprised, like he hadn't actually expected me to agree. "When?"
"I don't know. Tomorrow? I close at three."
"Coffee? There's that place on Oak?—"
"Not Oak." The Italian restaurant was on Oak, where I'd broken up with Daniel right before everything happened. "Brewster's. Next to my bakery. Four o'clock?"
"Four o'clock," he repeated. "Okay. Yeah. I'll be there."
We treaded water for another moment, neither of us moving.
Then I pushed off the wall and kept swimming.
I had no idea what I was doing.
But I was doing it anyway.
CHAPTER 31: PIPER
The day after, I got to Brewster's ten minutes early and immediately regretted it.
