Hugo appeared next to us.
“That went well,” he said. “Andrea, as a spectator, what did you think of it all?”
“It seemed like everyone was very interested in what you had to say,” I said.
To be honest, I hadn’t really processed most of it. I was too hypnotized by seeing Liam speak, this other side of him that commanded respect. Admiration, even.
And not from just anyone—cabinet ministers, journalists, senior people with senior jobs who did important things for the country.
I’d never thought of him that way before. I’d never even considered what it was like to be the sort of person who had that much influence, whose words and choices mattered so much. It made something flutter below my breastbone, like he was even more out of reach than I’d realized, just as I felt I wanted to be closer.
“And tell me,” Hugo continued, “when reform hurts the people it’s meant to help, do you still call it progress?”
His tone was light, but the question wasn’t. Hugo was a cabinet minister. Why did he care what I thought? I was just a sales rep from Datchet.
Liam’s arm slipped behind my back, his hand settling on my shoulder, like I belonged to him—like we were a team. Or was he worried about how I was going to answer? The gesture felt more protective than controlling.
“No,” I said. “I think you call it failure. Even if the numbers look better afterward.”
The words sounded too honest the moment they left my mouth.
Liam’s arm tightened slightly, pulling me into him. I felt a loosening in me, like the small hug meant approval, that I hadn’t let him down.
HadI?
“And you, Liam?” said Hugo. “What do you think? Your perspective is rather different, I’m sure.”
Liam paused. I felt his fingers press into my arm, his thumb graze the skin. “I agree with Andrea,” he said. “Better numbers don’t mean much if people stop trusting the system. Without trust, reform doesn’t last.”
I agree withAndrea.
The words settled somewhere deep in my chest, warm and frightening at the same time.
I wasn’t supposed to matter in rooms like this.
And Liam had just made it sound like I did.
“Well, seems I’ve been outvoted.” Hugo huffed and turned toward the quad. “Good to see someone in the room is brave enough to disagree with me.”
Hugo moved away, drawn into another conversation onthe other side of the room. I felt the tension in my shoulders soften.
Liam’s hand was still at my back. He hadn’t noticed that no one was watching us anymore.
Or maybe he had… and just wasn’t letting go.
“Ready?” he murmured. “Let’s get out of here, shall we?”
I nodded and tried not to think about how easy it would be to follow him anywhere.
*
Back at the hotel, we were standing outside my room.
“Thank you, Andrea,” he said. “I hope it wasn’t… too much.”
“Not at all.” Oxfordwasa bit much. I couldn’t imagine being there every day, a student, like Liam. How small it would make you feel, a single person, slotting in against all those centuries of history and meaning that had literally shaped the country. But Liam didn’t seem to shrink—he’d grown, expanded, like it brought something out of him that had always been there, that I just hadn’t seen.
“Well…” He was looking at me, less than two feet between us, his eyes dark. “I appreciated you being there. You looked beautiful tonight, Andrea. Thank you.”
