Page 23 of The Focal Point

Liam nodded, the corners of his mouth turning down. He looked like he wanted to say something, and I hoped it wasn’t because he was suddenly having second thoughts.

“Do you”—he drew in a breath—“want to stay for dinner?”

I blinked, my heart skipping a beat. That wasn’t the answer I had expected.

“Dinner?” I echoed.

“I mean, it’s dinnertime, and you worked hard today.” Liam said it was like it was the most natural thing in the world to invite your interior designer to dinner because they had “worked hard.”

Then again, his text had said, “next time.” I just hadn’t expected “next time” to be so soon.

My gut reaction was to say no, to tell him yet again that I was too busy. But instead, to my surprise and Liam’s, I nodded. The word “yes” followed a moment later. I had spent a lonely evening bemoaning the fact that I had no friends, and here was my chance. Liam seemed like he could be that friend. And just a friend—that was safe. Friendship was as safe as I could go.

“Great.” His eyes lit up, and he was suddenly in motion, moving around the kitchen at a fast clip. “I have some late-summer tomatoes, so I was going to make pasta. Is that okay?”

“Of course. Can I help?”

He looked over his shoulder at me with a smile. “Sure.”

“I mean—” I stumbled. I hadn’t expected him to say yes. “I’m not so great at cooking.”

Liam was already pulling things from the fridge and cabinets. “Can you tear lettuce and mix things?”

“Yes.”

“Great.” He set a big bowl on the counter, following it with a head of butter lettuce so fresh it still had soil clinging to the roots. “Then you can make the salad.”

And so I helped Liam make dinner. We chatted as we worked, and I couldn’t help but laugh at his litany of jokes and his running commentary on the way I made salad—it was sweet and funny, just like he was turning out to be.

We sat down to dinner not forty-five minutes later, and my mouth was watering in anticipation. But the first bite was even better than I had expected.

“Holy cow, this is amazing,” I managed as I swallowed. “You’re really good at this.”

“Thanks.” Liam beamed. “Cooking is a pretty new skill. I wasn’t allowed in the kitchen when I was a kid.”

“Because you were a boy?” I asked.

“No, no. My brothers all cook. No, it was because I was a disaster in the kitchen.”

“A disaster?”

“Yeah.” Liam shrugged and twirled up another forkful of pasta. “I didn’t pay enough attention to what I was doing. I would get distracted by an idea and wander off. One time my mom came home from something, and I had completely forgotten a pot of mac-n-cheese on the stove. The water had all boiled away, and everything was burning—she thought there was a fire at first.”

Liam took a bite of food, seemingly unaware I was staring at him. And then I burst out laughing, picturing the scene. He jerked his head up, startled at the sound. And then he began to laugh, too.

That moment shifted something in me that had been there for a long time. It didn’t eliminate it or shatter walls or barriers or whatever metaphor better fit. But something changed. I found myself feeling more open as we continued to talk and laugh over dinner and a bottle of wine—something soft and minerally and slightly acidic to match the late summer perfection that was dinner.

“So you didn’t answer my question at the diner the other night—you have your parents here. Anyone else? Siblings? Cousins? Boyfriend?”

“No siblings. It was just me. And my cousins live in LA and San Diego.” I hesitated, the words caught for a moment before I let them out. “And no boyfriend. I had one a few years ago, a fiancé, actually.”

Why had I admitted that? I rarely opened up with anyone but Kristen.

“Had one?” Liam picked out the operative words.

“Had, yes.” I pondered my response as I stared at my plate, twirling the fork listlessly through the remaining noodles. “He was a fellow design school student. He turned out to be not such a nice guy in the end. It took me a long time to see it, though. Too long.”

The last words were quiet, slipping reluctantly out, and I ended my confession there. There were too many things about the end of that relationship I didn’t want Liam to know about.