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“Look after yourself, Thalia. I’ll email you our schedule. Please make sure you email your contact details for Alabama.” She hung up.
I rested my head against the wall of the changing room staring at the phone. No goodbye, the guilt trip had been minor for my mom. Sighing in relief, I realized the spinning in my head had stopped, and I felt much better having spoken to my mom, a conversation that I’d been putting off.
“Thalia, you alive in there?” Callie banged on the door.
“Yeah! Give me a minute.” I removed the dress and decided to take all five, even though I’d only tried on three of them. There was a mixture of colors: white, cream, pale lemon, pale green and pale lilac. Yeah, I liked pale colors.
My jeans were in a heap on the floor so I picked them up, shook them out before I wiggled back into them. I gathered the dresses together and left the changing rooms in search of Callie. As it turned out I didn’t have far to look. She stood talking to Liam outside the door to the changing rooms.
“Hey, Thalia.” He leaned forward, kissing me on the cheek. “Let me take those. You both finished here? I thought I’d take you and Callie to lunch.”
Liam took the bundle of dresses from me so I took his arm and let him lead me to the check out. “Lunch would be great, now that my hangover has more or less disappeared.”
“Hangover? I thought you said you were staying in last night,” Liam queried.
“Girl’s wine night at our apartment,” I replied.
“Okay. You buying all these?” Liam asked, placing them onto the cashier desk.
“Yeah. I don’t have that many dresses, so I figured I’d add to my wardrobe as I’m going home with you.” I handed my charge card over to the sales assistant and turned to Callie. “What happened to the dress you had?”
“I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to leave you two. I have some things to do before I head in to work in a couple of hours.” Callie started to back away from us.
“You sure?”
“Positive. I’d probably puke anyway.” She turned and headed out the store.
Liam took hold of the bags with my dresses and ushered me out of the store to a new café that had opened across the road.
I had slight misgivings about going home with Liam this summer. He…us…confused me. Was I his girlfriend or just a friend? He was gorgeous in so many ways. Tall, slim but still athletic and his blonde hair and blue eyes gave him the appearance of the All American Boy. All the girls on campus wanted his attention, but for some reason he was interested in me.
As I admitted to Callie last night, we hadn’t gotten to the hot and sweaty part of dating yet, and I wasn’t too sure I wanted to. We got along fairly well, but I didn’t get all hot and bothered in his presence. No tingles or wet panties. Even walking beside him, all I felt was the warmth of friendship.
Standing outside the Italian café in the sweltering heat we scanned the menu in the hopes that they had something worth eating. “Aha.” I slid my finger past the list of sandwiches and brought it to rest on the lasagna and garlic bread – just what I wanted.
Liam glanced over my finger and grinned, “You are feeling better if you’re looking at that.”
“I’m hungry now. What about you?” I grinned.
“I think I’ll have the same. Come on, let’s go and order.”
Liam opened the door for me and we stepped into the dim interior. A maître’d cleared his throat before he led us to the terrace out back, sitting us
in the shade.
We placed our order with the server and sat back to relax while I let the breeze cool my skin. The café hadn’t been open long, so everything still looked new and fresh. Our table was beside the garden, which had a manmade stream flowing through, with brightly colored flowers along both sides of the embankment. How they’d managed to create a beautiful garden oasis in the middle of the city was beyond me.
I glanced at Liam. “Will you tell me more about your family? What to expect?”
He laughed. “It might scare you off if I do.”
“They can’t be as bad as my parents.”
“Not really. I guess.” Liam knew all about my parents. He took a sip of his water and peered at me, his blue eyes sparkling in mirth. He was obviously enjoying this. “Okay. My father is a lawyer and has his own law practice, which he jointly owns with an old friend of his, Lewis. My older brother, Jack is engaged to marry Lewis’ daughter, Mia.”
“I didn’t know you had a brother.” Surprise turned to confusion. Why hadn’t he told me before? We’d had the sibling conversation during one of our earlier dates; if that’s what you’d call them, and he never mentioned a brother.
“Yeah. They’re getting married over the summer, Jack’s twenty-five, and studying to be a lawyer. He’s been groomed since we were kids to take our father’s place at the law firm. Dad wants him to settle into life as a family lawyer, whereas Jack has always held a fascination in criminal law. He’s the golden boy because he’s studying law,” he sneered.
