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36
LIAM
I’d clearedthis week so I could spend time with Cerys and now I’m alone. I kick around my London apartment for a couple of days, debating whether to go back to the States for a while. I want to take Cerys with me. I want to spoil them after the crap they’ve been through. Now the dickhead ex is making their life worse, and because I’mnota dickhead, I’m too nice.
Last time I met Craig, I bit my tongue against saying a lot of what I thought of him. If I saw him again, things wouldn’t be pretty.
Two days of sulking and Xbox later, I call Bryn after a couple of beers and ask what he’s up to and if he wants to catch up.
“Am I just the go-to guy for all your broken hearts?” he asks, and I know he’s half serious.
“I don’t have a broken heart,” I snap and almost add ‘just a bruised one’.
“So what’s happening? I haven’t heard from you since the night atPlan B,so something’s wrong.”
Fuck it, I need a second opinion, and of all the guys, Bryn’s the one who won’t take the piss. “Am I too nice?”
Bryn laughs loudly and instantly gets my back up. “Define ‘too nice’, Liam.”
“Like, do you think I do too much for other people?”
“Hmm. Does doing shit for people help you feel good about yourself?”
I wrinkle my nose. “Yeah.”
“And if, say, a girl took advantage of that and pushed you into marrying her, would you think that was you being ‘too nice’?”
Honey. Bryn sees this too?
“I guess.”
“Doing things for other people isn’t what should make you feel good about yourself. You can still get rejected however much you do. Look at that chick from a few years ago.”
Kate. My first attempt at a real relationship and after almost a year, out of the blue, she ends things saying I’m suffocating her. Am I doing that again?Shit.
“Remember what you said to me after you ditched Honey on her wedding day?”
I close my eyes. “I don’t remember much about that day.”
“Nah, didn’t think you would. This was later, when you were completely wasted.” He sighs. “You told me you wished you’d dumped Honey months ago but didn’t want to hurt her, so really your ‘being nice’ wasn’t very nice, was it, Liam?”
“Yeah, I get that, Bryn, I’m not fucking stupid.”
“You also talked about Cerys a lot that day and to be honest this worries me. I think you’re heading down the same route here. You’ve already moved her into a house, yeah?”
“This isn’t the same. Cerys isn’t demanding anything from me – she doesn’t get the shits every time I go away and she’s determined to look after herself.”
“So what’s happened? Because something obviously has.”
“I think I understand now,” I mutter. But I’m not saying Cerys is right—I’m scared I’ll get things wrong.
“Want my honest opinion?” asks Bryn.
“Yeah.”
“You fall in love too easily and too hard, and girls screw you over. Whatever you feel for Cerys saved you from getting really screwed over by the last girl. I don’t think Cerys is like the others, but be careful, man.”
No, I need to be careful about scaring her away because Cerys is the opposite of Honey—this woman doesn’t want me to fix her. Cerys doesn’t want my money or a piece of my fame. She wants Liam Oliver. Which means she needs to understand that this situation is nothing like Honey and thatshe’snothing like Honey.
