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“Annie, is everything okay?” Shrewd and intuitive as ever, Liam is peering down at me, concern flickering in those dark, dark eyes of his.
On this dancefloor, in Liam’s arms, it should be a perfect moment. But it’s not. “Do you ever wish things could be different?”
“How so?”
“Less… complicated.”
He pauses thoughtfully, running his fingers along my spine as our bodies slowly sway together. “Yes and no. I’m glad our complications have brought us to this moment. And on that, about what you said last night, I agree. I want to come clean to Wiseman. Tell him the truth, lay it out on the table. If it causes an issue with him funding SITL, we’ll just have to handle that from there. But, honestly, if we’re upfront about it, I can’t see it being too big of a deal—it’s not like we’ve committed a crime or anything.”
Liam’s smiling now, but my palms are sweaty, and I’m beginning to feel a little seasick.
If he goes to Wiseman when we’re back in the office tomorrow, it’ll be too late. Justin will have alerted him to our supposed indiscretion at the airport hotel, and it’ll look like he’s only coming clean because he got caught.
Nobody will ever believe that we got together naturally over the course of weeks. That nothing happened between us physically before I started at SITL. That night at the hotel will look the opposite of the innocent rooming accident it was. Liam will be painted as a boss abusing his power with a new female employee, and I will look like a woman who uses my sexuality to get ahead in the workplace.
No one in their right mind would touch that kind of HR nightmare with their investment money.
Liam brushes my chin with the backs of his fingers, gently tilting it upwards so he can look at me. “Hey, don’t worry so much. Worrying is my job, remember? You’re meant to be the spontaneous, carefree one. Every relationship needs one of each, right?”
He’s so sweet, so sincere, and I’m holding back tears now. “Liam, what if us being together screws things up for your company?” I press. I need to know just how badly this is going to bruise him. “What if it all goes wrong and, because of me, you let down Luke?” I swallow. “Lose everything you’ve worked for.”
He pauses, and I see a hint of worry in his eye. It’s only there for a brief second, but I see it clearly.
“I’ll figure out another way,” he says resolutely. “We have a great userbase, there’s money coming in. It just won’t be the scale-up we were hoping for. We might have to scale back a little, but I will make it work. I know I will.”
And there it is: Notwe, butI.
Liam still sees all of this as his battle to fight. He’s carrying so much responsibility on his shoulders, has employees to think about. Luke to think about. And I know he’s thinking about Legs and her future, too. Because he’s Liam, so of course he is.
What he’s been working towards for years is on the line. He wants to take care of his family. Feel like a success. His dreams are currently right on his doorstep, but I’m standing in the way.
It’s actually almost laughable: the entire time, I’ve been worried whether it’s a mistake for me to fall for him. I never, ever stopped to consider if it was a mistake for him to fall for me.
And that’s when I know, in my heart of hearts, that I can’t just tell him the truth and let this mess happen. I need to snuff out the match before anything catches fire. My stupid fake boyfriend stunt at the hotel caused this problem, so now, I need to fix it. Not Liam. Me.
Because if there’s one thing I can’t bear to be, it’s Liam Donovan’s biggest mistake.
And while I can’t control the outcome… at least I can try.
“I promise that this will all work out just fine, Annie. For SITL, and for us.” He’s calm. Quietly full of hope.
I take a deep breath. “Liam… I need to go.”
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?” He thinks I’m joking. Looks down at me and smiles that devastating smile. The one that usually rips me into a thousand pieces then puts them all back together.
This time, the pieces stay scattered on the floor like confetti.
47
LIAM
The night air is warm, cloying, beneath the twinkling stars. The breeze smells like sweetgrass and the promise of summer.
But in this moment, I feel nothing but cold, wintry disbelief as I stand in the driveway, staring at the dust still swirling above the gravel road that stretches towards the edge of the property as I attempt to make sense of what just happened.
Annie’s gone.
She called an Uber to take her to the train station. And then, she just got in the car and drove away. It took everything in me not to run after her, waving my arms and shouting “wait!”
