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“I am doing all right,” she said faintly, emotion gathering within her eyes like a slowly draining whirlpool. “It’s been a mixed bag, though the good far outweighs the bad. There’s still a lot I’m processing, even months after the decision.”
“That’s… good,” Liam said awkwardly. “Sorry for taking the conversation there.”
Tess smiled softly. “Don’t apologize. Your concern means a lot, and it’s helpful for me when I talk about it.”
This time, the immediacy of his reply didn’t catch him off guard.
“Then will you talk about it with me?”
Her smile remained. “Your consideration is noted and greatly appreciated, but I don’t want to bog your return home down with my sob story.”
He shook his head ferociously. “There’s nothing else I’d rather be doing than this. If I can help you feel even a little bit better, I’d gladly stay for hours.”
He announced it so boldly that he almost blushed, but he pummeled his body’s flare of heat back inside, disallowing it from even a minor appearance on his face. He maintained a focused, steady expression, holding Tess’s gaze so she could see he meant every word. After a few moments spent absorbing the ferventness of his feelings, her smile evolved.
“I amsoagitated that you won’t be in one of my classes,” she said again. “You would have been my favorite student.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” he replied, bolstered by her response to his earnestness. “It could be a roommates-as-best-friends situation where you find you can’t stand the kind of student I am. You only know me as a caring, attentive, and amazing next-door neighbor.”
“Oh, is that all?” Tess settled more comfortably on the couch, laying her cheek on one arm as she smiled at him. “How is it I’m remembered, then?”
Flowing forward on a rare spurt of confidence, he answered, “As the most compassionate, wonderful, and elegant neighbor anyone could ask for.”
Tess’s eyes flashed with each compliment, and her expression broadened into as radiant a smile he could remember her showing him. His heart leaped into the stratosphere as if launched by a cannon.
“Elegant, am I? I haven’t heard that word to describe me in quite some time,” she teased.
“Is that not how everyone talks all the time at Bellmore?”
Tess rolled her eyes and hid her smile behind the back of her hand. “Only when they think it’ll impress whomever they’re trying to show off in front of.”
Caught red-handed, he finally blushed. While steam poured out of his ears, Tess closed the gap between them. She patted him on his forearm.
“I didn’t say it didn’twork,” she clarified mirthfully. “And… I would like to take you up on your offer, assuming I’m still able to.”
“Of course,” he immediately said.
Tess glanced toward her mantelpiece at one of the spots where he’d noticed a vacant spot. “As I said, it’s been a mixed bag. I suspect it’s the same for all but the worst marriages. Much of it stems from a belief I developed in my twenties, in which I began to assume I would nevermarry. Pursuing my doctorate consumed most of my twenties; relationships were tertiary to my lifestyle. I was—I remain—a driven individual.
“Perhaps I rushed into my marriage. I think I could say the same from Douglas’s perspective. We met after a friend of mine set us up on a blind date, enjoyed the other’s mind and ambition, and decided we’d make good partners because of it. Idowonder if we might have had a decent friendship, or at least a cordial acquaintanceship, if we’d kept romance out of our relationship.”
She paused, chewing on the corner of her lower lip, seemingly trapped in a spiral of thoughts that he could only wonder how many times it’d clutched her in the past several years. Her mouth eventually formed a frown as she realized she’d grown silent.
“My apologies,” she said.
“It’s all right,” he told her, meaning it. “It can’t have been easy, leaving a ten-year marriage.”
“It certainly wasn’t, though it’s the lesser of my regrets to having forfeited several years of my life in a loveless, passionless marriage. As I said, my relief to be free of Douglas far outweighs my regret that we couldn’t make things work.” She breathed in deeply. “I’ve had my time to process everything. I have been happier these past few months than I have been in a long time.” She smiled as if to prove it. “I aim to concentrate on the future rather than lamenting the past. It’s the best thing for all parties involved.”
Liam nodded. Questions still burbled within his mind like a frenetic stream passing over rocks, primarily about what had finally caused her to realize that Douglas was a colossal ass, but he forced himself to ignore their presence and keep flowing onward. Sating his curiosity wasn’t worth forcing Tess to relive more painful memories. If she was ready to move on, then all the better. He basically said as much.
“I’m glad to hear that, and I really hope it will be for the best.”
“Even for Douglas?” Tess asked, swapping from serious to teasing in a split second.
“Even… for… Douglas,” he said through gritted teeth.
Tess’s smile fermented into a vibrant grin. “You hesitated there. A lot.”
