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“There is a reason I’ve shared so much context about my relationship with Avril,” Victoria announced a short while later. The mountain of gifts in his house had been reduced to almost nothing. Only a few more presents, including his gift for Tess, which he intended to carry very, very carefully, were all that remained. This would be their last time in his house, meaning it would likely be their last time alone today.
With that knowledge floating in his mind, he left those gifts on the ground, instead facing the buxom, beautiful professor. “I’m listening.”
“Late last night, Avril drunkenly called me. You, Liam, were the topic of conversation that she broached.”
Her revelation practically gouged a chunk of flesh from his side, and it was by the skin of his teeth that he didn’t wince painfully.What did you do, Avril?!
“Specifically, in between her mild slurring and a few haphazard tangents, she quite plainly emphasized thatIneeded to stop—and I quote—‘being an uptight, icy bitch’ toward you.”
Now, thatwasenough to induce the wince he’d barely managed to hold at bay. Meanwhile, opposite him, Victoria appeared entirely serene.
“Wow, um, I’m really sorry,” he rushed to say, unsure how else to respond. What else should he say? That he hadn’t badmouthed her in any way, as a defense against her assuming that he was the cause for last night’s outburst, or that Avril probably didn’t mean what she’d said? Both options soured on his tongue.
“That’s not all,” Victoria said, offering him no respite from the churning in his belly. “She also informed me that I would need to get used to you being around, as you and Anna ‘are getting along great.’ In all our time together, I’ve experienced most of Avril’s many flavors. However, this was unusually close to being an ultimatum, which I had not experienced from her before.”
Victoria’s hand went up before he could workshop a response. Her pale, sharp eyes choked his lungs anyway, and he remained as silent as a forgotten country route next to a highway.
“It was perplexing, to say the least. She knows how I am, and she knows how I felt about Anna’s situation, so it seemed to have come out of nowhere.”
Liam could feel his heart thudding in his throat. He’d been prepared for today to be one of the best days of his life. Now, it appeared that it might teeter on the brink of utter annihilation.
“With what you mentioned about your outing yesterday, about your running into Trent, and about how he reacted toward you, it has helped clear things up. She utterly loathes him; she hates anyone who sneers down at people over social or economic status in the way that he always has. And given your ongoing relationship with Anna, I can see how that hostile meeting, a few too many drinks later that night, and our phone call are all connected.”
Relief, the greatest salve in existence, flooded his body. He couldn’t even stop himself from breathing a sigh of relief, which prompted Victoria to raise a single eyebrow.
“Sorry, sorry,” he said, collecting himself beforehewas the one to reveal his and Avril’s secrets accidentally. “And I’m sorry she called you and said that stuff. She shouldn’t be taking out her frustrations on her friends.”
“She apologized over the phone this morning, so it is already water under the bridge,” the dark-haired professor said. “Nor am I holding any grudge against you for her having said what she said. I promise that. Yet, it has stuck with me through today. That is why I wanted to speak with you about the things that we have. I wanted to share enough of my history before I ask you—as I am doing now—to discuss something that I’ve been opposed to since I was first told about it.”
Liam didn’t need the luxury of multiple guesses to figure out the topic she wanted them to pivot to.
“Me and Anna.”
Victoria nodded. “Idon’tdislike you, Liam. I’m not angry with you, annoyed by the choices you’ve made, or trying to control your actions. But I do want to speak my piece, if you’ll let me do so.”
Slowly, albeit not unworriedly, he nodded. If Avril had stood here in her place, he was certain she would have launched into her spiel without even so much as a sarcastic “by your leave.” However, he could believe that the unfathomably beautiful woman standing before him would have accepted it if he’d shaken his head and declined to hear her out. It would have thoroughly pumped the brakes on any chances of them seeing eye to eye, which was why he ultimately didn’t deny her from speaking her piece.
Yet… hedidwant to have at least a decent relationship with her, seeing as he knew he’d likely have to get used to seeing her around, the same as she would him. And from what he could tell, respect was a prominent proponent of the molecules that made up Victoria Moreno.
“Thank you,” she said, following his acquiescent nod. “I’ll keep things concise. Simply stated, I do not like the manner in which Avril and Tess have handled Anna’s situation. I am not as close to Anna as they are, but we are friends, so I am not completely in the dark about her family situation. Regardless, I feel that it is wrong of them to push for what is effectively an opposing parallel to her father’s wishes—pushing her to date you rather than Trent Alden.”
Thatwasconcise. Straightforward, direct, and that was all. Afterward, Victoria waited patiently for his response. He didn’t make her wait very long, and he did his best to return her directness.
“I get where you’re coming from,” he said, already mostly aware of her point of view, which Tess and Avril had shared with him a few days ago. “I had a lot of hesitance when Tess first pitched things to me. I didn’t know Anna, I didn’t know Trent, and getting involved in a family dispute really wasn’t something I wanted to do. To be frank, I’ve still got some worries about how things might end up. Though, now that I’ve met Trent, it’s a little less. He was pretty awful.”
“Yes, he is,” Victoria agreed. “I don’t know you well, but I know Tess and Avril think highly of you. My opinion has nothing to say about your character. I am sure you are everything they tout you to be, and I am fully aware that Trent is a despicable human being.”
In the face of her compliment, he smiled meekly. Given the unusual nature of his relationships with all three other women who were part of this conversation, he didn’t know if he could earnestly accept her compliment. He definitely couldn’tsharethose secrets with her.
But what if he could? Rather, what if he could share one of them?
It was as if a weight sitting on his shoulders, forcing him to keep them uncomfortably hunched so that it didn’t send him sprawling to the ground, lightened. Possibly, he could even lift it off altogether. Secrets sucked. He’d come to understand that over the past couple of weeks. Their oppressiveness, especially in the quantity and severity that he’d accrued them, never entirely dissipated. He had more of them now than he’d ever had. At the very least, he was unaccustomed to secrets of such magnitude.
When he’d implied to Tess that he and Anna were focused more on being friends than dating partners, he’d fretted that she might respond negatively to it. Instead, her acceptance had offered him no small amount of relief. Perhaps there was more he could unshoulder here. He wouldn’t share everything, and he would be indirect, not wanting to betray Anna’s trust, but this could potentially kill two birds with one stone.
“And Anna knows that too,” he said, deciding to launch that stone. “She is not helpless, and I would even say she’s been pretty underestimated. Tess and Avril might have put our meeting into motion, but Anna and I are our own people. We’ve had lots of conversations about lots of things, and Anna’s shared a lot about how she feels about her situation with me. Some of that stuff makes its way to Tess or Avril, but some of it doesn’t. Some of that stuff is just between us, and it’ll probably stay that way. Ultimately, it’s not anyone else’s business but ours.”
After unburdening things in the manner that he felt comfortable doing, he emulated her patient silence. It was up to her inferences now. He hoped that she could parse his meaning; he really did. He didn’t know what would happen if she could, how she would react, but just the act of opening up a little had soothed some of the tension he felt deep within. He didn’t dare to hope that a time would come when he could sit all four women down and share every one of his secrets. That catharsis was likely far beyond what reality would grant him. This meager opening of the faucet would have to be enough.
