Adore You | ✔

Chapter 59

My uber dropped me off at the Lincoln center at 6:40 pm. I felt grown up in my dress. Womanly. Which was apparently the same thing as feeling confident while uncomfortable. I waited by the fountain taking pictures of the building to text Nicole and my mom. 

At 6:50, he still wasn't there. I decided to call him when he picked up the phone, I barely recognized his voice. He sounded hoarse and stuffy.

"Uhhg Lia, I am so sorry," I heard him groan into the phone. "I caught the flu or a bug or something. I completely fell asleep around noon and forgot to call you. I feel like such an ass."

"You sound pretty awful," I said.

He made the mistake of chuckling and started coughing and wheezing.

"I'll make it up to you, Lia, I promise." He said and in a voice that sounded as if he was going to pass out.

"Alright, I'll hold you to it. Feel better," I said and hung up.

"Great," I said to myself, leaning back against the stone fountain. I looked up the bus times to go home and saw there was one in 15 minutes. I decided to stay for a bit, and people watch to pass the time. The location was stunning, and everyone was dressed up to watch the show. I groaned as I remembered that my dad was home. I didn't really want to be around him. He was going through one of his lows, which meant loud music that waxed poetic about a broken country. I wondered if I could just go catch a movie at the movie theatre and then get something to eat before heading home. As I pondered what to do with my time, I noticed a familiar face amongst the cloud of people.

"Liam?" I called out

He paused and then turned around at the sound of his name.

"Look at you, fancy pants."

"What are you doing here?" I asked. He was also dressed well, in a suit. I never had seen him dressed up before. He was even wearing a tie.

"There's an art exhibit I was going to go to, but I have some friends that are going to watch the ballet, and I had to drop off some tickets. What about you."

"I had a date."

"A date? Had?"

"He is really sick and couldn't make it."

"He couldn't tell you this before you made all this effort?" he asked, motioning to my outfit.

"He apparently was not conscious for most of the day."

"Sounds like an excuse."

"Nah, it was a date with Gareth; he doesn't seem like the time to stand someone up."

He burst out laughing, "Gareth Smith?"

I rolled my eyes. "Everyone has given me the same reaction already; you guys are jerks."

He put his hand around my shoulder, "I'm sorry he just has a reputation as not being very bright."

"He's nice."

"Yeah, yeah." He said done with the subject. "So you were stood up. What are you going to do now? You're all dressed up. Want to come with me to the exhibit? They're going to have some Klimt pieces on display."

"Sure." Grabbing my clutch.

He held his arm out for me to hold.

"I hadn't seen you in a while," I said as we walked.

"Yeah, I've been swamped."

"I missed you," I said. I had. Liam had been such a good friend to me over the summer. Showing me the city, training with me when Maria couldn't, or when Robbie had been really rude, and I didn't want to go to her house. He was fun and distracting, and he could be a good listener when he wanted to be.