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7

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A couple of weeks like the previous ones and Liam would run out of energy.

In a few days, he had turned into a man of routine, ready to listen to advice and his sexual desire responded to only one woman: Eve.

Lately, he had been keeping an agenda, something he had never done before, but the situation forced him after Eve got tired of reminding him about the pending issues and the scheduled appointments in order to get the foundation off the ground.

He didn’t regret involving Eve in the project, she was the driving force of the foundation. The woman was full of energy, and she was always ready to do everything, even if she was having a bad day or had a terrible cold, like the previous week. He had offered to take care of her for a couple of days, but she had refused claiming that she couldn’t be without doing any work and, despite that it wasn’t the idea that he had in mind Eve kept saying that in a few days, the prescription drugs would do their job and she would feel like new.

There was no possible discussion with Eve when something got into her head.

Liam smiled, immersed in his thoughts.

He was sitting in his new office, from which they were arranging the development of the foundation. They had had a meeting with Agnes to acquaint themselves with her proposal for the festival of music and fashion that would be held to raise funds, and they were having talks to carry it out as soon as possible.

During those weeks, they returned to the community centers to continue helping. The last visit to the nursing home left Liam a little worried because the General didn’t seem to be feeling very well. Leaving aside the problem with his memory, the General looked tired, his skin had lost its glow, and Liam knew that he would soon hear the sad news of his departure. He wasn’t family, but Liam had grown to love the elderly man and his fabulous stories about the war, which he seemed to remember as if it had taken place the day before.

Life always had its dark and bright side. Liam finally found April after investigating her case and waiting for her to call him. He’d seen her during his recent visit to the soup kitchen. And he didn’t let her escape. Liam himself took her and her children to an apartment for rent, he bought them food, and he asked Eve to go with them to a store where they could buy some clothes. Eve was delighted to do this. The family would stay there until Liam could tell them that the foundation would finance a house for them, and would also get a job for April and education for the children.

Liam felt so pleased doing charitable things.

Liam checked his agenda once again before leaving the office, and he remembered the Lego project. That week’s visit to the vocational center in Brooklyn had been a disaster. Such a disaster that they decided to call off the visits to the center because the activity was supposed to integrate them and, although Liam and Eve explained that they could do the figures by themselves and give a lesson to the children, the authorities of the center refused and invited them to return the following year.

Liam remembered the last visit with a snort of indignation.

His cell phone rang.

“Are you on your way home? Shall I takebring anything?”

Liam smiled. Eve had athe superpower to make him laugh in athat silly way.

“I’d rather you didn’t bring anything. Not even clothes. :)”

And Liam pictured Eve entering to his apartment completely naked.

He couldn’t hold a growl back and had to adjust his penisput his member back in place, moving it inside thehis underwear that was becoming tight.

Liam turned off the computer and went home.

Every day, Liam felt had the necessity of seeing Eve, and if by any chance he could not see her, he craved forto talking to with her. He always had an excuse at hand to do so, although he knew too well that the girl dEve didn’t need an excuse to talk to him. She enjoyed it; he could tell that from her face. She enjoyed being with him at any time of the day, with or without people around. The girlEve couldn’t hide the wonderful way in which her smile broadenedwidened when Liam made a funny remark, even less, could she hide the moans that escaped her mouth uncontrollably every time hevocalist held her in his arms.

ThatIt was the best feeling in the world; having her in his arms, knowing that she belonged to him;. eHe enjoyinged thate spontaneous way in which she blushed every time he told her how much he loved her smile. And it was true. Eve’s smile had lit lightened  up Liam’s life. It was like a damn lamp that Liam needed to be glowing in order to feel safe.

Liam was a bit worried because he felt that Eve has robbing him of all the stability he knew in hisas ‘life.’ His plans were having sex with her, and that was all. Not going around life doingthinking philosophyically about her smile, or even worse, not being able to sleep if she wasn’t by his side.

But instead of being terrifyingied for being in love, he Liam preferred to live for the moment and see what happened in the future. In a couple of days, they band would go on tour and Liam would have the opportunity to clear his mind and think about his real feelings for Eve. They hadn’t talked about that and Liam preferred it that way. He didn’t want to complicate matters and cause Eve to understandthink about something that might hurt her.

Because his Liam’s feelings were giving him clear signs that Eve was becoming someone important in his life and that scared him to death.

A stable relationship with plans for the future; the panic was making him sweat. Much as Liam liked Eve and in spite all the feelings he could hadhave for her, he didn’t feel capable of being in a happy relationship. What if things ended up badly as it had happened with his mother?

No. No way. He couldn’t do that to Eve.

It was better to keep things thate way they were and avoid major complications.

***

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After ringing the doorbell, Eve was surrounded by a romantic setting, the room was decorated with candles and thewith a fragrant smelcentl of herbs combined with theand scent of meat coming out of the oven.

Eve felt lucky. Although thThough thee way in which Liam and she had met wasn’t the ideal, one, she Eve was grateful that it had happened like that. If they had met in another way, perhaps they wouldn’t be in the situation they were now, which she herself didn’t know how to describe in the real world but, in her fantasies, she loved to think of Liam as her boyfriend.

“It smells wonderful.”

“Thanks. I’ve learned to cook very well.”

“Shouldn’t I be the one saying whether the food is good or not?” She gotEve walked close to him, rested her arms on the vocalist’sLiam’s chest and stood on tiptoe to kiss Liam him on the lips.

His moThe man’s mouth reacted immediately to her wishes and opened halfway to let her in.

“Damn it,” he groaned dragging Eve towards him. “I need to kiss you right now. We have half an hour until the turkey is ready to take out of the oven.”

“I want to take a shower first.”

“The tub is filled with fresh water for us to get in.”

The girlEve moved away a little apart and walked towards the bedroom.

Liam’s apartment was the typical bachelor pad. A couch facing the TV, a plain dining room, basic kitchen gadgets, a bed with matching night tables and that was it. Thate apartment also portrayed his humbleness; how little he cared about luxury despite the fact that he could afford it.

Eve took off her clothes, got in the tub and relaxed. A few minutes later, Liam entered the bathroom holding two glasses of wine. He offered one of the glasses to Eve and got in the tub with her.

Eve sighed when the man surrounded her with his arms and hugged her tightly.

“How was your day?”

“Fine,” he answered without giving too much importance to the issue. Eve didn’t keep asking because she was busy kissing him from the back of his ear to his shoulder and she decided that the conversation could wait.

“Liam...”

“Mmm?” Eve was completely relaxed, and she became even more so when Liam’s hands started to caress her breasts.

Eve arched her back instinctively, and her breasts, covered by the vocalist’s hands camerose out of the water.

The manLiam gave out a grunted.

“How do you manage to unbalance me like that?” he asked Eve with breaking voice.

“I’ve got a sspecial powers,” she smiled and turned back. Her hands were free to play with Liam’s erection.

The vocalist Liam leaned his head back and took a deep breath.

Eve wanted a long night of sex like the ones they always had, but she knew for certain that it was a good idea to introduce some changes from time to time and, that day, she was thinking of rushing into action.

“I’ll be waiting for you in bed,” Eve whispered into the vocalist’s ear and got out the tub before the manhe could react.

Eve barely dried herself off with thea towel, she and then lay down with and pointed her legs spread legs toand facing the bathroom door.

When Liam got out of the tub and witnessed thate scene, he reacted as Eve had expected. He got on top of her and stopped repressing his wildest instincts.

“I don’t want to repress anything today, Eve.” Liam rubbed his erection against her vagina while he looked directly into her eyes.

“Me neither.”

***

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Liam lostwas losing track of the number of grunts that were coming out of his mouth, together with several curses and the little sanity that still remained in him, while he went around the house looking for a condom.

They seemed to have vanished.

He always ruan out of food before running out of condoms, so therere had to be one somewhere.

The sight of Eve touching her biggest erogenous zone while he desperately sought for protection was overwhelming.

He was thankful for the ‘almost’ lack of drawers in his apartment because that was useful for saving time.

“I can’t believe it!”

He cursed inwardly a thousand times more.

Liam really enjoyed postponing thehis orgasm with Eve. He couldn’t complain of that experience that caused him to lose every connection with the universe except for the one with the girl he liked, but he wanted to have the ‘quick’ type of encounter with Eve. Sometimes he had the urge to penetrate her and make her burstexplode in a few minutes.

On that very day, when Eve longed for that encounter as much as himselfe did, his house had decided to soak uphide the damn condoms.

Liam frowned and looked around thinking where he could he have one. The one that he would keepkept just in case.

He couldn’t find any. Not even the one he used to keep in his wallet.

What the hell was wrong with him? How could he have forgotten to buy some?

Liam sighed.

The oven timer alarm rang, indicating that it was time to turn it off. He did so and then took the turkey out of the oven, leaving it on top of the kitchen counter.

“Don’t worry, buddy,” he talked to his penis. “We’re going to solve this somehow.”

He grunted again.

When he turned around, he found Eve.

She was smiling amusedin amusement.

“"What’s wrong, honey?” Eve wrapped her hands around histhe manpenis’s member with her hands, clouding his judgment.

She kissed his neck while she moved her hands rhythmically.

Liam couldn’t think that way.

The girlEve went down, kissing his whole body, until she reached his penis and, leaving games aside, she introducedserted it into her mouth.

Liam felt like he was going to die. The warmth of her mouth would have driven anyone crazy.

Liam grunted again, but this time it was because the thought that anyone could have a place in the girl’sEve’s mouth crossed his mind.

He lifted her up without notice and gave her an invasive kiss. One of those kisses intended to mark his territory.

That’s how he felt, he wanted to mark her, to make her his.

And she seemed to be more than ready for that.

He lifted her up before he ended up seeing stars.

Eve smiled toat him sensually.

She came close to him and said:,

“I also take care of myself, Liam. And I trust you.”

He couldn’t help taking Eve’s face in his hands and looked into her eyes.

“Say it again.”

“I trust you.”

He kissed her as if there was no tomorrow. Their tongues fought a desperate battle that grew bigger as they caressed each other.

Liam sat on the couch and petted his erection as an invitation for her to sit astride him. She did as she was indicated and Liam held his memberpenis, stroking Eve’sthe girl’s biggest erogenous zone with its tip.

“Oh, Liam!”

“Yes, honey. Do you like it?”

She nodded.

Liam moved a little and placed his memberpenis at the entrance of Eve’s private parts. Right after their sexual organs brushed and Liam felt the overflowing humidity of her vagina, combined with moans and the simple vision of Eve rubbing her own breasts, the vocalisthe took a deep breath and started the penetrationng her.

He would have taken pleasure in something wilder, but it had been years since he last had unprotected sex and, for any reason that he still couldn’t figure out, he wanted to enjoy thate delicate moment between his girlwoman and him.

His girlwoman?

Liam frowned while he looked at her in the eye.

“What is it?” Eve stopped the smooth and rhythmic movements she made as she moaned with pleasure.

Liam didn’t know how to express his feelings; neither did he know whether the timing was right but...

“Damn it!” She moved again, and now he was feeling everything once more.

She was warm, soft, perfect for him. He could feel all her interior walls tightening with desire.

“Liam, what is it? We can stop if you want.”

“No,” Hhe whispered fearfully. “Don’t you ever stop, please.” Liam put his hand on her neck and drew her closer to kiss her.

The kiss was soft and tender without leaving aside the sensuality reigning between them that night.

He looked at her in the eyes while their movements became synchronized again.

“This is unbelievable.” Liam could feel his voice breaking, and he didn’t not know whether it should be attributed to his excitement or to the fear that was growing in him as a consequence of what Eve made him feel. “Feeling you is the best, Eve.” hHee drew her to his mouth again to kiss her.

Eve’s throat was full of stifled moans while Liam continued with his slow and constant movements until he felt the tension inside her, that tension that precedes the maximum pleasure.

He reacted like an animal because the mere fact of feeling her like that raised to the maximum power his need of making her his.

Although Eve said she was no one’s property. It was the same for him, Eve would be his. Completely his.

Liam  speeded up his movements while she writhed in pleasure and, as soon as his erection was pressedsqueezed by her internal muscles, he was incapable of keep holding himself back, and he let his fluidssemen invade Eve’s interior completelybody.

Not only did he want to make her his. In that subtle moment, Liam realized that he had the urgent of belonging to her need of Eve making him hers.

***

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After several orgasms, Eve was so hungry that she couldn’t think straight.

“Shall we take a break and eat something?”

Liam let out a guffaw.

He looked at her in the eye, gave her a sweet kiss on the lips and nodded.

“I’m also starving.”

They got up, washed, and sat at the table, still wearing bathrobes.

The first bite that Eve savored tasted of glory. Not only because she was hungry, but also because Liam was a wonderful cook. And also, a wonderful lover, she thought.

She salivated excessively, and she felt her stomach shakingquiver at the thought of the enjoyment she had experienced some minutes ago.

Eve had had a couple of stable relationships, which had been more related to sex than to feelingsemotions, but as for stable, they had been so. Then, it was not the first time she had unprotected sex. However, it felt as if she had never done it before.

Yes, Eve knew she was getting corny with the issue, but she couldn’t leave her real feelings aside. And she had to admit that she was on cloud nine when Liam agreed to have skin-to-skin sex with her. No barriers; connected. Just like she felt with him all the time.

Yes, she was awfully corny.

“This is great,” she said with some ffood in her mouth. She tried to keep her manners, but she was so hungry that she couldn’t.

Liam gave her a shy smile.

“Thanks,” he tilted his head. “I like cooking, and, to be honest I enjoyed it even more when I thought I was preparing it for you.”

It’s was just just that he was perfect, how could she not be corny?

“I’ll take some more. After all, I’m going to burn the extra calories in bed or anywhere else.”

Liam smiled nodding.

“Good point. I don’t understand why you complain that much about food and your body. Enjoy what you eat and don’t become obsessed with exercise.”

“Mmmm.” Eve understood his point. “I get it, but it’s not that easy. The Collins has this damn gene that makes us gain weight just by looking at food. Well,” Eve corrected herself, “not all the Collins, in fact. My aunt Olivia, ateate like a horse, and she never gotot fat, just like Brooke.”

“Your older sister?”

Eve nodded her head.

“I’ve liked her since I saw her with you that day at the coffee house.”

Eve recalled that day and the way she couldn’t stand Liam by back then.

She sighed.

“What is it?”

“It’s just that I remembered how we used to fight like cats and dogs. I remember that you wouldn’t stop dating women and causing scandals, and now you’re so different.”

“And do you like that or not?,” Liam asked carefully.

“Of course I like it, but I had never thought that you and I would end up like this.”

He smiled sideways. She loved when she did that.

Eve stayed silent, looking at him.

It was true, that she had never thought that something like thatis could happen between them. And that led her to ask herself, what exactly was happening between them?

“Is there anything else going on?” Liam rested his utensils on his plate and took her by the hand without breaking the eye contact.

“Just silly ideas that I have.”

Eve felt stupid. What happened to thate Eve she was accustomed to? The one who was always complaining about humanity and injustice?

She seemed to have turned into a wimpy who needed an apron and five children to feel satisfied.

“Do you think that now we are different?”

Eve trembled when she realized how well Liam knew her.

“Don’t you think so?” Her inability to control her feelings embarrassed her. “Maybe I’m overreacting a bit.”

Liam sipped his wine.

“We have changed. I have also realized that,” Liam sighed and held her hand, “but I don’t know what to think about what we have...”

Eve was startled by her cell phone ringing. She looked at the clock that hung from the wall in Liam’s kitchen: 5.45 a.m.

“Bad news,” she said while she ran to her phone.

She didn’t check the number that appeared on the screen.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Eve. It’s Lily. Sorry for calling this late. I thought that you used to turn off your cell phone at night.”

“No, no, well, yes, but it’s...” Eve wanted to know what was going on. “What’s going on?”

“General Michael has just passed away, and I know that Liam is fond of him, so I thought he should know. I would have called him, but I have just realized that I don’t have his number.”

“Don’t worry. I will tell him right away. I’m sure he would like to go there as soon as possible.”

“It would be better in the morning; right now we’re completing the paperwork and organizing the small funeral we are going to havegive at the center, because. We were his only acquaintances.”

“Right. So, we will be there early in the morning. Thanks.”

“You too, see you later.”

Eve hung up and turned overaround.

Liam was leaning against the window with his gaze lost somewhere in Central Park.

Eve approached him and hugged him from behindthe back.

“Are you alright?”

He nodded.

“I kneew this was about to happen. He didn’t look wellI didn’t see him well the last time we were there.” Liam turned around and hugged Eve to hug her better.

She leaned her head on his chest while she let herself be swept away by the soft beats of his heart.

“I’m sorry,” she said holding him firmly.

“Me too, but such is life.”

She could feel him sighing.

“I’m going to get changed.”

“Liam, Lily told me that we’d better wait until dawn. The funeral will be held in the morning.”

Therefore, tThey decided to lie down for a couple of hours before leaving to give their final farewell to General Johnson.

Despite Eve tried, trying she couldn’t get a moment’s sleep, on the one hand, it was because she would have liked to continue listening to how Liam felt about their change toward each other, and, above all, where they were in their relationship; on the other hand, Eve kept thinking that death was always badly-timed. It always took people at the least appropriate moment.

Eve knew it with her aunt Olivia and now with the General, It happened just when Liam was growing to love the old man and talked about him as if he were part of his family.

The time offor getting ready finally arrived came.

They were immersed in deep silence since they had layid down in bed. Eve wanted to ask Liam what was he feeling. She wanted him to open up with her, but she also knew that putting that kind of pressure on him could cause him to retreat into his shell.

Eve preferred to maintain silence until he decided to break it.

When they arrived toat the nursing home, most of the elderly people were sitting in the common room and talking about different topics; some of them had a sad look on their face. Others were giving the final farewell to General Johnson’s coffin, which rested in front of them.

Eve gave her condolences to some of thosethe people present. The ones she knew from theirs visits to the center.nursing home.

And after that, she walked towards the coffin with Liam in order to give their final farewell to the General.

At that moment, they heard screams coming from the aislehallway that led to the rooms. Eve went out to see what was going on while the nurses kept an eye on the elderly, who were becoming unsettled due to the anguished screams of their companion.

Eve saw two nurses and the director of the centernursing home trying to calm down the woman who she talked with every time she visited the center: Helen.

She wasHelen looked desperate, and, when Liam left the room and stood next to her, the woman seemed to lose her mind completely.

“I have never seen her like that” said Eve, and, seeing that Liam didn’t answer, she turned her head to look at him.

Liam was trembling as if he were standing completely naked in the coldest of winter. He wouldn’t take his eyes off the nurse, Helen, who was still screaming while tears flooded Liam’sthe vocalist’s eyes.

“Liam, for God’s sake. You’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

He Eve took him by the arm and tried to meet his gaze, but all she could getgot was a little push. After which she saw Liam leaveing the centernursing home as if he had seen a damn ghost.

She followed him, but the man managed to hail a cab, get into it, and leave without saying a word to her.

What the hell was going on?

Eve felt an oppression pressure in her chest that was about to make her burst into tears. And It was caused by the thought that something serious was happening to the man she loved and the fool didn’t want to share it with her.

Wait!, had she just said ‘the man she loved’? She was Eve felt lost.

She wound down on her seatShe sat down in a seat and while she looked at Helen, who was being sedated.

Helen.

It had all started when Liam saw Helen, but who was hershe and why had he bolted when he saw her?

Eve took out her cell phone and called him.

Liam didn’t answer, as expected.

The director of the centernursing home approached her.

“What happened to her?”

“She has burstsepisodes in which she thinks she is seeing her son. Do you remember that the day you first came she thought you were a police officer who had come to give her news about her lost son?”

Eve nodded.

“Well, sometimes the episode you have witnessed occurs. She thinks she is seeing her son and falls into a state of desperation. Until now, it had always happened while she was in her room and especially at the time when everyone is watching TV. Today was the first episode outside her room.” The woman took a deep breath, she looked tired. “I’m really sorry that you had to witness this.”

Eve noticed that the woman hadn’t realized that Liam had suddenly left the centernursing home.

And then something that she had completely forgotten came to her mind, and, without realizing it, she could Eve put together all the pieces of the damn puzzle that had appeared in front of her. Some minutes ago.

Helen was screaming in Liam’s direction and called him by her son’s name: Brian.

Liam’s real name.

***

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Liam felt like he was going to drown in his own tears.

That stuffe idea that men don’t cry was a stupid lie made up by some abnormal person who didn’t have a bit of feelings.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t his case, and he was showing that to the cab driver that was taking him straight home.

The man looked at him with compassion through the rear-view mirror.

The vocalist wanted to calm down and think, but he wasn't successful. It was impossible for him to control the mix of intense feelingsemotions that he was experiencing at that moment. Anger, anguish, joy, sadness, he didn’t know how many more could be identified because at some point they fused thatso much that it was impossible to keep identifying them.

The only thing he knew for certain was that his life, or what he knew as his life, had vanished the same day he met Eve.

Damn it.

If she hadn’t crossed his path, he wouldn’t have discovered Helen’s critical condition.

He shed a new wave of tears.

Every time he thought of the way that Helen screamed, he remembered what an idiot he had been when he ran away and made her suffer due to his stupid fear of being loved.

More or less the same thing he was experiencing now with Eve.

And it was much easier to blame the public relations assistant for all his misfortune than to assumingrealize, once and for all, that he was in love with her and that finding Helen again was an opportunity that he shouldn’t waste.

It was as if life were telling him: “Hey you idiot! Here’s the formula for happiness, don’t spoilwaste it!”

But Liam was blind with rage at himself and at the childhood that his real mother had not given him.

His fears, frustrations, insecurities, everything emerged again the moment he saw Helen screaming his name in desperation.

And aslike a damn coward, he had bolted.

He couldn’t be any more of an idiot.

And he would continue being so because he didn’t dare to go back to the centernursing home and face the music.

He Liam locked himself in his house, grabbed thea bottle of vodka and he started gulping it faster as he should have. The transparent liquid burned his throat and stomach, but it wasn’t successful in untying the knot that was stuck in his trachea.

He took Julie. And rested placed the bottle on the table that was in front of the couch.

His cell phone rang again.

It was Eve.

He was not going to answer to anybody for the rest of the day. So, he turned off his phone and kept looking for a melody that matched his sadness.

He couldn’t find it. It was as if the sound of musical notes had been erased from his mind and as if he had never had a special connection with music in general.

He had never felt like that. Not even when he played the guitar for the first time.

He puffed.

He thought of Helen again. He remembered the moments he had spent with her. The way in which she took an interest in what he liked. How the woman was concerned about taking care of him and teaching him to be a good man.

He had disappointed her in every sense of the word.

Liam cried and drank until his mind went blank.

That was for the best. No consciousness meant no claimregretss, no tears, not a thing.

He thought of Eve.

Liam felt like he ran out of air when he thought that he may have hurt the relationist in the same way he had hurt Helen. No. He couldn’t do that to Eve, and he was sure that, sooner or later, his true self would emerge and he would end up causing anher irreparable damage to her.

It was better it ends now thatn later.

He needed to end what they had.

***

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Eve couldn’t continue with her duties that day. She told her mother that she wasn’t feeling rightwell and that that, as she had suffered from a cold some a few days before, perhaps she was having a relapse.

She got to her house and stayed on the couch, thinking of the events of that day.

Her cell phone beeped.

It was a message.

“We can’t go on withlike this, Eve. I’m sorry.”

Her hands trembled when she read the message and Eve felt she started to hyperventilate.

She dialed Liam’s number.

“Eve.”

“What’s going on, Liam? I think I deserve more than a cowardly message.”

Silence.

“Liam.”

“I’m sorry, Eve, really. We have only been seeing each other for a few days and what we are dealing with is an illusion; we’d better end with this now before it gets worse for you.”

Eve felt her blood boiling. A 9.5 earthquake was hitting her world, and everything would inevitably be destroyed.

“We can continue handling the foundation through the lawyers, so that...”

Eve stopped listening.

What he was saying didn’t havemake any sense.

She hung up.

And before bursting into tears, Eve decided that the things we fear need to be faced.

She didn’t think twice before getting her purse, her keys, and going straight to Liam Wood’s’ place to clarify thingssome points.

A few minutes later, she was ringing his doorbell.

“Open up.” Eve banged on the door several times.

Liam opened it.

She got walked in and looked around. An empty bottle of vodka rested on the living-room table. The kitchen was immaculate, which meant that Liam hadn’t eaten anything in the whole day and that he had a high tolerance for alcohol because he looked as if nothing had happened. He staggered a little, but it was not a big deal.

And Julesie was lying on the floor.

“What do you want, Eve?”

“That you tell me to my face what you were trying to tell me on the phone.”

“I’m a coward, Eve. That It has been provedn more than enough today when I ran away after seeing Helen desperate to reach me.”

Eve ran out of words.

But she couldn’t remain silent for a long time.

“That’s the woman who was like a mother to you, isn’twasn’t she?”

Liam nodded in silence.

She put her hand on top of his, but he tookremoved it away immediately.

“Eve,” he started talking. “I really don’t want to continue with this relationship. I’m totally confused, and everyone who shows love for me ends up suffering a lot due to my actions. I don’t want to hurt you. That’s why we can’t keep seeing each other.”

“Why do you think you’re going to hurt me, Liam? I haven’t told you this, but I have never been happier than these days with you. Getting to know you, discovering your gesturespersonality, your manias, a mannerism, that’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Besides the fact that you were my platonic love crush and you turned into...” she took a deep breath, “my real love,” she got as he had a pang in her stomach when she admitted it out loud.

Eve saw a couple of tears escapeing Liam’s eyes.

“Why are you suffering when you should be happy for having found Helen? Now you can have a second chance with her. Why do you want to push me away when I love you? And I’m sure that you have feelings for me?”

Eve’s felt that her voice started to break.

They looked at each other in the eyes for some a few seconds.

“I’m not going to put pressure on you, Liam. If that is your decision, I can’t do anything else. I just ask you to look for me when you start regretting it because I won’t be able to forget you that easily. I don’t want to do it, and besides, I’m sure that you will regret it.”

Eve tookgrabbed her purse and left, hoping that at any point Liam would pronounceshout her name and ask her to stay.

But that didn’t happen.

The only sound she gotheard was that of the door closing behind her and her own steps running towards the street. She tried to breathe in all the air that she could, since. She was in a state of near-fainting due to that awful pain that had settled in hiser chest.

And now? What was she going to do without Liam? How was she going to get rid of his smell, his kisses, and his smile? How could she have allowed that man to change her this much?

And Eve looked up at the sky, she didn’t believe in miracles, but she thought that asking for one wouldn’t hurt, because, to be honest, she didn’t want to part from Liam.