Miranda stopped herself and stared at me.
My fight or flight tried to kick in, wanting me to run.
There was no more running for me.
Emily wasn’t a doormat anymore.
“You’re all dolled up,” she said. “You’re going out tonight.”
“I had plans…”
“And I just show up like this. Let me get out of your hair, Emily.”
“Miranda, stop,” I said. “I can cancel plans or change them.”
“You look pretty.”
“I look terrible,” I said.
I walked to the kitchen and started to wash all the extra makeup off my face.
It also gave me a second to gasp for a deep breath because fucking Miranda was in my fucking apartment.
“Do you want to know why I’m really here?” Miranda asked.
I took a handful of paper towels and dried my face.
I turned to face her and nodded.
“He never chased me down,” she whispered.
“What?”
“Liam. When we were first dating and getting serious, he would always chase me down.”
“Chase you down?”
“If we argued. I would run away. I would say mean things. I would do anything to hurt him. And he always came after me.”
“You hurt him…?”
Miranda nodded. “It was my way of testing him.”
“You did that all these years?”
“Of course. But this time when it counted the most… nothing.”
“Miranda…”
“Just listen to me,” she said. She drank more wine. I knew where this was going already… “Just listen, Emily. We had a huge argument over the phone. We both said we didn’t want to get married to each other. How can that be true? We didn’t do anything for the wedding together. Then he didn’t call me so I sent the ring back. I wanted to see what he would do. Because the Liam I knew would find me. And put that ring back on my finger.”
My heart was done twisting.
Now it was racing.
I was feeling a mixture of anger and guilt.
This new feeling wasn’t that great at all.
“That meant he got the ring and just ignored it. Ignored me. Ignored us.” Miranda groaned and wiped her cheeks with her free hand. “I’m not letting that happen.”
She chugged the rest of what was her third glass of wine.
And when she tried to put it on the counter, she missed completely, letting the glass fall to the floor and shatter.
“I’ll find out the truth,” Miranda said as she walked away without even offering to clean up the mess she made.
I looked down at the broken glass and nodded.
This wasn’t Miranda’s mess.
This was my mess.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Liam
I had a drink as I looked around the apartment.
Tonight I was going to talk to Emily about finding our own place together. Unless, of course, she wanted to stay in her building. If that were the case, then I’d get my own place until she was ready.
Or, shit, maybe I’d pull a Jackson and Callie and become Emily’s neighbor.
Whatever it was, I was going to get out of this place and put everything in the past where it belonged.
All that mattered was going for-
My phone screamed with a text.
I saw Emily’s name and smiled.
Miranda is here. She’s drunk. You need to get here RIGHT NOW.
I put my phone down and shut my eyes.
When I opened them, I told myself the text message was going to be different.
It was going to be Emily telling me she loved me. Or a dirty text about my cock. Or maybe a dirty picture from her.
Nope.
It was the same text message.
I started to reply with questions that weren’t Emily’s to answer.
So I deleted the text before sending it.
I sent a different text.
I’m on my way right now.
There were a million thoughts going through my head on the ride to Emily’s place.
The one thing that could cause problems between Emily and I was here.
Miranda.
My past.
My regrettable past, in a sense.
All I wanted was to steal as much of Emily’s time as I could and make up for all those years we had lost.
I knew I had to deal with Miranda at some point, but in typical Miranda fashion, she showed up and made it about herself.
When I stepped out of the car and walked into the building, my emotions were scattered all around me.
I already had to text Jackson and cancel tonight.
He wanted to know if Emily and I were too busy fucking each other’s brains out. I replied that Miranda was in town.
His reply?
Fuck.
That was my reaction too.
I knocked on Emily’s door and when she opened it, I grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the apartment.
“What the fuck is going on?” I whispered.
Emily shoved at my chest. “She fucking showed up. I was getting ready to go out with you and she showed up. She’s drunk. I can’t get her to stop drinking wine or talking. I told her I was calling you.”
“I’m supposed to go into your apartment and do what?” I asked.
“It’s your ex.”
“Your best friend.”
“No,” Emily said. “Not even close.”
“I’m not standing in there with her. Your apartment…”
“I’m going up to the roof,” Emily said. “Alone. Do what you have to do, Liam.”
She took a step and I touched her arm. “Em. I’m so sorry about this.”
“I know,” she said.
I moved to block her path. “Hey. I love you, babe.”
I reached for her face and she moved my hands away in a hurry. “Go deal with her. I can’t be mixed up in this anymore. I can’t believe I was to begin with. Look at me, Liam. The new Emily? This is who I am!”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I said. “This is just… I don’t know. It’s residual. It’s my mistake.”
“Well, your mistake is on my couch.”
When Emily turned and walked away, I felt like someone crushed my heart with their hand.
“Emily?” Miranda’s voice said.
Except her voice was like Eee-mmm-eee-lleee…
I gritted my teeth.
I had no choice.
I had to face Miranda.
All I wanted to do was to run away with Emily.
Miranda looked at me and burst into tears.
I slowly shut the apartment door.
“Miranda, what are you doing here?” I asked.
“I came to my best friend’s place to vent,” she yelled. “Because I didn’t want to face you!”
“You’re drunk.”
“I have to be. How can I mask the pain otherwise?”
“The pain…?”
Miranda stood up. She put her hands out to keep her balance. “You never came after me.”
“What?”
“Why didn’t you come to Boston?”
“I told you I was busy with work…”
“Not at the beginning,” she said, her drunk eyes shutting, staying shut for a second or two, then opening. “I meant now. Right now.”