Wrong Side of the Tracks by Ashley Zakrzewski

ChapterTwo

I have just stepped out of the shower when there’s a knock on my door. Throwing on a shirt with my jeans, I go over there and open up. I’m not expecting anyone, but sometimes my neighbor needs help reaching stuff in her kitchen. She’s a tiny old lady, and she always feeds me cookies when I help her out. But it’s not a tiny old lady on the other side of the door.

“Good morning.” Liam fills up my entire doorway, scratching his neck as he looks down at me. “I was in the neighborhood, and I wanted to ask if you wanted to have that coffee we were talking about.”

He's larger than life. Looking like a viking biker.

My mouth is open like a fish, so I quickly close it. No need to look like a complete idiot. He wants us to grab coffee. Now. “Um…” I manage to get out. “I mean… Sure.”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he says. “You probably already have plans, and…”

“No. No, I don’t have plans.” I smile at him, it’s impossible not to when he’s rambling like that. “Just let me get ready, and then we can go. Come in.”

Liam steps inside and shoves his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He looks around, nodding appreciatively. “This is a nice place.”

I snort as I walk over to the bathroom to get my hair in order. “It’s a hole in the wall at best.”

He follows me and stands in the doorway to the bathroom, watching me get ready.

“It’s not a hole in the wall. It’s cozy.”

“Well, it’s not some fancy place in the city,” I say, glancing over at him. “You probably have some ultra modern, penthouse-type apartment overlooking the downtown area.”

Liam starts laughing, his whole body shaking. “You remember me saying I’m a teacher, right? You don’t exactly make penthouse money teaching math to teenagers.”

“Yeah, I guess.” I turn to him, ready to go. I’m about to say something when I notice how close we’re standing. Fifteen years ago, he would have been standing behind me, his arms around my waist as I fixed my hair. He would have kissed my neck, whispering things to make me laugh into my ear. I would have leaned into him, enjoyed the feel of his body against mine. Us being close wouldn’t have felt weird. But now…

“Let’s go get that coffee,” I say, my voice breaking on the last word. Liam steps back, nodding furiously.

“Yup, coffee. Let’s get it.”

He walks ahead of me towards the front door, and my stomach is fluttering. I tell myself it’s because I haven’t had breakfast yet, but when Liam opens the door for me the fluttering gets really flutter-y. Calm down, I tell myself. It’s just coffee.

Outside it feels easier to breathe. Liam seems more at ease too, walking by my side in a comfortable silence.

“How did you know where I live?” I ask, remembering that I never told him that when we met in the grocery store.

“My mom,” he says. “I hope it’s okay I showed up like that, I just wanted to see you.”

I just wanted to see you. I’m an idiot for letting those words settle in my body, for letting them mean something. It’s just words. He just wants to catch up after all these years. We get to the little café by the town square, pretty much the only place that serves decent coffee in town, and it’s mostly empty. Joanna, the woman that owns the place and a good friend of mine, looks up as the doorbell jingles when we enter. Her customer service face is on, but it falls as soon as she lays eyes on us.

“Oh,” she says. Apparently all other words have escaped her. I make a face at her, willing her to act normal. Don’t make a big deal out of this, please.

“Good morning, Joanna.”

“Good morning.” She’s kind of staring at Liam, her big blue eyes bulging out of her head. “Did I travel back in time?”

Liam chuckles. “Nice to see you again, Joanna.”

Joanna looks between Liam and me. “Yeah. Good to… Yup. This is great.”

“Coffee,” I say, hoping to bring the whole situation back to something that at least resembles a normal conversation. “We’d like some coffee. To go.”

That seems to snap Joanna out of whatever daze she was in. “Of course,” she says, smiling brightly. “Two coffees to go, coming right up.”

She busies herself over by the coffee maker, and I glance up at Liam. He’s looking right at me. I feel heat creep up my face, and turn my eyes down to the counter in front of us.

Thankfully, Joanna returns with two to-go mugs two seconds later.

“Here we are,” she chirps. “Will you be paying separately or together?”

I start to say that we will pay separately, when Liam steps up to the register.

“Together.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I say.

“I want to. I asked you to have coffee with me, so I’m buying.”

I feel Joanna’s eyes on us as we step outside again. We’re going to be talking about this later, I just know it.

“You want to take a walk or something?” Liam asks. “I haven’t had a chance to have a look around yet.”

“It’s pretty much the same as when you lived here,” I say as we start walking. “There are new owners at the bar, but that’s pretty much all I have to catch you up on.” “Then let’s just walk around for nostalgia’s sake,” he says with a grin.

It doesn’t take very long to walk around and see the sights in town. Liam seems to enjoy being back though, he’s constantly pointing out places he remembers, places where he did some stupid shit as a kid, or where he and his friends used to hang out as teenagers. We walk past the old bookshop that had to close down just last year. Liam bumps me and points over at the empty store.

“Remember that place?”

“Of course,” I say. “It was the best bookstore, they had everything.”

“No,” he says and stops right outside the large window, facing me. “Remember this spot right here? Under the streetlight.”

I look up at the light, which is off now of course. Then I realize what he’s talking about and I swallow. “Yeah, I remember.”

This is where Liam kissed me for the first time. We had eaten dinner together, then just walked around like we are now. I had stopped to look at something in the shop window and when I turned back to look at him, he kissed me. Softly, slowly, and with a furiously beating heart, I had kissed him back.

I smile at the memory. We’re standing in the exact same spot, but that moment was a lifetime ago. A different man stands before me now. He’s soft where he used to be all angles, there’s scruff where there used to be none. I like this version of him. He looks like a grown man. He is a grown man of course, but there’s something steady and secure in the way he is carrying himself these days. I’m not so sure the same can be said about me.

“What did you think when you saw me yesterday?” I ask. Liam frowns.

“What do you mean?”

“I was kind of a mess,” I say with a laugh. “Wet from the rain, bags under my eyes.

And I’m still here, working the same job as the day you left.”

Liam reaches out and puts my curls behind my ear. They pop right back out, so he does it again. I shiver at his touch. “I don’t care if you work the same job as you did back then. As long as you’re happy, then that’s all that matters. And you weren’t a mess,” he says with a grin. “You looked beautiful. Look beautiful.”

“You’re pretty beautiful yourself.”

He laughs, then grabs his belly. “Even with this thing?”

“I think it suits you. I’m not exactly the same size I was at twenty either.”

Something flashes across his face as he looks me up and down. “Trust me. You’re gorgeous, Eva.”

My cheeks are burning. I drink some coffee, just to do something, and then I start walking again. Liam is right by my side, his arm closely pressed to mine. The tension slowly leaves my body, and we talk some more. Reminiscing about old times. It’s nice. Easy.

“You are happy though, right?” He asks when we’re back outside my apartment building. “With living here. Your job and everything.”

I hesitate, not sure what to say. “I like living here,” I say. It’s true, I really love my little town. “Not so sure about my job though. It was only supposed to be temporary.”

“Yeah, I remember.” Liam throws away his empty to-go mug in a nearby trash can.

“What would you like to do instead?”

I shrug. “I honestly have no idea. Just something else. Doesn’t have to be anything fancy.”

“If you want change, then you have to go out there and look for it,” Liam says. “You have all the power to change your job, Eva.”

I have all the power. I’ve never thought about it like that before. “Okay. I guess you’re right.”

“I’m always right,” he says with a grin, and I shake my head at him. “I’ll help you, if you want.”

“You’ll help me?”

“Of course.” Liam reaches out and takes my hand. Squeezes it, then strokes his thumb over my skin. “If you need me, just say the word.”