Nonverbal - Aria Grace Page 0,12
what that meant for us.
From that day forward, Liam was more animated. He smiled more, laughed more, and held my hand more. Like, a lot more. Really, anytime we were together, his fingers were intertwined with mine. I loved it when we were alone, but when we were with his family, I couldn’t help but feel anxious and self-conscious about what they were thinking.
I was just waiting to have the dreaded conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Brenner that I knew was coming. For better or worse, I didn’t have to wait long. On Saturday morning, right as my shift was starting, Mrs. Brenner asked me to find her as soon as Liam got settled into a project so we could have a quick chat. I knew what was coming and I felt nauseated when I thought about what I was going to say.
No matter what, I couldn’t lie about my feelings. As inappropriate as they were, saying I felt no sexual attraction to Liam was wrong. Then again, telling them that about their mentally impaired son was even more wrong.
Mrs. Brenner was in the kitchen when I went to find her. Her back was to me when I walked in and cleared my throat.
“Is this a good time?” I slipped my hands into my pockets and stood on the other side of the island.
“Of course. Would you like a cup of tea?” She had a kettle in her hand and was pouring a cup for herself so I nodded.
“Sure, thanks.” I waited until she handed me the cup of tea and then we both sat down at the table.
Mr. Brenner appeared out of nowhere, joining us with his own travel mug of coffee.
My heart started to beat faster when I saw him, and even though I felt a bead of sweat forming on my brow, I wrapped my palms around the hot mug and took a sip. Suddenly filled with shame, I couldn’t look either of them in the eye.
“We just wanted to check in with you, Wyatt.” Mrs. Brenner broke the ice and saved me from having a coronary from the anticipation. “Now that it’s been a full month, how is everything going with Liam?”
“Great.” I put the mug on the table and glanced at each of Liam‘s parents, but I didn’t hold their gaze for longer than a brief second. “He’s really been opening up to me.”
Mr. Brenner nodded with a sigh and relaxed into the back of his chair.
I couldn’t tell if that was a relieved sigh or a pissed-off one.
“Yes, we’ve noticed,” he said, his expression unreadable.
My heart thumped even faster and I didn’t dare take a breath. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I really didn’t want to have this conversation. Could they press charges against me? Was I doing something wrong in the legal sense? I didn’t think I was, but I didn’t really know the laws around a situation like this.
Mrs. Brenner reached across the table and patted my hand. “We are very happy about that, Wyatt. You look worried, but please don’t be. This is exactly what we wanted for Liam when we hired you.”
I exhaled sharply but wasn’t completely relieved by that explanation. “What do you mean? What did you want for him?”
Mr. Brenner sighed again, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table. “At the minimum, we wanted Liam to have a friend his own age he could relate to and maybe start to model.”
That made sense, and in many ways, that was exactly what was happening. Liam did seem to mimic my movements and laugh at more of the things I laughed at. “Okay, fair enough. What were your…maximum hopes for him?”
He ran one palm down the side of his face as if this conversation were as hard for him as it was for me. “I don’t know.” He glanced at his wife, silently begging her to jump in. When she didn’t have the words, he found them. “For him to…fall in love, maybe. Have some sort of sexual awakening that might help him understand his body and his needs better than we could explain to him.” His eyes met mine and I could tell he felt guilty for putting me in the situation. “We probably could have been more upfront with you, but it didn’t seem like the right conversation to have considering you’re one of Avery‘s friends. When we tried this before, it was with a stranger.”
My jaw dropped, and I twisted my whole body in the chair to