The Romance Plan - Lila Monroe Page 0,74

the bullet-pointed lists of all the ways we’ve helped each other and a line graph charting my happiness over the course of our relationship. But they say you need to talk to someone in their own language, and this was the only way I could think to show Liam that I adore the rational side of him, too. I’ve even incorporated visual aids in the form of Verity’s book covers and some candid photos of us that Natalie snapped the day we all played kickball. There’s even a pie chart of all my favorite parts of his body.

Liam’s face is admittedly not giving anything away as I click through the slides, but I sell it as hard as I can anyway, my voice getting higher and just the tiniest bit desperate. “I know you’ve got other options,” I admit as I’m wrapping it all up, “but I think you’ll find the compensation package is particularly generous.” I’m about to go into the details—copious and enthusiastic lovemaking, a lifetime entitlement to the last piece of bacon at brunch—when Liam holds up a hand.

“Stop,” he says, shaking his head slightly. “You don’t have to—just stop.”

My heart sinks. “But I don’t want to stop,” I tell him, sitting down hard in the office chair beside him. “That’s the whole point. I was an idiot, Liam. I should have just listened to you for half a second instead of jumping to all kinds of insane conclusions, but I just felt so strongly about Sterling and so protective of all my friends there, and we’d worked so hard on Verity’s book—”

“I get it,” he says. “I do. I know I don’t have the kind of track record that inspires confidence. But what you said about me outside Verity’s party—”

“I take it back,” I interrupt immediately, cringing at the memory. “It wasn’t true. None of it was.” Now I do take his hand, wrapping it in both of mine and squeezing. “Liam, you’re incredible. You’re kind, and funny, and warm, and brilliant. And I’d be so proud to call you mine, if you’d have me back.”

Liam is quiet for a moment. “I don’t have a lot of people in my life that I’m close to,” he admits finally. “And being around you—falling for you—made me want to change that. But if you have reservations about who I am as a man—”

“I don’t,” I promise. “I could never. I love who you are.” I take a deep breath, and then I say it. “I love you.”

Liam smiles at that—a real smile, valuable and rare. “I love you too,” he says.

I stop. “You do?”

“Of course I do,” he says, his smile turning quiet. Intimate. “I’ve probably loved you since that very first cartwheel, even if I couldn’t admit it to myself. You’re amazing, Eliza. You’re not like anyone else I’ve ever known.”

Liam kisses me then, and it’s a kiss I’ve been waiting for my whole life. I wind my arms around his neck and he tugs me close, our bodies fitting perfectly together, his mouth warm and familiar and mine.

“Oh!” I say, pulling away as I suddenly remember. “Wait, I just remembered I forgot to show you the last slide.” I fumble for the remote, clicking through to the grand finale of my Powerpoint presentation: In Case You’ve Forgotten, the Sex is Fantastic.

Liam bursts out laughing. “You know,” he says, Maybe you better come back to my apartment and remind me.”

I grin at him. “I can do that.”

25

Eliza

“Who wants margaritas?” I call a couple of weeks later, stepping out onto Liam’s rooftop patio with a pitcher in one hand and a sleeve of clear plastic cups in the other. Even at the end of September, it’s still warm enough to swim, so we’re taking full advantage of one last summer day at the pool on top of his building. The patio is huge and lushly landscaped, with carefully tended flowering shrubs and twinkle lights offering the illusion of a private hideaway right in the middle of the city.

“I do!” Poppy calls back. She’s lounging happily in a float shaped like a flamingo while Wes and Dylan toss a volleyball back and forth.

“Me three!” Katie is sprawled on a deck chair in a gauzy cover up and giant heart-shaped sunglasses, excitedly making notes for her newest book.

I pass out a round of drinks, then pour one for myself and sit down beside April, who’s perched on the side of the pool in a vintage floral-print bikini and an enormous