Betrayed: Keeping her in the Dark Vol. 3 (8 page)

“Norah, Oh my God! I haven’t seen you in forever! How are you?” We hugged. 

“I’m good. I’m really good. I’m probably a little too good. I just spent way too much money on myself to celebrate how great I am. I hope Liam doesn’t get upset.” 

“Oh girl, you know you can’t upset Liam. He lets you do whatever you want.” We both laughed. 

“How are things with you and Will?” I asked. 

“Oh they’re good. We are trying new things and making big changes. Nothing like getting married but still big things. I’ll fill you in another time.” She waved me off the subject. 

“Liam and I should have you guys over for dinner soon. You guys are our only friends and we never see you. You 2 stay so busy all the time.” Liam had told me that Will and Jane had been ‘doing a lot of partying’. He didn’t elaborate about what ‘partying’ meant, and I never asked.

“How is Thursday night? 7 o’clock?” 

“That sounds great! We will be there.” We air kissed each other and she walked away. The thought of being near Will still made me nervous, not Nick Meyers nervous, but uneasy. Still he and Liam had seemed to have made up so I guess I needed to get over it too. He only assaulted me because he wanted Jane back. He didn’t know it at the time but he loved her. In his own way he loved her. I knew how irrational Liam could be when he was upset over something to do with me. 

I went home and made dinner. I made Spanish chicken with cauliflower, potatoes and carrots. I marinated some mushrooms and put them on the indoor grill and made a spinach salad with avocado and goat cheese. 

Rosa was still helping me with my cooking and I was finding recipes and trying them on my own too. Liam seemed to like my cooking and I liked cooking for him so it worked out. 

Whenever I had the opportunity to cook dinner, I gave Rosa the night off and did it myself. I had never been used to having people cook and clean for me. Not to mention I cared about Rosa and Gerald like my in laws. They were the closest things to parents that Liam had in his life now. I didn’t like the idea of them waiting on us, but I didn’t want them to lose their jobs either. So I adjusted. 

“Something smells wonderful! What are you doing in here, you sexy woman?” I shook my butt at him when he wrapped his arms around my waist. 

“I’m sorry, I thought Rosa was doing the cooking tonight,” then he kissed my neck. 

“Very funny smartass.” 

“Why are you cooking, my darling? I pay people to do that.” 

“I like it. And you like it too.” 

“Maybe I should reduce my kitchen staff, since I don’t seem to need them.” 

“Ah, no you won’t.”

“I won’t? Well it seems to me I pay them a lot of money to not do a lot of work?” he smirked at me.

“You wouldn’t get rid of Rosa or Gerald if they never cooked or cleaned anything again and you know it!” I poked him in the chest.

“You’re right, I wouldn’t.” Liam would never get rid of Rosa or anyone in her family. I was sure I could start cooking every night and he would be completely fine with her and Gerald living in the guest house and him paying them to do nothing. 

He always said he never got close to people. He always told me since both of his parent’s deaths he never wanted to get close to anyone ever again. He never wanted a family of his own that he could lose all over again. But that wasn’t true. He might think he had managed to keep people at arm’s length until he met me, but it wasn’t true. He loved Gerald like a father and looked to Rosa for motherly advice.

He helped me put dinner on the table and get everything else ready. When we sat down to start eating I told him about my day. 

“I did a little shopping today.”

“I saw the twenty five bags by the door,” he said as took a bite of the chicken. “This is delicious.” 

“It’s not twenty five,” I said quickly.

“Is it?” I asked. I honestly didn’t know. “Are you mad?” I squinted my eyes. 

“Why would I be mad?” 

“Because I spent a lot of your money on clothes on other things I didn’t need,” I started in with my salad. “I usually ask permission before I spend a lot of money and I didn’t this time.” I kept my eyes lowered.   

“Well my money is your money, and you never spend it. I tell you all the time to go shopping, get pedicures, manicures, spend the day in a spa, I don’t care. But you never do it. Will can’t keep Jane out of the stores, and I can never get you to buy anything.” He touched my face.

“And buying yourself things for work or going out to lunch doesn’t count as a big expenditure, Norah. Those are the only things you ever ask me for,” he went back to eating.  

“Oh, mentioning Jane, I ran into her today.” His hands gripped the sides of the table and he actually gulped. “I invited them over for dinner on Thursday, I hope you don’t mind.” He wiped his mouth with his napkin and let out a deep breath. 

“Norah, now that is something I wish you had asked me before you made plans. We can’t have them over on Thursday.” 

“Why not?” I asked. I thought it was a question he should have expected. But he didn’t seem to know how to answer it.  

“What do you mean?” he started eating again. 

“What do you mean?” I asked back. 

“Norah please.” 

“Don’t Norah please me? I’m asking a simple question. Why can’t they come for dinner, do you have plans?” 

“No.” 

“Then why?” again he didn’t answer. He just kept eating.

 “Liam, why don’t you want them over for dinner?” He shrugged his shoulders, he cleared his throat, he coughed, and then he cleared his throat again. Then he drank some water. He was stalling. “Liam, what’s the problem?” 

“I just thought maybe…I was just thinking that you might….I thought it might be…” I tried to help him out because I thought I knew where he was going with this. 

“You thought I would be uncomfortable having Will here?” I asked. 

“Yes. Yes of course, that’s the reason. I thought you would be uncomfortable.” He seemed relieved that I had said it and he didn’t have to. 

“Well I don’t. I wouldn’t have invited them over if I felt uncomfortable.” 

“Ok. Well…ok, then good. If you are fine with it then I guess I am to.” That seemed to end the conversation for that moment but I still felt like he wasn’t telling me something. I thought for a minute it might have something to do with the declaration he tried to make the previous night. 

I don’t know why I stopped him from telling me whatever it was he wanted to tell me. It seemed very important but also emotional. He seemed scared to tell me, like he might lose me if he said whatever it was he had to say. I guess I wasn’t ready to hear it. I didn’t know what it was, but it was something important and I wasn’t sure I could handle it. So I stopped him. He could tell me when I was ready to hear it. 

I came home from work early on Thursday and started cooking. 

Rosa helped me make Saffron chicken and Moroccan rice pilaf with a Spanish bean salad. Then I made a chocolate cake with a strawberry cheesecake icing. I was still placing the fresh strawberries around the edges when Liam came home. 

“Norah, does Rosa ever teach you to cook anything that isn’t a Spanish dish?” I stuck my finger that had a little bit of the chocolate batter and the icing from the bowl out to him.  Which he gladly took and licked, rather sucked the goodness off my finger. 

“Do you have a problem with my cooking?” I asked. He shrugged his shoulders. 

“No, not at all. But I was just thinking, that you nor I, nor our guests tonight are Spanish. You never cook regular American dishes or anything from this country as well.” I could sense a little attitude. 

“Are you upset?” I asked as I covered the cake and put it on the counter. 

“No.” He was being very Liam like. 

“You are. You are upset with me about something. What?” I stood right in front of him. 

“I am not upset with you Norah. I am going to take a shower and I will be down before they arrive.” He kissed my nose and walked away. I didn’t know what was up his ass, but I hoped it crawled out by the time our guests arrived. 

Liam was quiet when they arrived. Jane and I hugged and kissed on the cheek and I even air kissed with Will. Liam shook Will’s hand and nodded toward Jane. 

Dinner started off quiet too. Jane asked me about what I prepared and they both told me how delicious it all tasted. Liam agreed. I could feel the tension in the air but I had no idea what was causing it. I talked a little about my business and an upcoming photo shoot we had planned.

 Liam starred off into space and Will looked bored. Finally Jane broke the awkwardness and started chatting. 

“Well we have some news we want to share with you two,” she started. I assumed she was about to announce their engagement.

 “Will and I have decided to get a girlfriend…I mean add a girl to our relationship…so there will be three of us now.” She was kind of stuttering and I could tell you she was a little nervous about making this announcement. 

“Umm, excuse me?” Liam cleared his throat. "A girlfriend?” he coughed like something was stuck in his throat. Will had a huge smile on his face. 

“Yes. We have participated in many threesomes in our time together and we think adding another person to our relationship will benefit both of us,” it was hard to believe Will was even more of a smug son of a bitch than Liam, but I was beginning to think it was true. 

“Is this proper dinner conversation?” Liam asked. 

“We’re all adults aren’t we? Are we expecting the queen?” Jane stated. 

“Yes, we are adults, but this is my home and my house. You are sitting at a table with my wife talking about devaluing your own relationship by adding another person to it. I think a little respect wouldn’t hurt.” 

Liam stood up and walked over to the buffet and made himself a drink. 

“Liam! Don’t be rude. She’s right, we’re all adults. If Jane and Will want to discuss their relationship then we should be gracious hosts and let them.” He sat his drinking glass back down on the buffet a little too hard and made another drink. “Please sit down and stop being a jerk.” He turned to me and wasn’t smiling at all. But he moved back to his chair and sat down. 

“So are the threesomes,” I cleared my throat, “the only reason you are getting a girlfriend? Or is it something else?” I asked trying to be supportive. 

“Well we had talked about it before, but I guess we just finalized everything,” Jane looked over at Will and he was just smiling. 

“Finalized everything? You sound like you’re buying a house?” Liam was still being snotty. 

“There are a lot of things to think about when taking a girlfriend. Will she be compatible? Will she meet both of our needs? How will it work, will she live with us or in her own place?” Jane said. 

“And how do you even begin to discuss those things?” I was trying to eat and keep up with the discussion since Liam wasn’t doing either. He had stopped eating and was just drinking now. 

He kept getting up and going back over to the buffet and making another drink for himself. Thankfully the glasses were small so I wasn’t expecting him to fall over drunk yet. 

“I had to keep an open mind and hope Jane had one too, and I was very concerned about her feelings as well, so..” Liam stood up scratching his chair against the floor interrupting Will.  

“An open mind and think about her feelings? Are you mad? Are you out of your mind? How could you possibly say you are thinking about her feelings when you want to bring another woman in your bed? What did you say, scoot over Jane, I have another woman over here.” 

“Liam! Sit down and stop this! They are our friends. If you can’t be supportive please be quiet.” He sat down and crossed his legs in the opposite direction with his body away from mine. 

“Well it isn’t bad, Liam. Not at all. I mean you sound sweet thinking about my feelings but this was really my idea. Actually,” her voice went very high, “you met her!”

Liam looked over to Jane and made a stern face. “Last weekend, you met her. Josie! Josie Gardner, the young girl we met at the club.” She started to laugh and looked back at me.

 “She was so great, and we had such a good time. I wasn’t sure if she would be interested but she is, and she will be here next week. She’s moving in.” 

“What club?” I asked. 

“The sex club we went to last weekend,” she paused. Jane didn’t notice the tension. “Will and I went to this sex club last weekend because we had discussed it and both decided we wanted to take a girlfriend. So I guess we were kinda shopping,” she hit Will on the arm but his eyes hadn’t left Liam’s. Liam was making a ‘cut it’ sign against his throat. 

“What club?” I asked again looking over at Liam. 

“It was called…Oh I can’t remember, oh, the Red Room!” she pointed at me when she said it. “You would like it Norah, Liam really enjoyed himself.” 

“He did, did he?” I asked starring daggers at Liam. 

“I think we need to talk about something else,” Liam said. I could tell he was very uncomfortable with the whole conversation.

I assumed this the big thing he wanted to discuss the other night. 

“I think this is a fine conversation.” I slammed my hand on the table. 

“I would be careful though Norah, if you go to the club, Liam might try to get you to get a girlfriend too. There was one girl there who liked Liam a lot.” She kinda giggled and looked over at Liam. 

“Jane that’s enough,” Will tried to stop her. 

“Oh no, Jane, please tell me more,” I wanted to know everything. Poor sweet Jane. She was so oblivious. She couldn’t see Liam was about to blow his top and that Will was trying to get her to shut up. It was clear to me that whatever happened at this club, the men didn’t want to talk about it but Jane couldn’t stop herself.

“Well she gave Liam a sweet little lap dance, I think she had a crush on him. She really wanted to suck him off, but Liam said getting a blow job from another woman was cheating on you, can you believe it?” She laughed again and Will grabbed her arm as I stood up. 

“Did he? How sweet of him? I feel like I am going to sick…” I started out of the room. 

“Norah, please let’s not be rude to our guests,” Liam said to me. But I just kept walking.