Two Wrongs

Dinner and a Show: Liam

This was my own personal hell.

A hot as fuck, little sprite of a woman prancing around in my kitchen in miniscule shorts and a cropped hoodie and I couldn't so much as touch her. I every time she stepped in my direction, every time she passed by, I had to fight the urge to reach out. I had to fight to not just grab hold of her. I had to fight not to brush my fingers against the soft band of skin between the hem of her shirt and the top of her shorts. By the time dinner was ready, my hands had been balled into fists so hard and for so long that it was near impossible for me to pry them a part.

It was going to be a long fucking night.

"How many times did my mom stay here?" Allegra asked, swallowing down a mouthful of the potato salad she had made that did, in fact, taste exactly like her mother's.

I shrugged. "I don't know. Half dozen or so." I poked at the food on my plate. It was delicious, but my appetite for food was way down on my list of priorities at the moment. Get it together, Cohen. I took a deep breath. "Joey and I have known each other like four years. He actually lived in the guest house for awhile that first year, and I guess it just... in a way became his."

"And my mom just became like... your adopted mother?"

I chuckled a bit and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, she kind of did." I took a beat and a sip of the weird IPA she'd brought with her. Honestly, it was kind of gross, but if this girl had given me a cup of watery mud, I would've at least attempted to drink it. Because I was a fucking sucker. "I'm not... I don't have a good relationship with my family," I explained. "I mean, I don't really have a relationship with them at all." 

Allegra gave me the same pitying look that everyone I told my family history to did. It was a look that made my skin crawl every fucking time. She looked at me with sad, wide eyes and spoke as if the tone of her voice would be enough to cause me to snap. "What happened?"

I shook my head. "Not worth talking about," I quickly dismissed. Wasn't going to talk about it. Ever. Not with her, not with anyone. Joey didn't even know most of the shit in my past, and he knew me better than most.

"Liam..."

I kept shaking my head. "No. We're talking about your mom and how incredible she was."

Allegra's sad expression quickly morphed into a sweet smile. "She was pretty incredible, wasn't she?"

I grinned softly and nodded. "She really was."

Allegra looked around the kitchen slash dining room. It was a wide-open space, all steel and hard lines. She looked so out of place in it. She was all warmth and soft curves, and my house was so... cold.

Her voice snapped me back to our conversation. "I can almost see her flitting around here and rearranging things. Trying to make it feel more like a home."

I chuckled and gave my head a wave. "Yeah, definitely did that a few times." I felt emotion grow thick in my throat as I debated my next words. Her mother, Faye, had always treated me as her own. She was so warm and kind and the more I was around Allegra, the more I saw her mother in her. "You look like her."

Allegra's soft smile widened. "Definitely not the first time I've heard that," she said with a giggle. "Joey is one hundred percent my dad, but me? All Faye Reynolds."

I watched as Allegra raised her beer bottle to her lips. "Does that mean I had a crush on your mom?"

Allegra spat out the sip she'd just taken like a water sprinkler, her dark eyes wide. She looked uncomfortable for the briefest moment and then slipped into to an easy chuckle. "You almost had me."