“What are you even doing here!? How did you get to this table?” she demanded. She would've noticed if he'd been sitting right next to her that whole time.
“I was at table fifteen, but I saw how you were talking to that guy, then I recognized him. So I skipped up here and paid the next dude to take my place,” he explained.
“Typical.”
“Hey, desperate measures.”
“You're down to four minutes. Why are you here? Are you stalking me?” she suddenly gasped as the idea popped into her head.
“Yes,” he groaned. “Stalking you, praying to you, dying for you to just look at me again.”
“Uh ...” she'd never heard Liam be so poetic before – she didn't know how to handle it.
“I saw your new profile. You won't return my calls, you won't see me – I had to do something. I saw that you were coming to this event. I know the bar that's catering, they got me inside,” he told her.
“So let me get this straight. You stalked me online, you snuck into a private event, and then you bribed someone for this seat,” she laid it all out.
“Yeah. Yeah, I did.”
That was it. No defense. No apologies.
“You can't do this!” she hissed. “You can't just … you're like a child! You do whatever you want and expect no repercussions, and then when there are, you lie and cheat and steal and do whatever it takes to get out of paying the consequences.”
“I know, but you know what? If the punishment for everything I've done is losing you, then damn right I'm gonna do all that crazy shit to win you back. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get you to forgive me,” he assured her.
“Oh really? How about just be a decent human being,” she growled.
They were really attracting an audience at that point, which Katya didn't want. She'd already made a fool of herself once for this man. Not again. She stood up, taking care not to bump the table this time, and she walked away. Of course he got up and followed her, but she refused to acknowledge him. She threw open the door to the stairs and started stomping her way down them.
“You can't just cut me off,” he called out behind her.
“Yes I can!” she yelled back.
He started to say something else, but she couldn't hear him. The bottom floor of the building was a crowded bar and the noise drowned him out. Katya beelined for an emergency exit and pushed her way out into an alley. She was almost jogging when she heard him burst out the door behind her.
“Katya,” he chuckled as he came up alongside her. “Are you seriously trying to run away from me? In those heels?”
“Yes,” she said through clenched teeth.
“You're about as athletic as a lame duck. C'mon, you're gonna trip and break your neck, then I'll have to carry you, and last time I did that, I think I threw out my back -”
Arguing and fighting were fine, it just reminded her of how angry she was at him. But him being funny? Nice? It reminded her of how much she loved being around him. About what a wonderful friendship they'd had. And that hurt. Hurting was so much worse than anger.
“I fucking hate you!” she screamed, whirling on him and beating him with her purse.
“Whoa! Calm down!” he yelled, trying to get a hold of her arms.
“No!” she yelled back, managing to avoid capture. “You don't get to do what you did to me and act like everything is fine. You don't get to violate me and manipulate me and use me, and then just crack jokes and be funny and awesome and make me hate myself and you can't just do this to me!”
“Stop,” he said in a low voice. He finally got a hold of her wrists but she kept pulling.
“No. You stop. Stop following me, and stop calling me, and stop showing up at my apartment. I swear to god, I'm gonna move,” she growled, trying to yank away. He laughed. Actually laughed at her.
“How? You just renewed a year lease last month.”
She gasped.
“You'd let me out of that lease.”
“No, I wouldn't. Not till you forgive me.”
“This is blackmail.”
“Hardly.”
“Wulf manages your buildings, I'll make him let me out of that lease.”
“Are you serious? Get out of a contract with Wulfric Stone? Have you met him?”
This time, she laughed. Actually laughed. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes.
“Yeah. Yeah, he's kind of a bastard,” she agreed.
“He really is.”
She finally straightened up and pulled away from him a little, though he still clung to her wrists.
“He is. I mean, what else do you call someone who lies to you? Manipulates you? Humiliates you? Uses you? Shares all your most intimate, secret moments with another person?” she asked, staring Liam very directly in the eyes. He swallowed thickly, but didn't look away.
“Bastard may not be harsh enough. Would loser work?”
“Asshole?”
“Dickhead?” he threw out another insulting name for himself.
“How about … worst person ever?” Katya suggested, her voice barely above a whisper. He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.
“No. Close, but I'm not quite there yet,” he whispered back. She took a deep, shuddering breath.
“I have to go.”
“No.”
“I don't have anything to say to you, Liam. I want to go home, I'm tired.”
“Katya, I'm not going away. I'll be here tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that,” he warned her.
“What can I do to make you understand that I don't want you in my life?”
“Nothing.”
“We're talking in circles. Good night,” she sighed, unsuccessfully trying to pull free.
“Then let's have some straight talk – would you treat Tori this way?” he suddenly asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Tori's your best friend.”
“Yeah.”
“And I was, too.”
“Do not compare yourself to her. I've known her for years, and she's never treated me the way you did,” Katya warned him.
“You can't deny that what you and I had was special,” he kept going. “She may have been in your life longer, but you and I were almost as close.”
Katya wasn't going to lie to him or herself – he was telling the truth. But still.
“I don't care. It's comparing apples and lying sacks of shit.”
“Still. If Tori did something awful to you – lied to you, kept secrets from you, hurt your feelings, would you just drop her like a bad habit? Cut her out of your life without giving her a chance to make up for it?” he asked.
“She would never -”
“Jesus, Katya, use your imagination. What if you found out she slept with your ex-boyfriend? And she lied to you about it, for months? Or she stole money from you? That would be it?” he was insistent with his questioning.
“Yes!” she bit out. “Now let me go.”
“I don't believe that. Really think about it. Could you just stop talking to her? Forever? After everything you guys have shared?”