My car was parked in the lot at the dealership, and Liam and I walked toward it. It was still light out, but the sun had begun to set, and the colors of dusk made the sky seem heavy. Liam stretched as we walked, and I glanced at him, feeling keenly aware of his masculine presence. He made a little groaning noise when he stretched, which caused me to ask if he was tired.
"Nah," he said. "I'm just not used to those low drag bars."
"You mean the handlebars?" I asked.
He nodded and stretched his arms by making the motion like he was hugging himself.
"I thought you looked totally comfortable, "I said.
He smiled. "It was fine. I liked the bike. I just wasn't used to them."
"Do you ride a lot at home?"
"At least a few times a week—when the weather's nice."
"Do you have a double-seater?" I asked.
He shook his head. "No."
We walked a few paces, and I came really close to mentioning that I was surprised he didn't since I thought he had a girlfriend, but I managed to keep the question to myself.
"Are you too sore to drive?" I asked as we approached my car.
"Never," he said. "I was gonna ask if you wanted me to drive. I like these cars. I rented one when I went to D.C. one time."
I had a small white Audi, and I dug in my pocket to retrieve the keys. I tossed them in Liam's direction. The keys made it to him just fine, but something else came loose and fell short. I didn't realize that I had a leather thimble in my pocket and had grabbed it along with my keys. Liam caught the keys before quickly stooping over to pick up the small piece of leather.
"What is this?"
I didn't answer right away. I just watched as Liam inspected it curiously. It was a small brown sleeve of leather that was perfectly fashioned to fit over the end of my thumb, going down to about the second knuckle for protection as I pushed needles through fabric. Depending on what I was doing, I sometimes wore similar thimbles on my fingertips, but this was one that was made for my thumb. I watched as Liam inspected it, trying to figure out what it was. Because of the size and shape, he instantly tried it on his finger and found that it fit best on his pinky. He turned it in his hand, staring at it for a second before finally looking at me.
"What is this? A little elf hat or something?"
I could not help but laugh at his guess. "An elf hat?"
"What else would it be?" he asked, seeming genuinely perplexed.
"It's a thimble," I said.
"A thimble? I thought those were metal."
"Not all of them," I said.
I took it from him and put it onto my thumb, wiggling it around to show him the flexibility. He reached out and took my hand, staring at the thimble and how it fit perfectly on my thumb. There was absolutely no reason for him to stand there and hold my hand like that. I knew he wasn't that curious about the thimble, and he was just doing it because he wanted to make physical contact. I swallowed hard as I watched him. He was aware of me and I was aware of him, and the tension between us was palpable. My hand began to tremble when I realized that I quite enjoyed him holding my hand. I took a deep breath, breaking the contact. I hated to pull away, but I was becoming increasingly aware of Liam, and these new feelings were just too much. I handed him the thimble with a smile, and he instinctually took it from me.
"You can keep it," I said. "In case you ever need to sew a button."
"Do you have others?" he asked.
"Plenty," I said. "I didn't even know that one was in my pocket."
Liam smiled as he slipped the thimble into his front pocket. He didn't mention the fact that he didn't know how to use it or that it wouldn't be very effective on his pinky; he just took it from me with a thankful grin and then pushed the button to unlock my car.
He walked with me to the passenger's side to open the door. "I didn't even know you owned a car," he said. "I thought you had a driver."
I gave him a smile to thank him for opening the door as I sat down. "I hired a driver to take me to the wedding the other night because I didn't know what the parking situation would be or how easy it would be to get in and out of there."
Liam nodded as he closed to the door, and I watched him walk around the front of the car to get to the driver's side. I knew he would be leaving the following day and that our time together was almost over, and I felt utterly disappointed. He was such a real person, and I felt drawn to him for reasons that weren't just his perfectly shaped body and his all-American face.
We had already discussed plans for me to drop him off at his hotel, so I was completely surprised when he sat down in the driver's seat, looked at me, and said, "You wanna get some dinner?"
I glanced at the clock, realizing it was past dinnertime. "Sure," I said without even thinking about it.
He smiled at the fact that I agreed so easily.
"What are you hungry for?" I asked.
"I eat literally anything," he said. "Except pineapple. I can't do pineapple."
"Pineapple? That's an odd thing to not like."
"It's not that I don't like it. I actually really like it. It just makes my tongue feel funny. I think I might be allergic to it or something. It really irritates my mouth."
I couldn't help let out a laugh at that. "Are you sure you didn't eat the core? That middle part will tear your mouth up—you know, the core."
He laughed and shook his head. "I know not to eat the core," he said. "But I can't eat it at all. Not even on a pizza."
"Okay, so no pineapples, but anything else will do?"
He nodded.
"How about Mexican?"
"Perfect," he said.
"I know of a little place over by the beach."
He started the car. "Just tell me where to go."
***
The next thing I knew, I was sitting across the table from Liam at El Chavo. He settled in and then looked around as if he was surprised. I couldn't say I blamed him. It was a hole-in-the-wall compared to the more commercial Mexican restaurants. I had eaten their street tacos one time at a festival and got hooked on them. The meat was flavorful, and they used small corn tortillas with a lot of fresh cilantro. Also, there was no waiting at all.
The waitress came over and asked us what we would like before Liam even had a chance to glance at the menu. I ordered without consulting him because I could tell he didn't mind. They only had a few things on the menu, anyway. The tacos were tiny, so I ordered ten of them, knowing I would eat about three and Liam could finish them off. They had five different types of meat, and I asked her to bring two of each with two sides of avocado.
Liam looked at me with wide eyes when the waitress left the table. I could tell he thought ten tacos was a slightly excessive order, so I smiled at him and said, "They're small."
For the next few minutes, Liam and I talked about the motorcycle ride. He had visited Los Angeles before and had done a scenic drive one other time, but he said the one we did today was his favorite so far. I teased him and told him it was because he had good company, and he agreed with me, which made me blush for saying that in the first place.
During our conversation, I began to think about his family. I hadn't been able to shake the encounter I had with his mom regarding my own family, and I still felt like I needed to clear the air with Liam. I knew I would probably never see him again after tonight, but I still felt the strangest urge to explain more about my past and why I hadn't been home to Arkansas in so long.
I was just about to say something when our waitress brought the tacos. She explained what everything was, asked us if we needed anything else, and then took off again. It only took a bite or two to devour one of the tacos, so Liam and I dug in, making quick work of finishing about half of them in a matter of minutes.
The interruption had given me a little more time to think about what I was going to say, so after I finished a couple of tacos, I said, "I kind of lied to your mom today, and I feel really bad about it."
I took my napkin out of my lap, wiped my mouth, and set it on the table, knowing that bringing up such matters would effectively kill my appetite.
"About what?" Liam asked with a curious expression.
"About my family. I led her to believe that they come out to L.A. to visit me, and they don't."
"What do you mean? Do you meet them somewhere?"
"No," I said with a regretful smile. "I just said that because your family is so close, and I was swept away by how amazing everyone was and how much you guys loved each other."
"What are you trying to say? Do you even have a family?"
"Yeah, I told the truth about my family. I grew up in Arkansas with my parents and two brothers. They're still there, as far as I know. I left there ten years ago and I, uh, I really haven't talked to them since."
I took a deep, hitching breath, knowing that I was likely killing whatever admiration Liam might have had for me. I just felt like it was something I needed to say in spite of knowing it would make him see me as a bad person.
"I told you my family thought I was crazy for wanting to go to London to study men's fashion."
He nodded, waiting for me to continue.
"Well, it's not just like they just lightheartedly thought I was being silly—they actually thought I was crazy. They thought I was a crazy person. My parents are just country people, Liam. My brothers played football and baseball, and their world revolved around them. They just didn't understand how or why I would ever want to do anything but marry some guy from my high school and just be barefoot and pregnant. I became interested in tailoring when I was young, and they never, ever took me seriously about it. I just remember feeling like they literally thought I was off my rocker. So when I graduated, I left. I bought a ticket for London, and I didn't look back. I even changed my last name. I was raised as Taylor Luttrell, and I changed my name to Quinn."
I paused at this point because these were things I had never told anyone else, and honestly, I needed to catch my breath. I thought Liam might say something, but he just waited patiently for me to continue.
"Anyway, I used my family's unbelief in me as fuel for success. I have worked tirelessly every single day of my life to prove them wrong. Looking back, I don't think they meant to harm me, but I felt no support from them whatsoever—no love or encouragement at all."
I paused and took a deep breath, still feeling shaken from saying these things out loud and knowing how very different this was from Liam's family situation. I honestly expected him to lose respect for me. I figured with how close he was to his family he would think of me as being heartless for cutting my family out of my life.
"The thing is, I didn't really mean to disown them. I hear about people having an estranged spouse or an estranged family, and I don't feel like I identify with that term, but I guess that's what I've done."
Tears came to my eyes when I said those words, and I blinked trying to get them to go away. "I didn't mean to cut ties," I said. "I didn't mean for things to go this long. It's just that I was so mad at them for not believing in me, and by the time I finally started to have some success, I didn't really feel like sharing it with them."
"Do you miss them?" Liam asked.
I shrugged regretfully. "I didn't think I did. I mean, I've just sort of gotten used to my life the way it is." I paused, gathering my thoughts. "I guess meeting your family today kind of made me realize how unordinary my situation is. I didn't set out to be the kind of person who cut her family out of her life. I'm definitely not proud telling you this right now. It's just the truth, and it's just how things turned out for me. I was really mad back then. I was a teenager and it really hurt that they didn't care about the things I wanted to pursue. I really felt like they thought I was insane for wanting to chase my dream, so I just sort of made myself forget about them."
"Don't you think they would be happy to hear about your success?" Liam asked. "Do you think they know?"
I shook my head. "I doubt it. I'm sure they don't go searching who's who in men's fashion."
"Do you think they would be happy to hear from you?" Liam asked.
Tears rose to my eyes at the thought of it. I looked away from him, staring at the floor, or a nearby table, or whatever else was around.
Contacting them seemed like an impossibility.
"I honestly don't know," I said. "It's been so long. My little brothers are both in their twenties by now. I have no idea what everyone's doing. I don't even know how I would get in touch with them or what I would say if I did."