“Vanessa?” I ask in disbelief. Only she would call from his phone … and there’s only one reason why she would call in tears.

“Yes,” she confirms with a sniff.

‘What’s wrong with Liam?”

“First off I got to tell you that I’m going against Liam’s wishes here. He didn’t want me to tell you. We’ve argued about it numerous times. I’ve told him he should tell you, that you would want to know, but …”

I grip the phone tight. “Tell me what, Ness? What is it?”

She lets out a choked sob. “I’m calling from the hospital, Tyson. Liam’s been here for weeks.”

“What?” It should have come out as a shout because there was a lot of emotion behind that word, but it exits as a horrified whisper.

“I’m so sorry. I wanted to tell you—”

“For what?” I manage to sputter.

“It’s cancer, Tyson. They operated last night.”

“What the fuck?” That comes out as a shout, shocking the people bustling around me. “Liam’s got cancer? For how long?”

“He’s known for six months.”

“Six months!” I exclaim, utterly shocked. Liam is the only true friend I have. He’s more like a brother. He’d have my back no matter what, and the same goes double for me. I’d do anything for him. And he didn’t even want to tell me he has cancer. Cancer! Him? My head spins.

“Tyson, I’m sorry,” she sobs brokenly. “I know it isn’t right, and I told him so many times that you would want to know. That you deserve to, but … he didn’t want to see pity on your face. He didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for him. And he knew you would, because you love him. I know you do.”

“Oh, fuck,” I whisper, stunned. He’s twenty-six, just like me. People in the prime of life don’t normally get cancer. That’s for people who don’t take care of themselves, the ones who smoke and drink too much, and eat food full of nitrates and shit like that. Not us.

“He knew there was nothing you could do for him. There was nothing any of us could do, believe me. I’ve been with him every day and I’ve never felt so helpless in all my life. Watching him waste away …”

I shake my head, wishing I could make sense of the thoughts racing through it. Liam has cancer. He’s dying. He’s wasting away. And he didn’t tell me. “You said there was an operation?”

She sniffles loudly. “The operation went all right, but something happened overnight. I don’t know what, but since then he’s been going downhill. They’ve been working on him all day. They can’t tell what it is, but it seems like his body’s just … I don’t know, just shutting down. Tyson, please come. They don’t think he’ll make it past tonight.” She breaks down then, sobbing horribly. I can’t sob. I can’t even muster a tear. I can’t feel anything.

“I’ll be on the first flight out,” I promise.

“Please, hurry. I’ll tell him you’re coming. I know he would want to hold on for you, Tyson.” I get the address. There’s a fist squeezing my heart when I end the call. Liam, you fucking idiot. How dare you not even give me the chance to help?

I pull up a random travel site on my phone and search frantically for flights to Ireland—my fingers keep hitting the wrong buttons at first, but I eventually manage to schedule a flight going out in two hours. I buy the ticket on the spot and rush back to the hotel.

I rush up to my room and start throwing things into my suitcase, cursing him, mourning him, and wishing I could wring his fucking neck for being so stubborn and stupid. He is dying in some hospital bed in Ireland and there’s nothing I can do about it. He should’ve known I would want to be there, the jackass. A lifetime of being my best friend and he thought it would be all right not to tell me he was fuckin’ dying.

Suddenly, I remember Izzy.

“Damn it!” I whisper, running my hands through my hair. I look around, frantic, in a panic. I’m losing my fucking mind. I grab the phone that I tossed on the bed. I have to keep myself from hurling the damn thing to the floor when I see she still hasn’t given me that missed call.

I pace my suite restlessly like a caged tiger.

She’ll call soon. She’s just busy doing whatever bridesmaids do. Fuck, what if she calls while I am airborne? I change the recorded message on my phone’s answer machine. My message tells her that I have to fly to Ireland on an emergency and could she leave a number and I’ll call her back.

Another thought hits me. What if she doesn’t have the time to call and she is just planning on showing up in Costa tonight? Another thought hits me. Maybe she hasn’t called me yet because she was in such a hurry to get her ribbons she made a mistake with my number.

In that case, she won’t hear my message. She’ll think I ditched her. That I was never serious in the first place. She was only a fling. I imagined her sitting there, waiting for me, hopeful. Until enough time passed and she knew I wasn’t going to show. I could actually feel her pain as though someone were stabbing me.

The thought of hurting her is almost as crushing as the pain of my best friend dying. Like a knife to my heart. She doesn’t deserve to be hurt like that, especially when hurting her is the last thing I want to do. It is at that moment I realize she’s even more special to me than I had recognized.

I slump on the bed. I have enough time to leave her a message with the staff at Costa.

I snatch my suitcase, check out, and rush out of the hotel. Outside I flag down the first taxi that comes my way and direct the driver to the pub in question. While we’re on the way, I call Louis to cancel my lunch with him, then I shoot emails to Ralph and several others, letting them know about the change in plans. Ralph gets back to me instantly, telling me he’ll handle things on his end. He knows how much Liam means to me, the brother I never had.

“Wait here, please,” I say when we pull up outside Costa. I fly through the door and up to the counter. I ask to speak to someone who can understand English.

One of the girls comes towards me from the other end of the counter. “Can I help you?”

“Yes, please. Will you be working here at about seven tonight?”

“Yes, I am working, how do you say, is it … double shift?”

I nod quickly.

“Yes, double shifts tonight.”

“Good. I need you to do a big favor for me,” I explain as I fumble with my phone, searching for Izzy’s photo. “I’m supposed to meet this girl here at seven tonight, but I have to leave the country because of an emergency. Do you understand me?”

She nods. “Yes.”

“I don’t have her number. I need her to know that I’m not standing her up, right?”

“Ah, I understand.” She smiles, a smile that tells me she understands and everything will be all right. “You want me to tell her you can’t make it tonight because of an emergency.”

Nodding, I smile back at her. The relief feels like physical sensation in my body. I exhale. Oh, thank God. She will look out for Izzy and tell her what happened. “Do you have a piece of paper I can use?” The guy behind the bar slides me a notepad and a pen.

Izzy,

I’m so sorry, but there’s been an emergency. My best friend is critically ill and I have to fly out a.s.a.p.

Please call me when you get this.

x Tyson.

Underneath, I scrawl my cell number.

“Here.” I hand it over to her. “Please, give this to her.” I show her the photo again. “This girl.”

“She’s beautiful,” she says.

“Yes, she is. Which is why I can’t let her think I stood her up. This means the world to me.” I pull out two hundred Euros and shove the bunch of notes into her hand. “Thank you.”

“Sure, no problem!” she says, grinning from ear to ear. “I’ll be here tonight, and I promise to give her this note. Actually, if you call here at that time I can even let you speak to her.”

A great weight slides off my chest. It’s not ideal, but it’s the best I can do at the moment. “That would be wonderful. Thank you.”

“No problem. When you call just ask for Margot.” She grins. “That is me.”

I smile at her gratefully. “You’re a life saver.”

“Good luck,” she says as I turn away, clutching the notepad with the establishment’s phone number.

As I walk out, I suddenly wish there was a way for me to take Izzy back with me. It seems wrong to leave her here, but I have no choice but to climb back into the taxi and tell the driver to take me to the airport. I get to the airport with just enough time to get through security and board the plane. As it takes off I look down at the earth below and my heart feels heavy with some unknown fear.

Izzy will be all right, I tell myself. She’ll call soon and hear the message. She’ll understand. I know she will. We have something special. Any other woman might think it was a brush off, but not her. She’ll know there was nothing else I could do. I have to be with my friend—or at least try to help his girlfriend through the aftermath … if I don’t make it there in time to say goodbye. He would do the same for me.

I can’t wait around another day. I gave my word. And my word is always good.