“Congratulations!”

Both girls made the exclamation at the same time, but neither Tori nor Ayumi looked especially congratulatory. Ayumi looked a little like she wanted to cry, and Tori looked super uncomfortable while Katya held out her ring finger.

She kept her smile in place and persevered. She'd called Ayumi earlier in the day and had asked her to meet up at Tori's apartment. Everything was all in place.

“Thank you! I'm so happy,” she sighed. “I'm telling you guys first, of course.”

“Well, I'm really happy for you,” Ayumi said. “And I really mean it. I've known Wulf a long time, and I've never seen him as happy as he is with you.”

“That's so sweet. I also wanted to talk to both of you about the engagement party,” Katya pushed on.

“Oh. Where's it going to be?” Ayumi asked politely. Tori looked like she was barely even listening.

“You'll never believe it,” Katya laughed. “But it's going to be here.”

“In my apartment?” Tori asked.

“No, in building number two! Liam was canceling the New Year's party, and then Wulf proposed and I was like wait a minute ... a large room with a lot of booze and decorations and food and all my favorite people already going? It seemed perfect. So I asked him if we could just take it over and he said sure,” she explained.

Ayumi actually blanched, but it was Tori who spoke up first.

“I'm sorry, but I don't think I can make it.”

Katya was stunned. How could Tori not be there? They'd been friends since high school. They did everything together. It was a given that she'd be Katya's maid-of-honor when the time came.

“What? Why?” she finally managed to ask.

“I'm really, really sorry,” Tori insisted. “If I had known, I ... I'm going on a trip.”

“A trip?” Katya asked dumbly.

“Yeah. All the shit at work, and this opportunity came up to go on a trip, so I took it. It's crazy, I know, but it's already booked and kind of a done deal,” she told them.

“An opportunity ... are you joining a cult?” Katya asked, and finally her friend laughed.

“No. Honestly. Just going to go be a bum for a while, get over my heart break,” she teased, and even threw a cheeky wink at Ayumi.

She is. She's in a cult. Or on drugs. Or both. Oh god. I can only deal with so many broken people at one time!

“What about your job? Does Liam know?”

“I already told him. I said if I was going to stay on at The Garden, then I was going to need an extended paid vacation. He agreed. Promised my job would be there when I got back.”

“He's a good guy,” Ayumi said in a soft voice, and that put a damper on the whole room.

“He is,” Tori finally agreed. Then she turned and walked back to her bedroom.

“Well then,” Katya sighed. “I'll deal with ... whatever that was in a minute. You'll be there, though, for sure.”

“Me? Oh, Katya, I don't know,” Ayumi said, wringing her hands. “Liam didn't return any of my calls and I don't want to make it weirder than it already is. I don't feel comfortable going.”

“It's okay,” Katya took a deep breath. Lying wasn't her forte. “He won't be there. There's a big party at the club he's overseeing. And what with Tori leaving, he'll probably be there all night.”

“Really? On New Year's?” Ayumi checked.

“Really. So look, you know Wulf probably better than anyone. I want to get him a present,” Katya started babbling. “A real show stopper. What do you think ...”

*

WULF KNOCKED SHARPLY on the door in front of him, then took a step back. When it opened, he started to speak. Then paused. Narrowed his eyes for a second.

“Is Eden home?” he asked. Landon Edenhoff smiled big.

“You've always been able to tell us apart,” he chuckled. “It's pretty impressive. Yeah, he's here. Make yourself at home, I was heading out.”

Liam's twin shut the door loudly behind him, then could be heard stomping down the stairs.

Wulf tried to remember if he'd ever been in Eden's apartment before – he must have, at some point. Maybe. It was very bright and airy. All open spaces and natural light. He supposed it fit Liam's personality perfectly.

“You know,” he said when the other man finally walked out of the bathroom. “You did a really good job on this remodel. You could rent it out for a lot of money.”

“Wulf,” Liam said, obviously a little stunned.

“Liam.”

“Uh, what are you doing in my home?” he blurted out, glancing around.

“Your brother let me in. Can I sit?”

Liam bustled over to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair. Wulf sat down and Liam grabbed them both beers before taking his own seat.

“Why are you here?” he asked point blank.

After Wulf had sold off his half of the club, he and Liam hadn't really had a reason to socialize. At least, not beyond the occasional shared meal with Katya. They weren't the type of associates to ever make house calls, either, so it must have looked strange, just showing up out of the blue.

“Katya and I got engaged,” Wulf said bluntly. Liam toasted his beer.

“I heard. Mazel tov.”

“Thanks. So you're sure it's okay if we hijack your party?” he checked, of course already knowing it was okay.

“Yeah, I don't care, I don't plan on being there anyway.”

“Seriously?” Wulf feigned surprised. “But you have to be, Katya will be bitch all night if you're not.”

“I know, but Tori just informed she's taking something like a month off to travel. Someone has to be at the club during its party,” he sighed.

“Surely you don't have to be there all night,” Wulf insisted. “Parties throw themselves. Stay at the club until like nine, then head over here. It'll be perfect.”

“What happens at nine?”

“We're making the toast then, so you should really be there.”

“Ug, pass.”

Wulf chuckled. Sometimes, just sometimes, he almost kind of liked Liam. That's what inspired his next idea.

“You know,” he started speaking in a slow voice. “I don't have a lot of close friends, and I don't have any brothers.”

“I know.”

“In fact, when I thought about it, I realized you're probably the only man I'm even relatively close to,” he continued.

“That's sweet, Wulfy, but what does ...” Liam's voice trailed off as the light bulb went on over his head. “You've gotta be shitting me.”

“I do need a best man,” Wulf sighed.

Ayumi, you owe me big time for this.

“Me? You fucking hate me. I don't like you. How could you possibly want me? What about, uh ... uh ... Mr. Tocci? You guys are bros.”

“Katya's dad is still getting used to life in a wheelchair, I'm not about to make him sit at the head of a church for an hour. Look, do you want the position or not? It would really mean a lot,” Wulf barked out. His niceness only extended so far.

“God, I ... uh ... are you sure?”

“It would mean a lot to Katya, too,” Wulf tacked on. Liam groaned.

“I'm not throwing you a bachelor party.”

“I wouldn't want you to. So be at the party by nine o'clock,” he instructed him.

“Fine. Fine, I'll fucking be there,” Liam grumbled and looked away. He was silent for a moment and Wulf kept smiling pleasantly. Finally, the other man cracked. “Ayumi will be there, right? You should make sure it's okay with her that I'm going.”

People are so predictable.

“Why would I need to do that?” Wulf asked, cocking his head to the side. Liam finally looked back at him.

“Because as you may or may not have noticed, we had kind of a thing. A kind of thing that got really fucked up really fast. Now we don't speak. So she might not appreciate being stuck in the same room as me all night,” he pointed out.

“That's weird.”

“What is?”

“That's not at all what I thought was going on.”

“How do you mean?”

“From what I understand, you fucked it all up in the end, and now you're not speaking to her. In fact, as best I can tell, she really wants to talk to you, and she would love to be in the same room with you. But you're a dickhead who doesn't answer his phone,” Wulf explained. Liam looked stunned for a moment, then he sighed.

“I didn't fuck it up,” he said, staring down at his beer. “For once, I really don't think I did. We were a bad match, it was a bad idea. She wasn't ready for someone like me, and I just wasn't good enough for someone like her.”

“Bullshit.”

Liam lifted his head at the insult.

“What did you just say to me?”

“Look,” Wulf groaned as he climbed to his feet. “I know how you feel about me – you think I'm the devil, and that I think you're a piece of shit, and that I won some stupid competition for Katya.”

“I don't care about the bullshit with Katya anymore,” was the only thing Liam argued with.

“Good. Because that's exactly what it was, just bullshit. I might be the devil, but I don't think you're shit, Liam. I think you're smart, and you're so likable, it's irritating. I wish I was more like you, sometimes. But not right now. You're making a mistake,” Wulf said in a low voice.

“How am I -”

“She cares about you, and you know it. Deep down, you know it, or you wouldn't have wasted your time on her. She's fragile, and she's fucked up, and she's going to make a lot more mistakes. No one in her life has ever loved her, so she never learned how to love,” Wulf tried to explain. “You're the complete opposite, everyone always loves you, from the first moment they meet you. It's not that she thought you weren't good enough for her, Liam. That wasn't her issue. She thought you were too good for her.”

“Why hasn't she said any of that?”

“Are you fucking deaf? I just said she doesn't know how. Then you told her it was over. What's Ayumi the absolute best at?”

“Following instructions,” Liam whispered, looking off into space.

“Exactly. You've made it clear you want her to stay away, so she's staying so fucking far away, she practically doesn't exist anymore. Congratulations, you got what you wanted. Meanwhile, I have to deal with a whiny assistant who cries all the time. Thanks.”

“She cries?”

“Yes. Often. If one more set of contracts gets ruined, I'm holding you responsible.”

“I don't know, Wulf,” Liam groaned, running his fingers through his hair. “Maybe I'm not the guy to teach her about love. I tried. I really tried. She wouldn't listen to me.”

“Then you were right all along, you're not good enough for her,” Wulf grabbed his keys off the table and started heading for the door. “Because she deserves the absolute best in life, and that means a guy who could actually care about her. A guy who could actually fight for her. And not just to prove himself to anybody, and not just to win some competition, and not just to feel good about himself. Just for her.”

He didn't wait to hear Liam's response, he simply walked out the door and let it fall shut behind him.

Playing the role of Cupid didn't come naturally to Wulf, he wasn't sure how he'd done. He'd spoken his mind and he'd spoken from the heart, he supposed it was all he could do. He'd honestly thought that when he'd told Liam how upset she still was, the other man would've fallen all over himself to reach out to her.

But he hadn't. Ayumi had really gotten to Liam, it seemed. A girl carved out of ice had somehow managed to touch him in ways no one else had. He was scared. It was bad enough feeling like he wasn't good enough for his family and friends – but to not be good enough for Ayumi, that was simply too much, it seemed.

These people are idiots. I should've made Katya elope.