CHAPTER 22
KATE
I usually hated going to the hospital. It was a cold and isolating environment. I honestly didn't know how Liam went there for work every day and came home so happy and positive. If it was me, I would have been a constant wreck.
As much as I hated going there, I couldn't help but be just a little excited as I crossed the parking lot that morning, on my way toward the front doors of the building. My excitement had nothing to do with the hospital of course, but what waited for me inside. I was going to the hospital to pick up Liam so that the two of us could go to Niagara Falls for the weekend. Together. Just the two of us.
I had been ecstatic all week about the trip. As much as I loved the city, I also loved nature. Maybe it wasn't the nature that I loved so much, but the spectacle of it. I don't think I could have lived in the middle of nowhere, away from civilization, but I didn't mind visiting it every now and then. I mean, probably. For all I knew, I’d grown up in a log cabin in the middle of nowhere. The old me might have hated living in the city. There was no way to know.
And the height of that excitement came from the fact that I was doing it all with Liam. The two weeks we had spent together before he asked me to go away with him were as perfect as two weeks could be.
And the week leading up to this day was even better. We didn’t fight. We didn't argue. We were like a lock and a key, made to fit one another perfectly. I felt whole when he was with me, and empty when he wasn't.
The whole thing with the journals had all but been erased from my mind. Not amnesia erased, but it had faded to a dim thought in the back of my mind. Every now and then, it did its best to creep back into my conscious, but whenever it did, I laughed it away. It was such a silly thought and a clear sign of self-sabotage. Just the idea that it might be something was ridiculous and, thus, wasn't worth thinking about. I was happy, so why try and find a way to ruin that?
The only real problem with the last week was that Liam had had to work more than usual. We had only gotten one date night in the past six days, and more often than not, I would go to bed alone. I didn’t hold it against him though. I knew he wanted nothing more than to be by my side. But still, I missed seeing him every day, which was all the more reason why this trip had me in such a state of excitement.
Even the hospital seemed warmer and lighter as I walked through its front doors. The people seemed to all be smiling, and the doctors appeared to be practically floating down the hallways.
"Hello, do you know where Doctor Morgan is?" I asked the nurse at the reception desk.
"I think he's in the break room on the second floor," the nurse responded in a merry tone. I thanked her and hurried along the hallway toward the stairs.
The break room was just at the top of the stairs, and therefore, it didn’t take me long to reach it. That, and I practically ran down the hall towards it. I was about to burst on the scene and announce myself to Liam. I was going to run up to him and throw myself in his arms, cooing for him to take me away. But when I reached the doorway, I came to a grinding halt, frozen by what I saw.
There were only two people in the break room. One was Liam, with his back to me, sitting in a chair. The other was the very recognizable Sandra, with her long red hair. She too had her back to me and was also sitting in a chair. Right by Liam’s side.
What disturbed me the most about the sight was Sandra's arm and hand. It was strung across the back of Liam's chair, resting on his shoulders. And as Liam spoke, she threw her head back, laughing ecstatically. And as she did this, she squeezed his shoulder playfully, an act which he did nothing to stop.
And if that was it, if all that had happened was he had told a joke and she had laughed and flirted a little, then I might have been fine. But following that little display, it was Sandra's turn to tell a funny joke.
When she did, Liam burst into laughter, more than I had ever seen before. His hand then moved down and slapped Sandra on the thigh, cupping it and giving it a squeeze at the end.
"I'll miss you," I distinctly heard Sandra say, once the laughter calmed down, and I stepped a little further into the room.
"That's to be expected," Liam joked. It was a joke that out of context may have seemed funny and a little arrogant. But considering what I had just seen, it spoke volumes.
"Hug?" Sandra asked, holding her arms out.
Liam, not seeing anything wrong with it, obliged, and it was then that I had to make myself known.
"I'm not disturbing anything, am I?" I asked, leaning up against the doorway.
Liam was quick to react, instantly pulling himself from Sandra's grip. She was a little slower to let go. Seeing me, he was on his feet a second later, even going so far as to take a hurried step back from Sandra, as if there were a chance that I hadn't seen anything.
"Kate!" he exclaimed, looking extremely guilty as he did. "I didn't think you were... I thought I was meeting you downstairs?"
"Sorry for the inconvenience," I said bitterly.
I would have snapped a little harder, but Sandra was watching both of us with a very obvious look of satisfaction on her face. I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of seeing us fight, the bitch.
"That's not what I meant,” Liam said. “I just thought... come on. We should probably get going."
He walked right past Sandra without so much as a glance. When he reached me, he pecked me on the cheek before heading out the door.
I made sure to throw Sandra an icy glare before following Liam out. I actually hadn't minded Sandra up until that point. She had always been nice to me. But now, I knew exactly why she had been so nice. She just wanted to stay on Liam's good side. It was clear that she wanted Liam for herself, and the thought of her getting to spend all day, every day with him made me physically sick.
I probably shouldn't have been as mad at Liam as I was, but I just couldn't help it. I was in such a good mood until I stumbled upon the little scene in the break room. The shocking, unexpected nature of it did much to plunge me into an icy cold state that I maintained for the entire car trip to the Falls.
To Liam's credit, he tried to put me back in a good mood as we made the six-hour drive north. He joked, he chatted, and he laughed, even when I wasn't. But try as he might, my mood did not improve.
Every time it came close, I thought again of Sandra and her beautiful porcelain skin and breathtaking red hair. I thought of those big green eyes and how she most likely batted her lashes at Liam every day.
Stupid man-stealing whore. Find your own goddamn man, and leave mine alone. I wasn’t a violent woman, but I kind of wanted to punch her in her stupid, pretty face.
For the last two hours of the trip, we drove in silence. I was too lost in violent revenge fantasies, and by that point, Liam had gotten the hint that maybe I wasn't in the mood to be cheered up.
But despite this, he wore a cheeky grin on his face the whole way. He didn't seem put out by my mood but rather excited by it, as if it were some sort of challenge to overcome. If anything, his attitude only made me angrier.
The place that Liam had booked for us was a small cabin in the woods. It was a part of a bed and breakfast establishment with dozens in the area, but it had been built and designed to look as if it were a one of a kind, isolated in the wilderness.
"Ta da!" Liam exclaimed as we pulled up to the log cabin.
It was the kind of cabin that one would expect to find in the forest in the middle of nowhere. The roof was covered in moss, there was an old rickety porch out front, and the entire thing was surrounded by dense forest.
As he leapt from the car in excitement, grabbing my bags from the back, he went on about the place and how happy he was that we were there. "Tomorrow, we can go and see the falls. It's only a short drive. After that, we can hike through the forest. There's meant to be a small waterfall only a few hours in. Plus, there's a fire place inside."
Despite myself, I found my attitude warming up to him. His excitement was infectious, and the whole thing did sound rather pleasant. Plus, I was starting to become aware that I was in danger of ruining the weekend. I wished that he would just apologize so I could forgive him and we could move on, but chances were he didn't even know what to apologize for. I mean, was he going to say sorry for having to work every day with Sandra?
If there was any chance of me staying mad at him, it instantly evaporated the moment that we entered the log cabin. The inside was designed to look like a hunting lodge, with antlers on the walls, a bear rug on the floor, and a huge fireplace near the bed. A fire already roared in the stone enclosure.
But that wasn't what was most amazing. Somehow, and much to Liam's obvious delight, someone had come along before us and sprinkled the entire bed with rose petals. There were also scented candles burning by the bedside and what felt like a steam bath waiting in the bathroom.
It was impossibly romantic.
"Listen," Liam said, dropping the bags as he made his way toward me. He took my hand and directed me to look into his eyes. "I'm sorry for earlier. Sandra is just flirty like that. I know. But she doesn't mean anything by it and she doesn't matter. I am sorry, and when we get back, I'll make sure to tell her to stop—"
I didn't wait to hear the rest. I couldn't believe that he was apologizing. It was just so unexpected. That, combined with how incredible the room was and the whole weekend in general, made the situation too impossible to resist. I was swept away by it and wanted to show my gratitude.
The bags were on the floor. The cabin door was closed. We were alone, and it was time that I made up for my behavior on the drive up. I took Liam by the hand and led him toward the bed, determined to break the room in the only way I knew how.