Escaping Reality

York’ t-shirt more than the one you have on.”
    His voice is a tightly pulled cord. He’s angry and I’m baffled. “You
    hate ‘I love New York’ shirts?”
    “I hate what it says about your situation.” A knock sounds on the
    door, but he doesn’t move. Silence ticks between us and I think he has to
    be able to hear the thunder of my heart.
    Another knock and he turns away, pulling his shirt over his head as
    he stomps toward the door.
    I wet my dry lips and stare down at the shirt, and I feel like an ice pick
    is chipping away at my nerve endings. I hate what this shirt says about my
    life, too. And I hate that Liam knows what it says about my life. I hate it
    because it means I have to make tonight our only night. I knew that
    already, but I also know a part of me was slipping into a fantasyland where I
    could allow Liam to be my Prince Charming for just a little bit longer. I’m
    back now, though. I’m back in reality and no matter what happens tonight,
    I won’t forget that it translates to one thing and one thing only. Alone.

Chapter Seven

    Liam has done his best to convert my apartment into his penthouse
    suite for me.
    I wait by what is supposed to be my new kitchen table where two
    pizzas fresh from the hotel kitchen wait on us, and listen as Liam sees two
    hotel staff members out the front door, no doubt tipping them well. In all
    of fifteen minutes since their arrival I have everything I would have had,
    had I been in Liam’s room: bedding and pillows, as well as enough paper
    products, plastic utensils, kitchen items, and basic hygiene products to last
    me days. The list goes on, with a hair dryer, hotel slippers, and a robe, and
    my kitchen is stocked with canned sodas and a coffee pot with supplies,
    including cups. I am truly doubting my decision to stay here rather than go
    to his room, and not just because he’s likely spent a pretty penny on me.
    Because I am surely the talk of the hotel now and Liam is exposed by his
    connection to me.
    Dragging a hand through his thick, dark hair, looking tired but
    incredibly sexy, Liam walks back into the room. “The pizza smells good.”
    “Yes,” I agree, but my mind is elsewhere and I hold my hands out to
    indicate the apartment. “Liam, this, all of this you did, is too much.”
    “It isn’t even close to too much.”
    “It had to have cost you a small fortune.”
    “I have a fortune, Amy.” And he sounds almost…bitter? About being
    rich? He grabs the pizza boxes that are stacked with a couple of sodas and
    plasticware, and motions to the bedroom.
    “Let’s go eat on the bed.”
    Dinner in bed with the sexiest man I’ve ever known. I don’t have it in
    me to complain.
    “Yes. Okay, but thank you for everything. Thank you so very much.”
    “It’s not your thanks I want.”
    “Then what do you want?” And I don’t know why, but I hold my
    breath, waiting for his answer.
    He tilts his head and studies me a moment. “For you to share dinner
    in bed with me.”
    I let the air trickle from my lips. It is the perfect answer, even if I
    sense it wasn’t what he really wanted to say. “I’d like that.”
    I excuse myself to go to the bathroom and quickly change into some
    shorts I purchased when I bought my t-shirt, and while doing so, I begin to
    worry dinner is an opening for Liam to drill me with questions. But I don’t
    let myself linger in the bathroom, where I’m dodging the mirror. I won’t like
    what I see in it.
    Reassuring myself that I’m good at dodging what I don’t want known,
    I join Liam on the bed. With my legs curled to my side, and the pizza boxes
    on the mattress between us, I dig into a slice of pizza with a hunger, not for
    food, but for something no one can take from me. My love of cheese pizza
    is like every little personal part of me that no name or location change can
    strip away.
    “Why don’t I tell you about your neighborhood?” Liam suggests,
    dusting off his hands, after digging into his food with a heartiness that
    beats mine by double.
    “You know it well enough to tell me about it?”
    “Actually, yes. I consulted on a building project not far from here a
    few years back. I stayed across the street for a month. When you come out
    of the building, go right a block and then left, and there are two coffee
    shops and several restaurants. If you go left instead of right when you exit,
    two blocks down in a straight line is a mall. There’s a Whole Foods to the
    right of the mall and