I opened the door.
Jessica stood in the hallway holding a bottle of red wine beneath one arm and a small gift bag in her other hand.
She was tall, polished without looking overdressed, and visibly uncertain.
That last detail caught me off guard.
For days I had imagined a woman arriving with Liam’s confidence—someone who knew exactly what her presence meant and enjoyed it.
Instead, Jessica smiled cautiously.
“Hi. You must be Chloe.”
“I am.”
She offered me the bottle.
“This is for you both. Congratulations on the place.”
“Thank you.”
I stepped aside.
“Come in.”
She had barely crossed the threshold when Liam appeared.
“Jessica!”
His voice was brighter than it had been all afternoon.
He moved past me and hugged her.
It was not scandalous. Nobody gasped. His hands stayed where they should.
But the embrace lasted a fraction too long, and when he stepped back, his face held an excitement I had not seen when David arrived, or Ben, or Marcus, or any of the people supposedly gathered to celebrate our home.
Several conversations faded.
Jessica noticed.
Her shoulders became slightly rigid.
“It’s good to see you,” she said.
“You look amazing.”
“Thanks.”
Liam laughed, suddenly boyish. “I thought you might cancel.”
“I said I’d come.”
“I know. Still.”
I took the wine from her.
“Can I get you something?”
“Water would be great.”
“Absolutely.”
As I crossed toward the kitchen, Sarah appeared beside me.
She waited until I opened the refrigerator.
“You okay?”
“Fine.”
“You are absolutely not fine.”
I filled a glass from the filtered pitcher.
“I’m actually calmer than I expected.”
Sarah looked toward the living room.
Liam was already showing Jessica around.
Not introducing her to people.
Showing her the apartment.
“You look finished,” Sarah whispered.
I handed her the pitcher.
“That’s because I am.”
When I returned with Jessica’s water, Liam was pointing toward the hallway.
“The bedroom’s back there,” he told her. “Balcony’s through the living room. Sunset is ridiculous from here.”
Jessica accepted the glass from me.
“Thank you.”
“Of course.”
“This place is beautiful.”
Liam grinned.
“I finally got the kitchen I always wanted.”
I looked at him.
I.
Not we.
He did not notice.
A few other people did.
David glanced at his wife. She raised one eyebrow.
Jessica took a drink of water.
“It really is nice.”
“It finally feels like home,” Liam said.
Home.
I let the word pass without comment.
The previous night, I had removed the last photograph of my grandmother from the bedroom.
The apartment looked occupied by both of us.
Emotionally, I had already left.
The first hour passed more easily than anyone expected.
I greeted guests, refreshed drinks, replaced empty serving plates, and laughed when Marcus told a story about accidentally locking himself on his own balcony.
I did not hover around Liam.
I did not watch Jessica openly.
I did not need to.
Liam kept making himself visible.
Every few minutes he checked me.
The first time, I pretended not to notice.
The second, I smiled.
The third, I raised my glass slightly.
Each time, he looked more puzzled.
Eventually he followed me into the kitchen.
“I have to admit something.”
I arranged crackers on a wooden board.
“That sounds dangerous.”
He laughed.
“I’m impressed.”
“By the crackers?”
“By you.”
I looked up.
“You’re actually handling this well.”
There was genuine approval in his voice, the way someone might praise a child for behaving in a restaurant.
I placed another cracker on the board.
“You asked me to be mature.”
“Yeah, but I thought there might be some tension.”
“Why?”
He hesitated.
“Well, because of the history.”
Interesting.
For days, he had insisted the history meant nothing.
Now it apparently meant enough that my failure to react impressed him.
I smiled.
“No tension from me.”
He leaned against the counter.
“This is what I wanted. Everybody being adults.”
“Then you got what you wanted.”
He touched my shoulder affectionately.
“I knew you’d come around.”
When he walked away, Sarah appeared from the pantry doorway.
“I’m going to need you to explain what you’re doing before I have an aneurysm.”
“I’m hosting.”
“Chloe.”
I looked through the opening into the living room.
Liam had returned to Jessica.
They stood beside the balcony doors.
He leaned close while speaking. She leaned back slightly.
“I’m not doing anything,” I said.
“That’s what worries me.”
“I spent too long explaining Liam to people.”
Sarah frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“If he interrupted me, I explained he was excited. If he embarrassed me, I said he was joking. If he dismissed me, I said he was stressed.”
I adjusted the cheese on the board.
“I’m done providing subtitles.”
Sarah followed my gaze.
“So you’re just letting him…”
“Be himself.”
She became quiet.
Across the room, Liam laughed loudly.
Then he reached toward Jessica’s shoulder and brushed away something that might not have existed.
Jessica’s expression changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
She took half a step sideways.
David saw it.
His wife saw it.
Ben saw it.
Sarah whispered, “Oh.”
“Exactly.”
The strange thing was that Jessica did not appear flattered.
She looked uncomfortable.
That complicated the version of events I had constructed in my head.
Maybe she had not come to reclaim Liam.
Maybe she did not even know she had been placed in the middle of something.
I watched more carefully.
When Liam moved closer, Jessica created space.
When he referenced an old memory, she smiled politely rather than encouraging him.
When he touched her elbow while laughing, she glanced down at his hand.
Liam noticed none of it.
Or chose not to.
The more attention he received, the more careless he became.
I carried the food into the living room.
“Fresh supplies.”
Several people thanked me.
Jessica reached for a cracker.
“This is really good.”
“Sarah made the dip.”
“I chopped things,” Sarah corrected. “Chloe has been doing everything since yesterday.”
Liam waved a hand.
“She likes this stuff.”
I looked at him.
“I do?”
He froze for half a second.
Then he laughed.
“You know what I mean.”
I did.
So did Sarah.
The party continued.
Something had changed, though.
People were no longer watching me for jealousy.
They were watching Liam.
He did not realize it.
That was perhaps the most revealing part.
He had expected my behavior to be the evening’s potential embarrassment, so it never occurred to him that anyone might be judging his.
Ben eventually wandered toward us with a drink in his hand.
He was Liam’s cousin and had the dangerous social habit of saying whatever everyone else was carefully avoiding.
He looked from Liam to Jessica.
Then to me.
Then back again.
A grin appeared.
“Hey, Liam.”
“What?”
Ben raised his glass toward Jessica.
“I’ve got a question.”
Jessica gave an uncertain laugh.
“That sounds ominous.”
“It probably is.”
Ben pointed lightly between them.
“How exactly are you supposed to introduce somebody like Jessica at your housewarming?”
David lowered his beer.
Sarah became very still beside me.
I watched Liam.
This was the moment when a sensible person would say, She’s an old friend.
That was all he needed to say.
Instead, Liam smiled.
“Oh, Jessica?”
He stepped beside her.
Then, with the casual confidence of someone convinced the entire room admired him, he draped an arm across her shoulders.
“We’ve got way too much history to worry about labels.”
The room went silent.
Not gradually.
Instantly.
Jessica looked at his arm.
Then at him.
She reached up, removed it from her shoulders, and stepped away.
For the first time since she arrived, the uncertainty in her expression became something sharper.
Confusion.
“What exactly is that supposed to mean?” she asked.
Liam’s smile remained in place.
But suddenly, nobody else was smiling with him.
Click here to continue reading: PART 4: Jessica Asked One Simple Question in Front of Everyone, and Liam’s Carefully Managed Version of Our Relationship Began Falling Apart
Liam Gave Me One Rule for Our Housewarming, and His Confidence Made My Decision Easier Than He Knew
Part 3 of 35
