“The sink is fixed,” I said. “It needed a part. There was nothing you could’ve done to fix it, Liam. Don’t worry, you still have your man card.”
Liam shook his head. “Sorry about that, Em. It’s just…” Liam lifted his nose. “Do you smell…”
Before he could finish his question, the smoke alarm started to go off.
I let out a yell and ran to the oven.
When I opened the door, a puff of smoke was thrown at me.
That only made the smoke alarm angrier.
I shut the oven door and turned the oven off.
“What is that?” Liam called out.
“Go open a window!” I yelled to him.
He went to the window and I ran to the fridge to get the stepladder.
It was sad how much I needed the stepladder.
Hence why it was always within reach.
With a dish towel in my hand, I climbed up the stepladder and started waving the towel like I was at a football game, cheering on some guy to run for a touchdown.
The burnt smell of what should have been sweet and savory chocolate chip cookies made my eyes and nose tingle.
I had been so fucking worried about the smell in the apartment…
I moved up to my toes and started to smack the smoke alarm with the towel.
“Shut up, you bastard,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Em, be careful,” Liam said. “Why don’t you let me-”
I screamed as the stepladder moved probably a centimeter on the floor.
To me, it was as though someone kicked it out from under me and I was going to plummet four hundred feet into a pit of alligators.
My arms did the whole windmill motion and I threw myself back.
All I pictured was me slamming off the kitchen floor, hitting my ass, my back, and my head.
All of which happened right in front Liam.
I screamed again, then felt Liam’s arms around me.
I turned my head and he was cradling me in his arms.
My heart leapt out of my chest and right back in.
The smoke alarm finally stopping screeching.
“Hey,” Liam said.
“Holy shit,” I said.
“What were you baking?”
“Cookies.”
“You made cookies for me?” Liam asked with a grin.
My mind slapped my heart and my heart slapped my mind.
Liam’s left hand touched my back… but his right hand was a few inches away from having more than a handful of my ass…
I wiggled and he put me on my feet.
I walked to the oven and gently opened the door.
A little bit more smoke climbed out.
I was careful this time not to set off the smoke alarm.
I slid an oven mitt on my hand and took the tray from the oven.
The cookies were done for.
Charred.
“Em?” Liam asked.
“They were for Miss Crabapple,” I said. “She lives on a different floor. She has terminal cancer. I was making her cookies. I completely forgot about them. I blame you for this.”
“Me?” Liam asked. “What did I do?”
Liam approached me.
“Nothing,” I said. “I’m kidding.”
Only I wasn’t kidding.
Liam had my head scrambling.
He reached for one of the cookies.
To my shock, he took a bite.
“This tastes like shit,” he said with burnt crumbs falling from his mouth.
“How do you know what shit tastes like?” I asked.
He laughed.
He dropped the cookie to the tray and it sounded like someone dropped a brick from the roof of the building.
“Come on,” he said.
“Where?”
“We’re going to buy your neighbor some cookies,” he said. “Right now.”
“Liam…”
He took my hand. “Let’s go, Em. Let’s have a little fun tonight.”
“To get cookies? That’s your version of fun?”
Liam winked at me.
My heart did that whole leaping thing again.
But that was only because I was still jumpy from the fact I almost burned down the apartment building.
Right?
“You really do that for your neighbor?” Liam asked.
“Yeah.”
“That’s special.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah,” Liam said. “You don’t think so?”
“I think it’s just… I don’t know. Being human.”
“I don’t know, Em. A lot of humans don’t give a shit about anything but themselves.”
“Call me a freak then,” I said. “I’m different.”
“You’re not a freak,” he said. He looked at me and smiled. “Not even close. That woman is all alone and you go out of your way to help her. You know you can’t cure her cancer. You know she’s going to die. Yet you show up and make the best of it.”
“Okay, enough of that talk,” I said. “I’m still emotional over the cookie incident.”
“Aw, Em,” Liam said. He put his arm around me. “You know… there’s no need to cry over burned cookies.”
“I thought it was spilled milk?”
“Well, you didn’t spill any milk.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re sometimes a big dork, you know that?”
“There’s nothing dorky about me,” Liam said.
“Sure. You just deal with paperwork all day. Dork.”
Liam’s lip curled a little.
As we turned the next corner, three kids with skateboards were on the sidewalk.
Liam stopped me.
One of the kids did some kind of jump move and flipped the skateboard in the air and landed right back down on it.
“I can do that,” Liam said.
“No, you can’t,” I said.
“You’ve seen me do that before.”
“A long time ago, Liam.”
He broke away from me and whistled at the kids.
“Hey, my man,” he called out. “Can I borrow that for a second?”
“Liam!” I yelled.
He waved back at me.
Next thing I knew Liam was talking to the three kids.
And by kids… they were probably nineteen or twenty.
Liam then held a skateboard in his hands.
“Ready for this, Em?” he asked me.
He walked out into the street.
I followed.
He put the skateboard on the ground and began to ride it.
I held my breath for a few seconds.
But off he went.
Down the street.
Turning.
Coming back.
He looked at me and pointed.
I gently clapped my hands together.
“Now, watch this move,” he said.
He kicked his left foot to the ground and picked up speed.
When he tried to mimic the move the kid had done, the skateboard flipped into the air… and so did Liam.
I gasped and started to run toward him.
He hit the ground with a hard thud and grabbed for his left wrist.
He looked at me and mouthed the word fuck.
Jokingly, I called out, “Hospital
