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Liv smiles at him and escorts him back toward the dining room off the kitchen, where I assume she and Elijah have been eating dinner.
“Great. Thank you, Dad. You’ll get to meet Elijah again. He’s a great kid.” Liv briefly looks over at me and then steps between her dad and me, her back toward me. “You obviously don’t have to stay past dinner, but I’ll be home soon after I help get him tucked in.”
“Wonderful. We can watch a movie or something when you get home.” John nods as he pulls out a chair at the table.
As he sits down, Liv heads back toward the kitchen and yells up the stairs as she passes by.
“Elijah! Come down, please. My dad is here, and he’d like to say hello. You know you’re not a baby anymore since he last saw you.”
“Oh, cool! Coming!”
Elijah stomps down the stairs, and before I can ask her if she wants help with anything, Liv is back in the kitchen.
“So,” John starts and gestures to the chair across from him, “I hooked you up pretty good by pointing Liv in your direction, didn’t I?”
I nearly choke on my own damn breath, coughing lightly to clear my throat.
“Sorry. It’s dry in here.” I sit down at the table, wishing the pitcher of water had made it out to the table. “And yeah, you did. She’s been a huge help.”
My son comes in and says hi to John, and then Liv shouts for him to help set the table. I get him to bring me that much-needed glass of water, even if a scotch would be better.
Liv comes back, presenting her amazing dish, something Italian by the smell, and we dig in. After a few awkward moments when I have to keep shaking the thought You’re fucking his daughter out of my head, I’m able to chat with my best friend almost like normal.
Tension still simmers behind my skin, and I can see Liv is being a bit more formal than usual, likely also spooked by her dad’s sudden attendance at dinner.
The food is truly amazing, and I wonder aloud who taught Liv to cook.
John chimes in. “Oh, she figured it out by herself.”
“It was mostly for survival, since you can’t cook at all.” Liv laughs to herself, and John rolls his eyes.
“Her mom passed away before she could impart her skills, but it looks like a lot of it came with the genes.”
I swallow, remembering how I met John during college and somehow stayed in touch through all these years. Watching him go through the loss of his wife was so hard, but he really stepped up as a dad and actually gave me a lot of inspiration.
“I remember that. I’m glad he had someone there to cook for him because I’ve tasted his attempt at grilled cheese. He left the plastic on the cheese slices.”
“Eww, really?” Elijah makes a hilarious face at the table, and we all laugh with him as John tries to defend himself.
At the end of the meal, Liv hugs her Dad goodbye and says she’ll see him after putting Elijah to bed. With that, it’s just the three of us in the house again, and a whopping dose of awkward simmers between me and Liv for the rest of the night.
* * *
We get Elijah to bed, and I can feel that Liv wants to head right for her bag and out the door. I can’t stand not knowing what’s up with her, so before she can get to the foyer, I stop her in the kitchen and hold her in front of me.
“Hey, what’s up? You never answered me before, and now I’m wondering if I did something wrong.”
Liv shakes her head, moving away so my hands slide off her arms.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. At least, not alone.” She stares at the floor and sighs. “I really didn’t want to have this conversation today, or maybe ever.”
Nausea crawls up my gut, and my heart pounds in my ears.
“We can’t do this anymore.”
The words hit like a fucking freight train, and I can’t believe I didn’t see this coming. I swallow hard, stepping even farther away from her.
“Did I—”
