Chapter 110: GRWM
Liam pulled up the delivery app and ordered something for Mateo—burger, fries, the kind of meal a growing sixteen-year-old actually wanted rather than anything Liam would’ve picked for himself.
He set it to arrive within the hour, then wandered back into the living room where Darren had already commandeered the second controller.
“You good watching him for a bit while I get ready?” Liam asked.
Darren didn’t look up from the screen, thumbs working the controller with the kind of casual precision that made it clear this wasn’t his first time holding one.
“Yeah, we’re good.”
Mateo, it turned out, had finished his homework faster than expected, fueled almost entirely by the promise of gaming afterward. And it became immediately clear that Darren was operating on an entirely different skill level than Liam ever had.
“Bro, you just—” Mateo’s voice cracked with disbelief as Darren pulled off a combo that ended their opponent’s round in under four seconds.
“How did you even do that?”
“Practice,” Darren said simply.
“Liam’s terrible at this game.”
“Liam’s terrible at everything.”
“Hey,” Liam called from across the room, not even bothering to sound offended.
“I’m just saying what’s true,” Darren said, grinning with Mateo chuckling.
Liam shrugged it off and headed toward his room to get changed, mentally shifting gears toward the night ahead. There was a version of tonight where Mateo asked the wrong question at the wrong moment and carried some half-formed version of it back to Sophia. Liam wasn’t overly worried about that; if it came up, he could shape the story into something harmless enough. But it was worth keeping in mind.
He pulled a suit from the closet, dressed, and stepped back out to grab his phone.
Darren took one look at him and immediately shook his head. “Nope. Go back and change.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“Everything’s wrong with it.”
“I think it looks good,” Liam said, glancing down at himself.
“That’s the problem. You think it looks good. It’s not about the outfit, man, it’s about how it’s styled. Right now you look like you’re heading into a deposition, not a dinner.”
Liam considered arguing, decided against it, and went back to change. He came back out several minutes later in something that struck a different balance—still sharp, still deliberate, but with enough edge to it that it didn’t read as sterile. Something that worked walking into a five-star restaurant at eight and just as easily worked walking back out into daylight the next morning, if it came to that.
This time Darren gave him an approving nod. Even Mateo, without fully looking away from the screen, muttered a distracted “yeah, that one’s better” before returning his full attention to the game.
Liam felt some of the earlier tension ease slightly. “Good. Glad that’s settled.”
“Don’t let down your date,” Darren added, already refocused on the screen, the comment thrown out casually, without any real weight behind it.
Liam didn’t catch anything off in Mateo’s reaction. But something in the boy’s shoulders had gone tight for a second, a brief, involuntary tension that passed as quickly as it arrived. He didn’t say anything. Didn’t let it show on his face beyond that flicker. But the thought had planted itself regardless—if things didn’t work out between Liam and Sophia, there was a real chance all of this disappeared. And suddenly, Mateo became anxious.
He kept playing like nothing had happened.
–
Liam still had a few hours before he needed to head out, and arriving early to the venue would work in his favor—give him time to settle, scope the location, make sure nothing about tonight caught him off guard. He retreated to his room to go over a few details in his head.
A knock came at the door a while later.
“Come in.”
Mateo stepped inside, and Liam clocked the look on his face immediately—something unsettled sitting behind his eyes, the kind of expression that meant there was more he wanted to say than he was currently saying.
“Hey. What’s up?” Liam asked, setting his phone down.
Mateo hesitated, shifting his weight from one foot to the other before finally speaking. “I just—I wanted to say thanks. For coming to get me today.”
“Of course.”
“It was just some kids,” Mateo continued, eyes dropping to the floor. “They make fun of me. My weight, mostly.” He paused. “I’ve tried to lose it. It just—it never really works.”
Liam kept his expression steady, careful not to let anything read as pity. “You want to come to the gym with me sometime? No pressure. Just an option.”
Mateo’s face lit up immediately, the earlier heaviness cracking under a sudden, genuine grin. “Really?”
“Really.” Liam knew offering practical solution was better than telling him he was perfect just the way he was seeing as Mateo had attempted to lose it.
But the smile faded almost as fast as it appeared, replaced by something more hesitant. “Can I ask you something?”
“Yeah.”
“If you… if you stop seeing Sophia,” Mateo said carefully, not quite meeting his eyes, “would we still be friends?”
Liam paused. He understood immediately where the question had come from—Darren’s offhand comment, probably, sitting in the back of Mateo’s mind this entire time, quietly working itself into something bigger than it was ever meant to be. He didn’t dismiss it. The concern was reasonable enough on its own merits, regardless of where it had come from.
“You’ve got nothing to worry about,” Liam said, holding his gaze steady. “Whatever happens with Sophia, that’s got nothing to do with you and me. Our bond doesn’t depend on that. You’re like my little brother, Mateo. That doesn’t change.”
Mateo’s smile came back, wider than before, unguarded in a way that made something in Liam’s chest tighten slightly.
“I’d like that,” Mateo said.
“Good.”
Mateo lingered a second longer before turning to head back toward the living room, energy visibly lighter than it had been walking in.
“Oh, and Mateo,” Liam called after him.
Mateo turned back.
“Tonight’s not a date,” Liam said. “It’s business. There’s a difference.”
Mateo nodded, though the look on his face suggested he wasn’t entirely sure he believed that distinction mattered as much as Liam wanted it to.