Chapter 111: Tonight Is The Night! [FIXED!]
Liam checked himself in the mirror one last time, adjusting his cuffs, running a hand through his hair before deciding it was fine the way it was. The outfit fit exactly the way Darren had promised it would once styled properly — sharp without trying too hard, the kind of look that said serious without saying rehearsed.
Darren leaned against the doorframe, watching him with the mild amusement of someone who’d earned the right to take credit. “Look at you. Almost presentable.”
“Almost.”
“Good luck out there.”
Liam grabbed his keys off the dresser. “Don’t need it. Never have.”
Darren huffed a laugh. “Confidence. I respect it.”
Liam walked out into the living room where Mateo was still parked in front of the TV, controller in hand, thoroughly unbothered by the fact that his ride home was about to change.
“Darren’s gonna take you home,” Liam said.
Mateo glanced up, entirely unfazed. “Cool.”
It wasn’t a stretch for him — Darren had spent the better part of the afternoon demolishing him at every game they’d touched, and somewhere between round two and round six, an actual rapport had formed. Liam had already run it by Sophia, who’d texted back her approval without hesitation. He wouldn’t have arranged it otherwise. Whatever complicated dynamics existed around Mateo, Sophia’s trust wasn’t something Liam intended to spend carelessly.
“Text me if you need anything,” Liam added.
“I’ll be fine,” Mateo said, already back to the game.
Liam headed out.
–
The drive gave him too much time to think, which was exactly the problem. He turned the radio up louder than usual, letting a few songs drown out the noise in his head, singing along under his breath at the red lights just to keep himself from spiraling into the various ways tonight could go wrong.
This was the meeting. The one that mattered more than any conversation he’d had in months. He couldn’t afford to let it slip past him half-prepared.
He checked his phone at a stoplight, confirming Mrs. Harriet was already en route. Not surprising — she struck him as the type who lived closer to wherever mattered most, the kind of calculated convenience that came with money and the freedom to choose her own geography. He had no idea where she actually lived. It was an educated guess, but an easy one. She wasn’t the sort of woman who inconvenienced herself.
By the time he pulled up to the restaurant, his heart was beating harder than the traffic alone could account for.
The place was quiet — too quiet for what should have been a busy weekday evening in this part of the city. He scanned the street once before heading in, noting the absence of the usual crowd a location like this should have been pulling. Whether that was coincidence or design, he had a strong guess which.
Her car was already parked outside.
Punctual. Always. It was one of the things he genuinely respected about her — she didn’t waste time, didn’t make people wait as a display of power the way some in her position did. If she was here already, that meant he was the one running behind, however slightly. The traffic on the way over hadn’t helped.
He stepped inside, and the restaurant’s interior confirmed what the empty street had already suggested — private, deliberately so, the kind of place designed to be found rather than stumbled into.
He spotted her immediately. She wasn’t hard to find even in a crowd, and tonight there was no crowd to speak of at all.
Her petite frame barely filling the plush chair. The elegant black dress she wore draped like liquid silk over her small body, yet the neckline plunged dramatically between her modest breasts, creating a deep V that revealed the subtle inner curves of her chest and the delicate line of her sternum.
The fabric clung to her tiny waist before flaring slightly at her hips, but the real statement was the open front—two panels of sheer lace barely covering the sides of her small breasts, leaving the centers exposed to the warm restaurant lighting.
She caught him looking and offered a small, knowing smile, and Liam felt his composure slip a fraction, a sheepish expression breaking across his face before he could rein it back in.
“You made it,” Mrs. Harriet said as he approached the table. “I wasn’t sure the distance would cooperate.”
Right — she knew exactly where he lived. The apartment was company-provided; of course she’d know the commute. It had briefly slipped his mind that she’d have that detail memorized.
“No problem at all,” Liam said, sliding into the seat across from her. “I’d take any chance I get to see you at this point.”
The words left his mouth before he’d fully considered how they’d land, and there was a beat of silence after — Mrs. Harriet’s expression unreadable, clearly turning the sentence over for a second meaning that may or may not have been intended.
Liam recovered quickly. “It’s not every day I get to see my former boss, after all.”
That eased whatever tension had gathered in the pause, and her expression relaxed into something more familiar, more composed.
“Well,” she said, folding her hands on the table, “I appreciate you making the trip regardless.”
“Wouldn’t have missed it.”
A server appeared briefly to set down water and mention the evening’s specials before retreating just as quietly as the rest of the restaurant seemed to operate. Mrs. Harriet thanked him without breaking her focus from Liam.
“So,” she said once they were alone again, “shall we start with pleasantries, or would you rather get directly to the reason we’re both here?”
Liam considered the question for a moment, aware of exactly how much weight sat behind whichever answer he chose.
“Let’s start with pleasantries,” he said. “I think we’ve both earned a few minutes before the hard part.”
Something in her expression shifted — approval, maybe, or simple relief at not being rushed straight into business. “Fair enough.”
The conversation eased into something lighter from there, and Liam found himself more at ease than he’d expected walking in. But even as the small talk carried them through the first several minutes, he was aware of the evening’s undertone sitting just beneath the surface — the location she’d chosen, the effort in how she’d dressed, the private, empty restaurant that made it clear tonight wasn’t going to unfold like their previous meetings.
Whatever this dinner turned into, Liam had a feeling it wasn’t going to be simple.