Office Mates

Where the heck did Liam come from

This is told from Marian's perspective:

I first met Liam in my junior year of college. He was Peter's friend. There had been a few times we were supposed to meet, but it kept not happening. One of us would bail at the last minute But at the end of our junior year, I finally met him. During the previous year, I had been dating a guy that I will call Rob, since that's what he did. He robbed me of a year of my life by trying to play games. I decided to ghost him after a year of push and pull. At the end of Junior year, Peter found out that he got an internship in a city 4 hours away. It would be the first time that Ashley and Peter would be long-distance. Before he left, Peter and Ashley invited me to go out for our final time before Peter left. Peter invited Liam too. Both of us came out of our love for Peter. It's hard not to love Peter once you meet him.

Liam and I had a very rocky first meeting. It wasn't love at first sight. Liam and I were complete opposites from one another. He had arrived looking like a model. His hair was perfectly done and his clothes ironed. And then there was me. I had just come out of a terrible relationship and was only out of my apartment because it was Peter's last weekend. I was wearing...I don't even remember. First, Liam called me a recluse and gave me crap for never meeting him before. I may have canceled a few times, but it's not like I had made official plans anyway. Next, he complimented Ashley on her appearance. And then compared her to me. He said that he could tell that I was an engineer based on my outfit alone. I felt personally attacked at that point. I wanted to leave, but Peter promised that Liam would be nice. In order to make it up to me, Liam offered to buy me a drink. When I told him I wanted a whiskey shot, he had the audacity to ask what I wanted as my chaser. I looked at him and said, with my arms crossed, "Another shot of whiskey." He came across as arrogant and I hoped I would never see him again.

Unfortunately for me, that isn't the case. As I mentioned, Peter was out of town for the summer and Ashley felt bad that Liam was left behind so she started inviting him over all the time. Every time we met, I felt like he spoke down to me. I began to wish that I could disappear every time he came over. Towards the end of the summer, Ashley and I hosted a BBQ with all our friends invited. He came and complained the whole time. He commented on my playlist that I had created, and the type of meat I bought for the BBQ, and finally he started bragging about how hard his business classes were. To me, the engineer, with classes like physics and electrical engineering. I had enough of him. He seemed to always show up and have some comments to make. I didn't know why he kept coming over, I assumed it was only because his friend was gone and he didn't have anyone else to hang out with.

Peter came back from his long summer away. I was excited to see him, but I was also excited to NOT have to see Liam anymore. Hopefully, Ashley would stop inviting him over. October rolled around and for Halloween Ashley and I hosted a party. It was supposed to be just a few close friends. But as word spread around campus between the premeds, the engineers, and the accounting kids, the number of people planning on coming multiplied. I was worried that we were going to get in trouble with having so many people in our place. Liam arrived with a fifth of whiskey for me and begged to see my playlist for the party. I realized I could use his bad attitude to my advantage and I asked him to answer the door. He was perfect for it. After a while, I was at the party and I had to pee. I got to my bathroom and there were sounds of two people having sex inside it. I was grossed out. I ran out to find Ashley and Peter to help me, but I couldn't find them anywhere. Liam, on the other hand, was easy to find. I found him yelling at someone who he said couldn't come in. I begged him to come kick out the couple in my shower. He came, he slammed the door and started shouting at the people inside. When they finally came out, he kicked them out. I was so grateful. At that point, we started dancing together and I am pretty sure that was the first time we ever touched. He put his hands on me as we were dancing.

I may have been drunk, but I was also a victim of his attractive face. As the party ended, I realized I hadn't seen my date since I grabbed Liam for help. After that, I had stayed with Liam. I looked around and didn't see him anywhere. By the end of the night, Ashley had passed out in her bed. Peter was looking after her because she had gotten sick. Liam offered to stay and help me clean up. I was confused. I had hated Liam up until tonight. But I realized that his arrogance and pride could be a good thing. As I grabbed a skeleton decoration that had been knocked down, I made a joke about it being Yoric, an Ape Cape character. I had played it a bunch as a kid. Liam paused and turned around and asked if I had just made an Ape Cape reference. I couldn't believe it, I never met other people who had played that game. We started laughing about the game and that's when it happened. Liam grabbed me, pulled me in, and kissed me. I pushed him away for a minute because I was confused. I told him, "I am so confused. I honestly thought you hated me." He said, "I don't." Then I replied, "But I hated you." He asked if I still did and I thought for a minute. I shook my head no. I definitely didn't hate him anymore. He grabbed me again and then asked me, "Can I kiss you again?" That was it, the moment I fell for Liam. A guy that I had hated for a long time until he slowly started to change my mind.

The first time we slept together was amazing. We had all this built-up tension between the two of us. I assumed that all of these things meant that we were going to start dating. I was unfortunately misled. When I woke up the next morning, I could tell Liam was uncomfortable with me there. I began to grab my stuff so that I could leave. I asked him if he was going to see other people. He told me he didn't have the time for a girlfriend this year. He was a senior, he was the president of the business club at school and he was interning at a company nearby. I understood that he was busy. I tried to play it cool and explained that I was also super busy with stuff. I was in robotics and we were about to head into a competition period. He told me that he would rather keep things between us simple. I clarified that I wasn't going to sit around and wait for him and he said that was fine with him. I was crushed. I thought he liked me. Every time we were together he smiled, and he never smiled. So I told myself we would keep things casual until I found someone I wanted to be serious with.