Only Fools

Chapter 4

On the car ride back to our apartment I share the entire night with Tara, making sure to throw in Liam's rude and arrogant brother, Harry.

"I can't believe you let him kiss you! That's a big step, I am so proud of you, Nell." I smile at her, looking out the window. "Dillion would be proud of you, too."

She's right, he would. Dillion always wanted the most for me, the absolute best. He would bend over backwards to give me the world and now that he's gone I have to give the world to myself.

As we arrive at our apartment, Tristan is standing outside throwing a baseball back and forth with his nephew, Asher, while Hailey, his niece, feeds her babydoll by the front door.

"Nell!" Hailey screeches and jumps up to hug me. I lift her by the waist and she wraps her tiny arms around my neck.

Leaving a kiss on her forehead, I bring her inside with me. Instantly, I catch a horrid smell and the whole apartment is full of smoke. I quickly set Hailey on the ground and run to the pot of burnt macaroni and cheese. Switching off the burner and taking the pot off the stove, I hear Tristan's immediate apologizes as soon as he enters the room.

"Fuck, Nell, I am so sorry!" He apologizes and runs to my side to help me clean up his mess.

"Language, second, I'm gonna kick your ass for burning yet another one of my good pots. Clean this up," I order him. I prop the door open to let the smoke out and open the windows.

"How was uh, Liam?" Tristan asks with a smirk on his face.

I narrow my eyes at him, "don't smirk like that. Nothing happened."

"Prude," he says under his breath and Tara smacks his arm. He grabs it out of pain and I chuckle. He deserved it.

I am not a prude. I am cautious. My feeling have to matter most to me right now, and if I let Liam into my life I have to go slow and give myself time to adjust. I don't want to be unfair to Liam, mainly because he is truly an amazing person. I don't want to hurt him.

After I clean up Tristan's mess I put a movie on for the kids and set them both on the couch with a blanket and their sippy cups. Tara and I sit at the coffee table and I continue to tell her how the night went with Liam, and choose not to add more about his annoying, yet hot, brother.

My phone dings with a message from the one and only, Liam Payne. I smile and Tara reaches across the table to snatch it from me before I can finish reading the message.

She reads aloud, "Had a great time with you. Hope I can see you again soon. AW!" She coos over Liam's sweetness, causing me to blush.

I snatch my phone back from her and roll my eyes, sending Liam a text.

"I had fun, too. How about next Friday?"

We arrange another date and time, and he tells me he'll pick me up.

Tara screeches, holding her hands up like she's a teenage girl, "This is serious! Nell, we have to buy another outfit!"

***

The next seven days go by like a snail. An eight hour work day felt like eighteen. I called Liam on my walk home almost every day and before I knew it, I was home. I could hardly fall asleep because I was both anticipating and nervous for my date with Liam. Tuesday night Tara searched both of our closets for the perfect date night outfit and decided that I needed something that said, in her words, "I don't want to sleep with you, but I will". Therefore, Wednesday night we pieced together the perfect dress and shoes combo from out favorite outlet store right around the corner from our apartment complex. Jeannie, the cashier, even gave us a discount since we told her I finally had a serious date.