The Ending I Want

“So, we walked to Sophie’s house,” Eddie continues, “which wasn’t that far from the park. When we got there, all the lights were on. I thought that Liam was just going to go up and knock on her front door, so he could talk to her. But, oh, no, that wasn’t what Liam had in mind at all. He was planning something…bigger. So, he staggered across her front garden, trampling all over her mother’s flowers in the process, and he stood beneath Sophie’s bedroom window, which faced out onto the main street. Then, he just started…singing—loudly.”

“Oh my God!” I cover my mouth with my hands. “‘I Want It That Way.’”

“The very song.” Eddie fist-bumps me. “Sophie was a massive Backstreet Boys fan. So, dickhead over there thought he could win her back by serenading her with her favorite song.”

“And the best part was, not only was he a fucking terrible singer—as you can currently hear—but Sophie wasn’t even home,” Cam tells me. “She was out at a party with her family. So, the silly cunt was singing to an empty house.”

I’m laughing harder now, clutching my stomach.

“It was fucking brilliant!” Eddie laughs.

“So, what happened when he realized that Sophie wasn’t home?” I ask.

“He didn’t. He thought she was holding out on him, so he just kept on singing—until the cops arrived, that is.”

“The police came?” I gasp.

“Oh, yeah,” Eddie tells me. “Sophie’s next-door neighbor had rung the police. Next thing we knew, Liam was arrested for underage drinking and disturbing the peace. They rang his granddad, and he had to go down and bail Liam out.”

“It was the single greatest moment of my life.” Cam grins. “And one we’ve never let him live down.”

“Oh my God!” I’m laughing so hard, imagining a sixteen-year-old Liam serenading his girl to win her back. “So, did he get back together with Sophie?” I ask, wiping tears of laughter from my eyes.

“Nope.” Eddie chuckles, shaking his head. “The neighbor who had called the cops told her and her folks what had happened when they got home. Sophie wouldn’t even look in his direction after that.”

“Aw, poor Liam.”

“Don’t feel too bad for him. He had a line of chicks waiting to shag him after they’d heard what he had done. For some reason, they all thought it was really romantic, putting his heart out there and singing to Sophie. Hunter got laid a lot that year,” Cam tells me.

“He always was a lucky bastard when it came to women. Present company included,” Eddie says, making me blush.

I hear Liam’s song coming to a close, so I turn to the stage, watching and listening as he murders the end of the song.

And when he’s finished, Cam, Eddie, and I all start cheering and clapping. I stand up on the edge of my stool and whistle loudly.

Liam gives his microphone to Lee, jumps down off the stage, and walks over to me.

“You were great!” I beam at him.

He slides his arm around my waist and presses a kiss to my temple. Then, he takes his seat beside me. “So, you told her then, you pair of bastards.”

“Of course we did.” Eddie smirks.

“I think what you did was really sweet.” I turn in my seat to face him. “Singing like that to try to win your girl back? No one has ever done anything like that for me.”

He slides his hands up my thighs, parting my legs, ensuring my skirt is still covering me, he tugs me closer, so I’m all but straddling him. “I’d sing for you, Boston.”

That puts a smile onto my face and sends a flutter in my chest. Then, Liam leans in and presses his lips to mine, and that flutter turns into a swarm of butterflies. His hands move around the outside of my thighs until they are on my ass, and he pulls me onto his lap, so I’m actually straddling him. Thank god my skirt is knee-length or everyone would be getting a good show right now.

His kiss deepens, setting my insides on fire. And for a moment, I forget where I am with all the people around us, and I just revel in the feel of his tongue in my mouth and his hands on my ass.

“Okay, enough of the PDA. I don’t have a lap-dancing license. And you’re making Eddie jealous.”

I break away from Liam’s mouth, panting, my cheeks instantly flushing.

Liam grins at me, touching the pink with his fingertips. “Everything I’ve already done to you, and making out in a bar embarrasses you.”

Smiling, I shake my head at him. Then, I disentangle myself from him, sitting back on my own stool. But he doesn’t let me go completely. He takes ahold of my hand, holding it against his thigh.

“So, do I get that beer or not?” Liam lifts his chin at Cam.

“One beer coming up,” Cam says.

“I’ll have another beer,” Eddie tells Cam. “I’m just gonna go take a piss first.”

“Taylor, you want anything?” Cam asks me.

My beer is nearly finished. If I keep going this way, I’ll be marking off another thing on my list—getting wasted and puking.

I pick up my beer and finish the last of it off. “Yeah, I’ll take another beer,” I tell Cam.

Cam gets three bottles out of the fridge. He pops the caps off and puts them down on the bar. Then, he seems to freeze. His eyes are fixed on something over the top of my head.

He darts a look at Liam and then says, “I didn’t know he was coming in tonight.”

Who came in?

Liam frowns and then turns to where Cam’s staring.