Chapter 80

Aria’s POV

The surprise party was to take place at the house Liam and I had shared together when we were married. Though I’d been in this house before since we’d started talking again, it still felt strange and a little melancholy walking through the doors.

“Everyone’s out back,” said one of Liam’s friends who opened the door. Nodding, I moved through the kitchen and the living room like I was passing through a memory. Not all that much had changed since I’d lived here. The paintings were the same. The furniture was mostly the same too, though the couch was more worn and the television was bigger.

As the friend at the door said, when I stepped outside, the pool area was filled with people. Someone was grilling nearby. Some people were swimming in the water, though most everyone was standing around the pool deck.

I recognized just over half of the people in attendance. All of Liam’s old friends were there, including Robert, and an unhappy-looking woman beside him, who I assumed was his wife. Robert was sloshing a beer around as he talked. Sometimes it would spill out on her. She kept having to take steps back.

I gave them a wide berth.

A few of our co-workers were there, though most were people not in my department, like an accountant and one of the employees from HR. They greeted me politely as I moved near them, but then each found their own excuse for walking away from me.

The rest of the pool deck was filled with strangers – expect Sophia. Like me, she must have found a sitter for William.

I had guessed from Robert’s demeanor that this surprise party wasn’t intended for children, and I was right. With all adults standing around talking, Joe would have been very bored, even with a pool to play in.

He’d been upset that he couldn’t celebrate Liam’s birthday, so I had promised that we would, after. It was an idea I needed to privately run by Liam later. We could have our own private party at some point, just the three of us. Maybe Joe and I could go over to his place again.

All of this, of course, was only if I survived this party first.

With the way Sophia was glaring at me, she certainly looked like she wanted to see me dead. Then she started to approach me.

I braced myself.

“Aria,” Sophia said as she came to my side. “I’m surprised you are here.”

“I was invited,” I said.

She stopped beside me but turned, not facing me. Shoulder to shoulder, with a fair amount of space between, we stared out towards the pool.

“I didn’t invite you,” she said.

“Robert did.”

“We didn’t consult me.” She shot Robert a dark look across the pool, but he wasn’t paying us any attention.

“I assumed he was organizing this.”

“It was supposed to be a group effort.”

I’d already felt unwelcomed, walking out here, standing around awkwardly without anyone to talk to. Now Sophia was making things even more uncomfortable for me.

“If you want me to leave…” I started to say.

She looked at me sharply.

“Just say so,” I finished.

“I want you to leave,” Sophia said, without missing a beat. “And I want you to leave Liam alone.”

“We work together.”

“So see him during work hours only. You don’t need to be spending so much time with him outside of work, and certainly don’t need to be here, somewhere where his true friends are supposed to be celebrating.”

“I know you don’t like me, Sophia, but Liam and I are true friends.”

“Is that right?” Her eyes narrowed. “Then where have you been for the past six years?”

That was a low blow and stung more than I should have ever allowed it to. Sophia had purposefully sharpened her words to hurt me. I hated that she was so successful.

Worse, I didn’t know how to respond to such a question. She might have been one cause for the marital strife between Liam and I, but even that wasn’t any of her business to know.

“What has happened between Liam and I is private,” I said, hoping she would take the hint and back off.

She glared at me instead. “Everyone at this party knows you never deserved him anyway. You shouldn’t even be here.”

“Talk to Robert, then,” I said.

“I will.”

Sophia walked away then, moving around the pool approaching Robert. Just as she reached him, tugging on his arm, someone nearer the door to the house yelled, “Surprise!”

Liam walked out of the house, his eyes wide and his eyebrows high on is forehead.

“Surprise!” everyone else shouted at once, not with any kind of unity. The well-wishing was more like a cascade. A few shouts here, some further behind than others.

“Surprise,” I said, but didn’t shout it, not even when Liam spotted me and smiled.

I stood, immovable, as Liam made the rounds, thanking everyone he passed, as he came towards me.

When he finally reached me, he looked at me with apparent wonder and said, “You’re here.”

“I wouldn’t miss your birthday,” I told him. Realizing I hadn’t said it yet, I told him, “Happy Birthday, Liam.”

“It’s better with you here.” He glanced around. “I know some of my friends were never the biggest fans of yours…”

“Robert apologized.”

Liam’s surprise returned. “He did?”

“He did,” I confirmed. “When he invited me.”

“He’s a good friend,” Liam said. “Things were definitely shaky over the years. But he’s changed into a better man. Most of my friends have. Those that didn’t… Well, I’m not friends with them anymore.”

I nodded, understanding. With age and time, I had lost a few good friends too. We had just evolved into different people with different desires and motivations. We didn’t have anything to talk about anymore, and the nostalgia of our past could only hold us together for so long.

Glancing around, I saw that Liam had fared better than me in the friends department. Many of the people here seemed eager to talk to him.

“You should mingle,” I said, looking back to Liam.

He seemed unsure. “You’ll still be here…?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I promised.

That put him at ease, and his smile, that had wavered as we talked, fully returned. “We’ll talk again,” he said and made it seem like a promise.

With my nod, he moved away, onto the next group of people, who welcomed him warmly with a loud, “Happy Birthday, Liam!”

I was pleased to see so many people embrace him. Liam was almost a larger than life figure. He certainly had a presence when he entered the room. Things had been hard for him since his retirement when he stepped out of the limelight. I knew he liked being in rooms of people where everyone knew who he was and was eager to talk to him.

So, as I had done many times in the past, I stood to the side and proudly watched as Liam worked the room. His charisma was one of his greatest skills. Everyone here loved him.

Suddenly, a pair of hands pressed onto my back and shoved me forward. Gasping in shock, I tried to steady myself, but I was severely off balance and couldn’t find my footing in time.

Soon, I ran out of solid ground and tumbled straight into the pool.