At one point, I found myself scanning the room and I saw William enter, with Lana’s husband Trevor as his side. They stopped at the bar, and then William saw me. At first, he smiled. Then he noticed my company and his smile wavered. Trevor also noticed, and he said something to William that made him flinch.
“Thomas, I’m sorry to interrupt.” I jumped off my chair but William was already headed for us. I stopped him a few feet from our table. “William.”
“What the fuck, Olivia?” he said, staring daggers at Thomas.
“Calm down, William. We’re just friends.” I had never seen William behave this way. He wasn’t the jealous type.
Thomas noticed the commotion and came over. “Is everything okay here, Livy?”
William lunged for him, catching Thomas off-guard. They tumbled into the nearest table, sending drinks flying.
“William, stop it. What the hell are you doing?” I grabbed for him but I couldn’t get a grip. He pulled his arm back to punch Thomas, but Trevor managed to pull him away.
“Come on, man. Not here.” Trevor got a tight grip on him and pulled him toward the front door.
“Are you okay?” I gave Thomas a quick look, and he seemed relatively unscathed. I
smoothed down his shirt and checked to make sure he wasn’t bleeding.
“What the hell was that about?” he asked, still in shock.
“I have no idea, but I’m going to find out. I’ll be back.”
I found William outside the bar, pacing up and down the sidewalk. Normally the sight of him made my stomach flutter, but this time it churned instead.
“Do you care to explain yourself?” I demanded.
“I can’t believe you,” he said. “How could you meet with him?”
“He’s my friend, William. He has been a part of my life for a long time. Did you think I would cut everyone out of my life for you?” I felt like throwing something at him.
Trevor pulled up in his car and William reached for the door handle. “I can’t deal with you right now. I’m too angry.”
“You’re too angry? That’s classic.” I scoffed at him. “Call me when you are ready to discuss this in a civilized manner.”
“I’m leaving town tomorrow. I’m going skiing in Utah.” William gave me a long look. “We can talk when I get back.”
“Fine.” I turned my back on him and stormed inside. This was a side of William I had never seen, and after seeing it, I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk to him ever again.
Thomas was more forgiving than me and managed to shake it off after another drink. I, meanwhile, was still burning with rage the next day when Lana called.
“I heard what happened last night,” she exclaimed. I held the phone a few inches from my ear. “I can’t believe it.”
“I know. William was acting crazy.”
“Not William. You!” Lana screeched.
“Me? What about me?”
“You met up with Paul? That’s just about the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.” She was actually yelling now.
I stuttered. “What? What are you talking about, Lana? I wasn’t with Paul. I was with Thomas.”
“Thomas? No, that’s not what Trevor said.” Lana stopped abruptly. “Oh shit.”
“Oh shit, what?” I had a bad feeling I knew what Lana was going to say.
“I think Trevor made a mistake. He saw you with Thomas, and got confused. He knows about Paul, and he met him that one time at that party. But Thomas kind of looks like Paul, especially from a distance…” Lana trailed off.
“So Trevor told William that I was with Paul? Are you kidding me?” Now I was the one that was screaming.
“This is bad, Liv.”
“Ya think? No wonder William freaked out.” I felt like throwing up. “And he left town this morning, so I can’t even explain to him what happened.”
“Oh, Liv. I’m so sorry. Trevor didn’t mean anything. He was just trying to help in his own ridiculous way.” Lana said something to someone in the background. “Trevor knows where William is skiing. He can give you the information.”
“What am I going to do with that? He’ll never answer the phone.” William had made it clear he didn’t want to talk to me until he returned to Chicago.
“You should go there!” I could hear the excitement in Lana’s voice. “It will be so romantic. You can just show up and explain everything.”
“Lana, my life isn’t a movie. I can’t just drop everything and run off to some mountain in Utah because of some guy.” It went against every feminist bone in my body.
Lana felt differently. “Why not? You care about him. You want to be with him. So go. Go be with him.”