Liis heads back to her apartment, but first she looks outside the window to the spot where Thomas beat the shit out of those guys from the last chapter:
The corner across the street was smeared with blood, but no one seemed to notice. The people who walked by had no idea about the violence that had occurred, not even an hour before, in the space they were passing through.
Like how much blood are we talking here? Maybe it’s not actually that noticeable or if a Maddox lives nearby, maybe there is always blood smeared on the sidewalk.
Liis then spots Marks and Val headed to her building. Val is really angry! Can Liis help these two crazy kids work things out?
“You agree with me, don’t you, Liis?” Marks asked. “She needs to kick him out.”
“He won’t leave,” Val said, exasperated.
“Then, I’ll make him leave,” Marks growled.
I rolled my eyes. “C’mon, Marks. You know the law. He is her husband. If the cops came, you would be the one asked to leave.”
I sincerely believe that would actually come down to what happened before the cops were called. I guess the implication is that Marks would be attacking Sawyer at his home, but just because Sawyer is Val’s husband doesn’t mean that in any scenario Mark would be the one to have to leave. It’s Val’s place too, and if she invited Marks over and Sawyer instigated a fight, I’m pretty sure Marks wouldn’t be the one asked to leave while the cops are like, “Oh! Sir, you’re the husband? I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize. We’ll all get out of your hair right away.”
Marks really wants Val to move out, which makes sense. Val doesn’t want to lose her condo, which also makes sense. But I’m confused about whether or not the condo is in both their names? If Val was there first, I get the impression it might only belong to her, but this is never explored in-depth. Probably for the best.
“Joel, I’m handling this,” Val said. “If you don’t want to stick around, I understand.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why are you two here?”
I very much second this question.
Marks sighed. “I came to pick her up for dinner. He made a big deal. Usually, I wait for her outside, but I thought I’d be a fucking gentleman for once. He made a scene. Who’s she pissed at? Me.”
“Why do we do this to ourselves?” I asked, mostly to myself. “We’re grown adults.
Love makes us so stupid.”
“He doesn’t love me,” Val said.
“Yes, I do,” Marks said, looking at her.”
Now that this is established, Val confesses she loves him too, and they make out and leave. Thanks for dropping by, guys!
Val and Marks had made finding a solution look so easy, figuring it out even though Val had been sharing a condo with Sawyer for over a year. I was miserable living an entire floor below Thomas. But our problems seemed more complicated than living with an ex. I loved a man who I couldn’t love, who loved someone else but loved me more.
It’s so frustrating that when a Maddox bro falls in love HE LOVES FOREVER. A blessing and a curse really.
Call me crazy, but it sounds like Thomas loves what he had with Cami, but is actually in love with Liis now (even though they have hung out for like 2 weeks, but we know that’s an eternity in Beautiful McGuire Land). I would be weirded out if I were Liis too, but I feel like it’s just Thomas not expressing what he means very well/Liis being too stubborn to help him get there. Get it together, you guys.
Liis and Thomas start avoiding each other at work and outside of work. Liis says everyone on their team hates her (presumably because the relationship not working is somehow only her fault? Also GET THE FUCK TO WORK AND BE PROFESSIONAL, GUYS ,GOODBYE.)
Anthony had given me the number of a friend who knew someone who shipped vehicles, and once I’d called and mentioned Anthony’s name, the price dropped in half.
Anthony is the obnoxious bartender, and I can only surmise that the price dropped in half because this guy felt really sympathetic towards Liis since she has interacted with Anthony.
Now that she has a car and is out from under Thomas’ thumb, Liis explores the city more.
It didn’t take me long to fall in love with the city, and I wondered if falling quick was going to start being a thing with me, too. That was squashed after several outings with Val as I began to understand that every interaction with a man just reminded me of how much I missed Thomas.
Or you could just keep doing you…but I guess that is not the direction this book is headed.
Liis shows up to that restaurant Thomas likes one night and sees him playing darts with a blonde. So Liis runs out of the restaurant. Not so fast, Liis! Marks runs after her, and then Thomas soon joins the fray.
“She doesn’t want to eat here since you’re here,” Marks yelled back, cupping my shoulder.
Everyone dining on the patio turned to look at me.
I pushed Marks’s hand away and lifted my chin. “Fuck off.”
I stomped toward my car.
These people always make huge fucking scenes then act like they didn’t want the whole world paying attention to them. Let the people eat their dinners/cafeteria lunches/do their jobs/take classes/drink at bars/go to illegal fight clubs in peace, men and women of the Beautiful Who Gives a Fuck About Other People’s Days series.
“Liis,” Thomas said, breathless from jogging across the parking lot.
I jerked my arm away and yanked the door open.
“She’s just a friend. She worked in Constance’s position for Polanski when he was the ASAC.”
I shook my head. “You don’t have to explain.”
He pushed his hands into his pocket. “Yeah, I do. You’re upset.”
Thomas tries to be very nice to Liis, but it still somehow becomes a fight over Cami.
“We’re not dating,” he said. “I was just helping her with darts. Her boyfriend is in there.”
I glared at him, dubious. “Great. I have to go. I haven’t eaten.”
“Eat here,” he said. He offered a hopeful small smile. “I can teach you how to play, too.”
“I’d rather not be one of many. Thank you.”
“You’re not. You never have been.”
“No, just one of two.”
“Whether you believe it or not, Liis…you’ve been the only. There has never been anyone else but you.”
Thomas, bro, if you are telling Liis she is the only one, why did you tell her you love Cami? Just don’t say those words, and there’s no issue. You’re not being dishonest because if Liis is THE ONLY ONE then you don’t actually love Cami. Logic. Bam!
Liis ends the chapter hanging out with Val, where they have a conversation that makes no sense:
“Val pursed her lips. “You’re way better than her. Everyone knows she’s a total skank.”
“Do you know her?” I asked. “She is Polanski’s assistant.”
“Oh,” Val said. “No, Allie is super sweet, but we’re going to pretend she’s a skank.”
“Allie?” I whined, puffing out a breath like the wind had been knocked out of me. The name sounded exactly like the perfect girl who Thomas could fall in love with. “Kill me now.”
Thomas very clearly explained he was hanging out with Allie and her boyfriend. Is the concern here that there is too little to be concerned about? Liis tells Val she’s a good friend, which seems like a stretch.
Of course nobody notices the blood smeared around the building where a Maddox lives. Remember the last guy who noticed all the blood smeared around the building where a Meddox lives?
No?
Well, exactly. I’m sure people are … let’s call it “encouraged” to not notice such things by now.
Hahahaha “Ug it’s the corner where BLOOD IS ALWAYS SMEARED” ~every neighbor of a Maddox bro.
The name sounded exactly like the perfect girl who Thomas could fall in love with.
Yikes. Okay, I get that LOVE IS IRRATIONAL and all that, but are we supposed to be rooting for Liis, here? Really? She’s going out of her way to be obtuse and find something to make her angry. Stop making me sympathetic to a Maddox bro, because this behavior is no more attractive coming from a woman than it is from a man.
I think Jamie McGuire lives in Stephenie Meyer’s alternate universe where every woman on the planet is literally incapable of emotional stability.
“There has never been anyone else but you.”
Except this is…demonstrably untrue, and kind of creepy? I love you so much that I retroactively stopped loving my ex who was previously stated to have ruined my life by dumping me and turned me into a raging misogynist through her actions alone! Please chill.
But as much as I hate Thomas, I hate even more Liis’s bizarre jealousy over the fact that he…knows other women? I guess? Firstly because any and all permutations of “a person who interacts with members of their preferred gender must want to fuck them, literally all of them, there is no other reason why this would happen” disgust me immensely; and secondly because a man who is friends with no women is probably not someone who respects or likes women as people, so for once Thomas is doing something that isn’t a giant red flag, and yet it’s this that Liis chooses to flip out about.
Also like…if you didn’t want to see him existing without you, maybe you shouldn’t have gone to a place you know he likes.