REFINED ROMANCE

He met my friends

One confession of mine is that I always trust the wrong people." Eyes lowered, I shrugged. "I'm not lucky."

There was no reply and I refused to look up.

"See the thing is, you want to let someone in and then when I do, it's like running into a lion's den."

"Never allow someone to know enough about you that can be used as a weapon,sahe said in a flat voice, "always ask yourself, would I like what I'm about to say to be announced to one hundred other people? Because there is always a possibility of having your secret spilled."

"So I guess you have many secrets then."

"Yes."

I swallowed hard. "Have you killed anyone?"

"In my mind, yes. Possibly also by a chain reaction."

I lifted my head and smiled.

He squinted and smirked. "Many I have fired could have committed suicide but I never heard of it. Two of my exes are crumbling alcoholics. Many times I wished to stick Kate on the wall with pins but the effort is a waste of time."

If I could count the amount of times my heart danced from every word he said, then a thousand would be reached easily. It's like listening to a person who somehow has all the right things to say. Telling you stuff that captures your attention and holds it. Wanting to speak to them all the time. Especially her body language. But maybe I was finding this a little too intriguing because of my growing attraction. However, it was so worth it. Every second.

"So have you really given up on woman?" I couldn't help myself.

A shrug was offered. No eye contact. "Why do you ask .

I shrugged, I don't know the way you talk about them maybe ?

Am I attracted to them? Yes." He inhaled deeply and reached for his beer. "Do I need one in my life?" Regina shook her head. "Yes. I need one and this time am searching her myself.

"So why did you marry Kate ?" I couldn't help it.

He sipped the beer and swallowed. "At the time, Sophie, I was young and desperate to be loved. A 4.0 GPA geeky young man with baggy clothes and horrible hair. So my self-esteem was below my GPA obviously."

I smiled a bit because of his honesty.

"My mother ran Dazzle then, and since she was an aspiring business woman ,she immediately adored her. In other words, our marriage was arranged at first sight. So naturally," his eyes flicked to me, "I was pushed in her direction. To marry an ambitious woman. To look good."

"Did you...want to be with her ?

"Yes," he wouldn't stop looking at me. "To prove to everyone that mommy's weird son was capable of making something of himself ",

"Did you love her?

"Love and s**t are two four letter words that are married to each other."He scowled. "I never knew the meaning of love."

"So you've never been really attracted to someone, so much that you can't stop staring at them, or," I swallowed hard, and our eyes met again, "you just think, this can last forever. I feel something different. Something more."

We gazed at each other and the world was placed on mute still. I could feel my heart racing and brown eyes never turned away.

"With Kate , no." his voice was huskier than before.

"Anyone else besides her?" I held my breath.

He blinked slowly. His chest heaved. "Yes."

There was no way our gaze could be broken because the intensity of it was burning me up. Kind of like tasting Whiskey and feeling the liquid flow through your body, feeling everything. Squeezing my thighs together, I felt a longing inside of me to reach forward and touch him. Just our hands. Or maybe to feel the softness of a face that was so handsome Lips that were shaped so perfectly, as if painted with a fine tip brush. His eyelashes were gorgeous. Brown eyes that drowned me. I couldn't take it any longer.

I wanted to kiss him so much.

"Liam," and I watched how he struggled to breathe, hanging onto every word said by me. I stopped because I couldn't either and my name was called. Tearing my eyes away from her, Peter waved wildly in my direction.

"Sorry to interrupt but this clown claims that he managed a 75% in the last English exam. Tell him that we checked his grades and saw with our own eyes -"

"This is why I don't like having people know my registration number!" Thomas announced.

The wind suddenly stung my cheeks and I was pulled back into the moment.

"We saw that juicy 69% on the mark sheet," Peter said smiling widely, "didn't we, Sophie?

"Yeah," I forced out a smile.

He's in love with someone else.

"And had he obtained 75% in the last exam," I wanted Peter to shut the f**k up, "his end score would have been more than 60% because -"

In my defense, I probably got the grade mixed up with another subject," Thomas held up his hands.

"Lies," Peter said.

Max rolled his eyes and already appeared drunk. His beer bottle was leaning a little too much.

"Look, to be fair, I did remember a 75%," I chimed in, suddenly remembering the grade.Peter held out a hand in my direction and smiled. "I remembered it because he showed me the paper."

"This is why she's my dream girl," he said, beaming at Peter . "The one I wish to marry because she remembers things. She frigging remembers everything. That's my Sophie.

I wasn't his Sophie.

I wanted to say it.

I wanted to say that I belonged to no one and there was no interest on my part to be his Sophie.,were just friends. Really good friends. Buddies who hung out, threw their hands around each other and walked home drunk. We sang stupid songs and argued. Sat next to each other in lectures. But I wasn't his and I didn't want to date anyone one of them. Yeah, they flirted with me but honestly, I considered myself one of the guys. Nothing else.

"Putting your hopes up too much there, mate," Peter winked at me. "Sophie belongs to one of us but not you."

"I have no say in this," Max swayed upon his chair and his wide eyes stared at me. "Count me out, like the...south...mouth." He blinked and appeared dazed. "f**k, I'm drunk."

"Not you," Thomas said defensively. It was obvious that he was drunk. "The lady is mine."

I stared. My head grew a bit dizzy from the beer. "Oh yeah? Arm wrestle for it." I loved making them fools. "Loser has to wash my car."

"And the winner?" Peter's eyes were huge.

"The winner gets to play with my hair."

"Done!" Thomas slammed his fist upon the table. He glared at Peter. "Man up, you weakling."

Flexing his fingers, Peter rested his right elbow upon the table and so did Tommy They both took up positions.

"Sophie ",