The Perfect Lie

Chapter 15

December 2005, NYU

“A couple’s glove? Come on, Chanty, that’s old school. Not to mention cheesy.”

Chanty snapped her head to the direction of the voice. “What are you doing here?”

“Like you, I’m shopping,” Liam said. “I bought something for you. A Christmas gift. Wanna see it?”

“The best Christmas gift you can give me is to leave me alone,” she said, dropping the two pair of red gloves in her basket. She walked away from Liam without a word.

Liam figured he didn’t say the right thing. He took the white scarf from his shopping bag and approached the store’s personnel. “Can I return this? It just got turned down.”

 

2013

Liam was desperate. He needed to think faster than the speed of his car. He wanted to call Zach for help but then he remembered it was Zach who told him he should take Chanty somewhere like the amusement park. It did scare the shit out of her to the point of throwing up. But it didn’t work. There was no magical moment.

Or maybe Zach was just exaggerating. There was no way Julianne could have fallen for such a trick as well.

They were driving down a less trafficked road and he only realized it when Chanty said, “I don’t think there is something for a date around here.”

Shit. She was right. The only place the road led to was an old cemetery.

That’s it! A cemetery. Nothing could be spookier than that! With renewed hope, Liam increased the speed.

“Why are we here?” Chanty asked when he stopped the car outside the old cemetery. “You’re not trying to introduce me to a dead aunt or something, right? It’s really not the time for this, Liam.”

The fear in her voice heightened his hope. “Don’t worry, Chanty. We’ll do something exciting.”

Her head snapped at his direction. “You’re not planning to force yourself unto me, right? Because if you do that, let me just tell you that I know karate. I really do.”

Liam’s laughter rang out. “Of course not! This is not the time for that,” he said with voice full of meaning. He made a motion with his head saying, “Come on. Get out of the car.”

She hesitated, but unbuckled her seatbelt.

Good. It was a good sign that she somehow trusted him. Liam climbed out of the car and met her outside.

“If you are planning to do some cheesy A Walk to Remember scene, it’s not working, Liam.”

He laughed for the second time. It was cold tonight, but not chilly enough to keep them from getting inside the cemetery. Unlike Zach who could easily get spooked, Liam was rather brave when it came to places like this one.

Taking her hand, he led her to the broken gate of the cemetery. It was not a big one. It was old and poorly maintained in fact, one of the reasons why there were no guards roaming around. Anyone could freely enter without being held back.

“Liam, what’s your plan, really? You’re not here to spook me out, right?”

Okay, she got him on that one, but it was no time to back off. He was getting excited. “As a matter of fact, I was hoping for that.”

“Okay, I am spooked. What do you want me to do now? Hug you to death until we get out of here? I’ll do that. Let’s just get out.”

Liam chuckled. “As much as I would like that, I think we better move along. I like a quiet place for a date and I think this is the perfect place.”