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pursed my lips into a surly pout and frowned. “Liam likes me wearing this.”
    Hands which were both g entle and supportive reached out and swathed my own as I wrapped them around my mug. Eyes swarming with profound concern, were staring back at me. “Too much is changing, chick,” her opinion was expressed in a pacifying timbre. “You’re not the Kady I was in the company of a few months ago.”
    No, I wasn’t. That would be because I was putting the one important person in my life, first, something I should’ve done a long time beforehand. I sighed. “Liv, I was a menace––”
    “WHAT?!” Freed by her hands as they fell away from my own, she pushing herself back into the leather-backed seat in a fit of pique. If she wasn’t sitting already, I swore she would have collapsed on the spot. “Where the fuck did you get that assumption?” she grumbled.
    “I didn’t pay any consideration to how Liam felt about my action s, the way I dressed… Liv,”––I peached myself on the edge of the seat, my shoulders gathered at my ears as I leaned into my forearms, eager to demonstrate my point––“To see the look in his eyes and how happy he is when I fulfill his wishes, is the best feeling. Knowing that I am making him happy…” Even her hard, disbelieving eyes couldn’t wash the lunatic grin I had plastered over my face.
    As I trailed off rummaging through my brain to find a word expressive enough to describe how deliriously happy making Liam happy, was making me, Liv delved into her bag. A moment later she sighed, “Here.” I seized the tube she handed me with caution. Removing the lid, I twisted the bottom to raise the cherry red lip stick.
    “Liv, I don’t think red is my color.”
    “No, neither do I, but if you’re altering yourself to become a Stepford Wife, which gesturing by your attitude and poor, poor taste in clothing, it’s blatantly obvious that you are, you might as well go the whole nine yards.”
    Stunned by her rebuke, my eyes flared. There were no words in the entire human language which I could’ve used to describe how utterly insulted I was. How dare she think she could talk to me, not only in that tone, but with those harsh speculative words aimed at my relationship? I had to give it to her, Liv had a tongue like a razor, and I had just come to realize that I never wanted to be on the receiving end of it again. I hung my head as the ungainly silence sifted around the area, only to be ruptured by affronted gasps.
    “I’m sorry, chick, that was––”
    “You know what, Liv?” I lifted my head to stare into contrite, gold dusted eyes, her lips rolled over her teeth, and it would benefit her if she kept them there. “Until you enter a long-term relationship and learn the value of compromise and empathy, and to know that you are making your partner happy by doing those things,”––head shaking faintly, my eyes tightened while my upper lip curled in distaste––“then don’t think you can give me relationship advice.”
    “You know what, chick,” she said pointedly. Even over the distance across the table, I could feel her pointing finger jabbing at me, albeit not physically. “You should never change for a man. No offence, but if doing all of that means you’ll end up like this,”––her point became a wave of her hand as she motioned down my body––“then I will quite happily remain single for the rest of my Goddam life.”
    Taking a sip of coffee, I muttered my final words on the topic over the brim of my mug, “And that’s your choice.”
    The best thing about mine and Liv’s friendshi p was, we could have our moment of expressing differing opinions, and yes, we would get into a debate about it, and something’s may be said which could easily be taken out of context. But, we were educated enough to understand that not everyone shares the same values and the same views of life, so we never let our words dictate the fundamentals of our relationship. It