Read One Day (A Valentine Short Story) for Free Online Page B

wanted to know everything about Liam.
    The connection I felt toward him was crazy, but I couldn’t deny it.
    “They definitely are that.”
    “And do you love your job?”
    “I do.” He nodded, serious. “I don’t want to do anything else.”
    “So why the camping trip?”
    I thought I saw him tense at the question and my curiosity was peaked.
    “I just… I needed to get away. Some alone time. Sometimes we all need that, right?” he said pointedly.
    “And here I am intruding on it,” I teased.
    “I’m intruding on yours, too.”
    “Well you’re taking my mind off things.”
    “Like Valentine’s Day?”
    “Well you were until you mentioned it,” I shoved him playfully. “Nah. My job. I was talking about taking my mind off my job. I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do about it.”
    “Quit.”
    Startled by the blunt response, I said, “Are you insane?”
    “No.” He looked deep into my eyes, in a way that made my breath stutter again. “You’re smart. You’re funny. You can do whatever you want to do. Don’t wake up ten years from now, Hazel, and regret your life because you were afraid to lose your house or your Mini Cooper.”
    “And what do you suggest I do?”
    “What do you want to do?”
    “Write about real people, real issues, maybe try and help them.”
    “Then do it.”
    I gave a guffaw of laughter. “It’s that easy, is it?”
    “Yes,” he insisted. “Fight your editor harder. Or find another magazine that likes your ideas. Do something. Anything. Annoy people, piss them off, but get in their face and make them sit up and pay attention to you. That’s how we do it in America. You all are too polite here.”
    His words percolated, and he let them, giving me silence as I thought about what he’d said.
    “Better yet,” I whispered, an idea forming, “My brother… he has tons of contacts in social media… I could write an advice blog.” I stared at Liam, dumbfounded by the fact that I’d never thought of this before. “I could write a blog and Johnny might be able to help me spread the world online about my blog. If it got big enough I could make money from ads…”
    “That sounds like a great idea.”
    “But I’d need money to support me in the meantime.” I sighed. “I have some in savings to keep me going for a bit…”
    “Give up the car. Give up the mortgage. Are they really that important at the end of the day? You’ve been living happily in a camper van for a week. Surely a small, inexpensive rental flat with internet connection is a step up?”
    It was crazy. A totally crazy, bampot idea.
    But it made me excited. And I hadn’t felt excited about anything in a really long time.
    I grinned at him. “I’m glad I met you, Liam Brody.”
    “I’m glad I met you, Hazel.” He grinned back, and then he said, “Even if you keep on calling me Liam when I told you to call me Brody.”
    “I like Liam.” It suited him better than Brody.
    We stared out at the loch again as we fell into comfortable silence.
    And then, just as my eyes were drifting closed against the sun, I heard him say softly, “And I like you.”
    ***
    The sun was setting as I pulled into the car park outside the pub and inn that Liam directed me to in Fort William.
    “I’m taking a room here tonight if they have one.” Liam said. “I need a good sleep if I’m going to climb Ben Nevis tomorrow.”
    “It looks nice,” I said, unhooking my seatbelt as I looked up at the white stone building.
    “It is. I stayed here a few years ago when I climbed Ben Nevis for the second time.”
    “I’ve never climbed it. It would probably be the end of me if I tried,” I said. “I’m not really the athletic type.”
    He just nodded, as if he were distracted, and just as I was about to get out of the van he said, “Can I say something without it pissing you off?”
    The question made me a little apprehensive. We were enjoying a great day together. The best in fact. I didn’t want to get