Page 12 of Rejected Heart

I had already assumed it was him, not only from the look my mom had been giving me, but also because Liam was the only person who ever called me, anyway. “Hi, Liam.”

“What are you doing?”

“I was studying.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean to interrupt you. Do you have a test tomorrow?”

I was already beyond prepared for the test, but I insisted on doing a little refresher every night until test day. “No. It’s not until Thursday.”

“What subject?”

“Math.”

There was a moment of delay before he asked, “So, why are you studying so many days in advance? Are you having trouble with the material?”

My lips twitched. Wanting to tease him, I countered, “Why? If I was, would you offer to tutor me?”

“Math is the one subject that I actually enjoy and do well in with minimal effort, so yeah, if you needed me to, I would.”

I was tempted to tell him I needed help just so I could spend more time with him. I hadn’t known what to expect with Liam after we’d gone pumpkin picking, but he’d proven that me being a bit of a nerd—something he refused to refer to me as—wasn’t going to dissuade him from talking to me or making the effort to spend time with me.

We hadn’t had another date, but whenever we had study hall together, Liam came and sat by me. And he’d called to talk to me a handful of times after school. This was the first he’d called this late.

“I appreciate the offer of help with my math, but I don’t struggle with it,” I finally shared. “I just like being prepared, so I started studying early. That’s all. I’m more than ready for the test.”

“That’s good.”

“What’s going on with you? You don’t normally call this late.”

“Is it too late?”

I rolled onto my back in my bed and stared up at the ceiling. “No. No, that’s not what I meant. I was just saying, you usually call right after school, so this call was unexpected.”

“I was going to wait to ask you this in person tomorrow, but as soon as the idea popped into my head during dinner tonight, I couldn’t pick up the phone to call you fast enough.”

Confused, my brows knit together. “Ask me what?”

He let out an audible sigh, like he’d just inhaled deeply to prepare himself for whatever it was he needed to ask. “I know this is still a few weeks away, but I figure the earlier, the better. Plus, we were talking about it during dinner, which is why I thought about it.”

I didn’t bite my nails when I was feeling nervous or anxious, but if I was someone who did, this would have been one of those moments. “What is it?”

“Every year, my family hosts a Christmas party at Westwood’s. It’s a corporate event, I guess, and it’s formal. We have it in one of the ballrooms at The Westwood Hotel. This year, it’s scheduled for the last Saturday before Christmas. Anyway, if you don’t have any plans, I was wondering if you’d like to attend as my date.”

My free hand flew to my mouth, which had fallen open in disbelief. I’d never been asked to even a schooldance, and Liam had just invited me to his family’s corporate Christmas party.

I wanted to go.

I desperately wanted to go with him.

But he’d said it was formal. I wasn’t sure if I had something nice enough to attend the party in. I’d have to ask my mom what she thought.

“Oh, Liam. I’d love to go. It sounds wonderful. But I need to check that it’s okay with my mom first.”

“Of course. There’s still plenty of time, so it’s not like I need an answer immediately.”

If I couldn’t go, would he ask someone else? My heart squeezed at the thought, but I refused to bring up my worst fears about it to him.

“I’ll talk to her tonight and let you know tomorrow, if that’s okay.”

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