Page 19 of The Liar in Room 5

“I suspect that you have always known the answers.”

“Okay, I’ll give you that one. I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer.”

“I don’t understand why you asked me to the tournament,” I blurted out.

Oh lord, my intrusive thoughts needed to stay inside my head. There was no reason to ask that question. It made me look pathetic and sad, which I was, but I didn’t want to share that. In my preppy shorts and boat shoes, I looked too put together to be depressed.

“Because I wanted to spend time with you.”

“Well, that seems like a silly reason.”

“What’s a better one?”

I was a little taken aback by the seriousness of his tone. It was almost like he meant it.

“Okay, I guess I have to accept that.”

“No, you don’t have to accept anything you don’t want. If you told me to take you home right now, I absolutely would. I’d be sad about it, but I would do it.”

“No, no, no, no, no. I didn’t mean it like that. Until I got all weird, I was having a nice time.”

“I suppose this is one of those existential crises?”

“I think it might be.”

“You know what would fix that?”

“Do you have tacos?”

“I don’t, but I will have meatballs soon. Before we get to the meatballs, though, I have something even better.”

“There’s no way. There’s absolutely no way. How on earth could I…? How on earth could I pick one? It’s impossible,” I muttered to myself in front of the plastic-coated wire bin.

Henry came up behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders. The urge to sway back into him was strong, but I managed to keep myself upright. He was close enough that I could feel the heat of his body and smell the faint aroma of his aftershave. I had no idea what it was, but it smelled nice. It was clean and masculine without a citrus note in sight.

“Sorry, I’m afraid you’re on your own for this one because I would just pick them all,” Henry whispered in my ear. The small puff of air sent the tiniest shiver through me.

How was it that I could go from having a near meltdown in home goods to thinking about proximity and how I could maneuver Henry just the tiniest bit closer to me while standing in the stuffie section? I’d narrowed my choices to two, but now that I’d gotten that far, I was completely stuck.

It would be nice to bring something that actually belonged to me into my room at Halo House. I had fifteen dollars in my pocket. It was quite literally the only money I had left in this world, and I was foolishly about to spend it on a stuffed animal. It didn’t make a lot of financial sense, but a fifteen-dollar nest egg wasn’t worth worrying about either. At least if I spent it here, I’d have something to cuddle, and that was worth something.

“Narrowing it down helps though. You started off with twenty choices, and now you’re down to two. I don’t know the math on that, but those are pretty good percentages.”

“Well, yeah, that’s true, but look at these guys. What are the odds of being able to choose? Maybe I just shouldn’t get any because I can’t decide. I mean, on the one hand, I have this adorable pot-bellied orangutan. Who doesn’t love that? And over here, we’ve got the meerkat family. Equally adorable but with slightly fewer potbellies.”

Henry hadn’t moved away from me as I stood there contemplating my choices. His breathing, steady as ever, was the most regulating thing I’d felt in months.

While I was still debating, a couple brushed past us, discussing their budget and what they would need to give up in order to buy the furniture they wanted. I knew I shouldn’t eavesdrop, but it firmly jerked me back into reality.

There was no possible way I could spend the last fifteen dollars to my name on a stuffed animal. That wasn’t just foolish. It bordered on insanity. What on earth was I thinking?

“I can’t make a decision, so I’m just going to let them stay here. Maybe when I’ve decided, I can come back and get one.” I think I kept the disappointment well hidden in my voice. At least I wanted to.

“Sorry, Drew. We are leaving with a stuffie because I’m getting you one,” Henry said simply, as if it were a foregone conclusion.

“What would I even do with the stuffie? And you don’t need to spend your money on me. I’ve already wasted it on the tickets we aren’t using.”

I said all that, but I couldn’t keep my fingers from squeezing the fur on the orangutan’s head a little tighter.