Page 28 of The Liar in Room 5

With my phone still in my hand, I unfurled my legs from beneath me and padded across the carpet. The book wasn’t thick by any means, but the cover featured a professionally dressed guy warming himself beside a dumpster fire.

Sold.

You’re not wrong.

Do you have any plans this afternoon? Or tonight?

I’ll have to check my schedule…

Oh, look. I’m a bum and completely free.

You’re not a bum.

You’re on a life sabbatical.

I smiled despite myself. It wasn’t necessarily true, but it had a nice ring to it.

Would you like to go to dinner? Maybe a movie afterward?

Sorry for the short notice. My evening meeting got pissed and canceled on me, and I want to make plans so if they try to reschedule once they’ve realized they fucked up, I already have something on my calendar.

So…like doing you a favor?

Yep.

You’d be doing me a huge favor.

A few seconds passed before another message popped up.

And I’d really like to see you.

I stared at the screen longer than I probably should have.

Yeah…I guess we could do that.

Fantastic.

I’ll pick you up at six-thirty.

What was I getting myself into? Even I knew it probably wasn’t anything good, but my stomach flip-flopped anyway. It had been longer than I could remember since that had happened, so I’d go and hope for the best. And apparently read a self-help book because there was no way Henry wouldn’t ask me about it later.

Rats.

“Since I wasn’t sure what you’d like, I figured more options were better,” Henry said as he pulled into the parking lot at the downtown open-air marketplace.

“Hold on,” Henry instructed before exiting the driver’s seat.

He came around and opened my door. Should I feel like a princess? Probably not, but I did.

“Anything is fine with me,” I murmured as I slid out of the car.

Henry shut the door behind me and took my hand like it was a foregone conclusion. We were within an inch or so of each other in height, but it felt comforting to be so matched. I’d spent all my time at Halo over the last several months, and it felt odd to be out in public again. Henry’s warm proximity settled my nerves.

“We can still find something you want to eat. Are you a little hungry or super hungry?”

Before I could answer, my stomach rumbled loudly enough to sound like thunder. I immediately splayed my hand over my stomach as if I could stop it from happening again. Judging by how warm my face felt, my cheeks had to be ruddy-red

“Maybe I could eat a little.”