Page 44 of Forbid It

“Hang up,” I mouth.

She furrows her brow, still listening to her father on the other end.

“I—” I can hear the tinny sound of a lecture coming through the speaker, and I dare to step closer, gently cupping her elbow. She gazes up at me again, a red flush on her cheeks and her chest still heaving.

“Hang up,” I repeat, accompanying it with an encouraging nod.

“I gotta go.” She hangs up quickly before dropping the phone on the counter and letting her head hang. I’m so close that her curls brush my chest, and I want nothing more than to gather them in my hands and guide her head back up.

“Your dad?” I ask quietly as she covers her eyes with her hands.

“Yeah,” she replies. “He’s organized a private concert tonight.”

I blink. “A what?”

“Yeah, he’s been planning it for weeks apparently, but he only just told me now. It starts in two hours.”

What the fuck? “And you didn’t know?”

She finally lifts her head, taking a step back and sweeping her hair into her hands and holding it at the base of her neck, just like she did on the plane. “He knows I’ve come for this party. I don’t understand why he wouldn’t just tell me. I haven’t had time to rehearse and I don’t have the right guitar with me.” She groans. “Oh God, they’re probably going to want to hear something new and I don’t have anything new.”

“Hold up, trouble. Take a breath. Is this something that you want to do?”

She starts shaking her head, but then she shrugs helplessly. “I have to.”

I clench my jaw. Over the last few months I’ve known Cassie, she doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to do…unless her parents are involved. I’ve watched her bend over backwards to attend every home game, fly across the country to meet her mother and plan parties without a single complaint. It’s like she’s so used to asking ‘How high?’ when they say ‘Jump’ that she doesn’t realize there’s nothing stopping her from saying no.

“Why do you have to?”

“There are people expecting⁠—”

“Cassie,” I interrupt firmly. “With all due respect, fuck those people.”

Her eyes widen.

“If they didn’t even have the decency to ask you with more than a couple hours notice, they don’t get to expect you anywhere. This is just their poor planning. Not your problem.”

She barks a startled laugh and brushes her hair further back with her hands. “But⁠—”

A notification chimes on her phone, and Cassie eyes it like a bomb about to detonate.

“Cass.”

She snatches the phone and takes a breath, but whatever it is causes her to let out a hysterical giggle.

“Oh my fucking god.”

“What is it?”

She hands me the phone.

MOM

Heard you’re in London. Claudia and her assistant will meet you in Soho House to talk about the line. Driver is on the way to pick you up.

“What’s a line?”

Cassie groans into her hands. “My mom is starting this line of homeware products.”