Page 88 of Loverboy

THE PLAN TO have dinner at Mom’s on the weekend had me spiralling again. I hadn’t brought it up again since Jasper reassured me that everything would be fine, but my anxiety bled out in every other way imaginable.

Like when we were out together in public.

“You know I hate going to the mall.” Jasper frowned at me from the passenger seat.

I pouted as I cut the engine. “You said anything I needed, I just had to ask. Are you saying you’re a liar?”

He sighed in resignation and unbuckled his seatbelt, getting out of the car without another word. He was upset now, but once we got in there, I knew he would love it.

Opportunities like this didn’t come up often, since Jasper wasn’t into a lot of the things I liked. Concerts were out of the question because there was no way he would tolerate a mosh pit, and working at a bar meant he rarely agreed to go out to one.

“Are you taking me out on a hot date?” he taunted, leaning against the car.

I got out after him, shutting my door a little too hard.

“No,” I grumbled, rubbing dirt off my side mirror.

I’d been wrestling with the idea all morning. Every time I tried to figure out what to classify the outing as, I thought back to how embarrassed I’d been when Oliver silently clocked what was transpiring between Jasper and me when he came to apologize.

Even worse, I unwillingly conjured up the worst-case scenario for each person finding out that we were suddenly a thing. In my mind, Mom had already disowned us, Blane was disgusted with us, and Jasper had decided this wasn’t worth losing everyone else for.

I want to love you.

For Jasper, it was simple. Straightforward.

But I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, because in my life, it always did.

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Jasper probed.

“It’s a surprise. You know, that thing where you don’t find out until we’re there?”

“Yeah,” he said flatly. “I hate that too.”

“Not today.” I slapped the hood of the car and winced, the slowly healing wound on my palm throbbing under the gauze.

Inside the mall was busy. It was always packed, no matter what day of the week you went. That’s what you get when your city has one of the world’s largest malls, complete with an amusement park and a waterpark.

“We’re secretly here for something you want to do, aren’t we?” Jasper accused as we stepped onto the escalator.

I didn’t give him an answer, instead crossing my arms and glaring at him. I was notoriously terrible at surprises. I’d always been the kind of person who gave Christmas gifts weeks early, but this time, I was determined.

Once we reached the second floor, I grabbed his sleeve and dragged him through the crowd. The storefront gave it away immediately, the interior lined with merchandise for the two experiences they offered: a space station and ancient Egypt.

“Hi there,” the woman at the counter said. “What show are you here to see today?”

“Explore Egypt,” I answered quietly, pulling out my phone to scan our tickets.

She gestured behind her. “You can go on in. There’ll be a waiver to sign inside, and they’ll help you with the gear.”

Jasper hadn’t said anything yet.

A rush of despair made my stomach roll. I looked between him and the arrows on the floor marking the path forward, overwhelmed with self-doubt. Maybe he thought it was stupid. Could he even do this with his glasses on? I’d been so excited to find something I could do for him that I hadn’t stopped to think it through.

“I wonder how accurate it’s going to be,” Jasper murmured, brows pinched.

Great. I hadn’t thought about that either.

Maybe it wasn’t historically accurate at all, and instead of enjoying it with childlike wonder, he was going to give me a ten-minute rant at the end about all of the inaccuracies, and I’d have to crawl into a hole somewhere and die.