My eyes flew open. I had never been ice skating in my whole life. After just recovering from my fall at the restaurant, I wasn’t sure I could handle another injury.
He reached over and took my hand.
“I promise I won’t let you fall.”
“Why ice skating?”
He sighed.
“Cassidy figure skates. She’s always at the rink on the weekend for open skate. She likes to show off.”
I rolled my eyes. He noticed and squeezed my hand before releasing me.
“We’ll have fun.”
“If you say so.”
When we reached the mall, I smiled. It had been so long since I had been shopping. It was wrong of me to let Liam keep buying things for me, but I knew he really didn’t care, and it was mostly to benefit him anyway. He took my hand in his. I looked at our entwined fingers.
We had agreed that we would need to be affectionate with each other for this to work. To a point, of course. Kissing, an occasional ass grab (not in front of my family), and handholding. Even cuddling. Our non-attraction to each other didn’t make any of those things seem intimate. Still, it would take some getting used to.
“So, what exactly do I need to wear to an ice-skating rink?”
“We can keep it simple. Jeans, a top that shows off your… um… breasts.”
I blushed.
“So, no coat and scarf?”
“Absolutely not. It’s only a little cold on the ice. I’ll keep you warm. We’re getting your nails done too.”
I groaned but let him guide me through the mall. He dragged me into a store I knew I could never afford to shop in and kept throwing clothing at me to try on. I sighed.
“This is more than a pair of jeans and a shirt.”
“There will be more than one date. We may as well get some other things too. Go try stuff on.”
I headed to the fitting room and hung up the pile of clothing he had given me. As I was changing, he called inside to me.
“I want to see everything.”
“Yes, dear.”
I slipped on a pair of black skinny jeans and a strange flowery shirt he had picked out. As soon as I walked out and saw his face, I turned back around. This continued until finally he sighed.
“This is obviously not your store. Let’s move on.”
He wasn’t wrong. Nothing in the store had really appealed to me. He took me into a few more places that he probably normally shopped at. Finally, I sighed.
“You want me to be me, right? We agreed it would be too complicated to come up with a fake backstory, correct? So, I’m still basically a poor Italian girl living in the slums?”
Liam rolled his eyes.
“You don’t live in the slums.”
I shrugged.
“You know what I mean.”
