“What are you going as? Maybe I will wear a matching costume.”
“Negative. Plus, it’s a surprise.”
Sitting up again, I met his gaze.
“Well, it’s too late to get anything now. Plus, all I can afford to do is have Francesca make something, and she’s used to normal clothing. I don’t think she’s ever made a costume before.”
Liam sat up and grabbed my hand. Pulling me to my feet, he forced me to leave the fort and headed back to his bedroom. Opening his laptop, he made me sit on the couch and passed it to me.
“Buy anything you want, and don’t be cheap. You’re my date, so you are basically the hostess. You need a costume that will knock everyone dead.”
Rolling my eyes, I put the laptop down.
“You are not paying for a costume. You’ve already bought me so many new clothes.”
I crossed my arms in front of my chest and he glared at me.
“Okay, let’s get real for a second, Bella.”
His tone was slightly scary right now.
“I fully expect us to find our spark, no matter how long it takes, and on the extremely low chance we never do, you are still my best friend. Either way, you need to get past this money thing. I’m going to spend money on you. There is not even a sliver of concern about it for me. Spending my money on doing something to make you happy is a no-brainer and a far better use of my money than what I could spend it on.”
Liam was quite passionate at the moment. He was speaking loudly and with his hands while pacing back and forth. I actually couldn’t hold back a laugh. His eyes locked on mine, and he glared.
“This is not funny.”
I shook my head but I couldn’t stop.
“I know… It’s just…”
Really, I could barely breathe now, and I could see Liam getting angrier, which only made me laugh harder. Finally, between gasps for breaths, I managed a full sentence.
“It’s just that you look so Italian right now.”
A huge grin came to his face and he fell onto the couch next to me.
“You’re a bad influence.”
Collecting myself, I tried to stop thinking about how amusing that whole speech was.
“You know just spending time with you makes me happy, Liam. I don’t need you to buy me things for that.”
Reaching out, he brushed a lock of hair behind my ear.
“I know, Isabella, and I love that about you. I’ve never had someone in my life before that didn’t care about how rich I was. It’s mind-blowing to me that even if I had nothing to offer but my friendship, you’d still be at my side. But… I do have all of this.”
He waved his hand toward the room.
“I just… I want to be able to share it with the person I care about most in this world right now without feeling guilty or arguing over it.”
Biting my lip, I sighed. The truth was, Liam was being genuine. He didn’t want to buy things for me out of pity or because he wanted to show off that he was rich. All he wanted—all he ever wanted—was just to do something nice for me. So, I gave in. Slightly.
“Let’s compromise.”
Liam sighed but waited for me to continue.
“I will do my best to not argue when you want to do something nice, like buy me a kick-ass Halloween costume, but you have to promise to limit how often you try to spoil me.”
