“No, but maybe don’t bite my head off for making an observation. Can I ask another question?”
“Depends on how inane it is.”
“I have another favor.”
I groaned and flopped back against the cushion. “No pictures right now. I feel like a cat box.”
“It does involve pictures, but not for another couple weeks.”
“I don’t have the brainpower to figure out what you want, so out with it.”
Adam frowned. “I might be having second thoughts. How long will you be ‘out of commission’?” He added air quotes.
I smiled without meaning to. “I’m not going to be great company today. Maybe you should come back tomorrow.”
“Nah. My dad already roped Jeremy into helping him retile all the bathrooms on the first floor. And anyway, I still prefer you in a bad mood to just about anyone else.”
All the blood rushed to my head and pounded behind my eyes. He said it so casually, like the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me. How could he throw away compliments like that? He wasn’t even throwing it away, he was saying it without having to think about it, like it was a given.
Nobody preferred me. Ever.
I was two seconds away from crying, which was ridiculous.
“Besides, it’s your fault that I’m in this position, so it’s only fair that you be the one to get me out of it.”
“Uh-oh,” I said, the cryptic wording distracting me from my impending tears.
“You know Erica and I broke up.”
“Who?”
Adam half smiled at my feigned ignorance. “What you don’t know is that we broke up right before winter formal.”
“Uh-oh.” If I wasn’t feeling so uncomfortable, I might have had some other feelings at the direction his words were heading.
“Only if you turn me down.”
“Are you asking?”
“Yes.”
“Ask me for real. Like in a complete sentence.”
He didn’t hesitate. “Jolene, will you go to winter formal with me?”
For a tiny split second, the cramping knives in my belly turned to feathers tickling up through me. “When is it? The actual date?” If it fell on a Dad weekend, I’d probably need a court order.
“January 22.”
Not a Dad weekend.
“Are you going to wear a suit?”
“Yes.”
“Will I get to meet your mom?”
“If she drives us.”
