Counting Down with You(42)

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

Some of the tension leaves my frame and I turn to look at him. “Sorry.”

“What have I told you about apologizing?” Ace says, squeezing my shoulder. “Anyway, I said I wanted to talk to you before. I was thinking...will you go to prom with me?”

I stop breathing.

Prom? It was only days ago that Cora, Nandini, and I were joking about it. I never expected anyone to ask me. I didn’t expect Ace to ask me.

“Ahmed?” Ace says, gently nudging my shoulder.

I inhale sharply, trying to gain a hold of my bearings. “Are you serious?”

Ace nods. “I would’ve done a promposal, but I figured you’d be against that. I didn’t want to put you on the spot or anything. You can say no, obviously, but I thought it’d be nice to go together since we’re pretending to date. What do you think?”

I blink at him several times. “You want to go to prom with me? As part of our fake dating facade? Isn’t that past our three-week mark?”

He shrugs. “Just in case.” Then a strange look passes over his face. “Unless...someone asked you already?”

“No,” I say quickly. “No, no one’s asked me. I just—I don’t know if I can go. I don’t know if my parents will let me.”

Ace frowns. “You’re not allowed to go to junior prom?”

“I’m not allowed to do a lot of things,” I say with a thin smile, but my pulse is still raging like an incessant drumbeat. “But, uh...”

A hopeful light enters his eyes. “Yeah?”

I swallow past the dryness of my mouth. “If I can go, I’d love to go with you. But right now, three weeks is all I can promise.”

“Okay. Let me know then.” A flush spreads across his cheeks and he laughs in chagrin. “That actually isn’t what I wanted to ask you.”

“There’s something else?”

He shrugs, his eyes still dancing. “Mia wants us to join her and her girlfriend for a double date after school. I thought it’d be fun. What do you think?”

I raise both eyebrows at him. “A double date? But we’re not...dating, Ace.”

“Technically, we are,” he says, nudging his hip against mine. “Come on. Remember the books I promised to buy you? I’ll do it today, if you come with us.”

I pause to consider that. Goodreads recently informed me that several books from my TBR list released this week, and I’ve been meaning to go to the bookstore anyway. “Which bookstore?”

He must realize that means yes, because he grins widely. I reach up to poke one of his dimples without thinking. If anything, that only widens his smile. “There’s an independent bookstore across from the ice rink Mia wants to go to. I figured we’d support a local business, but if you want to go to Barnes & Noble, we can do that, too.”

I stare at him in wonder. How strange that his thoughts align with mine. “No, that’s perfect. I love indie bookstores.”

“Great,” Ace says as we exit the staircase, only a few steps away from our English classroom. “It’s a date.”

A date. Why does that make it sound so real? As if asking me to prom wasn’t enough.

“I guess so,” I say, ignoring the way my heartstrings are pulling taut. “We’re studying in your car on the way there. And we have to study tomorrow morning during first period to make up for lost time.”

He laughs. “I’d expect nothing less.”

I smile at him, even as my nerves begin to devour me in preparation for the evening ahead.



22


T-MINUS 19 DAYS

The bookstore is a small two-storied building called Two Stories, which already makes me love it.

Ace opens the door and I step inside, eyes wide as I take in the store. It’s warm and cozy, earth themed. There are tables on the right side designed to look like tree stumps and seats that resemble shrubbery. Rows of bookshelves are lined up in front of me, and a warm yellow light filters in from above, where stars hang from thin metal threads. It reminds me of Ace’s room, and I glance at him surreptitiously.

“My mom loves reading,” he says, seeing the look on my face. “She designed my room before my parents got divorced. This used to be her favorite bookstore before she moved away.”

“It’s pretty,” I say and glance at him. “Do you miss her? Since she’s so far away?”

“I do,” he says, quieter. “But we talk every day if we can. I told her about you.”

“You did?” I blink at him. “What’d you say?”

Ace smiles at me innocuously. “Who knows?”

“You know,” I say, pinching his arm. He laughs, but when it becomes clear he isn’t going to say any more, I sigh. “So how long has this place been around?”

“Since I was a kid,” he says, lightly tugging me around a shelf of books. “The owner’s daughter manages it now. Actually, there she is. Genesis! Hey.”

A beautiful dark-haired woman a few years older than us stops sorting books to look in our direction. When she sees Ace, her expression brightens, and her eyes are curious when they land on me. “Hi, Ace. Who’s your friend?”