Stay With Me (She's With Me #2) - Jessica Cunsolo Page 0,76

urge to laugh, but my eyebrows draw together in confusion. “You know how much a suit is just by looking at it?”

He turns the suit to fully face me. “No. He literally left the price tag on.”

Yup. There’s the price tag. And it’s $4,470.80, to be precise. If Andrew Kessler can afford to spend that much money on a suit for a son he doesn’t even like, he must be rolling in money.

Aiden drops the suit back on the bed with an angry scoff. “He makes me sick.”

Aiden tried on the suit Andrew got for him, and even though I didn’t get to see, he said it was scary how well it fit him. After he finishes, we go shopping and bring Charlotte along with us, partly because she’s an “expert last minute shopper,” and partly because she needs a distraction. Chase has been avoiding her like I’ve been avoiding Mason, each of us out of our own sense of guilt.

We go to a store for Aiden first, who tries on one pair of shoes, more just to see if they fit, and buys them with the money Andrew left him.

We make it to a boutique an hour before it closes, and I let Charlotte run around picking out dresses for me.

“Don’t look too excited,” I tell Aiden sarcastically, who’s looking around at all the dresses like he woke up in a foreign land.

He turns the full force of his smile on me and my breath hitches. “This isn’t too bad. If you ignore where we’re going, it’s kind of like we’re practicing for prom.”

The smile on my face freezes when I sit on the weight of his words.

He wants to go to prom with me. He thinks I’ll be here for prom.

I almost lost Aiden the first time because of all the lies I told him. Now here I am, telling him more lies. How much longer can I keep this secret from him? How much longer can I let him think he has a future with me when I’m supposed to be packing my bags to leave as soon as we get home? I’m such a shitty person.

Aiden misinterprets my reaction. “Not that—not that I assume you’ll go to prom with me.”

I suddenly can’t meet his gaze. “No, yeah. Obviously I’d go to prom with you.”

If I was around.

Before he can say anything else that breaks my heart, I turn around and walk to the dressing room where Charlotte’s loaded up a bunch of dresses.

“This is so fun!” She smiles, looking wistfully at all the dresses. “I’m kind of jealous I’m not the one getting to put on a pretty dress, but dressing you up is still fun.”

“Thanks for doing this, Char.” I pick a red dress off the hook and analyze it.

“No problem! I can’t wait to do this again for prom, except then I’ll get to try on dresses too!” She laughs and leaves the room, yelling something at Aiden about how he can’t see, but I’m left thinking over her words, my stomach sinking. Again with prom. Another person I’m letting down.

I close the door to the room and stare at the rest of the dresses, a frown on my face. This isn’t fun anymore. How long can I keep pretending I’m a regular girl? How long can I ignore my problems by pushing them off? Even all the stuff with Mason. Can I really tell him about his dad’s affair and then just vanish off the face of the earth?

“Do you have the first dress on yet?” Charlotte excitedly calls through the door, snapping me out of my musing.

“Sure, just one second!” I call back, ripping off my clothes and throwing on a random dress. I don’t even look in the mirror before opening the door.

Charlotte’s eyes are wide and shiny. “Yes. That’s the dress.” She claps her hands together and practically squeals.

“It’s the first one I tried on,” I say, feeling guilty that I’m not as excited as I should be.

“So? Have you even looked at yourself? Turn around so I can zip you the rest of the way.” Placing her hands on my bare shoulders, she spins me around to face the mirror and my breath hitches.

“Whoa,” is all I can manage. The dress is black and off both shoulders, leaving my upper chest bare, with a sweetheart plunge that’s not inappropriate but not exactly modest either. It’s tight all the way down, giving me curves where I didn’t know I had