Say Yes (Nostalgic Summer Romance)

But I didn’t have time to figure him out. That wasn’t part of the plan.

I closed my eyes and forced a breath, and then the best smile I could manage. “Now, will you please leave me alone, as you promised?”

Liam licked his gelato, which was finally down to the cone now, and then took a big bite of said cone. He crunched on it for a long moment before he shrugged. “I will if you tell me where you’re going.”

I blinked, and then shook my head and turned my back on him to continue walking.

He jogged to catch up. “Come on. I’m bored. Humor me.”

“I’m not here to be your entertainment, Liam Benson.”

“Well, maybe I’m here to be yours, Harley Chambers.”

I faltered a little at the sound of my name on his lips, at the surprise I felt that he even knew my full name at all. But I held my steps steady, my back straight, eyes ahead.

“Come on. Is it some top-secret mission? Just tell me where you’re going.”

“I don’t know.”

“Ah, so it is a secret.”

“No,” I said, stopping again to face him. “I really don’t know. Okay? Now go away.”

“How do you not know where you’re going?”

I let out a frustrated growl, ripping my hands from my pockets and throwing them up in the air. “God, you are like a freaking mosquito!”

Liam grinned.

“I don’t know where I’m going because I walked out of my dorm with no plan other than to say yes to whatever comes my way tonight. Okay? I’ve got roughly four days to re-do my Venus assignment and so far, my canvas is still as blank as the stare you’re giving me right now. So, I’m walking around the city and looking at everything with new eyes. I’m trying to find inspiration. I’m trying to live a little like the professor said. Alright? There’s your answer.”

My chest was heaving, face hot as I stared back at Liam. He frowned a little when I finished, which made me let out a long sigh.

“I don’t expect you to understand. Especially since you are able to sneeze onto a canvas and create a masterpiece, apparently.”

The corner of his mouth lifted, and then his eyes flicked to my right hand.

Everything inside me froze, heart stopping in my chest before it kicked back to life with a thud. I flushed, shoving my right hand in my pocket as I tucked my hair behind my ear with the left.

“Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Hide your hand.”

My throat was the Sahara desert. I couldn’t answer if I wanted to.

When a moment passed without me saying a word, Liam looked to his left, then to his right, and then he shrugged on a long, dramatic breath. “Welp. That settles it.”

“Settles what.”

He took one last bite of his cone before chucking it in a nearby garbage can. “I’m going to be your Yes Guide tonight.”

“My… what?”

“Your Yes Guide. It’s like a tour guide, but with your special mission in mind. I’ll be the light that guides you on this quest.”

He held his hands out wide like he had been delivered straight from God.

And I snort-laughed right in his ridiculously smug face.

“Um. No.”

I turned before he could argue, but of course he jogged to catch up to me easily. “Hey, you can’t say that. It’s yes night, remember?”

“I can do whatever I want. It was my idea.”

“It was your idea, and your idea said the minute you walked out of your dorm room, you’d say yes to whatever came your way.” He jumped in front of my path, making me stop before I crashed into him. “And I just so happened to be right in your path. Don’t you think that means something?”

“Other than we were both coincidentally in the leather shop closest to campus? No.”

“Coincidence, or fate?” he combatted.

He stood there with that cocky grin of his, dark eyes shining in the glow of the setting sun. And I shook my head, staring at him like he had six arms and was wearing a tortoise shell instead of a leather jacket.

“Why are you doing this? Why would you want to hang out with me anyway?”

Liam shrugged. “Because I want to. And because, technically, you can’t say ‘yes’ if no one is asking you a question. Right?”

I pulled my mouth to the side, not responding because he did have a point — but not one I wanted to admit.

“I’ll take that silence as affirmation,” he said. “Now, stop breaking the rules of your own game and say yes.”

He held out his hand, and my eyes fell to it, to the lines that were etched in his palm, and the bones of each perfect, tan finger. I flicked my gaze up to him briefly before I stared at his hand once more.

“Come on,” he said, wiggling his fingers. “I promise, I won’t bite unless you ask me to.”