“It’s none of your business.”
“Was it someone I know?”
“None of your business.” Harper sipped on her coffee.
“Was it Maya?”
Harper choked, coughing as Nell’s eyes widened in delight.
“I knew it!”
Harper glared at her. “Keep your voice down.”
“I knew it,” Nell whispered. “You two were flirting way too much for it to just be for fun. How long has this been going on? And how screwed are you when Patricia finds out?”
“She won’t find out.”
“Of course she will. She’s like a bloodhound when it comes to sniffing out secrets.”
That was true, unfortunately. She had an eerie talent for knowing when people were hiding things they shouldn’t be hiding, and an even eerier talent for making them reveal it. With one stern look, Patricia could make it feel like your clothes were filled with ants.
“There isn’t anything for Patricia to find out,” Harper said. “Outside of last night, the only thing we’ve been doing is talk. And we didn’t really do anything serious, we just… kissed. A little.”
Nell’s brows furrowed. “How much is a little?”
That brought back a torrent of memories. The sting of Maya’s lips. Fingers digging into her skin. Those dizzying groans that had made more than one appearance in Harper’s dreams last night.
“Like… a lot, maybe.”
Harper expected Nell to let out another squeal. Or laugh, even. Instead, the excitement waned from her eyes.
“Oh no…”
Harper frowned. “Oh no, what?”
“You like her, don’t you?”
Harper scoffed. And took another sip of her coffee.
Nell’s mouth dropped open. “Youreallylike her! I figured it was just a dumb fling, not that you… Harper, what were you thinking?”
“I wasn’tthinking. I didn’t plan for it, it just kind of… happened.”
And they could have gone a lot further, too. If Harper had her way, they wouldn’t have stopped with the kiss and all the teasing touches that were involved.
Instead, they would have gotten started in the backseat of her car and then driven to Maya’s place—wherever the hell that was—and spent the whole night making up for the past few weeks of infuriatingly platonic interactions.
“I didn’t mess upthatmuch,” Harper said. “She’s quitting. No rules broken.”
The worry in Nell’s eyes turned into confusion. “Really?”
Harper was about to nod, but thinking back, Maya technicallyhadn’tsaid that. She’d just said they wouldn’t be working together, which wasn’t quite the same thing.
“She implied it.”
Nell’s gaze turned pitying. “Since when do you put any stock in implications? You know what people are like. They may say one thing, but that doesn’t mean they’re being honest.”
Nell knew that from awful personal experience. Harper did, too. People could accept a lot if they thought it was temporary, even when told over and over that it was permanent.
