Page 72 of Seeing Harper

She looked at him, her expression unreadable.

Joel realized he’d flattered her too much again. “I’ll race you,” he said, getting up and hurrying to the bar.

Harper smiled at the waitress as she went to retrieve their drinks, then turned and looked at Joel, making a point of trying to build a structure of croissants on his plate topped with bacon.

Harper’s Tiger snarled softly in the back of her mind. No trust.

Nope. He’s pushy. But maybe that’s just how he is. Salesmen can be like that, Harper thought back at her.

Not mate!

I know that! But, hey, thanks for showing up to say so.

Her Tiger snarled softly before retreating to the back of her mind again.

“Are you coming?” Joel called out from where he stood holding two plates. “We’re going to have to hit the ground running at the show and might not have time for lunch. Load up now!”

“I’m coming!” she said, as she got up and started working her way around the breakfast bar.

~~~

Cruz watched as Clay got his things together and started toward the door without a word.

“Meeting up for lunch?” Cruz called out from where he sat at the small table in the apartment they shared.

Clay looked back at him. “Sure, we can do that. Where?”

“Chinese buffet in the student union?” Cruz asked.

“Sure. About 1:00?”

“I’ll be there.”

“Yeah, me, too,” Clay said, opening the front door to walk out of it.

“You still haven’t heard from her?” Cruz asked.

Clay stopped and shook his head.

“She’ll call when she sees the message, or maybe just email. But worst case, just call her yourself. Maybe she still hasn’t seen your email. It’s not usual for you to email her.”

“I texted, too.”

“Call her, Clay. At least you’ll know why she hasn’t responded. I mean, it wasn’t abnormal for any of us to go an entire semester or more without speaking. She’s probably not expecting it.”

Clay kind of shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Call her, and let me know what happens when I see you at lunch.”

Clay left, closing the door behind himself.

Cruz shook his head as he took another huge bite of his Frosted Flakes cereal. “There is no way he sees her as just a friend.” His phone rang and he looked questioningly at it. Nobody ever called him this early in the morning. He pulled his phone closer then spilled his cereal by dropping his spoon into the overly milk filled bowl when he saw Julia’s name on his screen. “Hello!” he exclaimed into the phone.

“Cruz? Hi, it’s Julia.”

“Hey, good morning. You’re up and at ‘em early,” Cruz said.

“I am, yeah. I was just thinking about you and how much fun we had at the movie, and I wanted to call and say thank you again.”