Page 84 of House of Bass

“Trust me, Starley, you’re more than that. You’re the better half of us all,” she said firmly.

This time Scarlett moved more than her face closer, she slid her body in between her legs and rested her head on her shoulder. Her cheeks nuzzled Harley’s as they found warmth pressing their bodies tighter. That was how they slept together for the two nights that her sister was gone, on the same bed. She loved every second of it.

31

HARLEY

The weekend of horror had arrived and Harley was dreading every bit of it. It was an amalgamation of officially meeting the man responsible for half her DNA but also the wife, whom she had been doing everything in her power to pretend didn’t exist. She was the one who got betrayed here and Harley’s existence was a physical embodiment of the failure of her marriage. And now she was showing up to her home at the request of her husband.

Harley could feel a headache coming thinking about the tribulations of the next couple days, she fiddled with the bluetooth in the passenger seat as Annabel drove. They were meant to be getting picked up but they decided they needed the short drive together before dealing with the incoming chaos.

“Your song choices are shit by the way,” Harley said as she connected her phone to the car.

Annabel had the audacity to be offended by the comment, “Excuse me, there’s nothing with my music.”

“Whatever is currently blasting down my ears begged to differ.”

“The Cure are some of the greatest musicians living or dead.”

She frowned.

Annabel pulled her tongue out at her and Harley did it back.

“You’re a little cranky today. Nervous?” Annabel asked.

Nervous was such an absentminded word to describe what she was feeling. Her bones were vibrating from how much she couldn’t stop thinking about the different ways it could go. She had wanted to meet this man for as long as she could remember, her shoulders stiffened as they inched nearer and nearer.

The hate she had reserved for him still clung to her in many ways, the resentment held, still there. “A bit.”

Annabel nodded, not trying to comfort her with words she herself didn't believe.

“Take my mind off it, tell me what happened between you and the idiot.”

“Don’t call him that.”

Harley waved her off, “If the shoe fits.”

“We went to his mum’s place up north, in Liverpool,” she said.

“He’s scouse? How did I not ever know this?”

“Probably because the two of you only ever fight.”

Harley rolled her eyes, telling her to carry on her story. She explained how they spent time there as a kid at the family cottage before his mum died and then it had been closed off until Arden bought it from his father. “It was magical, Harl. Being with him, it was everything I have ever wanted.”

There were stars in her eyes and Harley smiled at the happiness in them but there in the back of her mind, a lingering worry. Though Harley had been supportive in giving the relationship a chance, she worried that that boy would do nothing but break her heart. That whatever this was between them, wasn’t going to turn out well. Especially considering Annabel refused to talk about the elephant in the room. “That explains the post-sex glow.”

“I don’t have a glow…do I?” she said, trying and failing to hide her delight at the words. “What about you? Are you dating anyone?”

Her mind immediately went somewhere but she rapidly blinked the thought away “When would I have the time to date?”

“There’s always time to date or shag or definitely do both at the same time,” she said with a grin.

“Not all of us are like you,” Harley teased.

“Correction, not everyone can be me.”

“Anyways, with classes and all, I would rather focus on uni.”