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“I don’t know,” Harlow says, smiling without warmth. “I found it in my stack of mail three days ago. I haven’t heard back from them. All I know is that this person knows about us. They know we were together, and they’re threatening to tell everyone if I don’t leave you alone. This is what I was talking about, Liam. We can’t be together for reasons like these.”
“Harlow, I didn’t cheat on anyone,” I say.
She pauses, looking at me skeptically. “Don’t lie to me.”
I shake my head and fold the letter up. “I know you probably don’t believe me, but I never cheated on anyone. The woman that the book is based on? She cheated with me. For a long time, I didn’t even know he existed. And yes, I should’ve cut things off when I found out that she was with someone, and I own that mistake. But never in my life would I betray someone’s trust like that. I would never disrespect a woman that way.”
I wish I’d been more honest with her from the beginning, but the excitement of talking to her made me forget about the book I was working on. Sure, I spiced up the story by adding a partner for Max, that way he and Grace were both unfaithful, but I’d never intended for the book to be autobiographical.
“You’re not just saying that?” she asks, her voice impossibly small. She looks at me with pleading eyes. The fact that I could’ve made her doubt me this way stings worse than anything I’ve ever felt.
“On my life, Harlow. I’ve never cheated on a woman I dated. Never.”
Her face softens, and I ache to reach out and touch her. To comfort her and kiss away all the mistakes I’ve made. All the miscommunications we’ve both created. I feel like such a fucking idiot, I could yell. Instead, I unclench my fist around the letter and look it over again.
“Wait,” I say, squinting.
“What?” Harlow asks.
“Hold on…” I slip my phone out of my pocket and scroll through my images. Harlow steps beside me, watching. I find a picture of a napkin and the phone number scribbled on it.
“What’s that?”
“Before the end of the party, Destiny wrote down her new phone number and gave it to me. She wanted me to call if I ever got lonely.”
“Did you?” Harlow’s tone is accusatory, and I almost smile at her jealousy.
“No,” I say. “I didn’t have any reason to.”
“What does this picture matter anyway?”
“Look at how she wrote call on the napkin.” Destiny’s C is extra curly, stylized that same as the C on the letter Harlow received.
Harlow leans in to get a better look. Then she covers her mouth. “Look at the Ls. They both have that foot at the end, where it curls up. Did she send me this?”
I sigh and close my phone. “Somehow she got my number and tried to get in touch with me a few nights ago. She offered to fly to Colorado and spend a week or two with me. I told her no that I was busy. That I had someone else important in my life.”
Harlow looks away.
“I think she sent this to you,” I say. “She was the one that saw us in the hotel hallway. More than likely, she put two and two together.”
Harlow runs a hand through her hair and shakes her head. “This is too much, Liam. I can’t lose my job over this. I can’t.”
I grab a hold of her and stroke her back, inhaling the smell of her perfume. God, I could stay like this forever. “Harlow, I promise you, I’m going to take care of this. Nothing’s going to happen to you.”
She steps back to look at me. “Really? How are you going to do that? This psycho is jealous of what she thinks we have, and she wants to ruin my job because of it. What’s your grand plan?”
“I know what I’m doing, okay? I know how she thinks, and I know what she wants.”
Harlow’s skeptical. I can see it in her face. In the little persistent wrinkle on her forehead. “Please take care of this,” she begs.
“I will. I promise you, Harlow, I’ll fix every single thing I’ve done wrong.”
When she nods, and the tiniest smile pulls on her lips, I feel my heart soar. I'm going to fix this mess. For her.
13
Harlow
