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Fuck.
“Hey.” She slipped her purse off her shoulder and slid into the booth. “It’s good to see you.”
I nodded, unsure of what to say.
“How have you been?”
“Good, thanks.” I kept it light. Casual. “Busy with the team and my brother.”
“Of course.” She smiled. “How is he?”
“He’s okay, thanks for asking.”
“You know, Mason, I’m glad you texted asking to meet. I’ve been hoping to—”
The door swung open, and a group of girls filed inside, laughing and joking. But one laugh stood out among the rest.
Harper found me almost immediately, her whole face lighting up. But I saw the second she realized I wasn’t alone, the light in her eyes guttering out, replaced with confusion.
“Shit,” I muttered under my breath.
“Mason, what’s wrong?” Jenni turned right as Harper reached us. “Harper?” she said.
“Janelle?”
“Janelle?” I frowned. Who the fuck was Janelle? “Hold up. You two know each other?”
“Janelle works at Millers. What are you doing here?” Harper pinned me with a desperate look.
“It’s not what you think.”
“Mason?” Jenni said, her gaze swinging to mine.
“Uh, this isn’t how I’d planned to do this.” Shit. I rubbed a hand over my jaw, trying to figure out what to say.
This… this was why I avoided relationships. Because they got messy. Because people got hurt. And the way Harper was looking at me, with pain in her eyes, was something I never wanted to put there.
Before I could talk myself out of the giant fucking hole I’d dug, Harper said, “Wait a minute… oh my God.” She clapped a hand over her mouth, shaking her head. “Mason… he’s… he’s your fuck buddy.”
Jenni nodded. “Yeah. We’ve been seeing each other on and off for months.”
“The fuck?” I barked. “That’s not—”
“I am such an idiot,” Harper stepped back, all the color drained from her face.
“It’s not what you think,” I said, panic rising inside of me. This was not supposed to happen. They were not supposed to know each other. Not that it mattered, not really. Not if everyone understood the truth. But from the betrayal etched onto Harper’s expression, it was clear she didn’t.
Her mind had gone straight to the worst-case scenario.
Fuck.
“Harper, that’s not—”
“He texted me earlier to meet. I was about to go for it before you showed up,” Jenni said. “How do you two know each other again?”
“We…”
“We’re together,” I blurted, instantly regretting it from the way the temperature cooled around us. Two angry women glared at me like I was the devil incarnate.
