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“Harper.What are you doing here?”
“Investigating the strange poltergeist that halfway-assembled a cheese board on my kitchen table and then went to poke through my computer.”
“Oh, shoot. I forgot the cheese.”
Her frown deepened, and her eyes darkened in a way I wasn’t used to seeing from her. “May I ask why you’re reading my emails, Paisley?”
I frowned, clasping my hands at my waist. “May I ask when you were planning on telling everybody that you’re moving out of town?”
A look of panic flickered briefly over her expression, and she put a hand over her forehead. “Dammit. I don’t know why I thought I could keep anything to myself in a town where Paisley lives.”
“Were you planning on telling me at all?” A heavy weight coalesced in my stomach, a sick feeling now. I’d just been screwing around, playing games, and suddenly I stood in the middle of something much too serious. Much too heavy. It felt like I’d been gorging myself on chocolates and suddenly lurched into feeling sick.
Harper looked away. “Why would I need to? Clearly you just help yourself to my things and find out.”
“This is that person you’ve been talking to lately? Ever since December, you’ve been planning on leaving all of us without telling us?”
She sighed, hard, stepping back out of the office and gesturing me to the back door of the building. “Why don’t you go ahead and head home now, Pais?”
“No, I’m pretty comfortable here.” My voice came out colder and smaller than I’d expected. Harper narrowed her eyes.
“I amtellingyou to get the fuck out of my office and stop looking through my private computer.”
“Oh, yeah? And what’s stopping me from going and telling everyone in Bayview about how you’re apparently just up and running away without… without even saying a word about it?”
“Great question. What’s stopping me from telling everyone how you break into my house and raid my computer to read my private email exchanges?”
I put my hands on my hips. “Name one person who would be surprised.”
She faltered. “Dammit. Fair point.”
All of a sudden, all the nerves and anxiety, the frustration and the betrayal, melted into something so sad I just wanted to cry. I softened, and I took a step closer. She backed away, but I came closer again, and she didn’t retreat this time, letting me get close enough I put a hand on her arm.
“Are you actually leaving?” I said, and I think I saw her heart break, the whole thing playing out over her features.
Quietly, she turned away, and she didn’t say anything—moved to speak, stopped, and fell back into silence.
“Harper?”
She gestured me, haltingly, to the stairs. “There’s… I’ve got a cake from them. Let’s… we might as well at least share it.”
I’d never heard an invitation for cake sound so sad. I walked, quietly, with her up the stairs, and I felt an antsy sensation through every part of my body, like I would just burst, rip apart on the spot. I wanted to scream and demand answers from her. I think I was shaking. I wasn’t sure where this had come from—I knew full well I didn’t want her to leave, but this? This?
She pulled the Fontaine Square cake out of the fridge once we got into her kitchen, and she brewed two cups of coffee. Her regular bedtime was in an hour, but… I didn’t question it. I sat with her as she sliced the cake in two pieces and slid me one with a coffee.
“It’s a marble cake. From—”
“I know. I saw it when I was looking for cheese. That’s why I went looking for what Fontaine Square was.”
She rubbed her forehead. “God, in the middle of all this, I forgot about the cheese. Why were you raiding the fridge for cheese?”
“I came in to say hi, but you normally get upset when I come in through the roof, so I thought I’d bribe you with cheese.”
“Bribe me. With my own food. Also, will youstopclimbing onto the roof?”
“I guess I will, if you aren’t even going to live here anymore.”
She fell silent again. Fuming, I jabbed at the cake, feeling like I was stabbing Susanna Holcomb for stealingmyfriend away from Bayview. Harper was supposed to stayhere.She was supposed to stay withme.
