“Um, sure. If you’re sure you don’t mind?”
“I would love some company. Especially if you tell me you haven’t had lunch yet, because I’m starving.”
“Oh, um. I don’t know if I should ...”
“Please? I’d love to have some company,” she repeated. Harper had seen this before. When a person’s right to make decisions had been systematically stripped from them for so long, it was hard to start making choices when the freedom to do so was returned. She turned and started for the porch. “Come on in.”
Harper led the way back to the kitchen. She grabbed two plates from the cabinet and put them on the island. “Can you grab the bread for me?” Harper gestured to the loaf on the counter and busied herself unpacking sandwich ingredients from the refrigerator.
She handed Gloria a cutting board and ripe tomato. “Would you mind slicing this?”
While Gloria carefully sliced, Harper started to build the sandwiches. “Roast beef okay with you?”
“Sure. But you really don’t have to go to all this trouble.”
Harper coated slices of bread with mayonnaise. “Well you’re helping. So what brings you to Luke’s unfurnished abode?”
Gloria’s soft laugh floated through the kitchen “It is kind of spartan.”
“I don’t know if he’s a minimalist or what.”
“Commitment phobic?”
“Even when it comes to furniture, it seems,” Harper agreed. She handed Gloria a plate with a sandwich and pickle spear. “Water or soda?”
“Water, please.”
Harper filled two glasses with ice water and joined Gloria at the island. They ate side by side in companionable silence for a few minutes.
“Harper, I just wanted to thank you,” Gloria said suddenly.
“You’re welcome, but it’s just a sandwich.”
“Not just for the sandwich, which is really good, by the way. For helping me with Glenn at Remo’s. It’s been going on for so long, or at least, I’ve let it go on so long that I felt like everyone had stopped seeing me. It took me seeing the situation I helped create hurt someone else to realize that it had to stop. And I’m sorry for that.”
Harper traced a finger over the fading bruises on her face. “It was worth it if it helps you build a life you want. How are you?”
“I’m okay,” Gloria pushed her pickle around the plate. “I’m staying with my mother for now. And I pressed charges.”
She picked up her sandwich and took another bite.
“That’s very brave of you.”
“It would have been braver had I done it years ago.”
“Life moves pretty fast. There’s not a lot of room for coulda, shoulda, woulda,” Harper said, patting her hand.
“Sometimes that’s all I can think about. How different my life would be if I had gone to college or never started dating him.”
Harper nodded, “Maybe now you have that chance. To see what your life would be without him in it.”
“It’s hard. I don’t really have any friends left. I guess it’s not easy to be friends with someone who keeps making the wrong decision over and over again. Eventually everyone has to decide whether or not it’s worth it to keep trying.”
“So what are you going to do now?”
“I’m going to get a job, find a place to live, and be worth it.”
“Sounds like a good plan to me. Is there anything I can do to help?”
