“You know what, Hallie? I feel sorry for you. You’ve lived your life under the heavy thumb of our parents and this town and lost your brain in the process. You can't even think for yourself and it's pathetic.”
Hallie simply scoffs, but there’s a shift in her eyes tellingme I was approaching a sore spot.
“I’m sorry that you feel the need to come here and do our father’s dirty work for whatever he’s got planned, but you don’t know me, and you don't know Nolan, so I’m going to say this once, and then I hope I never talk to you again. I am fucking Nolan, I don’t care who knows and I sure as hell am not going to stay away from him.”
“You may not care who knows, but I’m sure Nolan does. Why else wouldn’t he tell Dad about you two last night after you left?”
“Get the fuck out of my office.”
A slow smile unfurls across her face and a sickening feeling crawls up my throat. “That’s all I needed to know.”
Was this what she wanted all along? For me to confirm out loud that Nolan and I are involved? I don’t move, I won't give anything away but I want to double over and empty my stomach on the floor the longer she looks at me. And the feeling only worsens when Nolan appears behind her in the doorway.
“Harper?” he questions, eyes spinning from me to Hallie. He moves around her and into my office. “Everything okay?”
The room empties, the atmosphere gone, sucking us into a vacuum of tension. Hallie answers for us, turning her persona of the perfect Cupid Sweetheart back on. “Of course, I just stopped by to see my little sister before going to lunch with Sadie.”
Even Nolan can taste the lie. “Uh-huh,” he hums, stepping closer to me.
Hallie zones in on the minuscule movement, the prize she was waiting for. “Well I better get going, and Harper, don’t forget that Dad always gets what he wants. Whether we like it or not.” She turns, dark hair whipping around with her body and her heels click against the hard floor as she disappears.
“What does that mean?” Nolan’s voice breaks through my reeling mind.
She’s right though. There’s never been a time where my father didn’t get his way, it's how he’s remained Mayor of Cupid for so long. He’s not above blackmail or intimidation to pave his path. If my father needs Nolan, it’s because of one thing, the only thing he has that my father doesn’t—money. I just don’t know where Sadie fits into the equation.
“Baby?” Quiet concern coats Nolan's words.
I snap back and step away as his hand ghosts along my back.
“Don’t.” My head’s reeling. “Nolan, I can’t, I—”
He tilts his head to the side, confused as a puppy who doesn't understand why you leave every day, and I can see the moment my words slice through his normal suit of stoic armor. Cracks form along the outline, his eyes bore into me and in my hands I hold all this power over a powerful man. I don’t want to hurt him, but I can’t think when he’s in front of me.
“Nolan, I can’t do this right now. I need some space.”
Watching him crumble as the words hit him is not something I can handle. But what's worse is how fast he picks up his pieces.
He nods somberly, “I understand.”
Nolan turns and follows Hallie’s steps from moments before.
So this is what crashing into a burning world feels like.
February 12
I’m standing in frontof Harper’s apartment door without a plan. Not even an inkling of what I want to say to her but I was pulled here by some unknown feeling that wants me to spill my guts to her. She’s been a ghost the past two days. Barely answering my texts, doingwhatever she can to not be in the same room as me at work, and it’s slowly killing me.
I’m consumed by Harper and I don’t want to stop. It’s more than sex, it’s more than any physical pleasure she pulls from my body. It's bigger than our dynamic, and deeper than anything I thought I could find or deserve.
In my fifty-two years on this earth, I’ve spent most of them alone. Filling my time with work, a few friends and more passing flings than I can even recall and all of it was fine. I was fine. I built a life I was comfortable dying in while the world moved around me, and the idea of love never crossed my mind.
Until Harper. And now she’s the only thing occupying my mind.
Muffled footsteps come from inside once I finally draw the courage to knock. When the door swings open, I don’t quite know what I’m looking at. Most of my time with her is spent at work, when she’s styled in a way that meets all the business standards and yet still hangs onto her whimsical aura. Her hair is usually in soft curls or tied nicely at the nape of her neck. She wears such little make up, I would never think to be shocked to see her without it.
But I am.
Because she’s not just dressed down for a night at home, her entire appearance looks like she’s straddling the edge of frazzled and a full on breakdown.
