“Better,” she added before she cupped Larissa’s cheek, leaned in, and kissed her. “So, how’s your paper going?” she asked, placing her arm over the back of Larissa’s chair.
Then, she realized that this was the first time she’d done that as more than just Larissa’s best friend, trying to get comfortable and maybe have a moment or two where she could pretend that they were more than friends.
“Good. I’ve been working on it for four hours straight. My eyes are exhausted, but I’m going back to the library for another hour or so after our lunch. I also got a call from the bookstore. The owner asked me if I could come in for a short shift today. She has a doctor’s appointment she can’t miss, and with Janine gone, I’m really the only one she trusts to handle things.”
“So, is our date off?”
“What? No. It’s only until six. She told me she’d be back by then to close up. I hardly knew her before because I worked with Janine mostly, but she’s really nice. I feel bad that the bookstore might fail, and I wish I could do more, but I’ve got a lot on my plate right now, including you and this. Andthiscomes first.” Larissa pointed between the two of them.
“Yeah? Even over your doctorate and the book?”
Larissa looked at her as if she was confused why Harlow would ask that.
“Yes, Harlow.”
“Okay. I ran into Aggie on my way in, by the way.”
“Oh, God… No, you didn’t. Did she ask you a million questions? Is that why I got yet another text from her right before you walked in?”
“Probably.”
Larissa picked up her phone and read the message, “It says, ‘You had sex and didn’t tell me?’ Harlow…”
“Ididn’ttell her. She guessed.”
“Sheguessedthat we had sex last night?”
“She’s your sister and a psych Ph.D. Yeah, she figured it out. She also told me that she toldyouthat I… had feelings for you.”
“She did. She’s brought it up a few times recently.”
“Recently?”
“Yes, when you started staying with me and were thinking of moving out. That kind of recently. Why?”
“Did that have anything to do with you saying yes to me asking you out? Her bugging you about it?”
“What?” Larissa closed her computer and turned in her chair more to face Harlow. “You think I let my sisterbugme into dating you?”
“No, I didn’t mean it like that.” She took Larissa’s hand with her free one and let them both rest in her lap. “I’ve just been in this longer than you, and you figured it out recently, so I waswondering if maybe your overbearing but well-meaning sister somehow pushed you into this in the same way she’s pushing you into replying to her messages to give her updates on our relationship, your doctorate, and everything else.”
“Harlow, no. I’ll admit that I wasn’t thinking about this before, so Aggie’s words didgetme to think, but I didn’t agree to go out with you because she bugged me. I agreed to go out with you because I started to see you as more than a friend. I got jealous of Samantha and–”
“You what?” Harlow laughed.
“Yeah. And Alicia, too.”
“Why Alicia?”
“You stayed over at her place that one night, so I worried that you two had reconciled and were back together, or at least, on your way back to being together again. Then, you started hanging out with Samantha; talking to her at the office, getting a free membership from her, bowling.”
“It wasn’t free,” she confessed.
“What?”
“She just gave me a discount. And she gave me another one for this month since we’ve gone on longer than a month with our interviews, but I told you it was free because I knew you wouldn’t want me to spend money.”
“I wouldn’t,” Larissa confirmed.
