That night, we meet Jaylen at a pub downtown. He’s been going on about wanting authentic shepherd’s pie, and Delaney’s has the best in the city. The way I see it, where there’s Irish food, there’s Irish beer and whiskey. Tonight, we might need both to get through this conversation.
Jaylen is already there when Harper and I arrive. We thought about taking two cars to make it less obvious, then realized that there’s really no point since we are about to come clean anyway. Harper takes a deep breath as we step out of the car and lets it out shakily. I round to her side to talk to her before we go in.
“Whatever happens in there, I got you,” I say.
“He’s going to hate us,” she says.
“We don’t know that,” I tell her.
“He won’t be okay with this,” she says, and her chin starts to quiver.
“Hey,” I say, clipping it between my fingers and turning her face to me. “It’s going to be okay. He loves us both. It will have to be okay.”
She nods, even though I can tell she isn’t totally sure. We head into the pub, and I’m a little nervous myself. This is going to be just like ripping off a Band-Aid, right? Rip it off, it stings for a minute, but after that it’s alright?
Jaylen waves at us from a high top near the bar. There are already three glasses of Guinness on the table.
“Either you’re in a good mood or a very bad mood if you already have round one set up,” I say, giving him a pat on the back.
“Oh, this is round two for me. You two are fashionably late,” he says as he hugs Harper.
“We’re four minutes late,” she says, checking her phone.
“Four minutes is plenty of time to drink a beer, sis,” he says before shaking his head at me. “Kids these days, I swear.”
We all laugh. He’s in a good mood. Hopefully, we can keep it that way.
“I have to admit, y’all are taking this personal assistant shit to the next level,” he says as we pull up chairs. Harper’s eyes are as wide as saucers. The poor girl has a terrible poker face. Her face doesn’t have an inside voice.
“What do you mean?” she asks.
“You drive everywhere together now,” he points out as he takes a slug of his beer. The waitress sets down a large plate of wings in front of us, and he winks at her.
“I guess it’s just easier if we are going to the same place,” I say, grabbing a wing.
“Yeah, after this you’re not…unless you’re going home together too,” he says with a laugh. Harper is back to gaping, and I silently press my knee to hers under the table. I hope my gesture wordlessly tells her to fix her face.
Jaylen looks back and forth between us. “Damn, tough crowd today.”
“You’re in a good mood,” I say as I take a sip of beer. I’m going to need something stronger than Guinness for the next conversation, but beer will have to do for now. I am going to grab the next round. Seems a little rude of me not to.Hey, I’m hooking up with your sister. But thanks for the beer, bro!
Jesus.
“I am. That Everest deal is going to kick everyone else in the teeth. We’re going to be on the top rung of the cocktail ladder. Especially if you get involved, Harp,” he says.
“Yeah,” she says with a forced smile, rubbing her arm.
I inch her beer closer to her, and she picks it up robotically and takes a sip. Well, it’s more like a gulp.
“Damn, girl,” Jaylen says. “I forgot how much you like Guinness.”
Harper smiles and licks the foam off her upper lip. I want to lick it off for her.
“She does like dark beer,” I say in an attempt to pull my brain out of the gutter.
“See? You hire her at LSJ, and now you’re inseparable,” he goes on.
Harper looks like she’s going to crawl out of her skin or under the table. I feel like I’m going to puke; I can’t continue to keep this from him. It’s time to stop fucking around and rip the Band-Aid off. Now.
