I smile as she walks away towards the bathroom, watching her until she disappears. Then I wave down the waitress and order two old fashions.
“I gotta hand it to you, brother,” I say, turning back to Jaylen. “I really wasn’t expecting you to take it this well.”
“Yeah well, I had to come off that way in front of my sister,” he says. There is a hint of a smile on his lips, which means there’s also a lot of something else going on.
“Something else you want to talk about?” I ask casually.
“You could say that,” he says. “I’m not great with all of this. You are my best friend, and that is my sister.”
“I understand,” I say.
“I really don’t think you do. You don’t have a sister. You don’t have someone that you basically raised because your parents were too drunk, high, and absent to do themselves. We have been through a lot. Harper has been through a lot. I’m not about to watch her get hurt because one day you realized your best friend’s sister isn’t a little girl anymore.”
The waitress sets down our drinks and I nod to her, waiting until she walks away to start talking. “I understand how detrimental it is to tread lightly,” I tell him calmly. “For one, if I upset you, more than I already have, I lose the best friend I’ve ever had. My wingman. My business partner. My brother. Not only that, messing up means hurting her. I need you to believe that I would never let anything hurt Harper, including myself. I really do care about your sister.”
“Then you know she is a virgin, I assume?” he asks.
I think very carefully about how to respond to that. “She told me she’s saving herself for marriage, yes,” I answer. It’s not a lie. She did tell me that.
“Then you understand that I expect it to stay that way. Which means you keep it PG-13,” he says.
“Are we talking Titanic PG-13 or–” I press, even though I know I shouldn’t.
“We’re talking in your pants. Zipped. Tucked into your goddamned belt if you have to. Just away from my sis–”
“I get it, I get it,” I say. In my peripheral, I see Harper heading our way so I pick up my glass, holding it out for Jaylen to cheers with me.
“We have a deal?” he asks.
“Yes,” I answer, fully aware that I am flat out lying to my best friend.
Chapter 35
Harper
“So you finally told him,” Darlene whispers to me from her yoga mat. Well, as much as Darlene can whisper. Her inside voice doesn’t tend to be the softest.
“Yep,” I say carefully as I stretch into Warrior One. We are at a weekly yoga class, and she wants all the juicy details about our meeting with Jaylen. Unfortunately, the instructor isn’t too keen on us talking during her class and shoots us a look.
“How did that go?” she asks, lowering her voice only slightly.
“Better than I expected,” I answer.
“So, he didn’t lose his shit?” She asks, and the instructor audibly shushes us. Darlene responds with an eye roll as we shift into Warrior Two. Darlene is mirroring me, so she’s facing me.
“No,” I whisper, keeping a close eye so we don’t get yelled at again. I’d prefer to save the conversation for after class, but Darlene isn’t patient enough for that. “I mean, kind of. I don’t know. He was sort of weird about it.”
“Weird how?” she asks.
“Downward dog,” the instructor says loudly as another warning. Any more of this and we’re going to get kicked out. Not that I would care much. Yoga is supposed to be relaxing, but this lady has always been a hard ass.
Once we are in position, it’s a little easier to talk. Quietly, anyway. It’s not easy talking when all the blood is rushing to your head.
“I don’t know…he kind of freaked at first,”
“Understandably. He just found out his best friend is getting it on with his little sister. I’d be pissed too. If I were a dude, I mean. Of course, I’d be pissed about a lot of things if I were a dude. Like the drop in brain cells and the inability to text chicks back. You know what I mean.”
“After a while, he caved,” I say. “I think he realized there’s nothing he can do about it. By the time I came back from the bathroom, they were acting normal.”
