‘Guess who.’ A pair of hands covers my eyes but I don’t have to spend more than half a second thinking about it. I know that voice like I know my own name.
‘Nils, is there an annoying fucker from Hendersohm behind me?’
‘Afraid so,’ he confirms and Harper smacks the side of my cheek as he pulls his hands away.
‘Can I steal my best friend?’ Harper asks Nils, moving round to stand in front of our booth. He’s dressed in grey sweats and a white T-shirt, so I can’t imagine where he’s stealing me away to.
‘Absolutely, I just found out he had sex on the plane right in front of me while I was asleep. So please, take his disgusting ass away.’
Harper raises an eyebrow, like he’s trying to work out what the issue is, but I just shake my head.
‘Perfect, come on Jojo.’ He holds out a hand and I use it to hop down from the booth, but he doesn’t let go as we walk towards the hotel lift. ‘Which floor?’
‘You know you’re a married man, right?’
‘Oh yeah, because this is me seducing you. In sweats and at the hotel both our teams are staying in.’
‘You’re leading me to my hotel room, man.’
‘To have some quality time with my best friend, dickhead. I don’t need your actual dick anymore, although I am glad to hear you’re finally getting some. Even if you are traumatising Nils.’ I can’t help but laugh at that. I should probably feel sorrier than I do for the guy.
‘Movie and room service,’ he suggests as we enter my room, slipping off his shoes before throwing himself down on to my bed, quickly getting comfy.
‘Sounds good to me, let me go slip into something comfy and I’ll be with you. Order what you want.’
I grab a pair of sweat shorts and a vest and slip into the bathroom, washing my face quickly before throwing on my comfy clothes. Harper’s just hanging up when I leave the bathroom and I dread to think about how much he’s just charged to my card, but it’s worth it to get this quality time together.
‘They said food won’t be for forty-five minutes as they’re really busy tonight, but they have Disney Plus on this tv so I thought we’d watch Iron Man.’ Because why would we watch anything new when we could just binge the Avengers series again like we used to do at sleepovers when we were fifteen? He fires up the first film and I get comfy on the bed next to him.
‘I’m glad you took my advice,’ he says, referring to Caleb.
‘Thank you,’ I say. ‘For what you said in Monza. I needed to hear it, and I wouldn’t have listened to it from anyone but you.’
‘I love you, JoJo. You know that. I’m glad you’re back to yourself again, even though you keep pushing me off the top spot.’ He punches me lightly and I punch him back. Not everyone is so lucky to have a friend like Harper in their life. ‘Ijust wish you’d tell me what was going on and why you wouldn’t talk to me about it.’
‘Harp, I…’
‘What? What’s so fucking awful that you can’t tell me?Me.Your best friend.’
‘It’s complicated.’
‘Oh, fuck off. There’s no such thing when it comes to you and me.’
‘I…’
‘You really hurt me,’ he says quietly. I still and turn to face him.
‘I’m sorry, Harp. I just… couldn’t. I can’t.’
I feel him pull away from me a little. I’m not sure if it’s a physical action or if it’s a kind of invisible barrier he puts up between us, but either way it breaks my heart. And I’ve had enough of heartbreak.
I take a deep breath. ‘Harp?’
‘Yeah…?’
‘If I tell you something, will you promise to listen and to trust me and not ask any questions?’
‘Jo, what’s going on?’
