‘Promise me, Harp.’
‘Okay, okay, I promise.’
‘It’s not in your best interests to know what was going on with me.’ If I tell him that the knowledge would put him in an impossible position then it won’t take him long to work it out and that would defeat the purpose. ‘Believe me when I tell you that I would have shared every part of it with you if I could have. I wanted to, a hundred times. A thousand. It’s not because I don’t trust you and it’s not because I’m ashamed of anything and it’s nothing you’ve done or not done. Just know that I’ve put it behind me now and I’m happy with Caleb, thanks to you.’
‘Does it have anything to do with why you bailed on dinner in Zandvoort?’ he asks suspiciously.
‘I said no questions.’
‘I just don’t want us to drift apart again, and after Zandvoort I was worried we were heading back there.’
‘Absolutely not. No drifting. But please don’t ask me anything else, Harp. I promise I’ll tell you one day.’
He eyes me sceptically. I can tell he’s not satisfied but I hope he’ll let it go for now.
‘If you want, we can talk about how hot my new boyfriend is?’ I offer.
I nudge him but eventually he plays along.
‘Is it someone I know?’ he jokes.
‘He’s so fucking hot.’
‘He actually is. Okay,’ he says with a sigh. ‘Tell me everything.’
I get out my phone so I can scroll though the endless reel of pictures me and Caleb have taken together.
When the food arrives, we chow down, talking about everything except racing, from the date ideas I have for Caleb this week to the horses that Kian and his brother-in-law, Grant, are going to look at this weekend.
I polish off a steak with asparagus and broccoli and we split a bottle of wine. It’s the tamest night we’ve ever experienced together, but I’m here for it. I hate to say it, but we’re growing up.
‘I’m not kidding, I’m worried that the next time I go home there’ll be some kind of animal in our bed. Kian needs reining in, but it’s hard to do from the other side of the world.’ Never did I imagine it would be my best friend having to do the reining in, not the other way around.
‘I love that this is your man’s life now, though! I never saw it coming, but it fits Kian perfectly.’
The film ends and Harper’s yawning his head off. ‘Also, you can’t stay the night,’ I say, and he pouts before his eyes light up.
‘Ohhh, your man’s coming over to dick you down. I get it, hoes before bros. Sure, sure, when I can only get cyber dick right now.’
‘Oh boo-hoo, your married ass isn’t getting any right now. Let me enjoy this. You’ll be home before you know it, and you can bug the life out of Kian for all the dick in the world.’
‘I can’t wait.’ And he means it. His whole face softens at the mention of Kian and it’s literally adorable– but also makes my heart flip because now I’m thinking about what Caleb and I can get up to over winter break. ‘You’ll come and stay won’t you?’ Harper adds. ‘See all the improvements Kian’s made since summer break. We’d love to host you both. Can I tell Kian? Please say I can. He’ll be so excited.’
‘Yeah, of course. I wouldn’t expect you to ever keep anything from your husband,’ I say pointedly. ‘I’ll talk to Caleb, but I can’t see why we wouldn’t be there.’ God, I hope we’re still doing this at winter break. I hope we’re still doing this for a really long time.
The movie credits are hardly even rolling when I push Harper out of bed.
‘You used to be fun and now you have a boyfriend you don’t love me anymore,’ he whines.
‘Go FaceTime your husband,’ I say. He pouts again, but I lob one of his trainers at him, which he ducks and it smacks straight into the hotel room wall.
Luckily, he gets the message and slips into his trainers and with a kiss to my forehead disappears towards the hotel lift.
No longer than five minutes later there’s a knock at the door, and there’s my Caleb.
‘Perfect timing. I finally turfed Harps out. He was gutted I wasn’t letting him sleep over, but we had a really good night.’
‘Did you talk about me?’ he asks with an eyeroll.
