He sighed again, as though Alice were sucking the life from him by asking him to do anything at all. ‘Would it make a difference?’
For years, she’d waited for him to come visit her in DC, to take her out to lunch, to tell her that he knew what he had done had been wrong. To admit that he hadn’t just betrayed her mom, but had ruined Alice’s life in the process.
For years, she’d wondered if she was exactly the same as him, destroying everything she touched, leaving a wreck in her wake.
‘I don’t know,’ she admitted quietly.
‘Good night, Alice.’
‘Good night.’
She sat, staring at the phone, unsure of what she had just done. It wasn’t clear to her if she had altered the trajectory of her relationship with her dad forever, or if the thing it had always been was now just out in the open. She’d been the perfect daughter her whole life and had destroyed it in a second.
She walked out of the cabin and down the path towards the mess hall, thinking a cup of tea might help. But when she entered the kitchen, she was surprised to see Harper already standing over the stove.
‘What are you doing here?’ Alice demanded, annoyed that she couldn’t sulk in peace.
Harper started, turning. ‘Making hot chocolate. What areyoudoing here?’
Alice sighed, dropping into a chair and rubbing her eyes. ‘Tea.’
‘Couldn’t sleep?’ Harper asked, her tone softer. When Alice looked up, she saw that Harper was pouring boiling water into two mugs. ‘What kind of tea?’
‘Peppermint, please. It’s in—’
‘I got it,’ Harper interrupted, opening Cook’s tea drawer as though she’d done it a thousand times before.
Alice’s eyes narrowed. ‘When did you become so familiar with this kitchen?’
Harper pursed her lips. ‘When are you going to stop thinking everything I do is some sort of plot against you?’
Alice huffed out a breath. ‘I guess you haven’t done anything that terrible to me this summer.’
‘Nothing that terrible?’ Harper repeated incredulously. ‘I’ve saved your ass. Multiple times.’
‘Yeah, okay,’ Alice admitted. ‘I’m sorry.’
Harper eyed her suspiciously for a moment more, as though Alice was going to say something mean.
‘Apology accepted,’ she said, sliding the tea to Alice.
‘Why are you being nice to me?’ Alice asked, watching Harper prepare her hot chocolate.
Harper snorted. ‘Why would I be mean to you?’
‘You were pretty mean in high school,’ Alice said.
Harper didn’t answer immediately, busying herself with wiping cocoa powder off the counter.
‘It wasn’t that deep,’ she said finally. ‘I was sixteen and jealous.’
‘You were jealous ofme?’ Alice asked, incredulous. Harper had never once given her the impression that she had looked upon her with anything other than disdain. She’d made Alice feel like she didn’t belong in their group, like she was missing some innate social knowledge that every other person had. It didn’t make sense for her to have been jealous when everyone had liked her and no one had liked Alice.
Harper cocked her head, sitting across from Alice. ‘You’re at Oxford and you didn’t put together that I had a crush on my fiancé when you were dating him?’
‘I mean…’ Alice said, blowing on her tea, ‘I guess I knew, yeah. I just thought you separately hated me for unrelated reasons.’
Harper let out a surprised laugh. ‘Well, it didn’t help that you were smarter than me.’
