“Damien!” I gasped, throwing a piece of bacon at him as he laughed. “No! And for your information, he doesn’t exactlyknowit’s me that he is with.”
His brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“When I figured out he was the person I was meeting, I asked him to wear a blindfold.”
“Harp,” he sighed like I’d just told him I was secretly a vigilante. “You blindfolded your boss and are secretly hooking up with him without telling him who you are?That’sthe plan?”
“Technically, he was already blindfolded when I walked into the living room,” I said with a shrug, sipping my coffee like this wasn’t my most unhinged Tuesday ever. “I just… didn’t correct the situation.”
He stared at me. “Didn’t correct the—Harper!”
“I panicked! I was already in his house when I realized who he was, and I had all of three seconds to respond to this new, and incredibly awkward revelation!” I tossed my hands in the air, coffee dangerously close to sloshing out of the mug. “What was I supposed to do? Be like, ‘Hey Ambrose, surprise! It’s me, your executive assistant-slash-lowkey emotional disaster hiding out in your music room. Now kindly forget you were about to releaseyour demon sex pheromones on me to get me naked so we could fuck like rabbits, and I’ll go file those reports. Okay? Okay!’”
He blinked. Once. Twice. “You’ve seen him naked?”
“That’s your takeaway right now?”
“I’m sorry but you dropped a lot on me, so I apologize if my brain is just showing the highlight reels.” Damien leaned in, less playful this time. “So… what’s your endgame here? You keep showing up, he keeps being blindfolded, and you just hope he never figures it out? Or one day it comes off while you’re—”
“I don’t know!” I cut in, rubbing the back of my neck, as the warmth of my earlier happiness cooled into something a little more vulnerable. “I don’t know. It’s just—when I’m with him, there’s no pressure to be anything butme. I used to work so hard to achieve the perfect life, chasing the puzzle pieces rather than just… living. When I met Chad I thought he was one of the final pieces, but if I’m being honest, I was never truly able to be myself in that relationship. But now, when I’m with Ambrose, I don’t have to overthink it, or perform, or make myself smaller—I get to justfeel. Is it so bad to want to hang onto that for a bit longer?”
“Harp, you can’t have a future that is built on a lie, even well-intentioned ones. That isn’t how relationships work.”
I nodded, staring down at my messy plate. “I know.”
Silence fell between us for a beat—comfortable but weighted. Then, in true Damien fashion, he blew it all to hell with one sentence.
“So, you’re saying he’sgoodat it?”
“Damien!” I groaned, throwing my last precious piece of bacon as he dodged it, grinning like a damn child.
“I mean, if you’re risking your job and your mental stability for some richCEO fantasy definitely not mafia-man—he better be making you seestars,Harp.”
I laughed despite myself, shaking my head. “You are theworst.”
He winked, picking up the stray pieces of bacon from the counter. “And yet, you keep feeding me.”
Ambrose
I don’t think I understand.
Ihit send as I looked back up at the movie playing in the soft darkness of my theater room. The male lead was getting a ride from security as he rushed through the airport, pushing through crowds of people cheering him on.
My phone buzzed and I looked down. A soft laugh escaped me as Harper’s message lit up my phone.
You’re a man. Real men don’t get it.
I followed her earlier instructions and I didn’t pause the movie as I responded. I could almost hear her voice in my ear, that half-teasing, half-serious tone as she lectures me about the sanctity of synchronized viewing. The more time I spent with her the more I realized just how much the ripples of her touch have spread to the deepest parts of myself. Parts I thought I had locked away.
I had become so used to being alone, to finding peace in my own presence. Yet now, as I typed out another message, thethought of going back to that lonesomeness stirred something uncomfortable in my chest.
How could I ask her to stay when everything between us rested on fragile lies? Harper, of course, had a reason to lie. She was desperate at the time we started.Scared. But me? What reason did I have outside of my own selfishness?
Try me. Why does he chase her? Why not call her? Text her?
Her reply came almost instantly.
It’s about the gesture. He’s spent the whole movie putting himself above her—his job, his ego, everything.
