Chapter 20
As I turned the corner down the hall, I walked right into someone in front of me.
“Oh!” I cried and looked up to find I had run flush into Jasmine.
With an oomph, she steadied herself faster than I had, almost like she’d seen me coming and was ready for the blow.
More than I could say for myself.
Tall, willowy Jasmine wasn’t as delicate as I’d assumed. Beneath those nylons and stiletto heels was pure muscle.
I tipped backwards. But with the book still clutched in my arms, I couldn’t catch myself. Instead, I landed hard on my ass. But at least the copy of Pride and Prejudice was okay.
“Harper!” Jasmine cried and bent to help me to my feet. “Are you okay?”
I glanced at Adam’s closed office door just a few steps behind her where it appeared she’d just come out of.
The question: What are you doing here? was on the tip of my tongue, but that would have been stupid, even for me. She was a law professor and she had every reason to be walking these halls. She even had every right to visit Adam in his office.
But I didn’t have to like it.
With a sigh, I brushed the dust off myself. “I’m okay, except for my pride. Do you have a Voo-doo doll of me or something?” I asked. “Is that why embarrassing things always seem to happen around you?”
Jasmine gave a lighthearted chuckle. “I can’t say I do. Although, I”d be lying if I said I hadn”t thought of getting one.”
I was hearing things, right? Because no self-respecting woman would actually say that to another woman, right? I stood there, mouth gaping open, unsure of how to respond.
Jasmine cringed, her face with its beautiful olive complexion heating to Scarlet. “I don”t know why I said that. I”m sorry.”
I shook my head, not because I was saying no to anything, but because I just needed a second to clear my thoughts.
“I saw you the other night,” I said. “With Adam’s dad.”
The color drained from her cheeks. If I wasn’t mistaken, her expression looked panicked. “It isn’t what you think?—”
“How do you know what I think?”
“I just, I know how it probably looked. And what I would think if I were you. But Elijah wanted to talk?—”
“Yeah. He told me the other night. He wants you as his future daughter-in-law.”
She snorted. “That’s what he told you?”
I didn’t like her tone. Not one bit. “Yeah… is that not what he talked to you about?”
“Elijah’s made it really clear that he wants me… but not as a daughter.”
I gasped. Actually gasped. “Jasmine, you have to tell Adam.”
She shook her head. “I can’t. I can’t tell him. And you can’t either. What if he blames me? Or doesn’t believe me?”
“Come on, this is Adam we’re talking about. He would never blame you. Besides, I already told him I saw you and Elijah together.”
Her eyes went wide. “You told him?! Why’d you tell him that?”
“Because,” I snapped, maybe a little too harshly. “Adam and I don’t keep secrets from each other.”
My face heated and the business card O’Macklin gave me burned against my palm. I clutched it and the copy of Pride and Prejudice tighter.
Jasmine inhaled a shaky breath. “You’re right, I’m sorry. It’s just… it’s going to hurt him. I don’t want to hurt him.”
“Look, ” I said, ”I know Adam had some sort of thing for you. I mean, look at you! Who wouldn”t? And I don”t know why you turned him down back in the day or whatever, or what your history is with each other, but you can’t let the guilt of that?—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa… wait a minute,” Jasmine said, waving her hands about in front of my face. “Adam told you that I turned him down?”
I blinked, startled by her outburst.
“Well, not exactly. He didn’t have to tell me anything. It’s obvious…”
I didn”t know how to tell her that Adam hadn”t really mentioned her at all. This was all just guess work on my part.
“Trust me,” Jasmine snorted. “Nothing is obvious.”
“You’re really going to stand there and tell me that you didn’t turn Adam down?”
She nodded. “That’s right.”
“Bullshit,” I snorted.
Beside us, a studious girl with glasses way too big for her face walked past us. She gave Jasmine a wave. “Hi Professor.”
“Hi Katelynn,” she smiled at the girl and waited until she was out of earshot before taking my elbow and walking me toward a corner near the ladies room. “Believe me, don’t believe me, it doesn’t matter. But I am telling you the truth. Adam and I were really good friends in grad school. I fell in love with him the day he offered to walk me home in a snowstorm. I took his arm and then he proceeded to fall half a dozen times. I laughed so hard I cried. This nerdy, cute guy trying so hard to be chivalrous, but then I basically ended up walking him home that night. After a year of being friends, I got tired of waiting for him to ask me out… so I took control. I asked him out… and he said no.”
I couldn”t quite understand what I was hearing. Adam turned Jasmine down? “I’m sorry, what? He said no?” I repeated. “Is he blind? I mean, look at you!”
She gave me a sad smile. “He wasn’t available,” she said.
This was getting even crazier. He never told me about another girlfriend. “He had a girlfriend?”
“No girlfriend.” She shook her head. “He wasn’t available emotionally. I should have known. He talked about you constantly. It was always Harper this, and Harper that. Even though he would swear on his life he didn”t still love you, I knew better. But I always thought that if I could just get him to go on a date with me I could, I don”t know…”
“Change him?” I offered, finishing the thought for her.
Never in my life had I wanted to change Adam. He was perfect just as he was.
Jasmine shrugged. “Or at the very least get him to forget about you. He almost did, too.”
Ouch. That hurt like a knife to the gut. “He almost forgot about me?”
“Well, not exactly forgot,” she said, trying again. “But just a few weeks ago, I finally had gotten him to agree to go to dinner with me. Then he canceled on me and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why.” She paused, looking at the floor. “Then I saw you arrive here and it all fell into place. The moment you were back in his life, he canceled.”
My grip on the book tightened, the business card crushing in my fist as the edges of the heavy cardstock bit into my palm. I forced myself to relax. “Jasmine, you are literally one of the most beautiful women I”ve ever seen in my life. If this is all true, why are you wasting so much time on a guy that you have to convince to go on a date with you? You could literally have anyone you wanted.”
She gave a soft, but sad smile and glanced at Adam’s closed office door. “Not anyone.”
“Fine. Almost anyone. Don’t get me wrong, Adam is an amazing guy, but there’s a lot of great guys out there?—”
“You’re right. Adam is an amazing guy. He’s special. I have guys falling all over me. I go out to bars, get hit on, drinks get bought for me, men ask me for my number. But it”s all superficial. They don”t see me. They don”t ask about my Advanced degrees, or discuss politics with me. Instead, they ask what sorority I”m in and where I get my eyebrows done.”
I winced. “That really sucks. I”m sorry.”
“Adam isn’t just a good guy. He’s the best guy. And he deserves to be happy. So if you’re not in it for the long haul with him?—”
“Who says I’m not?”
“Professor O’Macklin told me you were possibly going to Brown next,” she said, a smug look on her face.
“I don’t know what I’m doing next,” I answered honestly.
“But you are considering going to Brown, right? Or somewhere else? And you still have an apartment and family in London? Look, I’m not trying to be a bitch. But you can’t stand there and tell me to be honest with Adam when you aren’t.”
I glared at Jasmine. For someone not trying to be a bitch, she sure was succeeding. “I literally just got the contact info for Brown from O’Macklin minutes ago and I was on my way to see Adam right now to tell him,” I said, glaring at her. “And he knows I’m still figuring out what my next steps are.”
Sorrow filled Jasmine”s eyes. “Well, for Adam’s sake, could you figure that out sooner rather than later? He’s waiting for you. He’s been waiting for you for seven years. And he won’t let himself move on without closure from you. But he could be really, really happy with me. If only he”d let himself.”
She didn”t wait for my reply this time. she simply turned around and walked away, leaving me with nothing but her parting words, and the sharp click of her stiletto heels against the marble floors.