Chapter Fifteen
“Do you think we should…”
I stir in my warm nest. It’s so cozy and perfect. I’m wrapped around a furnace and I’m happy here so why are people talking? Whispering. Like they don’t want to be heard, but I catch some of what they’re saying in this weird dream I’m having.
“I have no idea what to do. I’ve been standing here trying to process,”
a familiar voice says. “I thought Jeremiah was pranking us.”
“You should have known since he sent pictures.”
“Well, I guess I thought he’s probably handy with a computer,”
the voice replies.
“Thank god the crew is running late.”
Those words shake my comfort. The crew. My crew. Well, now I’m awake. I sit straight up in bed and then realize it’s morning and I’m naked.
“Well, hello, sunshine,”
Ivy says with a grin that tells me she’s enjoying the drama. She always does as long as she’s not being the dramatic one.
My best friends are here. And it’s daytime and Reid is…yep. He’s here and yawning and giving me a super-sexy smile that reminds me of everything we did the night before. What we didn’t do was remember to be out of here before everyone showed up for work. I look at Anika and Ivy, who are both holding coffee cups. Ivy has a kolache in her hand. Like she wanted snacks for the morning show.
“Would you believe this isn’t what it looks like?” I try.
Anika’s eyes go wide as Reid yawns and stretches and the sheet kind of slips down around his waist. “Really? Uhm, did you find yourself locked in and decide you required body heat to survive the night? You do realize there’s a security guard. He could have helped.”
I reach down and tug the sheet up because while my friends have absolutely seen me naked—we shop together a lot—Reid’s body is a wonderland they’ve never experienced before, and I mean to keep it that way. I didn’t think about the security guy. He’s used to me staying overnight. He’s probably surprised I invited a friend to stay with me.
Especially one who I would totally have said was an enemy right up until I woke up next to him.
“Dude, the heat’s out?”
Ivy watches as Reid’s eyes open. She gives him a grin. “Hey, there, Dorsey. You’re looking good.”
I expect my erstwhile lover to freak out and make the same types of excuses I am. Instead, he grins in a wholly adorable way. “Heat’s working fine. Morning. Hey, Ani, can you show me where the tunnel is? I want to get a room because this thing is way too small. Can one of you grab my clothes? I would do it myself but I think Harper wants me to be modest.”
He’s going to be fun. He is taking this in a stride I would not think him capable of. “Clothes would be good, and he doesn’t need to get a room because we’re not doing this again.”
He frowns. “Well, if I’m not on a leash then…”
He starts to push the covers down.
I put a hand on his chest. “You are absolutely on a leash.”
His brows rise in challenge.
Such an annoying man. “Fine. It’s probably going to happen again, but maybe we can go back to one of our places like regular humans. This thing was not meant for two.”
“I’m good with that.”
He sighs and lies back. “Ladies, if you don’t mind retrieving my clothes, I’ll leave you to talk this out and go find us some breakfast. I’m feeling hungry today. Oh, and I should check my phone. My brother probably freaked out.”
Ani’s head shakes, and she turns slightly and picks up a garment bag. “Who do you think called us at this ungodly hour? Jeremiah said he noticed you were still here at three in the morning and came by to check. He brought you a fresh suit so you don’t have to walk of shame it. He also left you a box of condoms and a nice inspirational note.”
“Thoughtful guy.”
If Reid is embarrassed that his brother came by in the middle of the night, cleaned up after us and left a note, he doesn’t show it. He simply takes the boxers off the top and manages to put them on under the covers then looks my way. “These are pretty much the same size as swim trunks. I can go get dressed in the kitchen if we’re alone and you can talk to your friends. Unless you want me to stay. I assure you I can be entirely amusing.”
He’s entirely obnoxious. “Go. And you should go home. People will notice if you’re early. You don’t ever show up until noon.”
His nose wrinkles, and he leans over and brushes his lips against mine. “Maybe I’ll switch things up. I’ll be waiting with coffee. Craft services should be here.”
Anika’s mom runs the craft services table. It’s set up in the ballroom, so they won’t wander down here. Reid rolls off the air mattress and collects the rest of his clothes.
“Ladies,”
he says with a nod and then walks right out of the pantry like he didn’t get caught with his pants down.
I sink into the bed because the air mattress did what they do, and now I’m kind of sliding off one side.
“I just… I mean I always thought if one of us was going to get caught sleeping with someone we shouldn’t, it would be me,”
Anika says.
How soon they forget. I drag the sheet with me as I ungracefully force myself off the floor. “You did. You got caught sleeping with the dude you were competing with like a hundred other women for.”
I manage to get to my feet and look Ivy’s way. “And you got caught sleeping with Heath when you wouldn’t answer anyone’s texts and we all thought you were dead in a ditch somewhere.”
“It’s New York City. I don’t think we have ditches,”
Ivy replies. She looks Ani’s way. “Do we have ditches?”
“You know what I mean.”
I need to find my lost dignity. I drape the sheet around me and try to appear as regal as possible. “Fine. Reid and I had an unscheduled meeting and we discussed the fact that we might be attracted to each other.”
“You discussed it.”
Ani didn’t sound sold on the idea.
“Maybe not so much with words,” I allow.
Ivy’s grinning. “I think her vagina discussed the situation with his penis.”
I grab my clothes and try not to think about the fact that Reid’s brother folded my bra and undies. I definitely hope they were dry at the time or Jeremiah Dorsey knows way too much about how his brother affects me. “It’s just a fling. You have flings.”
Ani shakes her head and passes me a bag. “I went by your place and got fresh clothes. Your mom left a note. Something about meeting with Paul and a reminder that your eggs are shriveling up. Is that how eggs go bad?”
My mother…
“I do not have flings.”
Ivy ignores the egg convo. “I have had four boyfriends, if you count Kyle Woods in the fourth grade. I do because I spent a lot of time writing out my married name in a notebook when we were supposed to be taking notes. Ivy Woods. I dodged a bullet there. Then there was college.”
“The Irish guy.”
Anika winces. “Henry Plant. Yeah, you did not pick a guy based on how weird your name would sound with his.”
“My point is none of us are known for straight on hooking up with a guy. We plan it. We think we can do the sluttiest of things with some dude we recently met and are working with and then we wake up and he’s still there and he’s offering you a breakfast bagel and it’s a good bagel, and he likes tacos, too.”
Ivy can be weird sometimes, but she’s pretty accurately described Heath’s courtship.
I shake my head. “I don’t think Reid and I are going to bond over food.”
“I believe the point that Ivy is trying to make is that you aren’t known for having wild flings, and you definitely aren’t known for dating coworkers,”
Ani points out.
I manage to get clean undies on. Even though I’m irritated at being found out, I’m also grateful for the clean clothes. “There’s a reason I don’t date at work. I’m the boss. It’s a bad idea. Reid is not my boss. I’m not his. There are no power issues between us.”
“I don’t know. His pecs looked pretty powerful to me,”
Ivy replies. “You know this is inevitable. Emma says so.”
Ah, Emma. Ivy and Heath named their AI matchmaking baby after Jane Austen’s Emma. I’m certain they only read the CliffNotes since the heroine of that novel was a terrible matchmaker. Or maybe they did since she matched me with Reid.
“Emma is wrong, and you need to check out the code you’ve written because Reid and I are not a match.”
I point Ani’s way. “Do not make a snarky statement about how matched we looked while we were sleeping. It was cold.”
“It looked pretty hot to me,”
Ani replies and reaches out to the countertop behind her, bringing back another coffee. “To tide you over until your lover brings you some.”
I growl her way, but I take that coffee. Now that I’m dressed I’m feeling less vulnerable. Not to them. I can be vulnerable to them, but Reid and I haven’t talked and he seemed…weirdly cool with the idea we would do this again. “Not my lover.”
“So he was bad?”
Ivy asks. “Because you were wrapped around him. Were you looking for a good cuddle?”
He is a good cuddler. I didn’t expect that. But then I expected him to finish, shake my hand, and we would both go back to our corners.
I didn’t expect him to hold me all night.
I already kind of miss the feel of his arms around me.
“I think that’s a no.”
Ivy’s head nods as she studies me. “That’s her ‘I’m trying to figure out how to answer a question I don’t want to answer’ face.”
I do have one of those. “Fine. It was good.”
“It being? The cuddling?”
Ivy presses on.
Well, she’s obviously going to put me in a corner. I give her what I know she wants. “The sex. The sex was amazing. It was the best sex I’ve ever had.”
“Me, too, baby.”
Reid slides the door open and looks fresh as a daisy in his suit and tie. He winks my way. “I’ll save you a croissant. Don’t be late. We have plans to make. Ivy. Anika. Sorry for the early morning wake up.”
I wish he didn’t hear that. It’s true, but he doesn’t need the ego stroking.
“He’s peppy.”
Anika pats my shoulder. “You keep that up. Now what is this about plans, and I just figured out your mother is not talking about eggs. Not the kind you buy at the store. Eww. Why?”
Two complicated questions. I take the easier one. “Because she wants grandchildren to prove she’s…I don’t know, a grandmother. I’m ruining her life by not procreating.”
“She’s on that again?”
Ivy asks. “I remember in high school she thought I was a bad influence because I wanted to code. She told me computers wouldn’t get me a man. Hah. That’s exactly how I lured Heath in. Computers and boobs. They’re the only languages he speaks.”
“Well, she didn’t like me either,”
Anika says with a frown.
Ivy’s eyes roll. “She loved you.”
“Only until she realized I was as career motivated as Ivy.”
Ani sighs and leans against the counter. “I didn’t even think about it when I read the card she sent. She told me I made the right choice. I thought she was talking about Luca, but she was telling me choosing marriage over my career was the right choice.”
“You still have a career,”
I point out. My mother has been doing a ton of damage. “You just work with a tiara on your head.”
She snorts, an entirely inelegant sound. “Do not. Mostly.”
She sobers. “What are you going to do about Reid? Because that did not look like a man who was one and done.”
A feeling of deep uncertainty washes over me. I’m putting Ani at risk again. “I’m sorry. I’ll try to be professional with him. I don’t want to bring our drama into this show. I know how important it is, and last night was a moment of weakness.”
Ivy huffs under her breath. “Told you.”
Anika puts on her “deal with Harper because she’s a stubborn asshole”
face. Yes, I’ve seen that one a lot. “Not what I was saying. Look, I know I come off as sweet and maybe na?ve at times, and when I read the press coverage about the Banover reno, it’s a bunch of crap about it being a vanity project because Luca’s a king and I couldn’t possibly know anything. He’s indulging me. They don’t talk about the almost decade I put into my career. I let them because lowered expectations can sometimes lead to great things. I know how to control this narrative. I’ll be in the editing room. You and Reid do what you like. Figure out if this is a situation that might work for you both. And then we decide if there’s a love story attached to our reno or if I make it look like you and Reid barely spoke to each other through the entire process. It’s up to me. You cannot fail me unless you walk away.”
This is why I have the best friends. Smart, capable women who know their worth and who always have my back. I hug Anika. “I won’t walk away. Not ever.”
Ivy joins us. She used to be the one who hung back, but she now joyously throws herself in. “We can’t walk away. You guys are my family, and I think my mom is seriously dating CeCe’s driver. I heard CeCe calling him Diane’s Boyfriend instead of Thomas, and he didn’t correct her. You know how important it is to have a name in CeCe’s world.”
A revelation occurs to me. “Holy crap, you’re right. The last time I talked to CeCe she didn’t call me Ivy’s Friend or Construction Girl. She called me Harper.”
It’s almost enough to bring a tear to my eye.
“She stopped calling me The Blonde One. I’m Queen Anika, but she told me to never forget who the real queen is,”
Anika explains.
We all know this answer.
“Lady Buttercup,”
we all say in harmony.
CeCe’s overly privileged Maltese is definitely the queen of Manhattan.
“Though she should have rethought her name. Lady isn’t above queen. I know. I had to take a class and everything,”
Anika says as we break up and she starts for the door. “I think I’m going to join the Dorsey brothers for some coffee. I don’t know why CeCe didn’t call her Queen Buttercup.”
“I think CeCe would say lady feels younger and cuter.”
Ivy follows her. “She doesn’t want to give her dog a complex.”
“Uh, hello, queen here,”
Anika jokes. “Harper, you coming?”
“Yes, because we have some things to talk about, bestie.”
I can’t forget Reid and I have a common enemy now, and it’s probably time to declare war.
Anika sighs. “He told you.”
“He told me.”
Ivy frowns. “Told you what?”
“You know what—screw craft services. I love my mother, but this calls for mimosas,”
Ani declares.
And we’re off.