Chapter 13
Chapter
We’re grabbing coffee in Cobble Hill when Chloe casually tells me she landed an associate attorney role.
“Oh my God!” I say through a mouthful of oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. “Chloe! Congratulations!” I stand up and give her a hug across the table.
“Thank you!” She squeezes me back. “It’s a midsize firm but it has an incredible reputation.”
“It could be a tiny-sized firm, and you’d still be the most impressive person I know.” We sit back down. “We have to celebrate. Should we do drinks tonight?”
“I can’t tonight. Ethan’s taking me out for dinner.”
“Ethan? Davis?” I cough. “Since when have you been seeing him?”
“I’m not seeing him,” Chloe says. “I actually hadn’t seen him in almost a year. But I ran into him at this party. One thing led to another…”
“That’s exactly what you’ll be saying nine months from now.”
“June!”
“I’m kidding!” I laugh. “But seriously, I didn’t know he was your type.”
“I don’t have a type. Unless you count narcissistic assholes?”
“Well then, maybe he fits perfectly.”
“Shut up. Isn’t this what your twenties is all about? Doing stupid shit so you have stories to tell in your thirties?”
“You sound like Adam,” I say with a snort.
“How is Harper? It’s been a minute since I’ve seen him.”
“Good.” I take another bite of my cookie. “His shifts at the restaurant are so crazy, I barely see him.”
“Relationships are so hard.” Chloe takes a sip of her iced coffee.
“We’re not in a relationship, ” I say, getting tired of hearing myself constantly telling her.
“Oh?” Chloe raises her eyebrow. “Then what would you call it?”
“Roommates,” I say slowly as if she’s never heard the term.
“Uh-huh. Okay, well, if you’re currently single, why don’t you go ask that guy out over there?” I look behind me and see a man a few tables down looking in our direction over his laptop.
“Why would I do that?”
“Because he clearly can’t stop staring,” she says.
“Chloe, he’s looking at you …”
“Oh.” She sees him wave. “Okay, well, never mind. I’m just saying you deserve to have fun, June!”
It’s not that I’m not open to dating. I just don’t usually put myself in situations where anyone can approach me, or I can approach them. The only relationship I’m interested in having is the one with my career.
“You’re making it sound like I’m this homely woman who never leaves her house.”
“Well, I guess if Adam’s there you have no reason to leave,” she shrugs.
I roll my eyes, because she has yet to accept what I already have. My friendship with Adam is too important for me to be thinking of him any other way.
“Should we have gotten a more expensive bottle?” I look over at Adam as the grocery store clerk rings usup.
Since I’m starting to book paid productions while still keeping shifts at the bookstore, and Adam’s working more at the restaurant, it feels like we’re in a position to splurge if we need to.
Two and a half years into us being roommates, we’ve quickly transitioned into thinking of any extra money as our expendable income, which only makes sense when we do literally everything together.
“Forty-five dollars for a bottle of wine is more than enough,” Adam says.
“I guess, but celebrating your best friend getting her first job at a law firm is a big deal.”
“Which is why we’re getting the bottle that’s forty-five dollars, instead of the one that’s seventeen,” he says.
“I guess…” I say, still debating our choice.
We walk outside into the sticky August heat, the stench of garbage being taken across the Hudson doing no favors for the city.
Chloe’s apartment is only another twelve blocks, so we figure we’ll save ourselves a subway ride.
I can feel my hair on the verge of frizzing, so I tie it up in a loose bun on top of my head, too tired to smooth out the tendrils falling around my face.
Adam’s eyes focus on me, his gaze settling above my eyeline.
“I know it looks stupid, but I’m taking it down once we get to Chloe’s.”
“No, you look cute.”
I look down at my yellow sundress with thin spaghetti straps and a hem that comes mid-thigh. I’ve been waiting to wear this outfit, and it did cross my mind that there would be many lawyers, hopefully single, at Chloe’s tonight.
“How cute?” I lift my shoulder to my cheek, giving him a smile.
“The cutest,” he says.
When we get to Chloe’s, there are more people than I expect. Easily thirty people in her seven-hundred-square-foot apartment. We could hear the music and chatter from the hallway, so it’s no surprise how loud it is once we’re inside.
The crowd is mostly Chloe’s friends from law school whom I haven’t met but know from photos. Similar to how I have my theater friends, she has her own circle of people separate from me, and I’m always fascinated to see this side of her world.
“Hey!” Chloe spots Adam and me from across the room and runs over to pull us inside. She grabs the wine from my hands without looking at it and passes it to someone in the kitchen. Adam gives me an I told you so look, and I roll my eyes. “How goes it, Harper?”
“It goes,” he says, and gives her a hug. “Congratulations, Chlo.”
“Thank you,” she says, then squeezes my arm. “How’s the music?”
“Loud,” I say.
“About time you showed up.” Ethan comes over and pats Adam on the back and then gives me a hug. I still find it a little weird that the guy Chloe is casually sleeping with knows Adam.
As Adam and Ethan head to the kitchen, Chloe brings me over to meet some of her classmates from law school.
“Adina, Michelle, this is June. June, Adina and Michelle.” She gestures to the two girls looking at me. The name Adina sounds familiar, but I don’t recall ever hearing about Michelle. “I’ll be right back,” Chloe says, then pulls a disappearing act to greet more people.
“Hi,” I say, and take a sip of the beer Chloe managed to put in my hands somewhere between the door and here.
“Chloe’s told us so much about you,” Adina says. “I can’t believe we’re only meeting now.”
“Good things, I hope?” I laugh.
“All terrible.” Adina shakes her head. I like her.
“So, are you both working now too?” I ask.
Adina nods. “I’m actually at the same firm as Chloe, and Michelle is at Martin and Harding.”
“Oh wow, that’s awesome. How are you liking it?”
“This quarter’s been tough. One of the cases—”
“Okay, sorry—” Michelle says to both of us. “Who is that?”
“Who?” Adina asks as we both look over our shoulders.
“Don’t be so obvious,” Michelle says, and we both turn back. “Behind you. The tall guy, dark hair.”
In a sea of people, it’s pretty obvious whom she’s talking about. Adam sticks out not because he’s one of the tallest people here, but because there’s something about him that catches your attention. It’s the same reason I was drawn to him the day we met at the bookstore.
Adina subtly looks over her shoulder again. “I have no idea, but he’s hot.”
As if he can hear our conversation, Adam runs a hand through his hair. He’s listening intently to something Ethan is saying, and takes a sip of his beer, nodding. I’ve grown used to his looks but I’ll admit, seeing him in this light, and hearing girls swoon over him, they’re not wrong.
Adam turns his head and our eyes lock for a brief moment. His beer bottle pauses against his parted lips, and he gives me a wink from across the room.
“That’s Adam,” I say. “My roommate.”
Both of their eyes get wider, and I feel like I’m on an episode of The Bachelor or something. The visceral reaction they’re having is making me uncomfortable.
“Is he gay?” Michelle asks.
“No,” I laugh.
“Is he single?” Michelle moves in closer. Even though Adam is usually involved with someone in one way or another, he’s never referred to anyone as his girlfriend.
“He is,” I say.
She gives Adina and me a here I go look, and I have to hand it to her for being so forward. It’s something I definitely couldn’tdo.
We stay where we are and watch Michelle politely tap Adam on the shoulder.
She tucks her short black hair behind her ear and laughs at the first thing he says.
More than anything, I’m amused by how Adam manages to wrap any woman he meets around his finger.
I’ve seen it up close; women at the supermarket, bank tellers, coffee shop baristas.
Adam just has this effortless charm about him.
They look good together; she’s probably five ten and one of the only people I know who still wears a crop top and low-rise jeans.
I’m hoping she dresses more professionally in the office.
As I observe their interaction, I notice something different about Adam.
There’s a way he’s looking at her that looks unfamiliar, reserved for women who look like Michelle.
I caught a glimpse of it that night in the kitchen.
The night that he so suddenly decided he would rather be anywhere else than touching me.
The way Adam looks at me isn’t like how he is right now.
I haven’t seen him look at anyone the way he looks at me.
It’s a look that I suppose is reserved for friends.
But I know we’re more than that. I just don’t know what.
It feels like I’m watching something that I shouldn’t be, so I turn back around to Adina. “There are so many people here. Did most of you go to school together?”
“Oh God, tons of us! That group over there,” she says, and points across the room to five or six people sitting on the couch.
“We were all in the same class.” One of the guys in the group she’s referencing spots Adina, and she waves him to come over.
“That’s Ryan. He was our TA in first year.
” She nods toward the beautiful blond man with blue eyes.
If I didn’t know any better, I would say he’s a champion surfer who stumbled into the wrong apartment. He makes his way through the crowd, and I quickly flip my hair over my shoulder, fluffing itup.
“Hey, Dina, how are you?” He leans past me to give her a hug and then offers his hand out to mine. “Hi, I’m Ryan.”