Chapter 13
Harper dumped another spoonful of sugar into her coffee.
It was her second cup, and she needed at least one more before she started feeling like a person.
They had gotten up at such an abysmal hour that it was still pitch-black outside, and if Lucas hadn’t needed a hug goodbye, she would still be dead asleep.
But someone was an early riser. Giving her an infuriating amount of energy.
“Would you stop, please?” Harper muttered.
Nell’s eyes went comically wide. Patricia had gone back to bed right after Lucas left, so Harper had to fend off a nosy Nell all on her own.
She wasn’t even supposed to be in the apartment. She could have gone to her own place, since she was no longer needed for babysitting duty, but she’d shown up shortly after Harper did. For some reason.
“Stop what? I didn’t say anything.”
“Your face did. Very loudly.”
Nell’s big doe eyes had gone absurdly wide. A trick only effective on people who weren’t used to it.
Nell stirred her morning tea. “What’s with you? You’re being weird.”
“There’s nothing with me.”
“Yeah. There is.” She poked Harper’s cheek. “You’re smiling.”
“No, I’m not,” Harper said. Lying.
She was trying to lean into her usual morning grumpiness, but it obviously wasn’t working. Which was ridiculous. It was a morning like any other. There was no reason for her to be smiling.
As long as she ignored what had happened the previous evening. Which was difficult, given that the kiss and everything surrounding it was the kind of thing more romantic sorts might spend hours sighing about.
“You haven’t mentioned why you left so suddenly last night,” Nell said. “Or what you were ‘caught up’ with. Isn’t that how you phrased it?”
“You’re being annoying.”
“And you’re being secretive.” Nell moved around the kitchen table so she was sitting right next to Harper. “Come on. Spill. Something obviously happened, otherwise you wouldn’t be blushing right now.”
Curse her body and its stupid responses. But Harper couldn’t help it. Just thinking about Maya and her fervent touch and snarling sighs made her heart start racing. And since she got home the night before, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it.
Normally, she wouldn’t keep something like that secret. She and Nell talked about everything, including the horror show that was their dating lives.
Evie used to be in that category, too, which might be why this kind of conversation had become somewhat rare. It wasn’t the same without Evie’s keen-eyed perspective. Though the excited glint in Nell’s eyes was familiar, Harper couldn’t remember when she had seen it last.
“Fine.” Harper glanced at Patricia’s bedroom door. Harper loved the woman, but she could only deal with her maternal concern past noon. “If you really must know, I was… meeting someone.”
Nell offered a lewd smile. “Meeting someone?”
“Oh, get your head out of the gutter.”
“You’re being stingy with information, so forgive me for jumping to conclusions.” Nell put her elbows on the table. “Was it the first time you met with them?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“Was it someone I know?”
“None of your business.” Harper sipped on her coffee.
“Was it Maya?”
Harper choked, coughing as Nell’s eyes widened in delight.
“I knew it!”
Harper glared at her. “Keep your voice down.”
“I knew it,” Nell whispered. “You two were flirting way too much for it to just be for fun. How long has this been going on? And how screwed are you when Patricia finds out?”
“She won’t find out.”
“Of course she will. She’s like a bloodhound when it comes to sniffing out secrets.”
That was true, unfortunately. She had an eerie talent for knowing when people were hiding things they shouldn’t be hiding, and an even eerier talent for making them reveal it. With one stern look, Patricia could make it feel like your clothes were filled with ants.
“There isn’t anything for Patricia to find out,” Harper said. “Outside of last night, the only thing we’ve been doing is talk. And we didn’t really do anything serious, we just… kissed. A little.”
Nell’s brows furrowed. “How much is a little?”
That brought back a torrent of memories. The sting of Maya’s lips. Fingers digging into her skin. Those dizzying groans that had made more than one appearance in Harper’s dreams last night.
“Like… a lot, maybe.”
Harper expected Nell to let out another squeal. Or laugh, even. Instead, the excitement waned from her eyes.
“Oh no…”
Harper frowned. “Oh no, what?”
“You like her, don’t you?”
Harper scoffed. And took another sip of her coffee.
Nell’s mouth dropped open. “You really like her! I figured it was just a dumb fling, not that you… Harper, what were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t plan for it, it just kind of… happened.”
And they could have gone a lot further, too. If Harper had her way, they wouldn’t have stopped with the kiss and all the teasing touches that were involved.
Instead, they would have gotten started in the backseat of her car and then driven to Maya’s place—wherever the hell that was—and spent the whole night making up for the past few weeks of infuriatingly platonic interactions.
“I didn’t mess up that much,” Harper said. “She’s quitting. No rules broken.”
The worry in Nell’s eyes turned into confusion. “Really?”
Harper was about to nod, but thinking back, Maya technically hadn’t said that. She’d just said they wouldn’t be working together, which wasn’t quite the same thing.
“She implied it.”
Nell’s gaze turned pitying. “Since when do you put any stock in implications? You know what people are like. They may say one thing, but that doesn’t mean they’re being honest.”
Nell knew that from awful personal experience. Harper did, too. People could accept a lot if they thought it was temporary, even when told over and over that it was permanent.
Harper had lost count of the number of times a partner had started out understanding and then began picking fights a few weeks into the relationship. Funnily enough, it always coincided with them realizing that Harper wasn’t looking to get rescued from her chosen career.
But even when she tried, really tried, Harper couldn’t picture Maya in that scenario.
“Maya isn’t like them,” Harper said, though she couldn’t get her voice much higher than a mumble.
“Most people can’t handle it. Or me, for that matter.
They get jealous, or frustrated, or just plain tired of it all, but…
it doesn’t feel like that with Maya. She’s not like everyone else. She’s decent.”
The statement was more earnest than expected. So true that it felt close to indisputable.
Maya had been like that since the beginning.
All considerate and protective. From that first night in the parking lot to every conversation they had at the Lucky Penny bar, she made every moment they shared feel like a haven.
One so free from judgment that Harper sometimes forgot to keep her guard in place.
She hadn’t realized how exhausting it was. To always hold it up.
Maybe Nell saw that, too. Harper wasn’t the only one who’d spent a lot of time around Maya.
“She is decent. Like, ridiculously decent. Everyone at the Penny likes her, other than Colton, and that’s a point in her favor if you ask me.
” Nell gave her a careful smile. “I didn’t see it myself, but she apparently scared the life out of him last night.
Even though Maya left early, Colton insisted on walking us all to our cars. Wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
The excited glint returned to her eyes. “Is she a good kisser, too?”
The question brought sudden heat to Harper’s face, but it also siphoned tension from her shoulders. She’d kept Kieran a secret because she’d known deep down that he was bad news. While she didn’t feel that way now, she had worried Nell would.
“She’s not a good kisser.” Harper grinned. “She’s fucking amazing at it.”
Nell put her hand over her mouth, subduing her laughter into a chuckle, when a hard knock at the door made her flinch. She had always been jumpy, and loud noises proved it like nothing else.
Harper didn’t share her reaction. This particular noise, she had gotten well-acquainted with.
She got up from the table. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
“Something wrong?”
“The landlord has been on our ass. The other tenants keep filing noise complaints.” Harper rolled her eyes. “But these complaints only started after he learned what sort of club Patricia was managing. If he’s showing up before dawn just to shout more bullshit at us, then—”
The threat died on her lips. She’d made it to the front door, raising herself up on her toes to look through the peephole, but where she had expected to see the stumpy silhouette of their balding landlord, she instead saw a woman.
A woman with dark brown hair and golden-black eyes.
Maya looked like she’d been beaten up. Her hair was disheveled, and her clothes were covered in stains. She was hunching, resting her hand against her side, and traces of red marked her jaw and neck. Smeared blood.
She looked over her shoulder, stiffened, and then knocked again. Or pounded would be the more accurate descriptor.
“What is that racket?” Patricia had stepped out of the bedroom, wrapped in a robe and rubbing her eyes.
“Landlord. I think,” Nell said quietly. Patricia squinted against the bright kitchen lamps.
“What’s he doing here at six-thirty in the morning?”
“It isn’t…” Harper cleared her throat. “It’s nothing. Just give me a second.”
Before the confused looks from Nell and Patricia could turn into questions, Harper opened the door just wide enough to slip outside. She closed it as quickly as she could, turning towards Maya with the sole intention of asking what the hell she was doing here.
No biting remarks came out. As soon as they made eye contact, a soft smile blossomed on Maya’s face.
“You’re okay.”
She said the words as though surprised by them. Like she had expected something more dire than a bewildered Harper standing in the hallway.
“Yes, I… I’m fine.”