Chapter 38
Confession was both wonderful and terrible.
Harper felt lighter for having spoken the words. But she was also full of dread. Nerves made her feel cold and clammy, despite the sun’s rays beaming down on them. Her stomach twisted. She stared at Frankie, trying to read her face.
For a moment, there was nothing. Then Frankie’s brows pulled together, and her eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
Harper inhaled a jittery breath. “I’m not a personal assistant. I’m…more than that. I bill myself as a professional confidante, but I’m more than that, too. I’ve become a kind of life coach, therapist, grief counselor, career consultant, and general guru of all things to my clients.”
Frankie’s expression remained the same. “Did you go to school for all that? I thought you ended up waiting tables after one semester of college?”
“I did. And that’s where it all started.”
“So you went back to school?”
Harper shook her head slowly.
“You’re not trained to do any of that stuff?”
Harper squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. “No. But people think I am. And I haven’t corrected them. I don’t ever say that I am, but they make assumptions and…” She shrugged. “It’s not good. I know it’s not good. But I started making money and I developed a business plan that kept me protected and I couldn’t stop, because there were so many people who needed me.”
Frankie finger-combed her wet hair, then leaned forward. “I can see why you’re so worried now. You’re afraid the media’s going to figure out what your name is, who you are, then do a deep dive and find out you’re a fraud. Sorry, not a great word, but—”
“But it’s what I am. And, yes, you’re exactly right. My entire life, the one I’ve built for myself, is about to come crashing down.” Harper hugged her knees closer. “What am I going to do?”
“Nothing’s happened yet. I know you’re freaking out but there’s not a reason to until there is a reason to. Look, let’s get out of the sun. I’m baking. We can get showers, change into comfy clothes, and do nothing but talk and watch trash TV the rest of the night. While drinking wine and eating shrimp.”
Harper smiled and sniffed. Frankie was the best. “Thank you for not judging me.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you. You’re my big sister. I love you.”
They gathered their things, including Archie, who’d beat them to the door, and went inside.
Harper went to her bathroom and took a hot shower. She’d been hot outside, but coming into an air-conditioned house with a wet bathing suit and wet hair had instantly given her the chills. The hot water felt good.
It eased her internal restlessness, too. Much like Frankie had. There was something so solid and secure about Frankie that just being around her made Harper feel like everything would be all right. Even if it wasn’t.
She returned to leggings and a T-shirt, then towel-dried her hair some more before going out to the living room. She opened the fridge and eyed the bottles of good champagne.
Frankie joined her, dressed very similarly. “Getting a snack?”
“No. Thinking about what to drink.”
“You’re looking at that champagne, aren’t you?”
“I am. What do you say? Should we crack open a bottle?”
Frankie wrinkled her nose. “I’m not a big fan of champagne. It always tastes like vinegar to me.”
Impending doom made Harper carefree. She pulled out a bottle. “Then you’ve never had the good stuff.”
“I’m sure I haven’t.”
Harper started to unscrew the little wire cage over the cork. “Let’s see what you think of this. You want to grab some glasses?”
“Sure.” Frankie went to the cabinet with the glasses in it. “How good is that champagne?”
“Really good but not crazy expensive. Maybe seventy or eighty bucks a bottle.”
Frankie brought two flutes over, eyes slightly rounded. “That’s crazy expensive to me, but I guess it wouldn’t have been to Arlington.”
Harper popped the cork, then poured two glasses. She set the bottle aside and lifted hers. “Here’s to sharing the good and the bad. And to you for not judging me. And to us getting to spend time together.”
Frankie lifted her glass. “Cheers to all of that and to you for inviting me.”
They both took a sip.
“Mmm,” Frankie said. “That’s really good. It’s creamy. How is champagne creamy?”
Harper laughed, the sweetness of her sister discovering new things and the champagne bubbles lifting her mood. “Because it’s good. It’s not sweet but it’s not dry, either, so it doesn’t have that minerally aftertaste you get with a brut.”
“I know nothing about champagne but okay.” Frankie took another sip. “It’s got a sort of slightly nutty, slightly fruity thing going on, too. Man, this stuff is fantastic.” She glanced at the fridge. “How many bottles are in there?”
“Two left, now.”
“We shouldn’t drink more than this one tonight.”
“Fine with me,” Harper said.
Frankie took her glass to the couch, so Harper followed. Archie was already there, on his blanket. They settled in and Harper took another sip before putting her glass down. “Do you think I should talk to Suzanne? Just flat-out ask her what she’s up to?”
Frankie shook her head. “No, because if she’s not up to something, she might be after you talk to her.”
“I know, it’s a risky move, but I was thinking that if I made her aware that I’m aware of her, she might back off. Of course, I promised Prisha I wouldn’t mention her name, so how would I explain to Suzanne that I knew anything?”
“Or, like I said, you could make it worse.”
“You think I should do nothing, don’t you?”
“I really do. Anything else might cause something to happen.” Frankie tipped her glass back for another sip. “I’d really like to know how you became a professional confidante. Can we go back to that? Please?”
Harper took a few breaths as she collected her thoughts. “It all started when I was waitressing. College was expensive and I was determined to pay for it myself, so after one semester, I told my parents I was taking a year off to save some money. I was waitressing during the breakfast shift at this diner, then I’d go home, sleep a few hours, and work three nights a week bartending at another place. The money was good. But I was burning the candle at both ends and constantly tired.”
“I bet.”
“I had this sweet older man who used to come into the diner for breakfast every morning. He was a great tipper. Ten bucks minimum, even if he only had the special. Louie. Anyway, we used to talk all the time when he was there.”
Frankie sat quietly, just listening.
“About six months after I first met him, he came in and wasn’t in his usual good mood. I brought him coffee and asked what was wrong. He told me he had a dilemma. A choice to make. I don’t even remember what it was now. Well, I was fresh off my semester of psychology and thought I knew everything. I told him, nicely, what I thought he should do.
“The next day he came back, a big smile on his face, and told me my advice had been spot on and he wanted to hire me. He said he needed someone exactly like me, someone who told the truth, unvarnished, as he put it. A sounding board, he called me. Not to mention a fresh, youthful perspective.”
Frankie’s brows went up.
“He offered me a job as his personal confidante at three times what I was making from both jobs. It wasn’t hard to say yes.”
Frankie nodded. “No kidding.”
“I quit both jobs that day. The next morning, I showed up at the address he’d given me. Come to find out, he was Louie Franklin, a big movie producer. I had no idea. He’d never said a word.” Harper shrugged. “The rest, as they say, is history. Whenever he had a friend or a star who needed some kind of help, he’d recommend me. He’d tell them I was exactly the right person for them. And he always told them I charged an exorbitant hourly rate. None of them balked because Louie had vouched for me.”
Archie rolled over, showing his belly. Frankie reached out to scratch him with her free hand.
“Eventually, I came up with the whole non-disclosure agreement business because I knew I had to protect myself. But it made my clients feel better, too.”
Frankie emptied her glass and set it on the coffee table. “The secrets you must know.”
Harper smiled. “I know a lot. But they’ll go to my grave with me. I take what I do very seriously. I know being a celebrity seems glamourous, and sometimes, it really is. But so many of them don’t have anyone they can really trust. And no one ever tells them the truth. People tell them what they think the star wants to hear. Or what they think they need to say in order to sell their product to the star. Whether that’s a movie or a thing to endorse, it’s all the same. And all so fake.”
“And you provide an antidote to that.”
“I try,” Harper said.
“It sounds like a pretty valuable service you offer. I had no idea.”
“No one did, except for the people I worked for.” It was nice to tell her sister the truth. Nice to share that part of her life. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” Frankie said. “Ask me anything.”
“How come, when you were going through the divorce, you never asked me for help?”
Frankie’s brow furrowed. “I’m not sure what you mean. You were there to listen to me. That was really helpful. I’m sure you got sick of it, but you never said so.”
“I mean financially.”
Frankie laughed softly. “Harper, I thought you were a personal assistant. I didn’t think you were any better off than I was. Why didn’t you offer?”
“Because I didn’t think you’d say yes. And I knew I’d have to tell you the truth about what I did to explain how I could afford to help. I figured if you asked, you would be seriously in need, and I’d spill everything. But you never did, so I thought you were all right.”
“I will be,” Frankie said.
“You could let me help now.” Harper didn’t like how tight things seemed for her sister. And she did have money saved up. Even if she might need it to live on, family came first.
“I’m okay,” Frankie said. “But thank you for offering. That means a lot.”
Which was pretty much the response Harper had been expecting. “How about refills and then we find a movie to watch until it’s time for dinner?”
“Sounds good. Do you mind if I grab my laptop and work on those logos for Lucas while the movie’s on? I promised him I’d have some ideas for him to look at tomorrow.”
“No problem.” Harper grabbed their empty glasses.
Frankie went upstairs to get her laptop.
Harper took the champagne out of the fridge and poured. She’d give it a day or two, then talk to Frankie about the money again. There had to be something Harper could do to help. Some bill she could pay that would ease things up for her sister.
With her mom in the end stages of life and no longer aware of who Harper was, Frankie was the only family she really had left.
Regardless of who their birth mother was, as far as Harper was concerned, meeting her wasn’t going to change a thing.