Chapter 20
Asher
“So. Spill it. All of it. Spare no details.”
Jaylen, Harper, and I are all sitting at a high-top at the Fire and Fin Sushi and Hibachi bar in downtown Denver.
Jaylen was insistent on sushi; he loves seafood and saki, so I picked this place because it’s high-end and secluded.
The chance of running into anyone we know here isn’t likely.
Which is good because, despite Denver being a decent sized city, talk travels fast in our industry.
And I know people are saying shit. I bet Daniel has been running his fat mouth since he got home. All lies, of course.
“I mean, there isn’t much to tell,” I say, as I casually reach for a piece of edamame.
“I was getting married,” Harper says.
“And I stopped it from happening,” I add.
Jaylen just blinks, a smile frozen on his face. “Come on. There’s more to it than that. Like how did you know she was eloping in Costa Rica and I didn’t?” he gestures at me.
“Well, I didn’t tell anyone,” I say. “Not the when and where, of course. I know neither of you like Daniel, so I was very secretive about all of it.”
“Daniel tipped me off,” I say, and Harper looks at me.
We had zero time to rehearse what our story was before sitting down at the table because Jaylen insisted we all ride together.
We walk in together, and he even followed me to the restroom.
Ironically, we all needed to use the restroom at the same time.
We are winging it right now, making things up as we go.
“He tipped you off?” Harper asks, and I can hear the irritation and betrayal in her voice.
I nod, picking up my small cup of saki and tossing it back. I know you’re supposed to sip it, not throw it back like a shot of cheap whiskey. There’s a lot of things you’re not supposed to do at this table right now, and yet here we are.
“Yeah. He’d been rubbing it in my face–”
“In our faces,” Jaylen corrects me.
“Since day one.”
“That he did,” Jaylen mutters, taking a sip of saki much in the same way I did.
“So I knew you were going to Costa Rica to get hitched,” I go on. “And after thinking about it for all of five minutes, I packed a bag, hopped a plane, and put a stop to it.”
“I still can’t believe you did that,” Harper shakes her head. I don’t know if it’s for show or if bringing up the charade again is resurfacing some expired anger.
“I can’t believe you did it without me,” Jaylen says. “But at least you stopped her.” He holds his glass up, and I click mine to it, then we drink. Harper shakes her head, but something in her expression tells me she is relieved that the conversation is over.
Except that it isn’t.
“So what happened after that?” Jaylen asks, sucking his teeth.
“After that?” Harper asks.
“Well yeah. You didn’t come straight home. You stayed for a while.”
“There was a storm,” I say. “Downed the flights and wrecked the roads. So we hunkered down and enjoyed Costa Rica from a fully stocked, private beach house.”
“I hope you didn’t enjoy yourself too much.” Jaylen says, and we both stop. I usually have a pretty good poker face, but I’m sure I look like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar right now. And from my periphery, I can tell Harper is also glazed over, afraid to breathe.
Jaylen laughs, nearly spitting out his second teacup of saki.
“I’m kidding. Jesus. You two got a little too much sun down there because you’re both lost in the sauce.”
I grin and let out a breath. Harper laughs, a couple of octaves too high before reaching for her glass of water.
“I am just glad that you finally see that Daniel is a piece of shit, sis. I am sure Ash told you all that while you were shacked up on the beach.”
My smile goes slack, and I do my best to shake my head at him using only my eyes.
Jaylen knows the truth about Daniel. He knows about the bartender and the reputation Daniel has.
That’s half of the reason I haven’t said anything to Harper yet.
While it’s fucked up for me to know and not say anything, but it’s even more fucked up that Jaylen knows and hasn’t told her.
He’s her brother after all.
“I know he’s a jerk,” she says, grabbing a piece of edamame from the bowl. “Which is why I wouldn’t go back to him even if he wanted me back. He ghosted me, then blamed me, and then fired me. So no. I have no interest in ever speaking to him again.”
I let out a small breath, trying to keep her from hearing or seeing it.
I am relieved that she’s dropping it at that.
She takes a sip of her sake and smiles at her brother, who smiles back.
Then she looks at me. She is still smiling, but there is something behind it.
It’s a we’re pulling it off look. But at the same time, there’s a question mark underneath.
Probably because she knows there’s still something I’m not telling her.
Our food arrives, and the conversation shifts while we share a giant assortment of sushi rolls.
She finds ways to tell Jaylen about the trip without telling him about the trip.
We order another bottle of saki and laugh as Harper talks about being carried down the aisle like a sack of potatoes.
I talk about how we fought over the bed every night and lost. She makes fun of the way I do lunges around the house.
And I throw her under the conversational bus by saying how she liked it, same as she liked walking in on me in the shower.
“You walked in on him in the shower?” Jaylen laughs, almost choking on his sake.
“Yeah, well, he didn’t lock the door,” Harper waves it off as if it was nothing, refusing to look at me.
“But you knew I was in the shower,” I say. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you wanted to walk in on me.”
“And if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were in love with me,” she shoots back.
Jaylen spits out a laugh, and the conversation dissipates.
There’s a quiet moment that teeters on the line of awkwardness, and Harper gets up. “I need to use the restroom. Don’t talk about anything too fun without me,” she says.
“Oh, don’t worry, we’re just going to talk about you behind your back,” Jaylen says, and she swats at him, making me smile and making Jaylen laugh.
I watch her as she disappears down the hall, a smile still on my face. This is going surprisingly better than I’d expected. It’s almost nice, actually.
But then I see Jaylen’s face.
He’s not smiling anymore.
In fact, the scowl on his face makes me wonder if he was ever truly smiling at all.
Still, I keep it cool. “Something wrong, brother?” I ask, popping a piece of a tuna roll in my mouth.
“I guess I’m just wondering what really happened out there,” he says.
I make eye contact with him, as if I have nothing to hide. “I heard Daniel was coercing her into getting married. I think you know why,” I say, because we both know Daniel and how he plays women. In short, he has a thing for virgins and taking their V-cards by whatever means necessary.
“I know,” he spits out.
“And I wasn’t about to let that happen,” I say.
“So you crashed the wedding and saw to it that my sister didn’t marry a man who would annul the marriage within days of fucking her. That’s admirable, of course. But I’m not buying it that nothing went down between the two of you after that.”
I narrow my eyes at him while keeping my peripheral on the hallway to the bathroom. The last thing I want is for Harper to see or hear us talking about her. “What are you implying?” I ask.
“I’m implying that you and Harper are acting differently. I’m not an idiot. You spent several days alone with my little sister at a remote villa in a tropical paradise when she was heartbroken and vulnerable,” he says.
“I mean it when I tell you that I did not and would not take advantage of your sister,” I tell him with just as much vigor.
“She’s been through a lot,” Jaylen says. “Our childhood was bullshit, and I have spent half my life making sure she grows up happy and unjaded.”
“Believe me when I say, I too only want what is best for Harper,” I argue. I get where he is coming from, but I’m not the bad guy here. I’m not Daniel.
“Then you know it’s best for her to keep the promise she made to herself. No sex until she’s married,” he says.
“What are you suggesting I’m going to do?” I ask.
Jaylen puts his hands up. “I don’t know.
Honestly, after finding out that she was eloping, you ran off to stop it without really knowing a damn thing about it, and that has me unsure about your motives.
All I am saying is that Harper has some strict morals.
They mean a lot to her; therefore, they mean a lot to me.
If you respect me as your best friend at all, you’ll keep it in your pants. ”
I am ready to fight back. His assumptions, though not inaccurate, feel out of line. But before I can say anything, Harper appears.
“Alright, you two, you can stop talking about me now,” she says with a smile, and I force a smile. She doesn’t catch on to the fact that we were really talking about her the entire time, or that it wasn’t the best conversation.