Chapter 34
Asher
After our trip to the food truck village, I realized something. I am in love with Harper St. James. And now that I recognize that, I realize the time has come; we have to tell Jaylen.
That night, we meet Jaylen at a pub downtown. He’s been going on about wanting authentic shepherd’s pie, and Delaney’s has the best in the city. The way I see it, where there’s Irish food, there’s Irish beer and whiskey. Tonight, we might need both to get through this conversation.
Jaylen is already there when Harper and I arrive.
We thought about taking two cars to make it less obvious, then realized that there’s really no point since we are about to come clean anyway.
Harper takes a deep breath as we step out of the car and lets it out shakily.
I round to her side to talk to her before we go in.
“Whatever happens in there, I got you,” I say.
“He’s going to hate us,” she says.
“We don’t know that,” I tell her.
“He won’t be okay with this,” she says, and her chin starts to quiver.
“Hey,” I say, clipping it between my fingers and turning her face to me. “It’s going to be okay. He loves us both. It will have to be okay.”
She nods, even though I can tell she isn’t totally sure. We head into the pub, and I’m a little nervous myself. This is going to be just like ripping off a Band-Aid, right? Rip it off, it stings for a minute, but after that it’s alright?
Jaylen waves at us from a high top near the bar. There are already three glasses of Guinness on the table.
“Either you’re in a good mood or a very bad mood if you already have round one set up,” I say, giving him a pat on the back.
“Oh, this is round two for me. You two are fashionably late,” he says as he hugs Harper.
“We’re four minutes late,” she says, checking her phone.
“Four minutes is plenty of time to drink a beer, sis,” he says before shaking his head at me. “Kids these days, I swear.”
We all laugh. He’s in a good mood. Hopefully, we can keep it that way.
“I have to admit, y’all are taking this personal assistant shit to the next level,” he says as we pull up chairs. Harper’s eyes are as wide as saucers. The poor girl has a terrible poker face. Her face doesn’t have an inside voice.
“What do you mean?” she asks.
“You drive everywhere together now,” he points out as he takes a slug of his beer. The waitress sets down a large plate of wings in front of us, and he winks at her.
“I guess it’s just easier if we are going to the same place,” I say, grabbing a wing.
“Yeah, after this you’re not…unless you’re going home together too,” he says with a laugh. Harper is back to gaping, and I silently press my knee to hers under the table. I hope my gesture wordlessly tells her to fix her face.
Jaylen looks back and forth between us. “Damn, tough crowd today.”
“You’re in a good mood,” I say as I take a sip of beer.
I’m going to need something stronger than Guinness for the next conversation, but beer will have to do for now.
I am going to grab the next round. Seems a little rude of me not to.
Hey, I’m hooking up with your sister. But thanks for the beer, bro!
Jesus.
“I am. That Everest deal is going to kick everyone else in the teeth. We’re going to be on the top rung of the cocktail ladder. Especially if you get involved, Harp,” he says.
“Yeah,” she says with a forced smile, rubbing her arm.
I inch her beer closer to her, and she picks it up robotically and takes a sip. Well, it’s more like a gulp.
“Damn, girl,” Jaylen says. “I forgot how much you like Guinness.”
Harper smiles and licks the foam off her upper lip. I want to lick it off for her.
“She does like dark beer,” I say in an attempt to pull my brain out of the gutter.
“See? You hire her at LSJ, and now you’re inseparable,” he goes on.
Harper looks like she’s going to crawl out of her skin or under the table. I feel like I’m going to puke; I can’t continue to keep this from him. It’s time to stop fucking around and rip the Band-Aid off. Now.
“So there’s actually something we wanted to talk to you about,” I say, and Jaylen nods up at me.
“Let me guess. You want to hire Harper as the head bartender at the speakeasy. Listen, if you didn’t suggest it, I was going to,” he says.
“That’s not what we need to talk to you about,” Harper says softly. Her tone is easier to read than mine. Sibling intuition kicks in, and Jaylen’s smile fades from his face; concern replacing it.
“What is it?” he asks, getting right to the point.
“Before we start talking, I want you to know, we want you to know, we had no intention of this happening,” Harper says. I keep a sharp eye on Jaylen. If fists are going to fly, I want to see it coming so I can dodge it and make sure Harper is out of the way.
“I’m not really sure where this is going, but if it’s headed in the direction I think it is, I recommend you do a U-turn fast,” he says.
I step in.
“We’ve been seeing each other,” I say flatly.
Jaylen blinks, then reaches for his beer. “How long?”
“Since the wedding. Mine, not Daniel’s. Well, not Daniel’s second wedding,” Harper is stumbling over her words like her shoes are tied together.
“Since Costa Rica,” I say.
Jaylen takes a second to think about that. “So, the whole time you were shacked up together…you were shacked up together,” he says, sucking his teeth.
“No,” Harper says. “It’s not like that.”
His eyes land on her, hot and hard. “No? Alright, tell me, sis. What is it like then? Because it sounds to me like you’re telling me that my best friend and my sister are fucking around.”
“We’re dating,” I state. “I care about her.”
Harper looks at me, and her expression softens a little. I take the risk of grabbing her hand. Because honestly, as shitty as I know this is for him, I care more about comforting her than I do about pussyfooting around his feelings.
“I’m sorry we didn’t say anything sooner, Jay,” Harper says with a shaky voice.
“She wanted to, but I wanted to wait,” I say in her defense.
“Wait until what?” he spits out, but his tone is less agitated than it was before.
“Wait until I get the balls to do it,” I say. It’s a white flag. A Hail Mary. It’s me rolling the ball into his court and standing down, but standing next to her.
Jaylen takes a second, sips his beer, and then finally, after a good two minutes, speaks. “I had a feeling,” he says.
“You did?” Harper asks.
He snorts. “Yeah. I mean, you two are pretty obvious. You with your complexion that can’t lie, and Ash with his jaw that twitches every time he’s uncomfortable.”
He almost sounds like he’s joking; like this is humorous. I don’t know whether to be relieved or terrified.
“So, you’re not mad?” Harper asks.
“Oh, I’m pissed,” he says, finishing off his beer. “I fucking hate it. But at the end of the day, you’re going to do what you’re going to do. I mean, clearly, you already have. Not accepting it would make me the asshole.”
“The next round is on me,” I say.
“Oh, you bet your fucking ass it is, and we’re leveling up from beer,” he says.
“You got it,” I say, allowing myself to smile a little.
“Okay. Well, I feel much better now,” Harper says with a crooked smile as she tries not to choke up. “But I also feel like I am going to puke. So I’m going to go freshen up. Or throw up. Or something.”
I smile as she walks away towards the bathroom, watching her until she disappears. Then I wave down the waitress and order two old fashions.
“I gotta hand it to you, brother,” I say, turning back to Jaylen. “I really wasn’t expecting you to take it this well.”
“Yeah well, I had to come off that way in front of my sister,” he says. There is a hint of a smile on his lips, which means there’s also a lot of something else going on.
“Something else you want to talk about?” I ask casually.
“You could say that,” he says. “I’m not great with all of this. You are my best friend, and that is my sister.”
“I understand,” I say.
“I really don’t think you do. You don’t have a sister.
You don’t have someone that you basically raised because your parents were too drunk, high, and absent to do themselves.
We have been through a lot. Harper has been through a lot.
I’m not about to watch her get hurt because one day you realized your best friend’s sister isn’t a little girl anymore. ”
The waitress sets down our drinks and I nod to her, waiting until she walks away to start talking.
“I understand how detrimental it is to tread lightly,” I tell him calmly.
“For one, if I upset you, more than I already have, I lose the best friend I’ve ever had.
My wingman. My business partner. My brother.
Not only that, messing up means hurting her.
I need you to believe that I would never let anything hurt Harper, including myself. I really do care about your sister.”
“Then you know she is a virgin, I assume?” he asks.
I think very carefully about how to respond to that. “She told me she’s saving herself for marriage, yes,” I answer. It’s not a lie. She did tell me that.
“Then you understand that I expect it to stay that way. Which means you keep it PG-13,” he says.
“Are we talking Titanic PG-13 or–” I press, even though I know I shouldn’t.
“We’re talking in your pants. Zipped. Tucked into your goddamned belt if you have to. Just away from my sis–”
“I get it, I get it,” I say. In my peripheral, I see Harper heading our way so I pick up my glass, holding it out for Jaylen to cheers with me.
“We have a deal?” he asks.
“Yes,” I answer, fully aware that I am flat out lying to my best friend.