CHAPTER 23 #2
I place a hand lightly against Harper’s back. “Harper, this is Giselle Von Enck.”
Giselle offers a graceful smile. “Lovely to meet you.”
“You too,” Harper replies politely.
But the interaction already seems off balance. Because Giselle barely engages with her at all afterward, her attention sliding back toward me like Harper is incidental to the conversation.
“You still owe me dinner,” Giselle says.
Before I can answer, the room erupts around us.
“TWENTY!”
The countdown thunders across the Rainbow Room, voices joining together beneath the chandeliers.
“NINETEEN!”
Giselle smiles up at me beneath the roar of the crowd. “Well, I need to go find my friend, but I look forward to our date next Saturday,” she says.
And then she’s gone.
Around us, the countdown continues.
“EIGHTEEN!”
“SEVENTEEN!”
But Harper has gone completely still beside me. I turn toward her and find her staring at me like she’s just been slapped.
“What?” she says faintly.
Realization crashes into me all at once.
Christ.
“Harper—”
“You have a date with her? Have you been sleeping with her too?”
“Sixteen!”
“No,” I say. “Not an actual—”
She lets out a short disbelieving laugh and steps backward away from me.
“Harper.”
“I can’t believe this,” she says, shaking her head now.
“Fifteen!”
“It’s not what you think.”
“Then what is it?”
The crowd around us keeps roaring through the countdown, oblivious to the fact that my entire evening is collapsing in real time. I reach for her arm, but she steps away before I can touch her.
“Ten!”
“Harper, listen to me.”
She’s disappearing into the crowd.
“Harper, wait—”
“THREE!”
I chase her through the room as she spots the elevator bank.
“TWO!”
Champagne sprays from a bottle being shaken behind me.
“ONE!”
Then Harper disappears into an open elevator with me a few steps behind. The doors slide shut directly in front of my face, and I’m unable to catch her.
“Happy New Year!” everyone in the Rainbow Room shouts as they’re lost in their own celebrations, completely unaware of the disaster spiraling in front of me. I can only stand there and stare at the closed elevator doors.
“Shit! Shit shit shit!” I yell. I slam the elevator button, willing a car to arrive.
Finally, another elevator dings open farther down the hall and I lunge for it and press the lobby button.
The ride down feels interminable. My pulse pounds.
What have I done? I can’t believe this happened. Because Harper is upset. Worse than upset. She’s hurt. Because of me.
The elevator finally opens into the Rockefeller Center lobby and I move, scanning the massive space until I spot her through the revolving doors ahead.
She’s halfway out onto Fifth Avenue already, having left her coat behind in the coat check.
I break into a full-out run and it’s not easy in this tuxedo. I’m sprinting past tourists and security and scattered New Year’s confetti blowing through the cold Manhattan air while fireworks echo faintly above the city.
“Harper!”
She doesn’t stop.
I catch up to her just past the skating rink, finally grabbing her wrist gently but firmly enough that she has to turn around.
And when she does—Christ. She looks devastated. She’s not crying. That would almost be easier. Instead, she looks confused. Hurt in that disoriented way people do when something they thought was a reality suddenly is pulled out from beneath their feet.
“What?” she says breathlessly. “What exactly was I supposed to think back there?”
“Harper—”
“No, seriously.” She shakes her head sharply. “You have a date with another woman and you just… forgot to mention it?”
Around us, New York pulses with New Year’s energy. People are shouting and kissing and laughing while remnants of midnight stick wetly to the snow-covered sidewalks. “Yes, I forgot about it,” I blurt, realizing how godawful lame that sounds.
“We never talked about exclusivity,” she says, her voice softer now but somehow worse because of it. “I know that. I know we didn’t. But Julian…” She laughs once in disbelief. “You brought me to the Bahamas for Christmas.”
“I know.”
“And then I find out at midnight that you have another date lined up with some insanely beautiful European socialite?”
“It isn’t like that.”
“Then what is it?”
I drag a hand through my hair, already furious with myself because the truth is she’s right—I should have told her.
“Giselle invited me to some charity gala,” I explain quickly.
“I agreed to attend months ago, back when I was in Milan for business. It got put on my calendar and I don’t even look at what’s coming up until the week before. I truly forgot.”
She stares at me.
“This happened before I met you,” I add. “She’s not someone I’m seeing, Harper.”
“But you were going to go?”
I look at Harper standing there beneath Rockefeller Center in her black gown and diamond earrings. I don’t want to see Giselle. I don’t want dinner with her or conversation with her or any version of the life I was still half existing in before Harper walked into it.
“No, of course not,” I say firmly.
Harper blinks. “Julian, just be honest with me.”
“I am. I’m not going. I have no desire to go. I’m going to tell her I can’t go to the gala.” I step closer toward her. “Harper, listen to me: I’m not going with Giselle. I have no interest in her. Was there a past with her? Yes. But that’s over and done with. I need you to know—”
“Julian,” she interrupts. “You don’t have to lie—”
“I’m not. I’m not lying, Harper. It was truly just another thing on my calendar that I had forgotten about,” I say. “There’s not another woman on this planet I want to spend time with or be with.”
New Year’s has already come and gone. She remains silent.
“Harper,” I say, taking both of her hands and squeezing them.
“You’re right. We haven’t talked about exclusivity, but let’s talk about it now.
I only want to be with you and no one else.
I’m in this in a way I haven’t been in a relationship in…
well, a very long time. Women like Giselle…
that was casual and easily forgotten. But you’re the most unforgettable woman I know and I want to see where this goes. ”
A smile teases her lips. “You do… really?”
“It’s the only thing I’m certain of,” I say. “That woman’s representative of how I lived my life in the past, and you’re representative of the current Julian. I’ll cancel it first thing in the morning… I promise.”
I look at Harper standing there, shivering, in the middle of midtown Manhattan and I can tell by the expression on her face she finally believes me.
“Well,” I say softly, “I guess we missed midnight.”
The corner of her mouth turns into the slightest smile. I step closer.
“But maybe,” I murmur, “we can have our own redo. Midnight, part deux.”
And there beneath Rockefeller Center at 12:07 in the morning, surrounded by the glittering madness of New York beginning another year, I kiss her.
And right then and there, with her lips on mine, I know this is where I’m meant to be… and who I’m meant to be with.