CHAPTER 2
“Hey, can I bug you for a favor?” Harlow asked.
“How about a, ‘Hello, Samantha. It’s nice to see you. How have you been in the past – oh, I don’t know – years since I’ve seen you?’ Then, we can talk about a favor.”
“I saw you a year and a half ago, getting gas in your car when I was driving by. Does that count? I texted you.”
“You’re the worst.” Samantha laughed. “One of the reasons we’re no longer together. What do you want, Harlow?” she asked and looked back down at the laptop in front of her.
“One of these amazing conference rooms; a few times a week, for an hour or two. I don’t know yet whether it’ll be a few times a week or just a few times overall.”
“What? Why?”
“I need them for a friend.”
“You need a conference room for a friend?”
“We could use the library study rooms, but they have an hour limit, and we will probably go over sometimes. They’re always hard to reserve because the library is busy, and you’re also supposed to be relatively quiet there. I don’t think we’ll get loud or anything, but–”
“Library study rooms? This is for Larissa, isn’t it?”
“She’s working on a book and needs space to interview people for it, yes.
We really don’t want to do it in a public place.
The library is an option, but it’s not ideal because the people she would be talking to aren’t students or faculty, and that’s a whole thing.
She’s not teaching this semester, so she doesn’t have an office on campus, and I thought about this place.
” Harlow leaned over the desk in the co-working space lobby.
“I thought there was still a good chance you worked here.”
“You know how you could have known for sure? You could’ve called or texted me.”
“I was on my way home and passed by the building, so I thought I’d check in person. Come on. Can you hook me up with the friends-and-family discount?”
“We’re not friends or family. We dated for two months a million years ago and text, like, once a year or something.”
“I’m thirty-two years old. If we’d dated a million years ago, I–”
“Harlow, come on.”
“How much are these rooms to rent if I don’t have a membership?”
“It’s cheaper if you do.”
“But I don’t need one,” Harlow argued. “This’ll take a month at most, probably.”
“Then, buy a membership for a month.”
“Why would I do that when I can just rent the rooms?”
“God, why are you this frustrating?” Samantha grunted. “I make a commission when you rent from me. Can you just pay me the three hundred bucks it costs to have a membership?”
“Holy shit! That’s expensive.”
“If you get the annual membership, it’s cheaper.”
“You’re a very good salesperson,” Harlow teased. “But how much are the rooms to just rent them?”
“Forty bucks an hour, and you get access to the Wi-Fi.”
“We’d need at least eight hours, if not more. We’ve only planned a few interviews so far,” she said, mostly to herself.
“You’re helping Larissa with something for school?”
“Not school specifically. She’s writing a book, and I’m helping her with the interview piece for part of it.”
“Are you single?”
“Are you interested?” she tossed back.
“Nope,” Samantha said, laughing. “Been there. Done that. Know the outcome.”
“The outcome is that we broke up.”
“Yeah, because you’re in love with your best friend.
It was obvious,” Samantha replied. “Even three days in, I could tell, and I knew I would get my heart broken, but I kept going anyway because I am a masochist, apparently. Which is why I’ll rent these rooms to you now using my discount, but only if you agree to stay away from me whenever you’re here. ”
“What? Why?”
“Because you’re exactly my type, and you know it. We’re on speaking terms and friendly when we do talk, but I know myself… I’m not falling back into bed with you, Harlow.”
“I didn’t ask you to. I came here to rent a conference room for a few hours.”
“Have you told her?”
“Told who what?”
“Larissa. Have you told her that you’re in love with her?”
“No, but that’s not really your business anymore because we’re, as you just pointed out, not together, and I don’t want to sleep with you, so we’re all good in that department. I’ll pay full price for the rooms to avoid any–”
“You’ll get twenty-five percent off the monthly membership, and I’ll get you room credits. Best I can do.”
“Room credits?”
“The monthly membership only comes with one credit a month. I’ll give you ten, and if you need more, you’ll have to pay per credit. On the plan, they’re only twenty dollars per hour.”
“So, I need to give you two hundred and twenty-five bucks today?”
“Yeah. You’ll get free coffee and water with fruit in it, plus all those free credits I just gave you that would run you twenty bucks an hour on the monthly plan and forty without one. Deal?”
“God, that’s confusing, but fine.” She pulled her wallet out of her back pocket. “And thanks.”
“Is Larissa paying for this, or are you?”
“I am. Why?”
“Shouldn’t she be if she’s the one writing the book?”
“I work full-time. She doesn’t. She’s in school. She only owns the house that she’s in because her parents bought it for her.”
“Wow. Everybody’s buying things for Larissa, huh?” Samantha remarked and took Harlow’s credit card. “There’s paperwork to fill out. I’ll email it to you. Same address?”
“Yeah, that’s fine. And it was a grad school graduation present. Her father literally flips houses for a living. It was one he was working on and planned to give her. It’s not like they bought her this mansion or something.”
“My parents didn’t buy me a house,” Samantha replied as she typed something on her computer.
“Does your dad flip houses for a living?”
“No.”
“Well, there you have it. Neither did mine. But I’m not mad at Larissa that hers could buy her something and did.”
“I’m not mad at her. I don’t care enough about her to be mad at her. So, are you single?”
Samantha swiped her card.
“Yes, but we just–”
“Not asking because I want to get back together with you.” She handed Harlow her card back. “Is she single?”
“Samantha…”
“She is,” Samantha concluded with a nod. “Just tell me you’ll finally admit your feelings to this woman you’ve loved since college and that you won’t hurt anyone else by bringing them into this thing you’ve created, and I’ll give you twenty room credits.”
“Ten is fine,” she replied, shoving her card back in her wallet. “I’ll pay for more if we need them.”
“Okay. Your loss in more ways than one, Harlow. I’ll get you a badge.
You need to scan it whenever you come in.
Don’t lose it. Replacements cost extra. The rest of the info is in the welcome packet that I just emailed you.
You’ll need to reserve conference rooms on the site or in the app, so make sure you do that.
They fill up fast.” Samantha then picked up a badge with the name of the place on it and swiped it before handing it to Harlow. “Here you go. Don’t lose it.”
“I get two reminders not to lose it?”
“Yeah, because I don’t want to have to deal with you needing another one. And you only get one per paying customer, so don’t ask for an extra for Larissa.”
“Fine. I won’t lose this one. Thanks,” she said. “And I’ll stay away, if that’s what you want. I’ll keep Larissa away for you, too.”
“Okay. Good.”
Harlow nodded and left the building. Walking down the street to her car, she thought about how she’d gotten this idea to rent the rooms and hadn’t exactly told Larissa about it yet, but she felt like Larissa would be fine with it.
She’d only just thought about the space and the fact that she knew someone who worked there while on her way home from work earlier, so she’d tell her when she got home.
She didn’t mind putting two hundred bucks on a credit card if it meant that Larissa would have the professional space she needed for this.
Conducting those interviews at Larissa’s house wasn’t really an option, and while the campus had places they could probably use, this seemed like a better idea since this didn’t technically have anything to do with Larissa’s dissertation or school program.
Now, they would have a room and, according to her ex-girlfriend from five years ago, complimentary water and coffee with the option to buy snacks.
Harlow had seen those behind the lobby desk, but Samantha had worked for that company for the past six years, so Harlow had been there a few times and knew most of the rules already.
“Hey, I have news,” she said when she walked into the house and dropped her keys into the decorative dish that she’d bought Larissa about three years ago after hearing her complain about not having a place to put her keys.
“You have news?” Larissa asked, sounding like she was in the kitchen. “I’m making dinner. Is pasta okay?”
“What is in the pasta?” she asked.
“Nothing. It’s just in boiling water right now.”
Harlow laughed and walked toward the kitchen.
“I meant, what are you making with it?”
“Oh, a sauce.”
Harlow laughed again and walked over to the stove to see a pot with pasta boiling and a pan with red sauce next to it.
“I have sausage or ground beef. Do you want either?”
“Meat sauce? My favorite.”
“I know. I’ll throw it in a pan. Shouldn’t take too long, but I just put the pasta in. What’s your news?” Larissa asked and moved to the refrigerator, where she bent over to pull the meat out of the bin at the bottom.
Harlow tilted her head to take in Larissa’s ass, which she had done numerous times throughout their friendship and no longer felt guilty about it, even though she probably should.
“I rented you a space today.”
“You did what?” Larissa asked.
Harlow moved her head back into place just as Larissa stood and looked at her.
She’d gotten a lot better at avoiding detection whenever she stared now.
When she’d first started doing it, she’d been caught a few times, but she’d smiled, and Larissa hadn’t ever said anything, probably because she hadn’t thought that Harlow had been checking her out. She’d been wrong.