CHAPTER 34
Harlow was at work. She was at work, when she would much rather be at home with Larissa, making love and having that breakfast in bed that Larissa had tried to make for her.
No, cooking wasn’t Larissa’s thing, but it was cute that she’d tried.
Well, it had been cute at first. Then, it had been hot.
Sex with Larissa was amazing. It was the best sex she’d ever had by far, and she both had expected that and been surprised by it at the same time.
Expected it because she loved Larissa, so even if Larissa was a little behind her on that front, there were real feelings involved, and surprised by it because it had been even better than in her fantasies, and that never happened.
And it wasn’t just the orgasms. It was how Larissa was usually so contained.
She had her glasses, her computer, and her notes, and she worked all the time on one paper or another.
Harlow had thought so even back when she’d been in Larissa’s class: Larissa never really let go.
But now, Harlow was watching her do just that, and she wondered if she was the only one who had ever seen Larissa let go so completely.
She smiled at that thought as she walked to her car to leave for her lunch with Larissa.
She’d been put on supply pick-up duty, but that could wait until she was on her way back to the office. She wanted to see her girl first.
Well, they hadn’t talked about that officially yet.
They’d only gone so far as to say that they were dating, but Harlow knew: they were together.
Yes, they still needed to state that fact to one another, but she could wait for that.
Hell, she had waited years for Larissa to figure out that they were supposed to be more than friends.
She could wait for everything else, too.
“Harlow, hey.”
Harlow turned and noticed Aggie walking behind her.
“Oh, hey,” she greeted.
“What are you doing here?” Aggie asked.
“Having lunch with your sister.”
She had stopped walking so that Aggie could catch up with her, and when Aggie stared at her with a quirked brow, Harlow knew what was coming next.
“You’re dating my sister.”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Should I forego the big sister speech with you because you’ve been her friend forever?”
“Yes,” she confirmed.
“She didn’t call me last night. I expected at least a text.”
“Why?”
“Please tell me you two have at least kissed,” Aggie said on a sigh.
“Oh.”
“Two dates and no kiss yet? Really? You’ve been waiting how long to kiss my knucklehead of a sister?”
“What? What do you mean, how long?”
“Oh, please… Harlow, I told Larissa the same thing: I was there the night you two met. I saw that look on your face. You’ve been in love with her since you met. She’s been aloof, but it’s been there for her, too.”
“If you knew how we felt, why didn’t you say anything?”
“When has that ever worked?” Aggie reasoned. “People have to figure things out for themselves. Kids touch the stove to know that it’s hot instead of listening to their parents when they tell them. Adults aren’t much different.”
“But you knew? You knew Larissa felt the same way?”
“I knew that it was in her somewhere. She’s just been so focused on school her whole life.
I’m sure part of that is my fault. Our parents are probably a little to blame, too.
They are both from poor backgrounds and are kind of blue-collar.
They always told us that they wanted us to go to school for whatever degrees we wanted, and they worked their asses off so that we could do just that without a bunch of debt.
Larissa and I owe them both a lot, but it also put pressure on us to succeed.
She then had the fact that I’m older and in the same field to deal with on top of that, so she’s been in the books and never really cared about relationships.
My guess is that at least part of that was because you were always around, so she never really needed to care about romance because her best friend was there and in love with her.
Minus the sex, you two were basically a couple this whole time, even when you were with other people. ”
“You said you told her the same thing earlier.”
“What?”
“Before, you said you told her that when we met–”
“Oh, yeah. I told her that I knew you liked her. Why?”
“When did you tell her that?”
“Not all that long ago, so you can probably thank me a little for the fact that you’re together now.”
“Thanks, I guess,” Harlow replied. “What did she say when you told her?”
“You two haven’t talked much, have you? If you’re not making out or having sex, and you’re not talking, what exactly are you doing?”
Harlow looked away from her toward the suddenly very interesting building to her right.
“Oh, my God!” Aggie exclaimed and slapped her playfully on the shoulder. “You had sex with my sister?”
“Aggie, come on.”
“What? You did, didn’t you?”
“You make it sound dirty when you say it like that and smack my shoulder. It’s not dirty. I love your sister.”
“Have you told her that yet?”
“No, obviously not. We just started dating. And please don’t tell her that I told you that. I want her to hear it from me first.”
“I already told her that you loved her.”
“Well, this is different. And what did she say when you told her that?”
“Honestly?” Aggie shrugged. “She didn’t believe me at first. I’m not sure she believed me up until you, apparently, finally asked her out.”
“She didn’t believe you?”
“No. You know Larissa. I’d say her head is in the clouds, but it’s just aimed down at her computer, really. She’s also seen you with girlfriend after girlfriend, so I’m sure that didn’t help. By her logic, you could’ve told her at any time and not dated every third woman on the planet.”
“I haven’t dated that much.”
“Maybe not. I’m prone to hyperbole.” Aggie shrugged again. “Now, I’ve got to run, or I’m going to be late, but I’m glad for you both, Harlow. I mean that. I always wanted it to be you for her, even when I thought you were a dumbass and a coward for not telling her how you felt.”
“Not sure that’s the compliment you probably meant it to be,” Harlow noted.
“I’ll get ‘em next time, then,” Aggie said and winked at her. “Have fun at lunch.”
When Larissa’s sister walked off, Harlow stood there for a moment before realizing that she was going to be late, too.
She hurried off in the direction of the union, where she’d met Larissa many times over the years for one meal or another, and found her at a table near the corner, staring at her computer, with a pen in her mouth and her glasses down on her nose.
She smiled and shook her head before she walked over to her and sat down across from her.
“Babe?”
Larissa looked up, wide-eyed, and Harlow reached for her glasses with her index finger and pushed them up Larissa’s nose.
“I need to tighten them again, I see?”
“They’re fine,” Larissa replied. “And hi.” She smiled at Harlow. “So, now that we’re dating, do we get to kiss whenever we see each other, and when one of us leaves?”
“I think that is the protocol, yeah.”
“Want to lean over so I can kiss you, then?”
“Nope.”
Harlow stood up, walked over, and sat down next to Larissa.
“Better,” she added before she cupped Larissa’s cheek, leaned in, and kissed her. “So, how’s your paper going?” she asked, placing her arm over the back of Larissa’s chair.
Then, she realized that this was the first time she’d done that as more than just Larissa’s best friend, trying to get comfortable and maybe have a moment or two where she could pretend that they were more than friends.
“Good. I’ve been working on it for four hours straight.
My eyes are exhausted, but I’m going back to the library for another hour or so after our lunch.
I also got a call from the bookstore. The owner asked me if I could come in for a short shift today.
She has a doctor’s appointment she can’t miss, and with Janine gone, I’m really the only one she trusts to handle things. ”
“So, is our date off?”
“What? No. It’s only until six. She told me she’d be back by then to close up.
I hardly knew her before because I worked with Janine mostly, but she’s really nice.
I feel bad that the bookstore might fail, and I wish I could do more, but I’ve got a lot on my plate right now, including you and this.
And this comes first.” Larissa pointed between the two of them.
“Yeah? Even over your doctorate and the book?”
Larissa looked at her as if she was confused why Harlow would ask that.
“Yes, Harlow.”
“Okay. I ran into Aggie on my way in, by the way.”
“Oh, God… No, you didn’t. Did she ask you a million questions? Is that why I got yet another text from her right before you walked in?”
“Probably.”
Larissa picked up her phone and read the message, “It says, ‘You had sex and didn’t tell me?’ Harlow…”
“I didn’t tell her. She guessed.”
“She guessed that we had sex last night?”
“She’s your sister and a psych Ph.D. Yeah, she figured it out. She also told me that she told you that I… had feelings for you.”
“She did. She’s brought it up a few times recently.”
“Recently?”
“Yes, when you started staying with me and were thinking of moving out. That kind of recently. Why?”
“Did that have anything to do with you saying yes to me asking you out? Her bugging you about it?”
“What?” Larissa closed her computer and turned in her chair more to face Harlow. “You think I let my sister bug me into dating you?”
“No, I didn’t mean it like that.” She took Larissa’s hand with her free one and let them both rest in her lap.
“I’ve just been in this longer than you, and you figured it out recently, so I was wondering if maybe your overbearing but well-meaning sister somehow pushed you into this in the same way she’s pushing you into replying to her messages to give her updates on our relationship, your doctorate, and everything else. ”
“Harlow, no. I’ll admit that I wasn’t thinking about this before, so Aggie’s words did get me to think, but I didn’t agree to go out with you because she bugged me. I agreed to go out with you because I started to see you as more than a friend. I got jealous of Samantha and–”
“You what?” Harlow laughed.
“Yeah. And Alicia, too.”
“Why Alicia?”
“You stayed over at her place that one night, so I worried that you two had reconciled and were back together, or at least, on your way back to being together again. Then, you started hanging out with Samantha; talking to her at the office, getting a free membership from her, bowling.”
“It wasn’t free,” she confessed.
“What?”
“She just gave me a discount. And she gave me another one for this month since we’ve gone on longer than a month with our interviews, but I told you it was free because I knew you wouldn’t want me to spend money.”
“I wouldn’t,” Larissa confirmed.
“I know. I got the idea that you needed a professional space to interview people for this important book that you wanted to write. I didn’t want you to have to do this at a coffee shop, at the house, or on campus because I know study rooms are hard to come by, and you don’t have your office space here when you’re not teaching, but even when you do, it’s really just a desk and not a private office.
I was on my way home when I remembered that she worked there when we dated, and I got lucky that she still did.
She did ask me if I was single and mentioned that she had no self-control, but that was it. She doesn’t want to date me, babe.”
“She said what to you?” Larissa tilted her head.
“She didn’t mean it.”
“A woman you’ve slept with before mentions that she has no self-control and, in the same sentence, asks if you are single?”
Harlow laughed softly and said, “I kind of like you jealous. Is that wrong?”
“Yes. She really said that to you?”
“She’s told me at least ten times that she doesn’t want to get back together. And, Larissa, she doesn’t. She knows I have feelings for you. When I see her next, I’ll tell her that we’re dating, too.”
“At bowling?”
“Do you want to come and cheer me on? I’ll sit next to you in those uncomfortable chairs and put my arm around you like this so that everyone knows that you’re my girl.”
“How many of your exes am I going to be dealing with on a regular basis?”
“What? None.”
“But if this bowling thing becomes a regular deal, Laurel works there.”
“Laurel is engaged. And I’m with you.” Harlow kissed Larissa on the forehead. “Now, I’m starving, and I only have another forty-five minutes before I have to get back. So, can I grab us some lunch and we talk about anything other than my ex-girlfriends?”
“I’ll get it,” Larissa said. “I know what you like from the sandwich place. Just watch my stuff.”
“Okay,” Harlow replied.
Larissa leaned in and kissed her, but this one wasn’t a quick peck. Larissa deepened their kiss and pulled Harlow’s face in with both hands, letting their tongues play for a long moment before she pulled out of the kiss and looked into Harlow’s eyes.
“I’ll do that at the bowling alley, too, just to be safe.”
“Yeah… Uh… Okay. Whenever you want.”
“Is it wrong that I want to be so territorial now? I feel like that’s wrong.”
“No, it’s fine with me. Mark your territory however you want,” she replied.
“Tonight?” Larissa asked.
“If we weren’t in public, I’d say right now.”
“I’ll be right back,” Larissa told her with a light laugh and kissed her quickly before she stood and walked toward the counter with her wallet.
Harlow looked around and saw three college boys staring at her from another table and giving her a look like they’d all enjoyed the show.
“Look away, boys,” she said. “Nothing to see here.”
When they finally looked away, Harlow turned to watch Larissa order their lunch.
A man behind the counter reached into the cooler for an iced tea that she guessed was for her, but Larissa pointed for him to grab a different one, and Harlow smiled.
He’d grabbed the one with the yellow-and-blue label, which was the lemon kind, but she liked the regular, which had a blue label.
Larissa knew that. She knew Harlow better than anyone else, and there was just something about falling in love with her best friend all over again now that they were finally dating.