Falling for Mr. Wrong(13)
Chapter Ten
Harper woke up agitated. Thank goodness she didn’t have to work today. Or maybe that would have been better—keeping busy was preferable to staying home alone dwelling on the events of the night before, which still seemed like some weird dream. An incredibly sexy dream that left her body buzzing with need for more of where that came from.
She wanted to know more about how Noah got back here, but she didn’t want to ask just anyone. Heaven forbid it got back to him that she was asking around. No way. She had far too much pride for that. She picked up the phone and called her best friend.
Allie had gone to Italy for the wine harvest, with the intention of returning as soon as it was completed but in the meantime had fallen in love with some handsome Tuscan wine baron or something. She had decided to take a little sabbatical and see how her relationship unfolded, which meant that the two best friends were relegated to long-distance communications. It had been bad enough when Allie was working clear across the country in Calfornia. While Harper had been looking forward to her friend returning to their hometown, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing, since now Allie would now be forever preoccupied with her man first. Now she had one less girlfriend to occupy her time with even if she’d come back here with him.
The phone rang several times before her friend picked up.
“Ciao, bellissima.”
“Oooh, your accent sounds even better since the last time we spoke,” Harper said.
“I have the perfect teacher.” Her friend laughed.
“Yeah, I know all about the Italian your boyfriend is teaching you. Most of which is unprintable.”
“Oh, but trust me, it sounds amazing when you’re in the heat of passion.”
“You’re going to rub this in that you’re having passion and I’m not?”
“I’m sorry, Harps. If you come visit me, I’ll see if Francesco can find another gorgeous Italian man for you. I swear to you, they are practically a dime a dozen around here.”
“Believe me, I’d love to take you up on your offer. But I’ve got some pressing concerns I need to talk to you about. Although you are sworn to secrecy. You hear me?”
“Whoa! Cryptic. You’ve got me so intrigued now.”
“You promise you won’t breathe a word to a soul?”
“Harper, even if I did, it would be translationally polluted—my Italian is not that good. The only ones I’d even be able to tell would be Francesco and his family. And it would probably come out all wrong anyhow. Suffice it to say my Italian needs a little work.”
“Except when it comes to discussions about what one does with body parts in Italian.”
“Yeah, that.”
“But I don’t want you going onto Facebook and telling any mutual friends. Don’t call your cousin Franny who we all know has the loudest mouth on the planet.”
“I haven’t talked to Franny in over a year.”
“I’m only saying, this is cone of silence stuff I’m about to divulge. You crossing your heart?”
“Done. Now spill. And please don’t tell me you’re pregnant. Last I heard you had been on a succession of dates with loser dudes that I know you’d never sleep with anyhow.”
Harper rolled her eyes. Pregnant. Did she even dare tell her how stupid she was on top of how stupid she was, what with the going bareback? She heaved a sigh. “The good news is no, there is no pregnancy. And theoretically won’t be, because thank God I’m on the Pill.”
“Wait a minute. Are you telling me you had sex—like real, live actual penetration? With a man? One who has a penis?” Harper could hear her squealing with joy in the background. “Oh my God. Harper. Finally! I knew you’d find someone you’d want to have sex with again someday. I mean, I didn’t think it would take this long and all. And to be truthful, I wish you’d have just fucked someone—anyone—to get it over with. If you had, it would have been much sooner. But I understand, sometimes some of us are late bloomers. And I guess whatever you’d had with he-who-shall-not-be-named was somehow especially precious to you. And I get it. I mean we all loved Noah. And who knows why he lost his shit the way he did. As much as I hated him for that, I never thought he meant to hurt you. Oh God, I’m on pins and needles. Do I know who it is you finally—finally!—slept with?”
“You are seriously harshing my buzz here, Allie. Because when I do tell you, you’re going to then freak on me and that’s going to freak me out more and ugh—” She took a sip of coffee that turned cold in her mug while she’d ruminated for the past hour.
“You didn’t sleep with like our high school principal or something, did you?”
Harper did a spit take with her drink, spraying coffee all over the breakfast-room table. “No, I didn’t hook up with Mr. Harbinger.”
“That’s a relief. I mean, he’s sort of old. And married. And old.”
“And married.”
“It’s not someone too young, is it? That would be kind of icky.”
“Oh, this one is, sadly, entirely age appropriate.” Harper pinched the bridge of her nose. What the hell had she done? Maybe she shouldn’t be sharing this with Allie. But she needed to talk to someone, and at least that person was her best friend, conveniently far from home and less likely to spread the word. Or meddle. Knowing Allie, she’d try to push the two of them back together. She was a big fan of happy endings. So was Harper until she got the old heave-ho and missed out on hers. “Age appropriate, but life inappropriate.”