Page 19
Harper’s silence is thick, guilty, and three-dimensional. Solange throws her hands to her head, ruffling her hair.
“Oh my God.”
“Solange, please…”
“Oh my God!”
“Turn it down. I’m begging you.”
“You’ve broken the first rule in the handbook for dealing with an ex!” her friend mutters, gesturing wildly. “You don’t go back to the past. You don’t tread on scorched earth. And above all, you don’t sleep with your ex-wife when you’re both vying for the editorship of the publishing group’s most important magazine! What the hell were you thinking, Harper?”
Harper takes a sip of her cappuccino, desperately searching for some courage in the bitter liquid.
“Honestly… Victoria’s amazing body.”
Solange freezes, her mouth forming a perfect “O.” Then, slowly, she brings her hand to her chest.
“Oh my God.”
“Stop repeating that, for God’s sake,” Harper protests. “You sound like a broken record.”
“It’s just that I don’t have a big enough vocabulary to describe the magnitude of this disaster. Victoria’s been here three days and you’ve already hooked up with her,” Solange protests. “Where…?”
Harper looks down at her toast, fiddling with her fork.
“In the production dressing room.”
Solange chokes on her coffee.
“In the dressing room? Among the borrowed clothes from Dior and Chanel?”
“We started arguing… We were throwing things in each other’s faces… She cornered me, challenged me to stop her… and I didn’t.”
“Here’s the woman who’s been proclaiming for five years that she’s independent and that she’d moved on from her ex.”
“In my defense, I’ll say that she’s more dominant now and that… I wasn’t able to think of anything else.”
Her friend sighs, this time letting go so she can slide her hand across the table and stroke Harper’s knuckles.
“I’m not going to judge you. Well, maybe a little, because the situation is straight out of a movie script, but I get it,” Solange says before flashing a smile. “All of a sudden, they pair her up with you, and the sexual tension just explodes. Impossible to resist.”
Harper rests her chin on her free hand, suddenly feeling exhausted.
“It’s a disaster. If Eleanor finds out…”
“Eleanor isn’t going to find out unless you two start having an encore in the office,” Solange interrupts her. “What worries me isn’t Eleanor. It’s you. For you, sex with Victoria has never been ‘just sex.’ Even if you want to convince yourself it was a late-night release between coat racks.”
“It won’t happen again. I mean that completely seriously. Last night was a catastrophic exception. A moment of weakness due to exhaustion,” Harper says, the coffee cup near her lips. “From now on, she’ll just be another coworker.”
Solange tilts her head, looking at her skeptically.
“That sounded lovely. Too bad you don’t even believe it yourself.”
“I believe it because I have no other choice,” Harper declares, looking up with determination. “I’ve worked my ass off to get this job. I’m not going to throw my career away for a couple of incredible orgasms and a nice memory from the past.”
“Fine,” Solange agrees, taking a bite of her toast. “I like that attitude. Just make sure that when you’re four inches away from Victoria, your body doesn’t make the decision for you.”
*
