Page 60 of One Wrong Move

Harper is walking beside me, step in step. Her energy is high. Has been since we left the movie theater.

“What are we going to do?” she asks. “Are you hungry? Oh, we could go to one of those chicken shops. Or maybe that’s not your thing?”

“And why not?”

“You’re in a tux.”

I glance down at my clothes. “Yeah. So what?”

Harper giggles. The sound is heartwarming and washes over me like a gentle wave. “I didn’t think you’d be this… chill.”

“Mm-hmm. Because I always seemed uptight?”

“No, no, you never have.” She shrugs lightly. Her dress falls around her form, the glittery fabric catching the streetlights in subtle play. “It’s just that I always saw you as slightly above things like this.”

“It’s not making any more sense the second time.”

“Okay. Remember the time you came to… to Dean’s thirty-fifth birthday party?”

Of course, I do.

He rented out an Asian Fusion restaurant on the forty-second floor of a skyscraper in Manhattan, filled it with people he knew and plenty he didn’t. Harper had been wearing a gold dress and a smokey eye shadow, and her curls were piled high atop her head.

One wrong move, I’d realized that night, and I might blow this whole thing. Blow my cover, reveal too much, and be cut off from them both forever.

One wrong move, and my attraction to her would be blatant, to both of them.

“What about it?”

“Nate,” she says meaningfully. “You arrived by helicopter.”

That makes me chuckle. “Yeah. I think that makes me pretty chill.”

“No, that’s insane! Normal people don’t do that.”

“And I normally don’t. That was a special occasion.” Besides, I’d been forced to, or I wouldn’t have made it on time. The chopper dropped me off and continued on with my brother inside. Basically a rideshare.

“Have you been in a helicopter?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “No. I’m afraid of heights.”

“Really?”

“Deathly. It’s my one flaw. The only chink in my armor.”

“That explains why there’s nothing on your list about bungee jumping, skydiving, or any of the usual bucket list items.”

She blows out a breath. “That’s because I do want to make it to thirty and beyond.”

I chuckle again. “Helicopters are safe.”

“There’s ample evidence to the contrary.”

“How did you fly here?”

“Planes are different.”

I look up at the sky. “Make it make sense.”

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