Page 37 of All the Right Words
Harper cleared her throat nervously and pointed at the kitchen door, suddenly hoping she hadn’t left pots in the sink. She followed Gina into the kitchen to find it was rammed full. Bloody typical. She’d never felt more shambolic in her life. She never wanted anyone to see the chaos she felt inside, and now Gina was standing in the centre of it, rummaging about. It was foxing, to say the very least.
But she barely noticed the sink. Instead, she saw the one piece of art from Harper's own hand in her entire place. It was a ten-year-old landscape in oil hanging over the microwave.
‘I like that. Kind of comforting,’ Gina said, getting a glass out of the cupboard.
Harper said nothing. She didn’t know how to deal with Gina complimenting her work, albeit unknowingly.
‘OK, drink this,’ Gina said, handing her a glass of water clouded with a sachet. It was disgusting, but Harper drank it down in one. ‘When did you last eat?’ Gina asked, getting a tub of soup out of the bag.
‘Umm, I guess at lunch? I’m not really hungry.’
‘You will be. You look like you lost five pounds since the last time I saw you.’
Harper smiled. ‘Maybe I’ll have those cheekbones I’ve always dreamed of.’
Gina smiled with one corner of her mouth. ‘You could cut yourself on those things already.’
Harper was so startled she couldn’t speak. Before she could find words to respond, Gina asked, ‘Where are your bowls?’
Harper pointed dumbly at the cupboard. Gina grabbed a bowl, decanted some soup, and put it in the microwave. She pulled a water bottle out of the bag and handed it to Harper. ‘The chemist said room temp is best.’
Harper drank some tepid water. It tasted great. She suddenly felt a chasm open in her gut. She was hungry. The microwave pinged, and Gina gestured at her kitchen table. ‘Sit.’ Harper did as she was told, and the soup was placed in front of her. She smiled at Gina. ‘Thanks for this. For everything. Let me know what I owe you.’
‘Shush. Eat,’ Gina said.
Harper ate. The soup was unbelievably good.
Twenty-Three
Gina was watching Harper eat soup. She wasn’t entirely sure how she’d gotten here. That phone call had set her on autopilot. Harper needed help. Whether she wanted it or not, she was getting some post-poison aftercare.
Although she felt Olivia should have been doing this. But she’d just happened to be out at a meeting when Harper called. So, this was yet another thing that woman had somehow outsourced to her.
For the first time, instead of feeling irritated or put upon by all this, Gina started to feel angry. Gina had mentioned to Olivia about the mayo when she’d come back from lunch. So why wasn’t she checking in? This was an opportunity to care for someone she was into. Who wouldn’t take that? Gina had managed it. She wasn’t even trying to get into Harper’s pants, and she’d wanted to do it anyway. Gina hadn’t thought twice about it. She’d simply wanted to be here. She’d come running because… because…
What occurred to Gina next should have been apparent earlier but Gina was stellar at pushing down her own wants, so it had taken until now to hit her.
She was into Harper.
How long had this been here, this feeling? Had it existed the whole time she’d known Harper? Every time Gina thought, ‘Yeah, I see that she’s hot, but I don’t really care,’ had that been a lie? Every time Gina had seen Olivia fawning over Harper, and needed to look away because she was sickened by the displays of emotion, was that just easier to swallow than the truth?
Gina hated her life at that moment. Truly hated it. She was a former writer who made her living watching other people getting published, which was bad enough. Now she wanted a woman she was tasked with engineering into someone else’s bed?
She realised right then that she was forever at the window of a cosmic restaurant, watching others eat while she went hungry. No, worse. She was in the restaurant, serving others while her stomach rumbled.
‘Is there more?’ Harper asked.
‘Huh?’ Gina said, coming around from her dazed realisation.
‘This soup, it’s crazy good.’
‘Oh. Sure. Gimme the bowl,’ Gina said. She refilled it, nuked it and handed it back. Harper went to town on it. It was nice to see her looking so satisfied. It was even better knowing she was the reason.
Oh man, Gina needed to get the fuck out of here,stat. This was a disaster. She couldn’t be stood here like some total buffoon, grinning ear to ear because Harper was enjoying the soup. She needed to leave and never see this woman again. This was the sort of thing that could put you in a nosedive. She was barely hanging on as it was. She couldn’t just go falling in…getting crusheson women who were, well, the term ‘unavailable’ was laughably woeful. Harper was her boss's almost girlfriend. Who Gina was trying to push into Olivia’s arms. And she was going to go and catchfeelingsfor this woman now? Did she hate herself this much? What kind of crime did her heart imagine she’d committed that it needed to punish her this way?
‘Hey, where did you get this soup anyway?’ Harper asked.
‘Deli down the road,’ Gina said, trying to sound casual despite her horrific realisation of about one minute ago. If there was ever a time to lean into her skillset of seeming like she didn’t give a shit about anyone or anything, this was it. Her resting bitch face and her dry tone were her only true weapons right now. If they failed her, all was lost.
