Page 47 of All the Right Words
Harper would have never picked out Alison as someone Gina would go out with. She was obviously good looking, which tracked. But she was a massive train wreck. It wasn’t even eight, and she was already three sheets.
Harper had been shocked to come across the pair when they’d made a last-minute swerve from the bar they’d been planning to go to and ended up here at this loud, dark dive. It was kind of fishy. Harper wasn’t truly suspicious because she couldn’t think of a single reason Olivia would have engineered the situation. There could surely be nothing to be gained from having a drink with her assistant and her date. So it had to be a fluke. Right?
Though it was odd that Olivia seemed so keen to join them at their table. Even stranger that Gina seemed okay with it. Alison said she was ‘Down for whatever.’
‘So, you guys known each other long?’ Olivia asked of the pair.
Gina checked her phone. ‘About twenty minutes?’
‘But it was love at first sight, right?’ Alison said with a giggle.
Gina smiled tightly. ‘Sure.’ Alison giggled again. No one else was laughing.
Alison turned to Olivia. ‘So, what’s your deal?’
‘I work with Gina,’ she replied.
‘She’s my boss,’ Gina added.
‘Whoa!’ Alison said. ‘You go out with your boss? Cool workplace. You work at Google or something?’
‘I told you, I’m in publishing,’ Gina reminded her. ‘We all are, actually.’
‘Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,’ Alison nodded. ‘Books and shit.’
‘And what do you do?’ Harper asked Alison.
‘I’m a nail tech,’ she said, waggling a perfect set of deep red claws.
‘Where do you work?’ Harper asked politely.
‘I’m kind of between salons right now. Trying to make it work as an independent,’ Alison said hastily.
Harper took that to mean she was unemployed. She decided to give Alison the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Alison was just in a rough place in her life right now. She regretted thinking of her as a train wreck.
‘So, you two?’ Alison said with a small hiccup. ‘What’s the deal?
‘Us?’ Olivia repeated.
‘Yeah. You friends or…’
Harper swapped an awkward look with Olivia. She noticed Gina was staring intently at the table. ‘I mean, well, umm…’ Harper stuttered.
Alison smirked. ‘Not friends then. So are you legit or just making the beast with two backs?’
Harper went right back to disliking Alison.
‘We’re dating,’ she told her, thrilled to remember the appropriately vague, all-encompassing word for a situation that was still getting up on shaky legs. She hoped that word would kill the line of questioning.
But Alison’s ability to know where the line was slipped with every sip of her drink. ‘Oh, it’s new? So do you guys-’
‘Alison, your drink is finished,’ Gina said suddenly.
Alison looked at her glass in horror. ‘My god. You’re right.’ She looked at Gina. ‘Well, your round, I think,’ she smiled.
Harper tried to give Gina a look that said,Well, you tried. Amazingly, it seemed to land because Gina gave her a shrug that said,I really did. And then she said, ‘Fine. Who wants what?’
Everyone gave her their drink preferences, and off she went. As she stood, she looked at Harper, and she could have sworn there was an apology in her eyes. Harper was surprised to see it. Firstly, because Alison’s lack of decorum was in no way Gina’s fault. Secondly, she’d never seen that look on Gina’s face before. She was ashamed. Harper didn’t know why she never really seemed to expect human weakness in Gina. But she knew that when she did see it, it pleased her. Harper supposed that was because she simply wanted Gina to like her. She never quite knew if she did. The woman was too guarded.
