Page 80 of All the Right Words
Harper looked at Gina with kindness. ‘I think I already have. I mean, I’m starting to see how unwilling a participant you were in all this anyway.’
Gina smiled slowly and thoughtfully. Those dark eyes, filled with sadness only moments ago, glowed with happiness. ‘I think Brenda’s wrong.’
‘Usually. But about what?’ Harper asked.
‘The genre of this story,’ Gina told her. ‘This isn’t a murder mystery. I’ve got to make it a romance.’ She took hold of Harper and kissed her deeply. Harper felt like, at last, the parts of Gina had slotted together to form this beautiful, complicated woman. And as Gina kissed her passionately, Harper wanted every last piece of her.
Forty-Three
Three Months Later
Gina was sitting on her little sofa in her tiny flat, watching TV. It was gripping stuff. Gina wasn’t a big news person usually, but it wasn’t usual to see Olivia being perp-walked into a police station while a gang of paparazzi almost blew her pupils out with their flashes. Olivia was trying to look neutral, but she was clearly furious. Though immaculately dressed in a power suit. She was, after all, still Olivia.
‘Harper, you’re missing it!’ Gina called through to the bathroom. There was a quick flush and running water, and out Harper ran. She threw herself on the sofa while Gina rewound the story and hit play. They watched Olivia go into the station. She was only on the screen for about two seconds. But those seconds were grimly fascinating to the two women who’d been fooled by her, along with practically anyone who knew her from what they now understood.
‘Miss Noble is alleged to have been involved in the fraud that Michael Phelps was recently convicted of in the Parker Press Scandal. After evading arrest for several weeks, she was apprehended trying to leave the country using a forged passport at Gatwick Airport. She stands accused of eighteen different counts of financial wrongdoing.’
‘Eighteen?!’ Gina and Harper cried out together.
‘Her trial commences in two months. She’s expected to plead not guilty,’ the reporter ended.
‘Pah!’ Harper sputtered, turning off the TV. ‘Good luck, Olivia.’
Gina didn’t say anything to that. Three months since the day she’d found out what a mug she was, she still couldn’t fully wrap her head around it. She’d never seen the real Olivia for a moment. It had shaken her to the core.
Gina could only count her lucky stars that she’d fallen into the arms of the realest person she could ever hope to find amid the awful revelations. One who told her that what she hadn’t seen was to her credit. That her compassion had blinded her to the truth. That Olivia had played the love-struck clown because she’d understood that it would appeal to Gina’s essential decency. The woman was terrible, but she knew goodness when she saw it. If only to exploit it.
It was a sweet way to see things. Coming from Harper, Gina even sort of believed it. Though, trying to see herself through Harper's eyes was quite the challenge because Harper saw Gina through kinder eyes than she’d ever seen herself. That worried her because she feared disappointing Harper more than anything. But Harper said as much about herself, that she was scared she might not be good enough for Gina. They were a couple of messes, and they were trying. Gina thought that might just be enough.
They’d been glued together this entire time, addicted to each other, spending whole weekends in bed, and only half of it was ridiculous sex. They couldn’t talk to each other enough, it seemed. It felt amazing to see Harper never flinch from her messy self.
It went without saying that Gina was very much in love with Harper. She’d never known this kind of love before. Gina often wondered now if she’d been so walled off to Harper when she first met her because part of her had known she would fall for her and how scary that would be. Well, that part of her was a cowardly idiot. Gina was prepared to fight that coward every day if she had to. Because it took guts to be in love. To let someone see you and make you feel so much was the bravest thing she could imagine. So she would be brave for Harper and herself. Harper was the sun, and she was shining on Gina’s face. That was a thing you didn’t look away from, even if you risked your eyes to look right at the light.
One small problem. Gina hadn’t actually said those three little words. The cowardly idiot inside Gina had been telling her that she shouldn’t admit that she loved Harper. The cowardly idiot had her worried that she wouldn’t hear it back. And God damn, but that arsehole wasloud.
But Gina never forgot the promise she made to Harper not to fuck this up. So the coward had to be fought. As she watched Harper replay the walk into the courtroom, shaking her head at Olivia’s nerve, it was on Gina’s mind. Gina felt her heart trying to get out of her chest, and she told it to attempt some chill. It didn’t listen.
Harper’s phone buzzed, and she checked her texts. ‘Brenda’s asking if we’ve seen it,’ she said, nodding at Olivia, paused, a vision of restrained fury in Chanel.
‘I should have known she’d be on it,’ Gina noted. ‘She loves the drama.’
‘You know, I read an interview with her the other day, and she said she was always suspicious of Olivia,’ Harper said, shaking her head.
‘She’s so full of it,’ Gina said with a laugh.
‘I know. But Brenda loves everyone to think she’s an actual sleuth. Let her live her fantasy, I say,’ Harper shrugged, grinning. Her phone buzzed again. ‘OK, now she’s telling me they're announcing the new CEO of Parker tomorrow. Word has it it’s going to be an outside hire.’
Gina snorted. ‘Good choice. Though I’m amazed the place is still standing.’
‘It’s making too much money. No one could walk away. Even with the scandal. Or maybeespeciallywith it.Death Do Us Parthas been at number one since it came out. And everyone knows she’s doing a thinly veiled fictional account of Olivia’s story. Reese Witherspoon has personally rung her to ask for the option, and the bloody thing’s not even written yet. And what with Vincent’s bloody tell-all about his time as her assistant about to come out, it’s a money-printing factory,’ Harper added. She snorted. ‘Say what you want about Olivia, but she did save the company in a funny way.’
‘That she blew up in the first place,’ Gina remarked dryly. ‘I still cannot accept that dork Vincent got a book deal,’ she added irritably.
‘He broke the story, technically. Anyway, what do you care?’ Harper asked with a playful rib nudge. ‘You’ve got a book deal too. For arealbook. Not some ghost-written bullshit slapped together in five minutes.’
Gina shrugged. ‘I guess.’ She was trying to be cool, but she was actually jazzed as hell about that. The book was, of course, not with Parker Press. A completely different, less wormy apple had taken her on. It was all down to Harper. She demanded that she be allowed to tout Gina’s first novel around. Gina said no. Harper wouldn’t take no for an answer. Gina still said no. Harper begged. And eventually, Gina relented, unable to resist how much belief Harper had in her. Harper took that book everywhere and sold it as hard as she could.
And no one wanted to buy it.
