Page 69 of All the Right Words
Gina paused with the fork at her mouth, looking at the caramelised fruit on the top with wariness. ‘This is pineapple?’ she asked.
‘Yeah. Are you allergic or something?’ Sarah asked.
Gina paused, her eyes flicking to Harper. She looked strange. Guilty. ‘No,’ Gina said. She cleared her throat. ‘I just don’t… It’s not my cup of tea.’
‘Well, there’s plenty of others. You should try the lemon drizzle. That’s a cracker if I say so myself. Harper, let me grab a selection to take,’ Sarah said.
‘Thanks, that sounds lovely,’ Harper said as Sarah went out to grab the cake. Harper cast a glance at Gina. Gina wasn’t looking at her. She was pouring a cup of tea. She looked pretty much normal now. Harper wasn’t sure what she’d even seen.
‘Gina, thanks for this,’ she said quietly so that Sarah couldn’t hear. ‘I can’t explain the amount of my bacon you have saved today. This could have really gone another way. I would have hated to see this book disappear.’
Gina shrugged. ‘Yeah, well, so would I. Sarah seems cool. And the book sounds like a riot.’
Harper nodded. ‘I think it will be. I’m really glad you came. I realise that might have been… difficult.’
Gina licked her lips. ‘Yes. Well.’ She took a sip of tea. And that was it. All she had to say on the topic of a hot and heavy make-out sesh that had made Harper's body feel like it had been struck by lightning.Yes. Well.
‘I’ve got you a pineapple and a carrot cake. And I threw a couple of fruit scones in there too,’ Sarah said, walking in with a stack of Tupperware.
‘Good god!’ Harper said, taking the pile.
‘You can freeze it. But my Bosch is jam-packed, so I appreciate you lightening my load.’ Sarah sighed. ‘In every sense.’
Harper, balancing about five thousand calories worth of cake, smiled at Sarah with kindness. ‘It’s gonna be fine.’ She turned to Gina. ‘We can debrief later.’
Gina nodded. ‘Yes, boss.’
Harper hated Gina calling her that but tried to look neutral. ‘Well, bye then.’
She left the two of them - who she could hear getting down to business - and let herself out of the flat while trying not to drop her cake pile. She went down to the street where it had stopped raining, and ordered a cab, which came quickly. She loaded the baked goods in the back while giving the driver her address. On top of the pile, she could see the pineapple upside-down cake in its clear box. She climbed in next to it, and the car pulled out while Harper looked at the cake, remembering the strange little moment with Gina a few minutes ago.
Harper didn’t understand what the hell she had seen. Why was Gina acting so guilty? It was just a pineapple…
Wait. This was odd. Pineapple again. What the hell did it mean?
Harper checked her emails while the car took her home. Sarah had already sent her something, and she had a look at it, finding half a book.
At home, she speed read Sarah’s half a book, just on the off chance it devolved into Sarah writing the words, ‘All work and no play makes Sarah a dull girl,’ repeatedly. But it was good stuff.
After that, Harper called Atlantic to apologise for what had happened and reassure them that the book was in hand and that half of it was already in their inbox. There was some back and forth, but Harper was able to coax a few more months out of them. She knew she was putting her reputation on the line promising something she couldn’t be sure would be finished. But she believed Gina could make it happen.
When that was all done, she sat down in front of her TV, ordered some food and relaxed. Or, she tried to. But her brain was still going at a hundred miles per hour. But not about Sarah. About the bloody cake incident. One little odd look. She couldn’t get her mind off it.
As she turned it over, the seedling of a dark idea implanted itself within Harper. An entirely crackers, batshit idea that couldn’t possibly be true. Yet, in its bonkers way, it was the only thing that made any sense.
Or did it? Harper couldn’t know. She might simply be going mad.
So she did something a bit bananas. She rang someone for help, the only expert she knew on mysteries. ‘Brenda. How’s it going?’
‘Great. Is something wrong?’ Brenda asked immediately.
Harper laughed. ‘No. Not for you. It’s all good. I just have this… I need help. With my own mystery. Is it weird to ask you for your take?’
‘Mystery is my bag, Harper. Tell me the details, and let’s puzzle this bugger out.’
Thirty-Nine
The second Gina realised she was about to put the dreaded pineapple into her yap, she panicked.
