Page 47 of Bookworm
Close call.
“Daphne!” I hissed and craned my neck to peek at where Adam was still shut in the bathroom showering. Granted, I had my headphones in so I doubt he could hear her even if he’d been sitting right beside me. But still. It was a risk I didn’t want to take.
“What? He can’t hear me,” she said. “Wait. He can’t hear me, can he, Harp? I’m not on speaker phone or some shit am I?”
“No,” I whispered. “He can’t hear you. He’s still in the shower. But it’s not like I can talk freely either.”
“Boo. I wanted to hear about his perfect di?—”
“Daphne!”
“What?! It’s not like we ever had these fun conversations in grad school! You were like a nun. I swear, Harp, I was beginning to wonder if you were a lesbian. But then you definitely wouldhave hit on me and you didn’t. So I thought maybe you were or asexual or something. Which also would have beentotallyfine?—”
“Oh my God, Daphne,” I muttered while letting my forehead drop to the coffee table, hitting the smooth wood with a quiet thump.
“Uh oh. I made you face plant, didn’t I?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Was it the lesbian comment? Or the asexual one?”
“Take your pick.”
After a quiet breath, she said, “Sorry. What I meant was that you were always there for me when I was dating. I got to dish all my dirty details, but I rarely got to be that person for you. And I want to be that person for you, Harp.”
“Youarethat person for me, Daphne. If I’d had dirty details in college, you woulda been my sounding board.” Unfortunately, she wasn’t wrong about the whole nun-like existence thing.
Mostly, I’d just been too focused on my studies to care about dating. For seven years, all I wanted was to prove everyone in Maple Grove wrong. Prove that I was capable of not only going to university, but excelling there, too.
“Well…” Daphne said, dragging out the vowel. “Now you have some dirty details, right?”
Heat flooded my cheeks.
There were a lot of dirty details. In the last week, Adam and I had spent most of our time here in my bed. When we weren’t working, we were naked. I’d never in my life experienced that level of desire. Never wanted to be with one person doing nothing except exploring each other.
“Okay, fine,” I whispered. “One dirty detail, then I have to get back to work.Pride and Prejudiceis almost fully restored. A few more days of clean up and it should be ready to show Dr.O’Macklin… who has been bugging me nonstop about looking at it?—”
“Harper! Jesus, those are not the dirty details I’m dying to hear.”
“Right, right. Sorry.” I took a deep breath and leaned back on the couch. “Okay, so… Adam has a slight curve upward when he’s, um, you know?—”
“Hard,” she finished for me. “Oh yeah, that’s the best. Just a little curve hits just right.”
“Yes!” I hissed. “I swear when we first had sex when we were 18, it hurt so much, I don’t think I noticed or understood. But now? Oh my god, Daphne. He hits this spot, which I swear I thought was pure fiction that women claimed was true but I was just an outcast of some fake club.”
“Oh no girl. That g-spot club is real. Very, very real.”
“Well… hand me my G-card. I’m officially part of that club.”
Daphne squealed and I could just picture her throwing her hands in the air in celebration. “Yay! I’m so happy for you, Harper. Even if this means I might lose you to the States for good.”
The rough reality of that thought scraped over me, making me edgy and uncomfortable. Just like Jules when I pet her fur in the wrong direction.
I pushed off the couch, pacing into my bedroom, Jules and Verne trotting happily behind me, following. “That’s not what I sa—I mean, I don’t knowwhereI’m going to land after this, Daphne.”
I felt caught between two homes. Two homes that I loved. I missed New Hampshire. I missed my family. And I liked what was happening between Adam and me. But was that enough to give up my Mom and brother and best friend and the life I’d built in England?
“You might come back to London?” she asked, both shock and hopefulness in her voice.
