Page 38 of Emergency Exit
Her phone rang, and she blinked at the face it showed.
“Harmony?” she asked, picking up.
“Hey, Harper! You picked up!”
“Um… yeah? Is everything OK?” She hadn’t talked to Harmony since before leaving Denver. She’d been hurt by Harmony’s no-show on moving day and hadn’t bothered to text to say she’d left the state.
“Yeah. Oh, yeah. I’m fine. I just…” There was silence on the phone, and Harper didn’t know what to say. “God, this is awkward,” Harmony muttered quietly, and Harper wasn’t sure she was supposed to respond. “I ran into your mom.”
“OK,” said Harper.
“She said you’d moved to Seattle and were dating someone.”
Harper wasn’t sure about her relationship status, but she thought she and Ash could at least be considered in a situationship.
“Well, yes?”
“Um… I wanted to apologize,” said Harmony, all in a rush. “I didn’t realize… I should have helped you move.”
“Oh!” Harper felt immediately better about the conversation and Harmony. “Thank you for saying that. It hurt my feelings that you didn’t help.”
“I’m sorry! But Cooper called and said that you were being stubborn and not to help because you weren’t really moving.”
“But…” Harper scratched her head. Cooper had been the one who said that if she couldn’t pull it together, they should break up. “I said I was moving out. What did everyone think would happen?”
“He seemed convinced that you weren’t really moving andthat if we helped you move, we’d just be helping you move back.”
“I don’t actually have a response for that,” said Harper. “I said I was moving.”
“I know! But I didn’t think you were serious. You and Cooper seemed like such a solid couple. I thought you two would work it out. And then I thought you were mad at me. Cooper always made it sound like we shouldn’t rock the boat if Gary wanted to stay in with his group.” Gary was Harmony’s fiancé and worked in Cooper’s division at the bank. “And you deleted all your socials, so I didn’t know that you moved, you know, out of state.”
“I don’t know why Cooper would say any of that.”
“I don’t know,” said Harmony. “He was really embarrassed about the whole baseball game thing.”
Harper sank down lower in her seat.
“Personally, I thought it was kind of funny, but bros be tripping, so who knows.”
“I just thought it was best if I got out of Denver for a while,” said Harper.
“Well, it does make a break-up stick,” said Harmony in a prosaic tone. “But Seattle! That’s cool! Is it as rainy as they say?”
“Currently,” said Harper, looking out the window. “Yes.”
“And you’re dating?”
“Well, yes, although…” Harper hesitated. She wanted to talk about Ash, but she wasn’t sure Harmony was the right person. “I kind of think maybe he’s… I’m just getting some crossed signals. I’m not sure where he’s at.”
“Oh, Harper,” said Harmony, with a laugh. “You know you’re dating incompetent. You couldn’t even figure out Cooper was proposing, and he was down on one knee.”
“I was at a baseball game! I didn’t think he would do that there! And he didn’t ever say he was thinking about proposing!”
Harmony laughed. “He let you move that weird coffee table into his house. If that didn’t say he was serious. I don’t know what would.”
Harper gritted her teeth. “Hey, I’m just pulling up at work. I’m going to have to hang up.”
“At work?” Harmony sounded confused. “Well, OK, I guess they’re keeping you busy.”
