My eyes instantly darted to the signature on the bottom left to confirm what I already knew, Harper Maxwell.
I stepped out to the backyard and peeked over at the guest house, remembering our night there together. Smiling for the first time in weeks when I realized she had known it was me all along, came looking for me, finding me in the shower.
That sinking feeling returned.
It was all real. It was all for me.
Me:Saw the front page of Sports Time...It’s phenomenal, Harper.
That was stupid. So were the other three or four messages I’d sent her in the last few days since I left Troy’s hospital room on Saturday.
Me:Can we please talk when you’re back?
“I’ll take a large Touchdown please.” I stood in front of the bar at Brooklyn Lines Café, watching Harper’s friend Nicole work the counter solo.
She flipped her head back, finding me. There was a pause before she answered. “Be with you in a minute.” She finished what looked like a premix of iced tea and set it in the refrigerator. Then started a double shot of espresso for my drink, I assumed.
Avoiding eye contact, she moved to the register. “Anything else?”
“Yes. You can tell me where Harper is.”
“Oh can I?”
“It would be most helpful.”
She simply blinked, clearly uncharmed.
“Look I know I screwed up, and I’ve tried calling, but—”
Nicole rolled her eyes. “Yes I know, I’ve been getting your messages.” She pulled out what looked like Harper’s phone from under the counter, waving it at me. “Had to finally shut the thing off.”
“You have her phone?”
She turned to pour the steamed milk into my drink. “Yep, left it in my car when I tried taking her to the airport but she just haaaad to make a pit stop at the hospital.”
I tried to see anything but blurred objects around me. “So, there’s no way of reaching her?”
“Not for you, there isn’t.” She slammed my drink on the bar.
“You were a lot nicer to me when we first met,” I wiggled a finger at her and grinned, desperate to charm her in any way I could.
“I give everyone the benefit of the doubt until they prove me wrong,” she deadpanned.
My head dropped with a nod, annoyed but grateful for someone looking out for Harper when I failed to. I knocked on the bar twice, but not quite ready to leave.
Larry the security guard approached us. The man had already made a few hundred from me by letting me sneak in here without an appointment.
“Hey Nic, you ready?”
She smiled at him and removed her apron. “Let me just tell Frankie I’m heading out early and I’ll be right out.”
Nicole disappeared through an office door behind the bar and Larry fist-bumped me. “Been trying to go out with this girl all week. Hard since she’s the only one here now.”
“Harper will back soon, right?”
Larry frowned. “Not unless she’s coming for a visit. She quit last week.”
I was afraid of that. I knew it was probably in her best interest. But now she had zero ties to the city, and I had no way of finding her.
