Harper waited for her heart to break, or at least stumble over itself, but it didn’t. Kenzie stood in front of her, and nothing changed.
“What are you doing here?” Kenzie asked finally, an incredulous look on her face. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you in this office again!”
Harper’s fingers tightened around her purse strap. “I’m here for a job interview.”
Kenzie’s plump red lips parted again in surprise. “Oh, really? Why?”
If she was aware of her bluntness, she didn’t show it, her gaze as intense and unwavering as ever.
Harper wanted to shrink, but she didn’t. Wouldn’t. She’d been made to feel small enough by the people in this office, and if she did come back here, she wouldn’t let it happen again. For the first time in her life, she felt worthy of better.Living in a place where she’d been appreciated for who she was, she realised only now, had revived and reinvented her. All that shame and insecurity had never been her burden to bear. She’d just been carrying it around because it had been thrust upon her when she’d been too young to know any better.
She’d thought that it was normal to be treated as less than. Thought she was just a person people tolerated, and that she was lucky to have relationships at all.
It wasn’t true.
Tears pricked her eyes. She was so sad for the past version of her. The Harper who would have stood here and forced kindness, meekness, just to keep Kenzie happy.
But now, what was she even doing here? She’d outgrown this place. It wasn’t her home, and she knew it.
She took a deep breath. “Chris asked me to come back. He invited me to apply for Debra’s position.”
Kenzie’s surprise merged into disbelief. The corner of her mouth twitched with something akin to amusement. Like she knew something Harper didn’t. It made her feel oily.
“No way. Me, too.”
Of course.Of course she hadn’t been the only person in the office considered. Of course, even now, she’d been forced into a race she’d never win. Did Chris even believe she was right for the job, or did he just like to keep his staff, past and present, on short strings for a bit of fun?
“How did it go?” Kenzie tipped her head towards Chris’s door.
“It was fine. It went well.”
“Good!” Kenzie’s tone was forced. Harper knew the sound well; she’d often used it among friends she didn’t truly like, colleagues she’d later complain about having to spend time with. “Hey, if you get the job, perhaps we could sit down for coffee or something? We’ve lots to catch up on. I saw you took a trip down to Devon. How nice!”
“It was up to Scotland, actually.” And then Harper frowned, focus zooming in on Kenzie’s earlier words. “Onlyif I get the job?”
“Well, yeah…” Kenzie chewed on her bottom lip. “It would be a bit inappropriate otherwise. I’m in a new relationship—”
“I know.” But it wasn’t lost on Harper that her job status was the only reason Kenzie might want to talk. For two years, she’d thought they’d been in love, and this was what it had whittled down to? A chat over coffee, but only if Harper got the job Kenzie was also vying for? Only on her terms?
It was bullshit, all of it. She’d done the same with Debra. They’d been the best of friends, heading out to lunches together so that Kenzie would always be the front runner for the best projects and the new training courses. She’d bet that, now Debra was gone, Kenzie wouldn’t even bother with her – or maybe she would, if her new job was as fancy as Chris had bitterly made out.
Either way, it was fake. It depended only on what Kenzie could gain from it. Harper found herself wondering how she hadn’t seen it all sooner. She’d been so in love with the strong, successful woman in front of her, outspoken and full of ambition and drive,that she hadn’t realised the cost of those qualities. The thorns adorning the roses.
“Things with Michelle are actually quite wonderful,” Kenzie continued in a chirpy tone. “She’s so great. She runs one of the most successful real estate businesses in the northwest, you know!”
“I don’t think I asked,” Harper stated bluntly.
Kenzie blinked, stunned. “Well, there’s no need to be so rude. I just thought you’d like to know.”
Harper shook her head. She didn’t want this. She didn’t want to work with, for, or above Kenzie. She didn’t want to sit in this office. She didn’t want to spend her entire day promoting fixtures and fittings that were, quite frankly, only meant for colourblind grandmas.
She wanted to go home and cry, and then she wanted to figure out what the hell she was going to do with her life. She wanted to get back her laptop that she’d stupidly forgotten in Scotland, and finish her story. She wanted to say a proper goodbye to the friends she’d quickly learned to love: Eiley, Cam, Andy, Dot, Sorcha, Alice, Bernard.
Fraser.
Even if he didn’t want to hear it, she needed the closure.
She deserved it.
