Shine On

The next morning, Harper woke up in Rupert’s hotel room. The space next to her was unmade and empty with a note on his pillow. It read, ‘Good morning. I have some interviews today. I’ll talk to you later’ with a smiley face at the end. The drawing of the smile triggered Harper to smile back. She quickly sat up in bed and scanned the room. She spotted Rupert’s suitcase opened in the middle of the room and sighed with relief. For a moment, she thought it was all a dream. She jumped when she heard her phone ringing and buzzing frantically on the side table. She scrambled off the bed and answered, not bothering to look at the caller ID.

“Hello?” She chimed hoping it would be the voice she wanted to hear.

“Where are you?” She heard Mel’s voice yell on the other line. A small part of her was disappointed it wasn’t Rupert’s voice.

“I’m at...” She looked around the room to see if she could see something with the name of the hotel on it. She had no luck. “I have no idea actually. I’m at some hotel. Where are you?” As she put on her shoes, she glanced around the room again looking for her bag.

“Where else would I be? Home! I don’t have a hot actor to whisk me away.” Mel answered in a cheerful tone. Harper hoped that during her drunken hours, she would have forgotten all about meeting Rupert. Unfortunately, her hopes did not come true.

She rolled her eyes. “Ha. Ha. Very funny. I’ll be home in a few.” They said goodbye and hung up. Harper spotted her bag in the corner of the room near the door, right where she dropped it when she came in. She grabbed it stuffing Rupert’s note inside and made her way back home. Every few minutes, she checked her phone just incase she missed a call or a text. The thrill of him being in town hadn’t left her yet.

“So how was it?!” Mel was waiting eagerly by the door when Harper walked in.

“How was what?” Harper played dumb. She threw her bag into her room before going to explore their kitchen.

Mel bounced from the couch to the kitchen practically jumping up and down like a child waiting for ice cream. “What do you mean ‘how was what’? How was your night with Rupert?” She squealed. “How was he?” Her eyebrows deviously went up twice.

Harper shot her a distasteful look. “You’re pathetic.” She wasn’t one to give details about her relationships, not that she had many. She wasn’t about to give up details about this one, especially since she knew Mel’s interest wasn’t because she cared about her friend. She found a box of Cheez-Its on the counter and took them over to the couch with her. Mel followed closely behind, then hopped onto the couch next to Harper watching her avidly. She continued to ask Harper questions about her night repeatedly. “Please, Harpie! Please! Please! Please!”

Harper groaned. “Fine! But you have to promise to keep everything I tell you to yourself. We’re not running a gossip column here.”

Mel clapped. “Okay!”

“Promise!” Harper yelled holding out her pinky finger. Mel nodded excitedly and linked her pinky onto Harper’s.

“So what’s he like?!”

Harper finished chewing and chuckled. “I’ve already told you that. Next question.”

Melody threw her hands in the air. “No! I don’t mean in that way! I mean...well...you know...”

“Out of all of the questions you could ask, that’s the first one you think of?” Harper walked back into the kitchen and away from Mel. Mel followed her again. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but even if I knew that, I wouldn’t tell you.” She put the Cheez-Its back into a cabinet.

Mel hit the counter. “You mean to tell me you have this sexy as hell English actor taking you to his hotel room and you didn’t fuck him?”

“Melody!” Harper exclaimed appallingly. She could feel her face turning red by the second. She began to storm to her bedroom. “I don’t know if you’ve bothered to realize this, but there’s more to some guys than just their dick; some can even carry an intellectual conversation.” Harper yelled sarcastically as she was about to slam her bedroom door closed.

“Harp, wait!” Melody called out. Harper stopped and turned to face Melody. Harper shot her a stern look, her face was still as red as a tomato. They stood in silence as Mel studied Harper for a moment.“He’s not just a summer fling, is he?” Her tone was no longer squeaky and excited, but somber and concerned.

Harper looked down, her heart had sunk down to her stomach. She hadn’t realized this until she heard the words come out of her best friend’s mouth. If he was just some guy she met while away in London, she wouldn’t feel lost without him, she wouldn’t want to be with him every second, he wouldn’t mean this much to her. She looked back up at Mel. “I don’t think so.”

“I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t know.” Mel replied sympathetically.

Harper gave a weak smile. “It’s cool. I didn’t know either.” She went into her bedroom and shut the door quietly before Mel could say another word.