The Long Day Is Over

'When does Bristol leave?'

Harper glanced over to the kitchen, where Bristol was making them dinner after Harper suggested that they order in for the fourth night in a row. Apparently, there's a limit to how often one can have their food cooked for them, Harper wasn't really sure what that was all about.

She responded to Roman with ease.

'Tomorrow morning :('

She smiled at his response.

'You'll survive, besides, just think, three weeks and you'll be back here in Nashville.'

'Three weeks is a very long time.'

'It'll go by soon enough.'

Her only response was a crying face emoji and then she stuffed her phone into the pocket of her sweater and got up from the couch, approaching the kitchen. Bristol must have heard her coming because she warned her, "If you're coming to try to sabotage dinner so that you can order pizza don't bother."

"I would do no such thing." Harper stated, making Bristol let out a laugh at her.

"You would." Bristol told her.

"Yup, I'm definitely the fun half of the Twisted Sisters." Harper stated with a nod of her head for good measure.

Bristol let out a laugh and turned, pointing the soup ladle at Harper as she said, "Watch it, you only get so much leeway while sick and being that you're practically all better by now means that leeway is almost non-existent."

Laughing Harper told her, "You do not scare me... what was your nickname in high school again... what was it... oh, that's right, Prissy Brissy."

"That was the dumbest nickname ever. When have I ever let anyone call me Brissy?" Bristol asked and Harper shrugged her shoulders.

"Yeah, well, you know... it was the early 2000's and we weren't in the popular crowd. That meant we got the nicknames that weren't cute and funny." Harper reminded her, adding in, "I seem to remember your brother having to walk us home every day for an entire school year in the fifth grade."

"Speaking of Rachel Perry... guess who I ran into a month or two ago."

"I'm gonna guess Queen Bee herself." Harper stated and Bristol nodded.

She told her, "Yeah... she's a teacher now... as if that thought isn't horrifying."

"Who would let her teach their children? Yikes." Harper said, and then she stopped and added, "That was mean... wasn't it?"

"Nah. That bitch threw your backpack in a toilet, that's a lifetime worth of mean comments." Bristol told her and the two of them burst into laughter.

Harper leaned her head on Bristol's shoulder and spoke softly to tell her, "I'm really glad we haven't grown apart. I know it's a thing, like you're not supposed to be friends with the friends you grew up with by the time you're our age but I'm glad we still are."

"You can't get rid of me that easily. You tried by moving across the fucking country but air planes exist for a reason my friend." Bristol informed her, making the two of them laugh. Curiously Bristol asked her, “How is lover boy? I know that was him you were texting, your not so super-secret smile gave it away.”

Rolling her eyes Harper told Bristol, “Good, I assume. He kind of spent the entire conversation trying, and mostly failing, to convince me that the next three weeks will go by super fast.”

“They will.” Bristol told her. Adding in with a grin, “You’ll go to bed tomorrow and wake up in Nashville.”

“Yeah, sure. If only it really worked that way.” Harper stated, adding in, “You know, I hate you and John.”

“What did we do this time?” Bristol asked her in amusement.

“I liked my life of solitude. I liked working, and coming home and catching up on TV and ordering in and eating diner food and taking the world’s longest naps. It was fun, I enjoyed my life like that.” Harper told her, and then after a second of silence where Bristol was waiting for the added statement Harper said, “Now I’m just sad and lonely and pathetic all of the time because I actually have things to look forward too and people in my life I’m excited to talk to be and be around and it makes my day ten times longer because I can’t get my mind off of them. So yeah, I hate you guys for introducing me to Roman.”

“I mean, technically speaking James introduced you to Roman.” Bristol pointed out with a wicked grin on her face.

Harper reached her fingers into the dish water in the sink and flicked the water at her, before she told her, “You know what I mean.”

Bristol wrapped an arm around her shoulder and she leaned over to press a quick kiss to the side of Harper’s head before she said, “I know. Trust me, Harp, if anyone gets it I do. I’ve done the long distance thing, and honestly, even with John and I living in the same condo it feels the same sometimes.”

“It does?”

Nodding Bristol explained, “He’s gone a lot. Even when they have a stretch of home games I feel like I still barely get to see him. Some days we don’t see each other until one of us is crawling into bed at eleven at night. Don’t get me wrong, I’m practically independent to a fault, I like my alone time and I don’t need him around very often but it gets hard every once in a while. This isn’t a career you get involved with on a whim.”

“I know, and I know my job doesn’t make things any easier but it’s just that… I don’t know, sometimes all I want to do is curl up in bed and cry for a week straight because… and I know this is really pathetic and self-centered of me, but all because I miss the other person that should be asleep next to me but isn’t.” Harper told her honestly.

“Have you told him any of this?” Bristol asked her curiously.

Shrugging Harper said, “It’s not his problem to deal with, I don’t want to make him feel guilty over something that’s my problem… besides I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

“You gotta be honest with him, even about things like this, it’s the only way your relationship is gonna work. When I’m having one of those days where I just really miss John I tell him, sure, sometimes it starts an argument because he takes it the wrong way but at the end of the day I would rather that happen than for me to just keep feeling that way and having it pile up inside me.” Bristol told her, and a second or two later she added, “You obsess Harper, you get a thought in your head and it’s all you can think about non-stop and it’s not healthy for you.”

“Can’t I just keep telling you my problems?” Harper asked her with a hopeful smile, and Bristol let out a small chuckle.

“You can always talk to me about your problems, but I also think that some problems should be directed to the boyfriend and not the best friend. Do you remember what you told me when I was struggling with John being on the road so much and the stories I kept hearing about road life from the other girls? You told me that I had to stop bitching about it to you and talk to him because it wasn’t like you could validate my feelings on a subject that you had nothing to do with.”

“I hate it when you’re smart.” Harper told her, making the both of them laugh.

- - -

Harper, having had to get up three hours early to drop Bristol off at the airport before heading to the hospital for her twelve hour turned sixteen hour shift was more exhausted than usual. Maybe it was because she was still somewhat recovering from her flu bug, maybe it was just the lack of sleep over the last few days or maybe she was just emotionally exhausted.

As crazy as it made her, she loved him, but their relationship, at times, was exhausting. She was used to being alone, she had been for a long time before he had come into the picture, she had a routine and she hardly ever got lonely but now that things were different and she had someone to miss she found herself lonely almost all of the time. Visiting almost made things worse, if she were being totally honest. She would get used to him being around and then they would have to go back to their real lives and she had to get used to being alone again, it was a cycle she wasn’t sure she liked but what other option was there?

She practically collapsed into a set of two empty seats on the bus, leaning against the window slightly as she pulled her cell phone from her bag and turned it on, a flood of text messages came through half of a minute later.

John had sent her two text messages and his popped up last so she read his first.

‘Thanks for taking care of our girl for a few days, I think, as much as you needed her there she needed a bit of a break too.

Also… do you think I seem like the kind of guy to have a dog?’

She let out an actual laugh at the last one, aware that she probably looked like a maniac but she really didn’t care as she responded back.

‘I am eternally grateful that she came, and that you’re cool with her visiting so much, don’t know what I would do without you guys, for real, no sarcasm there. I mean… what kind of dog are we talking about? You seem like a Chihuahua kind of guy to me.’

The next message was from Bristol, letting her know she was back in Brooklyn and missed her dearly, so Harper sent a quick message back to let her know she was alive and on her way back to the apartment. There were two messages left, one from Steven and the other from Roman, she opted for Steven’s first because she always liked to save Roman’s waiting text messages for last.

‘Haven’t heard from you in a while, just wanted to make sure that you weren’t in a thousand tiny pieces being eaten by dogs in a ditch or something. Jeez, call me back once in a while, I have an aging heart, it doesn’t appreciate being worried so much.’

‘Alive, all in one piece, not being eaten by ditch dogs. I’ve just been a little busy and very frazzled lately. Things have been a little hectic since getting back from Nashville, plus I got sick (totally fine now btw, just a little flu bug don’t have a heart attack) but I promise I will keep in touch as much as I can even with the busy three weeks I have ahead of me. Three days off in that entire span of time, so don’t get alarmed if I don’t call.’

She stuffed her phone back into her bag as the bus stopped at the bus stop closest to her apartment, she slung her bag over her shoulder and got up, stepping out onto the sidewalk as quickly as she could. Her bed was calling her name.

A few minutes later she was dragging herself down the hallway of her apartment building, after having dragged herself up the stairs to get to her floor, she unlocked the door and shoved it open, stepping in and letting it fall shut, rather loudly, behind her. She stopped only to turn the lock on the door before tossing her bag on the kitchen island and making her start down the hall to her bedroom.

Stripping out of her work clothes slowly Harper stretched her arms high above her head, let out a yawn and then she put on something comfy knowing she likely wouldn’t bother to change out of it before falling asleep.

She went back into the kitchen in search of her phone, which she pulled out of her bag and held in one hand as she dug through the pantry and grabbed a granola bar, heading back to her bedroom. She sat, knowing if she laid down she would be out in a minute easy, on her bed, back against the headboard, light next to her bed on as she searched through her blankets for the TV remote.

Once she settled on her most recent attempt to catch up on The Good Wife Harper grabbed her phone and located Roman’s waiting messages.

The first was a picture of the TV in someone else’s apartment, some kind of video game, she thought maybe it was Super Mario or something, on the screen. She let out a laugh, boys will be boys.

‘Should be home soon, I’m losing anyway.

Let me know when you’re home, I thought if you were up to it we could FaceTime for a bit.’

So she text him to let him know that she was home, she felt a little guilty at the thought that he might have been waiting four hours for her to respond. It appeared that he had been waiting because a second after she sent that message he had already called her.

Hitting accept Harper ripped open her granola bar and bit into it right when the call went through and Roman asked her in amusement, “Is that a granola bar?”

“It’s a mostly healthy one, one of those oatmeal ones. Bristol made me buy them.” Harper informed him, and he let out a chuckle. She then said, “I’ve actually been eating better, you know, more vegetables and less sugar, but I’m so exhausted I couldn’t even be bothered to heat up left overs.”

“So you’re eating a granola bar for dinner?” Roman asked her, slightly amused but also slightly concerned.

Shrugging she covered her mouth as she yawned and told him, “You try working sixteen hours straight, having your lunch be a cup of shitty coffee and a pack of Gushers one of your patients left behind and tell me how jazzed you are about making anything to eat.”

He let out a laugh, “Fair enough. Long day?”

“The longest, but hey, day one of six of eighteen is done.” Harper told him, yawning a second time. She added, “I just hope that tomorrow there’s less kids and less old people. Would it kill someone in their thirties to come to the E.R for once?”

“What’s wrong with kids and old people?” He asked her curiously.

“Seeing kids in a hospital is just plain sad, and I always get stuck with the elderly patient that dies.” She informed him and when he chuckled she said, “I’m serious. I’m beginning to think that I’m cursed or something. Honestly, my last four shifts I’ve had an old person die on me. I should not be allowed to treat the elderly.”

“Well, I’m not sure you should be allowed to treat children with that attitude either. They’re very impressionable.” Roman joked, and she let out a small laugh at that.

Harper tossed the packaging of her granola bar somewhere in the direction of the garbage can she wasn’t even sure was still underneath her desk and then she asked Roman, “What have you been up to?”

“Nothing really. Had a little team bonding thing at Nealers this afternoon. He says hi by the way.” Roman explained to her.

With a gentle smile Harper asked him, “What did you guys do? Explain to me exactly what this whole team bonding thing is, like what does a typical team bonding session entail? I’ve always been curious.”

Roman laughed and he told her, “Well… typically an actual team bonding thing that management puts together is some kind of activity for team building. But every once in a while as a team we organize things. Shea always organizes a defenseman only dinner every once in a while, sometimes we’ll get a big group of us together and go to a concert or something… but then sometimes we have really low key afternoons like today where we just get together, share a meal, play some video games and unwind, no hockey talk. It all depends.”

“So… let me get this straight… team bonding is really just a bunch of mostly grown men sitting around playing Super Mario all afternoon?” Harper asked him and when he shrugged and then nodded she broke out into a grin and said, “Oh, how cute.”

“And what do you and Bristol do when you two get together?” Roman asked her in amusement.

She held a straight face when she told him, “Get shit faced and FaceTime Steven and his teammates.”

His brow lifted, “Seriously?”

“Sometimes we FaceTime some of John’s teammates. Once we called James… that was fun. He took us out to a bar with him on FaceTime while we were at home drinking.” Harper told him, and then she added in, “But also sometimes we just curl up and watch chick flicks and toss popcorn at each other to see who can catch the most in our mouths because we’re grownups obviously.”

With a laugh Roman said, “Suddenly Super Mario doesn’t seem so nerdy.”

She laughed, and then when her doorbell rang she groaned and muttered, “Go away.”

“You should go answer that.” Roman told her.

“Give me one good reason why I should get up off of this bed to answer that door when it’s probably just my neighbor asking for eggs again because he’s incapable of buying his own groceries.” Harper muttered.

Roman smiled and told her, “Because I ordered you pizza and that’s probably the delivery guy.”

She perked up, eyebrows lifted in surprise, “Are you serious right now?”

“I gave him a tip and everything. Pepperoni and red peppers with extra cheese and I even threw in a Sprite. Don’t say I never gave you anything.” Roman informed her, laughing as she immediately hopped up off of her bed.

As she headed to the door she looked down at his face on her phone screen and she told him with a grin, “I love you like way more than I did two minutes ago.”