Buried Wishes ✔

Chapter 24: Bad Harper! Bad Horny Harper!

~ [Harper] ~

Fvck my life.

What is he doing here? Did she do this on purpose? Why? This night's gonna be shit if I have to face him and slap a smile on my lips to lie to Ev, which I hate doing.

Fvvvvvvck!

Okay, Harper. You can do this. You can lie to your best friend. You can look into the eyes of her cheating boyfriend and act like you're not waiting for the ticking truth bomb to explode. Deep breaths.

Deep. Breaths.

"Hey!" Ev greeted me as she pulled me in for a hug. With my chin on her shoulder, I glared at Mason. He gave me a stern and knowing nod before shifting his expression to a smile as Ev pulled away to turn to him.

"Hey, I brought cards," I told her as I pulled out my deck of cards. "Ready for shots?"

"Yeah," she answered with a sheepish grin, "Actually, you two are playing. I'll get the shots!" She turned and left for the bar, leaving the two of us awkwardly standing around.

I sat down in my seat and he sat down across from me. We were still glaring at each other and it was killing me. "What are you doing here?" I almost hissed.

"She thinks we hate each other so all we gotta do is smile until she thinks we're good," he told me in an urgent tone as his eyes darted toward the bar, where a happy Evelyn was ordering a shit ton of shots. Is she just ordering one shot of every liquor she sees? Well, I guess I'm getting shitfaced tonight.

"But we're not good, far from it. And I don't like lying to her anymore than I already am," I gave him my death stare, but he seemed distracted by the situation.

"I don't like it either, but we have to go along with it until she's satisfied, okay?" He suddenly looked relaxed again, leaning back with his loose red tie hanging from the unbuttoned collar of his white shirt. There was a bit of exposed skin right where the shirt was undone and I found myself sucked into the memory of the last time I saw all of him, every inch. It was hot and he took me like a champ.

Wait. What am I doing? I shouldn't be thinking about this. Bad Harper! Bad Horny Harper!

"Okay! So I got like every type of drink I could see," Ev came back with a tray full of shot glasses. "Harp, let's see those cards."

I grimaced as I took the cards out of the pack and started shuffling. Ev and I always played cards when we got drunk, mainly because we've always had an ongoing argument as to who was the better speed player.

"What are we doing?" Mason asked as he kept his eyes on Ev, but based on his stiff expression, I knew his focus was on me. It made me feel all fluttery and uneasy at the same time.

"YOU and Harper are going to play a gazillion rounds of speed, taking a shot every time you lose until you're both friendly enough to smile at each other," she told him with a grin on her face.

"We are smiling at each other, see?" I gave Mason a tight-lipped smile and choked on a giggle when he tried to do the same. "We get along just fine."

Ev rolled her eyes as she gave me narrow eyes. "Just start the game, kid. You can't lie to me."

I pouted as I started laying the cards out, two small stacks with two cards between them, all faced down. I split the remainder of the cards between him and me.

"Okay, go!" Ev announced it like she was one of those flag wavers for racecars.

We played and played until I was pretty sure the jacks and kings were winking at me. I was drunk and I knew he was at least a bit buzzed. Mason really wasn't that bad to hang out with, but of course, I knew that already. I just didn't like to be reminded of it.