Beyond Compare (h.e.s)

part nine

Angela, my boss Casey, and I are all sitting at lunch on Wednesday when our conversation takes an unexpected turn.

"Isabelle, is Harry seeing anyone?" Casey asks, causing me to nearly choke on my burger.

I take an extra big bite to give myself enough time to be nonchalant about Harry, but that only buys me a few seconds, when I really need a few years, maybe the rest of my life.

"Ummm…" I shrug. "No."

I say the word slowly and strangely because the lie doesn't really want to come off my tongue. It's a strange feeling; I'm still not comfortable talking about my personal life to anyone except my close friends, and barely them most of the time. But I feel like I can't hide this thing between Harry and me for too much longer.

I feel like I may not want to hide it for too much longer. However, I've never been the gushy girl, and although I do consider both Casey and Angela friends, they're still co-workers, so my keep my mouth shut.

"Oh good!" Casey says. Good? Why the hell would that be good? "I want to set him up with my friend, Gianna." That's why.

"You do?" My voice sounds all weird and shaky, like I've swallowed a bunch of pop rocks but they're stuck in my throat.

"Yeah, she's really great," Casey says. I tell myself calmly that it doesn't really matter. Not only will this set up probably never happen, but if Casey ever did ask Harry, he'd say no.

"Is she the wildlife photographer?" Angela asks.

"Yeah, she just got back from a shoot in the Amazon rainforest."

Okay, he loved Anaconda, but that was probably more for JLo's ass than anything. He'd say no. He wouldn't be interested in this Gianna chick.

"That's amazing," Angela says. I nod woodenly in agreement. "Wait, she's also the part time model right?"

For the love of God.

"Yes," Casey says, nodding. "But she donates all the money she makes from her modeling job to charity."

Goddamn, when did people stop being normal and doing just one thing? Like say, working at a real estate agency.

"So anyway, I just think they'd get along fabulously. Harry's such a wonderful guy, he's funny, and there's no doubt she'd find him attractive," Casey says.

Angela giggles. "Seriously. Iz knows what a crush I have on him."

Casey grins. "Who doesn't? If I were ten years younger, I would hit that daily, nightly, and ever so rightly."

I nearly choke on my burger again. I mean, I'd always known women find Harry attractive; I'm not that much of an oblivious dumbass. But approaching this from a different side—the side where I get to hit it daily, nightly and ever so rightly, as Casey so aptly put it—feels weird. I'm half proud over the fact, half sort of annoyed, because he's mine, god damn it.

Luckily, Angela speaks again. Not so luckily, she says, "Honestly, there's no doubt that he'd find her attractive either—she's go-o-orgeous." Apparently, she's so gorgeous, Angela had to add extra syllables to the word.