Chapter 56: Win Him Over
** Harper **
Harper was reluctant to put the rest of her clothes back on, but she gave in at the end. The two of them dressed, went back to the living room, and finished the dinner they had abandoned midway. She kept up the game and fed Eli desserts a few more times, miraculously managing to only make a mess once, and they had a good laugh about the suggestive shape of the smudge that the strawberry juice made on his jeans.
She secretly wished that she could use it as an excuse to keep his ruined clothes. It’d be a fair exchange for her underwear, right?
After he left, she padded back to her bedroom and hopped back into the bed. Instead of getting right back to her computer and her web novel like she typically did, she closed her eyes, and started thinking about this unreal evening that had just passed.
Or rather, about the entire past week that she had been too busy to examine closely with a focused mind.
These "lessons" had started taking a somewhat unexpected turn. She had noticed signs from last weekend, when Eli looked at her on that sofa with such heated intensity, but still, she hadn’t anticipated things to go up in full flames this quickly. What they had done today felt ... intimate, in a different way. Even as inexperienced as she was, she knew that there was something else happening in this room, not just simply a physical demonstration of "how to do sex scenes right".
Was it her buried crush from all those years ago finally catching back up with her? Or ... was this something new that had just grown out of their refreshed friendship?
Was it just her, or did Eli feel it too?
In all the years they’d known each other, Harper knew that Eli had never seen her in a "desirable" sort of way. She had always been the good girl next door, his best friend’s little sister. Ever since this "practice arrangement" started, she had been reminding herself that this was the reality she’d accepted long ago, and that a few intimate touches weren’t going to change it. That even when she occasionally glimpsed a different side of him, it meant nothing more than a casual flirt that he was all too used to offering, just like what May said about his habits around the other girls on their editorial team. But then ... There would come moments like last week or today, when he kissed her with so much passion or looked into her eyes with so much desire, that she’d feel a sliver of hope dance inside her despite all the odds.
What if there was a chance for things to change, after all?
Besides, the connection between them hadn’t been merely physical. Back at the amusement park, it had been so easy to spend time with him, simply enjoying his company, and she could sense that he felt the same. They had screamed, laughed, strolled along the seaside in complete silence, and all of it had felt natural and comfortable. She had even held his hand ... although, well, that was on the roller coaster and perhaps not the most romantic way to do it, but it had happened nevertheless, and he clearly didn’t mind.