Chapter 57: A Good Candidate
** Harper **
Chelsea appeared to have frozen for a moment. The taco in her hand hung still, and she stared at Harper as if the words that just came out of her mouth made completely no sense.
"You ... what?" she asked at last. "Is this a hypothetical situation or ... some kind of a real guy?"
"... Um, real, of course?" Harper hadn’t expected that reaction. "How would a hypothetical situation help with my writing dilemma?"
Chelsea continued to look thoughtful as she finished the rest of her taco. Then her eyes widened in sudden realization. "Holy shit. This is about that Eli guy, isn’t it?"
"..." Right, this was the problem with having best friends — they know you so well that you really can’t keep a single secret from them, because it was simply too easy to guess it from the smallest signs. "I didn’t say that." Harper gave it a feeble attempt to talk around the truth.
But it was too late. Chelsea had already seen through the cover story. "No, you didn’t say that," she grinned, "but we already know you’ve gotten much better at certain hot scenes in your web novel ever since he started helping you, and you just admitted that I was right in saying you need better personal experience to write better romance. So ..." She let out an incredulous gasp. "Wow, Harper! You know I was only joking when I asked if he was good in bed, right? I didn’t think you’d actually—"
"Ok, ok, you’ve made your point." Harper hurried to cut her off before more embarrassing words slipped out. "Geez, Chelsea, it’s not like that! I’m not sleeping with him!" She lowered her voice on the last part so that no one else would hear them.
Chelsea only looked back with a "yeah, yeah, sure" face.
Harper sighed. "Anyway ... so you’ll help me with this?" At least they could get back to the issue without disguises now that the cat was out of the bag. "It was part of your suggestions the other day too, if you still remember. You said I should take good advantage of our history as childhood sweethearts ... and I’m liking that idea now." She paused for a second, feeling the anxious thrill of letting the truth out. "I want to date him."
"Aww." Chelsea sipped her drink with a dramatic batting of her eyes. "That sounds so sweet ... But, nope, to your question. I’ve changed my mind about that part of the suggestion."