Chapter 98: A Web Novel Pickle
** Harper **
If Harper still had any hope that she was overthinking the situation and made a paranoid assumption, her hope was shattered quickly in the next few days.
Another cup of coffee was waiting for her on her desk when she arrived the next morning. This time, she went to Wallace and politely explained after thanking him that she wasn’t interested in any more pretentious coffee. Before she could finish, however, she heard his phone ding again at six minutes to nine, even though she knew he had nothing on his calendar coming up.
The next next morning, they had an early meeting at eight thirty, during which Wallace took the seat next to hers as usual. His phone was set to silence in the meeting room, but at six minutes to nine, Harper heard a distinct buzz from his pocket.
So yeah, she was about a hundred percent positive that he’d subscribed to her web novel updates. Which made working with him in such close quarters increasingly awkward — how should one interact with a coworker who knows all about the NSFW part of your life?
Though apparently, the same awkwardness didn’t apply to Wallace. If anything, the attention he had been giving her in the office ... seemed to only be growing.
He had stopped bringing her coffee, thank goodness. But he did make one more attempt before giving up and asked if she preferred an afternoon cup instead. Somewhat ironically, it was Lindsey who overheard the conversation and brazenly took up the alternative offer, leaving an expression on Wallace’s face that was too complicated to explain.
Then on Wednesday, when the managers sent out word that everyone could go ahead and get their flight tickets for Hawaii, he asked if Harper had picked a departure time and whether she’d be interested in booking the same flight. Naomi joked that he was betraying his own team by not asking them first, and Harper almost felt like she was ruining something important when she said she hadn’t figured out her schedule yet.
On Thursday, when he suggested after another shared meeting that they go grab a quick lunch together ... Harper was starting to feel a bit uneasy about this.