Chapter 104: Single Dad
** Eli **
Could a day get any worse? Eli squinted up at the blazing sun as he emerged from the exclusive lobby of the lounge, wondering if the answer should be no, it couldn’t possibly be.
He should’ve seen it coming though. All it took was the right questions to ask, the right person to run into, the right revelation to hit. After spending an entire week processing all the complicated and confusing feelings in his head, he shouldn’t be surprised that this was what he arrived at — the reality he had been too much of a hypocrite to admit to himself all along ...
"Eli!"
His steps halted at the familiar voice. What was Harper doing, still coming for him after all that shitshow?
"Eli," she called again, this time making him turn around in his tracks. She jogged up to him, and she looked ... worried, so utterly different from that excited girl painting a silly bird on his face mere moments ago.
"I’m sorry for how things turned out in the lounge," she blurted before she could even fully stop in front of him. "I shouldn’t have done that facepaint on you ... Vanessa wouldn’t have gotten so mad then, and you would’ve been able to talk it out more calmly with her. I—"
"You didn’t do a single thing wrong, Harper," Eli cut her off. How could this girl be such an angel, blaming herself for what happened when she should be the one angry with him? "I messed it up, and it had nothing to do with you. I’m so sorry for getting you dragged into this and" — he ran a hand down his face, offended and ashamed at the same time — "Vanessa had no right to judge you like that."
"... Like what?" Harper stared at him blankly, and it seemed to take her a moment to remember that the other woman had called her a "downgrade". A word that almost made Eli lose it and make a scene right at the center of the club. "Oh, it’s nothing. She was just angry. You should know better than taking angry women’s words seriously." She gave him a lighthearted smile.
Eli was not in the right mood to agree with her though. "She was angry, but rightfully so." He shook his head with a scoff. "And she wasn’t wrong about the other things she said ... about me."