His Naughty Lessons

** Harper **

As soon as she hung up, Harper had the impulse to talk to Eli immediately and tell him the news. Judging from his earlier text, he probably hadn’t gotten the same phone call yet ... But considering how much the sudden surprise had turned out to be a not-so-desirable end to an otherwise perfect evening for herself, she decided against it. It wasn’t worth it to spoil Eli’s side of the perfect memories as well.

So she waited patiently — with impressively minimum fidgeting — until the next morning arrived at an excruciatingly slow pace.

Their daily meetings were scheduled for smaller groups from Tuesday onward, which meant that she likely wouldn’t see Eli much within regular business settings anymore. But as Harper entered the first conference hall of the day, she still looked around hopefully, trying her luck at finding a familiar figure smiling up at her from the front row. She wasn’t surprised when she didn’t find it.

What she did find, instead, was a smiling Naomi greeting her at their table with a meaningful expression.

"Looking for Eli Sterling?" The marketing lead winked.

Oh. That kind of comment would typically send Harper grappling for excuses or diversions, but today, she couldn’t have asked for a better gossipy opening to help her ease out their updated relationship status. "W-Why would you say that?" she replied with a hint of shyness that came almost too naturally. "Is it that obvious?"

Naomi’s wink turned into a full-on laughter. "Come on, that searching gaze is becoming a new signature of yours! And it hardly takes any guessing, considering how he kept looking at you the exact same way yesterday in our other meetings."

Now, that was a piece of news Harper hadn’t expected. Eli had been looking at her like that during the meetings before? To be honest, it was precisely the goal she had in mind when she strategically chose her dress and perfume and seating yesterday. But once the presentations started, she had been too busy taking notes to pay attention to how well she had achieved that goal ...

"Aww, look at that smile on your face, so sweet!" Naomi interrupted her musing with a chuckle. "Last time I checked, I thought you were simply friends with our bigshot partner ... But from the look of it," — another meaningful glance — "is that still the case?"

Harper tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. The light flutters in her heart at this point weren’t a pretense — it was a real deal now, to admit that she had truly moved on from that "friends" category. "Well, this trip does make things ... a bit different, with everyone being so close together now." She smiled again. "And I mean, we haven’t seen each other in years until recently, so a lot of what’s happening right now is ... not exactly what I expected when you asked last time."

"Holy sh—" Naomi cut herself off before the non-work-safe word escaped. "Wow, I knew there must be something going on!" She lowered her voice to a conspiring one next. "How’s your progress? Do you need any help? Heck, it would be amazing to see someone like that fully invested on our side for multiple reasons!"