Chapter 218: What If
** Eli **
Tyler tipped back the whiskey bottle and emptied the rest of it. Thankfully, the liquor didn’t seem to be making him angrier at the current conversation — on the contrary, it appeared to have helped him think quite logically, since the topic they were currently discussing was something that Eli himself had never even considered before.
To Eli, being with Harper had always felt easy. Natural, perfect, right. He might’ve had many doubts in the past two months, from feelings to responsibilities and everything in between, but never once had those doubts included this flawless sense of ease. Despite the four years out of touch, she still felt as close to him as ever, as if they had merely hit a pause button the day they last saw each other at his graduation. Now that time had resumed its flow again, everything simply came back and slipped right into its original track, in the same way it was always supposed to be.
But that was because he never knew about the part where Harper had been intentionally ignoring his calls. Or intentionally shunning him out of her life.
"I didn’t try to—" he tried to argue, and paused. He wasn’t sure which word he wanted to use. Seduce her? Mislead her? Manipulate her? He didn’t like the sound of any of the above, and the thought of them being a possibility of what could be happening made his skin crawl.
"Not suggesting that you did anything on purpose." Tyler stared idly at the empty bottle in his hand. "But you know what you’re good at, Eli. Even if you didn’t try, just look at yourself — the package is still there. Remember the days when you said that you couldn’t simply walk across the dance floor without hot chicks falling into your lap? Do you really expect it to be much of a challenge to charm a wide-eyed girl like Harper with what you’ve got?"
Eli couldn’t find a solid counterargument to that.
"I hope you’ll give that some serious thought." Tyler exhaled deeply as he got up from his seat. "I don’t want to sound mean, but I just can’t help imagining what would have happened if Harper had picked someone else when she was looking for ’help’. If she is doomed to fall for someone in such a theatrical way, it would’ve been much better if the guy was at least a good match for her."
Knowing that he had mercilessly killed the conversation at this point, he saw himself out.
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