Chapter 239: Threat or Promise?
** Harper **
They spent the next couple of hours working on that living room together, running back and forth and hopping up and down. The whole project must’ve ended up taking way longer than Eli expected, especially considering how easily Harper got distracted all the time by the various games that tickled her memories, or the unfairly adorable plushies that always rendered her defenseless.
"Awww, look at this cute thing with huge bubbly eyes!" she marveled as she pulled out a tofu shaped cat plush, still wrapped up with baby blue tissue paper in its shipping box. Those innocent, round golden eyes that took up half the space on its face made it look so irresistibly huggable. "How did you know this is exactly the type of kitty I like?" She immediately wrapped her arms around the plushie, giving it a cuddly squeeze.
Eli looked back from the entertainment center, which he had moved left and right at least ten times in an attempt to find the best position against the wall. "That one? Because I’ve seen you keep staring at it." He smiled at her silly excitement. "Do you not remember? At the amusement park last time, your eyes were pretty much glued to this thing when we were in the gift shop. I know you tried to hide it so that I wouldn’t judge you for acting like a little kid, but you did a bad job and it was so obvious."
Ugh. Did she really?
"... Maybe that was my plan to get you to buy it for me all along." Harper made a face, trying to cover up the fact that he was completely right — as much as she tried to pretend otherwise, she was totally a little kid when it came to cute and fuzzy things like this.
"What about this one then?" She nodded at a white fox with a big fluffy tail perched on the other side of the sofa. It was adorable too, but with a unique design she had never seen before. She highly doubted it was possible that he had caught her drooling over the same stuffed animal in a store.
"It’s the second part of the series to that limited edition bunny you had back home." The smile on Eli’s face turned a bit uncertain this time. "I mean, I know you’ve had the bunny for over a decade, so if you aren’t into this style anymore, feel free to get rid of it ... But just saying, I thought the image of a fox fits you much better than a bunny these days."
... How had he managed to remember all these trivial details about her for all this time?