His Naughty Lessons

** Harper **

It was Harper’s turn to choke on her first sip of coke. Alright, she obviously hadn’t thought nearly that far. Never mind the terrible suggestion then — she certainly wasn’t that selfless!

Eli, who fortunately did not follow their lead and choke on his food as well, cleared his throat. "I could certainly pull some strings and get an extra invitation without giving myself a plus-two, Harper." He gave his girlfriend an amused wink when Chelsea wasn’t looking, and Harper felt her cheeks burn at the thought that she had almost just rented him out. "Though the better question is not whether I can, but whether I should."

Turning back to Chelsea, he put on a more serious face and explained, "You’re probably aware of the complicated business relationship between Voyage Bank and Sterling Trust. When people meet you at the gala, they’ll inevitably ask who you are and where you got the invitation from. Are you sure you want to brandish how close you are to Sterling while you work at Voyage? Because frankly, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get you in without the connections pointing right back to me."

"Oh pfft, I don’t give a damn if you don’t." Chelsea rolled her eyes. "Since my boss is obviously already assuming that I’m aboard the enemy ship now, might as well show her how I do it for real. And who knows, maybe that’ll even open up new doors for me like you said and get me out of her clutches someday ... Although I’ll definitely miss the Champions Lounge access at the baseball stadium when that happens."

Harper snorted at the last addendum — clearly, she herself wasn’t the only person here making questionable judgements today. "Are you serious? Don’t let that lounge access lock you in with such a fudge of a boss! Eli can always get you into whatever lounge you want, and you won’t even have to hang out with people you hate in exchange. Think about it, if your boss is seriously penalizing you for just being at the scene and witnessing her looking embarrassed, shouldn’t it be your wakeup call that she’s not the right person to work for in the first place?"

"Perhaps. Or perhaps you just want to get me as far away as possible from your love rival." Chelsea smirked.

"Alright, let’s start with getting the invitation first before planning your dream life three years down the road," Eli came to the rescue. "It’s probably hard to add a brand new invitee to the event at this point, but there are a few people I know who likely don’t have a date, so I can work with that. Sorry again for getting you into this, Chelsea. I hope everything works out the way you want and can make us even in terms of the collateral damage debt."

He raised his glass to suggest a toast. However, the look on Chelsea’s face suddenly turned ... a bit calculating, and she darted an interesting glance between her two companions at the table.

"Oh my dear sweet lovebirds, you have no idea how much more new favor you just owed me from last weekend, speaking of debts." The girl tilted her head and grinned at Harper. "How’s your brother, by the way? Is he still giving you guys trouble for your web novel?"