Page 92 of Harper's Holiday Romance

Had something? Was she delusional?

“Was that before or after you realised I was a distraction and a fling.” I shouldn’t have said it. I regretted the words instantly.

“Where did you hear that?” she snapped back.

“It doesn’t matter.” I stood up to leave. I didn’t have the strength to argue, and I didn’t want to face the obvious truth. “I think we should just call a shovel a shovel and both walk away.”

Julia smirked.

“Why are you smiling?”

“You meant call a spade a spade, not a shovel a shovel.”

“Same thing, and not relevant.” Damn my inability to remember figurative expressions. I didn’t want to break the cold façade I’d erected to protect my heart the second she’d walked over, but that was easier said than done.

“Please, don’t walk away.” She reached for my arm.

“This.” I flung my arm back and forth like a complete imbecile. “Isn’t going to do either of us any good, Julia.”

I turned to walk away again. If I stayed much longer, I was afraid I might fall into her arms and confess feelings that would only hurt me in the long run. I had to stay strong, vacate the area, and cry into my marquesita alone.

“At least tell me who told you?” Julia yelled. “Was it Natalie? Did you see her?” Julia asked.

I was frozen in place. My back turned. My eyes darted from one open space to the next, hoping we weren’t someone’s evening entertainment. The only thing I hated more than having to talk about my feelings was someone watching me talk about them.

“Harper, please.”

“No, I didn’t.”

The silence cast a net around us like a dark cloud in the night sky. I spun around to check she was still there, and I watched the moment it clicked. Her eyebrows rose causing her forehead to wrinkle and her mouth to open in the shape of the letterO.

“You overhead us, didn’t you?”

I nodded.

“Shit.” Julia sighed. “I wondered why you didn’t come over last night, but I guess you did.”

“Yeah, so you can save the lies now. I heard everything you had to say.”

“What makes you think I would lie?”

“Everybody lies, Julia.”

“Tell me what I’ve lied to you about?”

“I’m not doing this.” I shook my head.

“No, go on, please.” Julia folded her arms tightly across her chest. Waiting.

Don’t take the bait. It isn’t worth it. Did she want an argument to make herself feel better? I felt like she wanted me to get angry.

“Enlighten me, Fox.”

Oh. Okay, so she wanted to go back to that. The Julia stood before me resembled the Julia I met in the beginning, the one I called Satan’s mistress, except now I couldn’t unsee her naked body, her soft lips, and her hair falling over my face as she watched me orgasm from above.

Don’t get upset. Don’t get upset.

“What the hell.” I took two steps forwards closing the gap. “You said it didn’t have to end. You said I was the most beautiful woman you’d ever seen. You said you wanted to believe in destiny, and we were pulled together here for a reason. And...” My voice echoed across the open wasteland. “Whilst fucking my brains out on every surface in your hotel room, you whispered in my ear that you didn’t ever want it to end. You played me. You humiliated me. And to top it all off you couldn’t just let me leave; you had to have this chat, to what? Rub it in my face? That’s cold, even for you.”