Page 64 of The Best Man: Unfinished Business

Chapter Forty

Harper

“‘Make me sweaaaat, make me hotaaa, make me lose my breath, make me wataaaa…’?” Harper sang along to a Tyla playlist that had him feeling himself in Robyn’s kitchen.

His dredging bowls of egg, flour, and panko breadcrumbs were also haphazardly placed, leaving remnants all over Robyn’s counters.

The cutting boards; mallet for pounding cutlets; green sprigs of oregano, fresh parsley, and basil were all dotted around, plus bowls and plates for serving.

He had his iPad propped up on a book stand with the chicken paillard recipe he was following on an open web page filled with bright photographs of the finished dish.

Harper could pretty much do it by heart, but he didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

He wanted the flavors and textures to be as good as possible.

The fifth piece of flattened chicken was browning in the skillet, and Harper had the tongs at the ready while jamming out and slicing fresh tomatoes and shallots for the salad.

He was in a great mood and in his own world when he heard the front door close.

He looked up moments later to see Robyn enter the kitchen.

She walked slowly and with a reticent look on her face.

“Hey!” Harper greeted her over the playlist. “Welcome home!

“Hi.” Robyn’s reply was terse. Her energy did not match his at all. She must have had another stressful day at work, Harper thought. Nothing that a glass of wine, a good meal, and some welcomed financial relief couldn’t cure.

Robyn surveyed the area with a bit of an attitude. “What’s going on here?” Robyn gestured at his setup.

“Just making dinner,” Harper said proudly.

“I know it’s a mess, but I’ll handle it.

Promise. You will not have to lift a finger.

You want a drink? Glass of wine?” Harper grabbed a couple of bottles he’d picked up, making sure they weren’t from Kwesi’s vineyard.

“I have a red and a white,” he declared, holding one up in each hand.

Robyn didn’t respond. She instead walked toward Harper and turned off the music he was playing, right in the middle of a good lyric.

Harper looked at her with curiosity. “You want to hear something else? I can find something. Or feel free to put on what you like,” Harper said, being decidedly unselfish. “It’s your house.”

Robyn said nothing, made her way over to the stove, and abruptly shut off the burner underneath the browning chicken.

Harper looked at her now with disbelief.

“Um, is the flame too high? Because that’s not quite finished…

” Robyn turned to him, stood there, and focused on him with an intense glare.

“Is everything…?” Harper began, but didn’t need to finish. Robyn lifted her phone.

“What’s this?” she said calmly, but coldly.

Harper studied her face for a beat before shifting his focus to the image on her phone screen.

It was a photo. Oh…shit. It was the photo.

That photo. The photo of him and Jordan that he had taken so carefree and sent so flippantly out of…

spite, revenge, some stupid tit-for-tat petty high school behavior?

The photo that was never supposed to reach Robyn before he’d told her the truth.

Well, it certainly reached its intended target, but the reasons behind it already seemed so juvenile and so long ago.

Harper saw the look on Robyn’s face and tried to explain, but—

“Oh” was all that he could eke out. Robyn remained steadfast and unblinking.

“What is this, Harper?” she reiterated. How does she have the photo?

he wondered, his mind racing through each of the days of the past week.

How had he not already had this conversation?

Harper was supposed to bring it up when he’d first arrived.

The longer he stayed, the easier it became to put it off.

But he should have come clean. What an idiot.

“Look, Robyn. It’s complicated—” Harper began.

“It always is, Harper,” she said. “It always has been.” Robyn shook her head and walked into the sunken living room. All Harper could do was follow and try to gather his defense. “So how long has this been going on?”

Harper’s stomach churned as if he were still married to Robyn and needed to explain himself.

“Look, it’s something that happened…I was in LA having some meetings, we had dinner and things happened…

” Harper said, not knowing at all how to characterize to Robyn those fifteen days that he’d spent living out his dreams of thirty years.

“?‘Things,’ Harper? ‘ Things ’? You guys had sex. You fucked her,” Robyn accused. “Right?”

Harper looked around and stepped closer to her so as not to have Mia hear their conversation. “Hey, can we keep our voices down…” he pleaded. But Robyn pressedon.

“When were you going to tell me about this? You’re so busy in my business you didn’t disclose yours?”

“I was going to tell you. It’s one of the reasons I came. To tell you in person, before…” Harper gestures to her phone.

“What? Before I saw this? You’ve been here for a week, Harper.” Harper shook his head, mad at himself for not finding a way to express what had happened and what was happening, what was going to happen if he could stop messing thingsup.

“Look, I’m sorry. I should have said something before now. But I don’t…even know…what’s happening right now with her.”

“With her ? With you, Harper. With the two of you, ” Robyn spit back.

“You are exactly the same. Hiding information, acting like ‘nothing’s happening,’ ‘nothing’s going on.

’?” Robyn shrugged in her imitation of Harper.

Harper could do nothing but take the hits that he deserved.

“Why not just tell me? We’re divorced. What the fuck does it matter?

” Harper didn’t have a defense for his actions.

Explaining any or all of it wouldn’t justify his silence or the delay.

It was just going to sound lame. But he had to try.

“I should have…I just…” He started gesturing and trying to find the right words.

“Just say it, Harper,” Robyn demanded.

“Okay,” he said. “We spent a lot of time together. Catching up, y’know…”

“Fucking,” Robyn stated. Harper returned a look of embarrassment at her coarse language. “Stop it. We’re adults. At least I am.” Harper exhaled. I deserve this, he told himself. He had it coming.

“Yes, we were doing that and hanging out and whatnot. It wasn’t planned. It just happened and one thing led to another. I stayed out there longer than I had planned because of it. And—”

“And you told your friends. But didn’t have the decency to tell me,” Robyn said.

“Well, you didn’t tell me about Brother Mandingo,” Harper shot back. Lame.

“His name is Kwesi and he’s none of your business,” Robyn said. “And is that what this is about? I didn’t tell you about a relationship I’m having that has nothing to do with you? And your petty ass wanted to show me that you couldn’t wait to get with your fucking soulmate?”

“Robyn, please…” Harper pleaded with her to chill on the language. But she didn’t stop.

“It’s a false equivalent, Harper,” Robyn stated. Pointing to the phone, she continued, “This woman has been in the background from the get-go, waiting for her chance at you. And you with her.”

“That’s not true….”

“Stop it. Just stop. Do not gaslight me. Own up to it.” Robyn’s eyes and words demanded a response.

“All I’m saying is I didn’t know that was going to happen.

The way it happened. Okay?” Robyn squinted back at him.

Harper continued his defense. “And I certainly didn’t know she would fly off the handle when I said I had to come here for Mia.

And now she won’t talk to me,” he confessed.

“She hasn’t said anything to me in a week and blocked me.

” Robyn looked at Harper with no sympathy.

No love, but with pity. He knew he sounded pitiful.

He felt every bit of it. They stood in silence looking at one another for a few moments before Robyn spoke again.

“So what are you going to do?”

Harper didn’t expect that question. “About her?”

Robyn widened her eyes back at him with a shrug, as if to say, “Yeah, nigga. Her.”

“I don’t really know. Like I said, it’s complicated.”

“No, it’s not. Go be with her. Go be happy. It’s what you’ve been wanting…”

“Robyn—” Harper started to explain that it couldn’t possibly be as simple as that when Mia breezed into the room wearing her headphones and scrolling on her phone.

“Oh, hi, Mom,” Mia said. “Hey, Dad, is dinner ready?”

Harper stood stunned, wondering what if anything his daughter heard of their very adult conversation, but her headphones gave Harper a sense of comfort that possibly she hadn’t heard anything at all. .

“Hey, baby,” Robyn said to Mia. “Take those headphones off, please. You know how I feel about that…And you know the rules.”

Mia started to protest, but Harper cut her off.

“Do what Mom says, please. And go wash your hands.”

“I washed them already. They’re clean…” Mia showed her hands to her parents as proof.

“Wash them again, then…after you remove your headphones,” Harper said sternly. “And then we’ll eat. Okay?”

“Fiiine.” Mia rolled her eyes, did an about-face and exited the room.

Robyn headed toward her bedroom. Harper called after her.

“Hey.” Robyn turned back to look at him with eyes that could kill. “Table this until later?” Robyn scrunched up her face. Harper continued, “And there is something else I want to mention—”

Robyn held up her hand. “There’s nothing else to say, Harper, I’m done.” With that, Robyn exited the room, leaving Harper with the scent of garlic and the sound of the exhaust fan over the stove.