Being Harrison Bloom’s Girl

Chapter 5

“Leigh, you’ve got a guest!”

Leigh managed to drag her head up and out from under the covers.

“I don’t want to see anybody. I’m not expecting anybody. Tell them to go away.”

Hana wasn’t about to give up. But then, Hana never gave up.

Determined to get Leigh up and out of bed, Hana stripped the covers off Leigh, making Leigh shriek a little and tug her T-shirt down. It was cold and bright in the room, since Hana had been devious enough to open the window and draw open the curtain before the subsequent treacherous act of pulling off Leigh’s covers.

“It’s not Harrison. It’s a friend. Or so she says – says her name is Emily, and unless you turn up, she’s going to come in.”

Leigh sat up in bed as if she’d been shot.

“What? Em? She’s here? She’s supposed to be in Beijing!”

Hana rolled her eyes.

“I gave you the chance to get up and get yourself presentable. She’s here.”

And right on cue, Emily walked in, wearing her usual baggy clothes, the oversized specs, her hair still wildly curled and shoved into a messy bun that seemed to stay in place because Emily had terrified it into staying still.

“Emily, I thought you were solving mysteries of the South China Sea. Or whatever part of it was in the Beijing labs.”

Emily shrugged.

“I was trying to save those poor dolphins and orcas in those damn tanks. Managed to get one of those stupid water parks closed down, and now that means I’m fired and back here.”

Leigh chuckled.

That was very much like Emily.

“I wondered why you’d joined a firm. You were so anti-corporate before that. We didn’t have much time to talk before you left.”

“We didn’t, and right now, I have to tell you, as your honest friend, that you look like hell. Up, Leigh. And dressed. Now.”

Leigh rolled her eyes, but she felt better.

Something about Emily always made her feel better.

“All right. You’re still as bossy as ever.”

“Don’t fix what’s not broken, right? Now, let’s see… Wow, your wardrobe has changed!”

“Go ahead, make yourself at home,” remarked Leigh wryly, but Emily had already done it, yanking open her cupboard and rifling through the clothes.

“Jeans and this sweatshirt. When did you last take a shower? I know I get pretty damn fruity when I’m off on my research projects, but you have no excuse.”

“I’m a student. That’s an excuse,” grumbled Leigh.

“You’ve sure learned to whine like a student again. Chop chop, Leigh, and then you can tell me why you didn’t reply to my emails.”

“You emailed me?” asked Leigh, as she grabbed her towel and headed off to the shower, as indicated by the imperious Emily.

“Multiple times over the last three days – that’s seventy-two hours, more accurately, our days and nights were different. You always check all your devices, so I knew I had to come and see just what the hell was going on,” confirmed Emily.

Leigh wasn’t sure she had the right words to explain at that moment, so she took the excuse of ducking into the shower and letting the cold water – it was freezing, and the heating was very unreliable – wake her up completely.

She had been letting everything slide, and she thought she could be excused for doing so. After all, she had broken up with Harrison.

She’d never forget the look on his face when she’d hurt him like that.

To be honest, Leigh couldn’t quite believe that she’d done it. She had assumed that they would be together. She’d thought of it as just one of those things – like the sun rising, like the moon waxing and waning. She hadn’t really questioned that, not even when they’d been having trouble.

The fact that they loved each other and wanted to be with each other had always been just that – a fact.

And now it wasn’t.

Was it?

She couldn’t claim to love him after having hurt him like that. But she was hurting, too, which was why she hadn’t been showering or changing or eating. She’d been making it to class, and she’d been keeping up with her work – barely, and with a great deal of help from Hana, who hadn’t pried when Leigh had volunteered no information – but other than that, she hadn’t been doing anything.

That included spending time with Roger. Leigh hadn’t been doing that, either.

She hadn’t been working on the paper she had begged for the chance to redo, too.

She felt unfaithful just thinking of Roger.

Had she broken up with Harrison because of her attraction to Roger?

Leigh couldn’t bear to answer that question. She wasn’t sure if she could answer it with honesty, even to herself.

By the time she got out of the shower, shivering and wrapped in a towel, Emily had tea ready for her.

“Here,” said Emily, her voice soft and her eyes compassionate, and Leigh wanted to hold on to her and cry until she stopped feeling so mixed up inside.

But she didn’t. She just took the tea from Emily and sipped. Soon, Leigh was dressed and out of time.

The idea of lying to Emily, even by omission, didn’t occur to her.

“No rice and pot stickers this time, right?”

Leigh grinned.

“Our kitchen doesn’t really extend to that. But we do have a nice pub that does some simple but excellent food. Come on, it’s almost empty now.”

Emily grinned.

“It should be, it’s barely twelve. But what the hell, we can do pub stuff.”

In a few minutes, they were seated in a booth and had pints of beer in front of them. Leigh figured she could deal with it, for once, and anyway, Emily’s body clock was probably in a time zone where it was perfectly acceptable to drink at that moment.

“Now tell me what’s going on,” said Emily, that direct gaze on Leigh.

Leigh took a deep breath.

“I told Harrison we needed to take a break.”

Emily pursed her lips and was quiet for a moment. It seemed to stretch out till it felt like a tangible thing, a gaping chasm between them.

“Why?”

Leigh sighed and took another sip of the ale that suddenly tasted too bitter.

“It was getting to be too much. I… It’s different, when you’re a student. Life is different.”