His Naughty Lessons
Chapter 106: You’ve Got It Bad

Chapter 106: You’ve Got It Bad

** Harper **

"So he just ... left?" Chelsea asked in disbelief when Harper returned to the lounge alone.

Harper shook her head. She was still in a state of shock. What Eli had said to her was too much, and she needed time to fully process it. Then she realized that her friend was staring at her, confused by the answer, and she nodded instead.

"What the hell?" Chelsea bristled. "At least he apologized? Tell me he apologized. Though to be honest, an apology is quite far from enough for something as serious as this."

"He did, and he said sorry again for making things awkward between you and your boss." Harper slumped into the seat next to her friend. "I know what you’re thinking, Chelsea, but it’s more complicated than that ..." She shook her head again. "Eli has a hard relationship with his father. For all the years I’ve known him, he’s never talked much about his family, and when you asked him about it just now ... Well, I can’t blame him for feeling down and needing some space."

Chelsea snorted. "You’re too weak for the brooding bad boy trope, Harper. I feel sorry for him too for having a troubled family, but that doesn’t mean he gets a free pass from it to fuck around! How could he go on a date with someone else when he clearly has a thing for you? That’s such an asshole move."

Harper was grateful that her friend felt so indignant on her behalf, yet at the same time, she couldn’t resist the urge to defend Eli. "It was only dinner, not a big deal," she argued, "and in a way, he was doing it for my benefit as well. He made a deal with his father for a business partnership that meant a lot to my project—" Abruptly, she cut herself off, realizing a detail that she had missed in this conversation. "Wait, what do you mean by he ’clearly has a thing’ for me?"

Chelsea darted over a withering look. "You’ve really got it bad if this is the most important thing you want to know right now." She tsked when Harper responded with a sheepish face. "Can you really not tell? The way you guys looked at each other when you painted that chicken on him was the textbook definition of moon eyes. And that smoldering chemistry! If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought he wanted to ditch the game and drag you to a bathroom for some good personal time instead."

Harper’s mouth fell open. Surely Chelsea was imagining it. Had Eli really been looking at her like that? How could she have not noticed?

"And now you look like you wish he’d done precisely that." Chelsea leaned forward, her tone turning serious. "Girl, how far have you fallen for him already? Last time we talked, you said you were ’interested in dating him’. But this" — she gestured at Harper’s face, which was no doubt showing everything going through her mind at the moment — "is obviously much more. Is a guy like him really worth it?"

Instinctively, Harper wanted to argue that Chelsea’s judgment of "a guy like him" was too hasty and unfair. She held her tongue though, knowing that the situation looked bad indeed from her friend’s perspective. First came May’s recount of the master flirt, then the run-in with Vanessa, and to top it all with the mixed signals he gave off to begin with ... It only made sense that Chelsea didn’t trust him.

But Harper wasn’t Chelsea. Harper was herself, the one who had known Eli for more than half of her life. It didn’t matter what everyone else thought of him. The Eli in her eyes was different, and despite his own attempt to persuade her otherwise, she trusted her judgment. She believed in the man who had been one of the most important people to her for over a decade. If his earlier confession had made her feel anything, it wasn’t wariness or disdain like he had expected of her, but rather an overwhelming sense of sadness that he had to go through so much pain back in the day because of his parents. All she wanted to do was to hug him and tell him that everything would be alright from now on.

And if he really was walking away from her like that ...

Harper glanced at the crowd growing thick around them. Everyone was getting excited about the game that was about to kick off, pointing expectantly at the field and speculating, sharing the latest team rumors that only the most hardcore fans would know. But she felt none of the excitement. Wherever she looked, she found herself subconsciously searching for Eli, for the smile on his face that warmed her heart and the heat in his gaze that set her on fire. A strange emptiness lodged inside her when she remembered he had left for good.

Maybe Chelsea was right. She got it bad already.

"Things aren’t really how they look, Chelsea." Harper leaned back in her chair, rubbing her temple. "Eli just told me a lot of things about his parents that I never knew before ... I’ll have to think about what it all means, but honestly, I understand some of these not-so-pleasant surprises now. It’s not all his fault." She met Chelsea’s eyes, letting her friend know that she was serious. "I’m not giving up on him."

She expected Chelsea to roll her eyes. Instead, what she got was a dubious frown. "I thought I was supposed to meet some kind of casual crush of yours today, not to hear such a solemn declaration of unwavering dedication." Chelsea drummed her fingers on the table thoughtfully. "Alright. Then I guess you have a new goal now after everything that just went down. Given the way he was looking at you, I doubt you need to work on seducing him like you originally planned anymore. What you need at this point, my moon-eyed friend, is to convince him to commit."

Harper blinked. "Is that ... an offer of professional advice?" she asked in surprise. "I thought you were still judging his character a moment ago."

"I still am. But my judgment doesn’t change your opinion of him, does it?" Chelsea exhaled dramatically as if she was deciding to make a great sacrifice. "You’re dead set on going for him one way or another, so I might as well be supportive and try to save you some unnecessary pain in the butt. Now, tell me when you’re seeing him next? Let’s figure out a plan."

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