His Naughty Lessons
Chapter 107: Essential Checklist

Chapter 107: Essential Checklist

** Harper **

A few hours later, Harper pulled her purple paisley suitcase out of the closet and stared at its empty insides.

The Chickadees game had passed in a blur. Between playing back in her head everything Eli had said outside the lounge and using the limited breaktimes to fill in Chelsea on the upcoming Hawaii trip, Harper paid little attention to what was happening on the field. Thankfully, Chelsea was being a true friend — although her own enthusiasm over the winning game was almost past the boiling point, she didn’t complain about Harper’s distracting lack of spirit, and instead poured out heaps of relationship advice whenever she could afford to peel her eyes off of the bat.

Most of the advice, of course, centered on how to get an iron hold of Eli’s personal attention during the business vacation.

Harper chewed her lips. Truth be told, she had no idea what it’d be like to see Eli again so soon after that dramatic goodbye. The three hours of the baseball game was enough time for her to fully process everything by now, but the more she thought about it, the more uncertain she felt. Eli was never an outwardly emotional person, and for him to suddenly act like that in front of her ...

Conflicting thoughts battled for dominance in her head. On one hand, she couldn’t help but feel awful for the story of his parents that she just learned. It finally made sense, why he was always alone when they were young and why he became so close to her family instead of his own. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how hard those years must’ve been for him, and she wanted nothing more than to be with him at this moment, to do anything she could to help him take his mind off of those dark memories.

Yet on the other hand, she worried it’d be awkward to talk to him now. Would he try to avoid her, after what seemed like an obvious attempt to push her away and back out of this precariously maintained relationship between them? For some reason she didn’t understand, he seemed to be taking everything way more personally than just a reminder of his family’s past. When he spoke of his father’s other marriage, he wasn’t angry or bitter like she thought he should be. Instead, he seemed ... dejected, and he kept avoiding her eyes as if ashamed. The "playboy" judgment from Vanessa seemed to have hit him particularly hard as well, which was quite unlike him.

Why would he act like that? Was there more to today’s sudden change of events than met the eye?

Harper let out a sigh just as her phone buzzed with an incoming text.

[ Chelsea: Packing yet? Don’t forget the essentials list I made for you. ]

[ Chelsea: And stop sulking, I know that’s what you’re doing. Your man is already doing enough sulking for both of you. ]

An unexpected smile curved Harper’s lips. It was nice to have a cheerful friend like Chelsea at times like this. Remembering the "essentials list" they had discussed earlier at the game, her eyes moved to the drawers holding her summer clothes, where the number one item on the list was sitting right at the top.

It was a bikini set that Chelsea had goaded her to buy during a spring break vacation in Miami. Much bolder than the modest halter styles Harper usually wore, this one had a strapless bandeau top with delicate trimmings that provided just the bare minimum coverage, and a tiny bottom piece that consisted of more strings and bows than fabric. The bright coral and green tropical colors stood out in her closet, a vivid contrast to what her current mood called for.

Definitely not the first thing that Harper would’ve considered packing for this trip ...

Her phone buzzed again. [ Chelsea: No second thoughts. Go pack it up. ]

... It was nearly creepy how accurately her best friend was guessing her inner doubts. Harper stared at her phone dubiously, picked up the bikini, and put it back down again. In the end, she replied in an attempt to argue: [This is a business trip though. Isn’t it a bit too inappropriate to wear something so suggestive? ]

[ Come on, it’s HAWAII. I’ll bet it on Chickadees’ winning streak that no one will expect you to show up to a beach in business suits. ]

Fair enough.

Harper placed the bikinis in her suitcase, hoping that it wasn’t a bad decision to follow Chelsea’s advice on this. Then she started adding more clothes to the stack. Work shirts, weekend dresses, shorts ... She paused when she reached for the underwear drawer, her eyes caught on the lacy lingerie Eli had bought for her last weekend.

Had it really only been a week since then? A dull sense of loss hit her. She hadn’t forgotten that today was Saturday, the day that should’ve meant something utterly different between them. But now, sitting by herself in her apartment, thinking back on what things were like a mere week ago compared to today ... made her feel more disappointed and sad than she wanted to admit.

Not to mention the plans she had secretly made for them tonight. Things that she wanted to check off her learning list, things that she wanted to do before they were surrounded by coworkers and business meetings, things that—

Harper caught herself before the gloomy thoughts wandered too far. No, she couldn’t just keep sulking. Chelsea was right — things weren’t going to fix themselves if she simply wallowed away and left them to their own fate. If she wanted to see Eli smile again, to see him look at her with those darkened eyes, to feel his touch and his kiss and so much more ... then she couldn’t just sit here and wish today hadn’t happened. She had to fix it.

Harper looked back down at her suitcase. Pulling out the dress shirt on top, she replaced it with the blouse and slacks she wore the day Eli visited Miracles and took her to the amusement park. Then she added to the packed pile the mini dress that she went to the book fest in. After some internal debate, she included the t-shirt that she wore to Red Eros last weekend as well.

If Eli had been paying any attention on their outings, he should recognize all of these outfits. She’d use the temptation of those happy memories to her advantage if he tried to pull what he did at the stadium again and avoided her.

This time, she wasn’t going to make it easy for him to walk away.