Chapter Twenty-Nine

Callum

 

"Relax dude, you're going to give yourself an aneurysm."

I pounded my hand against the horn and the blaring sound set my jangling nerves on edge. "Fucking hell, move!" I seethed.

Gray was watching me closely. I didn't need to look at him to feel the tension in the air. After driving for six hours through the night, the early morning sky was just starting to lighten and we were at a dead stop on the West Side Highway.

"There are too many goddamned people in this city," I said for what had to be the millionth time.

Gray sucked air against his teeth and shifted. I leaned forward and then back again, hunching my shoulders up to my ears. "This drive should have taken five hours," I ranted. "We should have been at her place an hour ago. We should be parked already and up in her apartment or penthouse or loft or...whatever she has..."

"Apartment," Gray interjected quietly.

"Whatever!" I exploded. "The GPS said five hours when we left. Now it's been, what?" I tapped the clock in the dash. "Going on seven? Seven hours? We haven't even left the fucking state! Fucking move!" I laid on the horn again.

"Yo," Gray said, still quiet as anything. I'd never heard him so quiet. The dude was the loudest fucker on the planet, always slamming doors and stomping around like a one-man herd of elephants. But this whole ride he'd been eerily quiet. And at the moment, as I inched forward a fraction of a centimeter closer to the taillights of the truck spewing diesel into my face, it was really starting to piss me the fuck off.

"What?" I exploded. "What are you being so fucking stoic and quiet about over there? This sucks!"

"Yeah," he sighed. "Sure does."

"So why aren't you upset?"

He pressed his lips together like he was about to say something and then caught it at the last minute. "We're gonna see Harper," he finally said in a rush of breath.

I closed my fist and then opened it again. He was right of course. He was fucking right, we were going to see Harper and I should be excited and happy, just like he was. He loved her, it was written all over his face, that dopey half-smile, that unfocused gaze.

He loved her.

And I did too.

And that was...cool?

Whatever this thing was that the three of us had stumbled on, it was enough to put a dopey smile on my face too, traffic be damned. The idea that we were going to see her again, surprise her, in her element, well, it just made me happy.

I slumped back against my seat. Gray shot me a knowing look. "Yeah, did you forget or something?"

I let off the brake and we rolled forward a whole five feet. "Nah. I mean, maybe I lost sight of it for a sec."

"You're not good at thinking about the future."

"That's pretty rich coming from the guy who's renting a room in my house for beer money."

"Dude, don't be an asshole."

"Sorry," I sighed.

"Seriously, why the fuck are you being so prickly? And don't tell me it's because of traffic because this is like the first traffic jam your yokel ass has ever been in. It should be a novelty." I rolled my eyes heavenward, but he caught me and pointed. "And don't tell me it's because you're tired because you never fucking sleep. You're like a vampire or something, always shuffling around at night and waking me the fuck up."

"I got shit to do."

"At three in the morning?"

I looked down at my hands. "That's when it's quietest so I can think."

"Yeah well, us normal people are sleeping then."

"And snoring like a fucking warthog," I reminded him.

He grinned. "Harper doesn't seem to mind."

I looked forward. "So we're doing this, Gray? Is she like...do you want her as your girlfriend?"

"Damn straight I do. Even if it has to be long distance, I don't give a fuck. I don't have a job. I'll make that shit work."

I nodded. "Yeah fine, but like, at the same time, she's...my girlfriend?"

"Think you'd better ask her that."

"Fuck you, I'm serious. You're cool with...sharing?"

"This is kind of like locking the barn door after the horse bolted about two weeks ago, Cal."

I rolled my eyes again. The traffic was easing inexplicably and I felt my heart unclench as the speedometer crept up to five, then ten, then a whole twenty-five miles an hour. "Yeah, we shared her that way. But I mean other ways."

"Like...how?"

"Haven't you ever had a fucking girlfriend before, you shallow fuck?"

Out of the corner of my eye I could see him pursing his lips in thought. "What was Annie Watkins?"

"She was a stalker who was obsessed with you in junior year of high school who you slept with for some stupid reason."

"Availability," Gray sighed. "Okay what about Helen?"

"You're talking about Helen Coyman? Our biology teacher? You slept with her?"

"I told you I did."

"I thought you were lying because we were all obsessed with her sweaters and how she never wore a bra."

I could practically hear him grinning. "She knew a lot about biology, and she was a hell of a teacher, that's all I'll say."

"Gross dude."

"Well she was a girlfriend...sort of..."

"What did you do besides fucking?"

"She, um...tutored me."

"I don't think Harper is interested in tutoring you."

"Huh. Okay well Mr. Relationship-Pro. What the fuck are you trying to get at here?"

I took a deep breath as the GPS chimed in with our turn. We were only a half mile from Harper's. We needed to get this shit sorted before we showed up at her door looking like a couple of idiots. "Like, dating. Going out to dinner and shit. Do we...all go? Take turns? How about if one of us is alone with her? What happens then?"

Gray was silent for far longer than I expected. When he finally took a deep breath, I had literally no idea what was about to fall out of his mouth...

Especially not what he actually ended up saying.

"I think you're trying to control something that's not in your control, Cal," Gray said slowly. "You tend to do that, dude. You want everything spelled out for you from the get-go. You're a control freak and that's fine and usually I just let you do your thing, but I'm sorry man. I gotta put a damper on this. You're asking me to define terms about Harper...without Harper being here."

I felt my stomach slide downward and twist into a knot. "Well shit, when you put it that way, I sound like an asshole."

"You are an asshole. But you're a smart asshole too, you'll figure it out. We all will. Hey, there's a spot, right there!"

He wasn't kidding. A Jetta was miraculously just sliding out of a legal place to park on the street just as we turned down Harper's tiny, too narrow block.

"I'm shit at parallel parking," I confessed.

"I haven't done it since my driver's test," Gray said, nodding.

"And I'm driving a huge fuck-you pick-up."

"This'll be interesting. Should I just close my eyes and duck?"

I shrugged. "Might be smart." I threw it into reverse, narrowly escaped clipping the bumper of the car in front of me, rolled right up onto the curb and the plopped back down with a bone-rattling thud when I straightened out the wheel.

Gray was looking a little sea sick. "Good job," he muttered.

"Yeah." I leaned over and looked up at Harper's neat little building. "I have a feeling that was the easy part."