Check out all the chapters by clicking HER(fix)E
CHAPTER FOUR: THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS - PART TWO
“Harriet Cathrine Wren,” her mother’s voice rang shrilly over the voicemail she’d sent, “what is this I hear about you dating a demon?! Call me immediately.”
Harri winced. Her full name. Yikes. She glared at her phone. And the several voicemails, messages, and DMs from not just her mother but her aunt, her cousin Katie, and her friends. Jesus, how had this spread this quickly? How had any of them even found out?
Nate.
It had to be. Besides her and Azel, he was the only one who knew. Fuck! She hadn’t thought he’d do something like that, but she should have. He’d done this all the time, had used her family and friends to get to her. For more than a week after they broke up, she’d been fielding calls and messages from everyone wanting to know what had happened and asking her if she shouldn’t give Nate another chance. If she had to hear one more person sing his praises and tell her how much he truly loved her, she’d scream.
Not looking forward to it — but knowing it would be best to just get it done and over with — she called Katie, whom she hoped would be less freaked out by all this. After all, Katie worked as a PR rep for a bunch of online magical influencers. She would know — at least, better than her Catholic-raised mother and aunt — that this wasn’t that big of a deal.
“Harri?” Katie’s worried voice all but shrieked over the line. “What in the literal Hell is going on? Are you dating a demon?”
Harri rolled her eyes. “We went on one date. Coffee.”
The relieved sigh Katie gave made Harri’s eyes narrow and her jaw clench. “Thank God for that. The way your mother’s been calling mine all morning, you’d think you’d sold your soul to become a Bride of Hell.”
Harri scowled. “How did she even find out?”
“Apparently, Nate ran into her at the bistro her book club brunches at.”
Harri fought the urge to grind her teeth. “How convenient.” That he’d be at a restaurant halfway across the city from their apartment at 9:00 in the morning on a Sunday. “How did he even know she’d be there?”
“They still talk, you know. Pretty sure he calls her more than you do.” She snorted. “Definitely more than I call my mom and, boy, did she let me know that this morning when she grilled me about this boyfriend none of us have met or heard anything about.”
“One date!” Harri groaned. “We’ve had one date.” Why was everyone acting like she was hiding things from them?
Well, she was, but not what they thought she was.
Guilt pricked her. With their moms being so close, Katie and Harri had grown up practically as sisters. There’d been a time when they’d been practically inseparable. And, sure, over the years, with their jobs and lives, they’d grown apart, but it still felt weird hiding something this big from her. Why hadn’t she thought of that? Why had she thought she could keep these parts of her life separate? “I just think everyone is making a bigger deal out of this than it is.”
Hell, Harri wasn’t even sure anymore what was going on. She frowned and thought about the teasing texts Azel had sent her earlier. Thought about the way he’d talked and touched her yesterday morning. Thought about how it’d felt like, maybe, for a moment there, he’d been about to kiss her on their walk. What had all that meant? They weren’t really dating; why was he flirting with her, especially when Nate wasn’t even there to see it? It didn’t make sense.
Katie sighed. “It’s because he’s a demon and you know it. Look, I’m not saying it’s fair, but… they’re just worried about you. It hasn’t been that long since you were with Nate.”
“It’s been months.” Harri pouted.
“Yeah, only a couple of months after a year together,” Katie pointed out. “You guys were pretty serious and we just want to be sure that you’re not… being rash.”
Harri huffed. “How is going on one date with one guy being rash?” She shook her head. “And Nate and I weren’t that serious.” Katie had been with her boyfriend, Jack, for three years now and no one treated her like this.
“Nate was looking at wedding rings, Harri,” Katie said pointedly. “Sounds pretty serious to me.”
Harri wanted to scream. Yeah, Nate had been looking, not her. That was why she’d broken things off.
Katie sighed. “Hey, I’m glad you’re getting back out there. Weighing your options. But can we both at least agree that this guy doesn’t exactly sound like your usual type? I mean to go from a marriage-material nice guy like Nate to some bad-boy demon…” She could practically hear Katie shrug. “It doesn’t sound like you, and it’s making us all a little worried, okay?”
Harri sighed at the genuine concern in her cousin’s voice. “Fine. I appreciate that you all care, but...”
Katie tutted. “You’re feeling badgered.” She sighed. “Okay, how about this? Jack’s best friend is having a birthday party tonight. Bring this new guy along so I can tell our moms I met him and he’s not about to drag you off to the underworld, all Persephone-style, or anything.”
Harri’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “You want me to crash your boyfriend’s best friend’s birthday so you can meet a guy I’m barely seeing yet?”
Katie scoffed. “Yet?” Harri winced at Katie’s titillated giggle. “Hell, yes, now I really want you to.” She hummed dismissively even before Harri could form a proper protest. “Look, it’s perfect. Casual and informal. No parental pressure. It’ll be a huge group of people. The birthday boy’s brother owns this dive bar and we’re pretty much taking it over for the night. Come, have a couple of free drinks, hang out for a bit. It’ll be fun.”
“I don’t know.” It was a bad idea. There was pretty much nothing in the world she wanted less than to bring her fake date to essentially a family inspection. Hell, even if she’d been in a real relationship, who did that after one coffee date?
“C’mon,” Katie insisted. “It’ll put our moms’ minds at ease a bit and it’ll be a good excuse to get together again. I feel like I haven’t seen you since your birthday party.”
Harri winced, thinking about the huge surprise party Nate and her friends had planned for her about four months into their relationship, where he’d made a huge deal of gifting her a key to his apartment. Even though they lived right next door to each other and had been in and out of each other’s places easily enough, he’d made this grand show of boxes packaged and wrapped inside each other like those nesting dolls, each getting smaller and smaller until there was just a single jewelry box at the center.
Harri still remembered the anxious mix of panic, embarrassment, and a tiny bit of flattery when she’d thought he might be proposing to her. It’d been way too soon and, even as she’d held the tiny box in her hand, she’d been trying to figure out a nice way to turn him down without hurting his feelings or humiliating either of them in front of all their friends. In all honesty, it’d be such a fucking relief when she’d opened the box and saw his key, instead of a diamond ring, that she’d been overwhelmed with gratitude, laughing with him at her undue anxiety.
Looking back at it, it felt… unnecessary and vaguely callous, to play with her feelings like that for a joke.
“I’ll invite some other people,” Katie continued. “See if maybe Emma and Carrie can come. You could see if your friend from work — Megan — can make it too. We’ll make a night of it.”
Oh no. Things were getting out of hand. Harri did not want that many people involved in this. There were too many already. The only person she’d wanted to convince was Nate. She had no desire to parade Azel in front of all her friends. Shaking her head, Harri huffed. “We have dinner plans tonight, but we’ll swing by for drinks beforehand, okay? You can meet him, see that he’s just a regular guy, and stop worrying. Okay?”
Katie agreed readily, eagerly sharing the event’s details before letting Harri go. With a sigh, Harri hung up and glared at her phone, already regretting everything. Things were getting messy. Why didn’t anything ever seem to go the way she planned? With a sigh, she started to text Azel again.
HARRI: Sorry, change of plans.
.
READ PART THREE
WANT MORE?
No comments:
Post a Comment