Chapter 7 - Limerence

The alarm clock goes off at seven o'clock in the morning, emitting that horrible beep that Harper hates so much. She stretches out her hand and with one blow silences the demon's apparatus. She shuffles between the sheets and grunts. Fuck! Why did you say yes?

Is it that that man does not sleeping? Who in their right mind goes jogging on a Saturday morning?

“Actually; thousands of people in the world, so get out of bed, lazy.” The little voice of her conscience snaps at her.

She grunts again when she manages to sit up on the bed.

Fridays and Saturdays are her days off, because from Sunday to Thursday she works tirelessly at the her father’s gas station that, her, Henry and her mother inherited.

In the last few months, things have been very hard, and they no longer have the same income as before, so she must manage to work shifts at night and do without another employee, for a job that she can very well do herself.

Her mother disagrees with her working nights, but she's never alone in the store. Ismat, a man of Kenyan descent, over two meters tall and very robust, who has been working with the family for over ten years, keeps her company during the early mornings. He takes care of the gas dispensers, she the store. Also, she has a 9mm gun behind the counter, in case a criminal enters the establishment. Harper learned to use firearms when she was very young; her father taught her how to use them on one of her many visits to the firing range. As the daughter of a retired military man, she has a fondness for firearms.

She gets out of bed, washes her face and teeth. She stops in front of her closet and gazes reluctantly at her wardrobe. It has a wide variety of cotton T-shirts, faded jeans, long-sleeved plaid shirts, striped sweaters, and tracksuits. She rummages to see if she finds something more ‘feminine’ and manages to notice a spring dress with blue and white flowers, which reaches a little above the knees. A garment that she hadn't seen for many years, so she grabs it and smells it to make sure it doesn't smell bad. Fortunately, the smell is not unpleasant, but she wrinkles her nose when she realizes that she is about to do something that goes against her way of being.

Wearing a dress voluntarily?

She does not understand why she feels the immense need to look very pretty that morning. A necessity that has a first and last name.

Black low-heeled ankle boots and a fringed medium purse, the same color as her shoes, complement her outfit.

She looks in the mirror and it reassures her to know that she does not see anything bad. In fact, she looks like an adult woman and not a twelve-year-old boy, a lover of video games and superhero comics. She laughs at that crazy idea.

She ties her hair in a high, not so neat ponytail. She loves to wear a tousled style. That really does not change it for anything in the world. She is the enemy of the comb.

She has an orange juice and leaves the house, straight to the bus station. There are only thirty minutes left until the scheduled time, so she hurries up a bit. She could very well borrow her mother's car, but she's not home that morning, it's her turn to run the gas station with her little brother Henry.

The trip goes smoothly, and when she gets out of the vehicle, she realizes that it is five minutes to eight in the morning. She takes a few steps until she is in front of the observatory.

She fixes a few loose strands of hair, runs them behind her ear, and checks her breath. The normal thing is that she is not so aware of her appearance, she is not a banal girl. And it doesn't take long for her to realize that she's acting very weird and decides to relax a bit. She takes a deep breath of air through her mouth very slowly.

She scans the place with her eyes, looking for signs of Daniel. A specimen like that doesn't go unnoticed anywhere, so it doesn't take her long to find him. Just like he told hr last night, he's in front of the observatory. Literal. He is standing in front of the huge wooden and steel doors.

She swallows thick when he stares at her. Daniel is wearing a black pantsuit and a red jacket.

Looks like a fucking park monument, the thought springs up immediately, and Harper can't help biting her lip. She takes a few more steps, until she get as close to him as you can.

“Hi,” she greets and smiles shyly.

He does smile heartily.

“Hello, Harper. It's a pleasure to see you again,” he answers.

“Yes.” She stares at the ground. She is very nervous. “Anyway,” she muses.

They both look directly into each other's eyes, while an awkward silence fills them. Suddenly, Harper lowers her gaze again and fixes it on the floor. Daniel, on the contrary, looks up at the sky.

This is so awkward, she thinks.

“Say something, idiot. Don't be quiet,” snaps the voice of Harper's conscience.

“It's a nice day,” she says.

“Would you like to go have a coffee?” he mutters.

They both talk at the same time, and they can't help but laugh like fools. Harper's eyes shine brightly, and Daniel's, strangely, too.

“I'm sorry.” He shrugs and shakes his head gently. “What we came to do, right.” He reaches into his pocket, pulls out his wallet, and carefully opens it to search for something inside. Have it. This is yours.” He hands her a folded piece of paper.

“What is this?” Harper looks at what they just gave him with some confusion.

“I improvised an envelope with a piece of paper that I had in my bag," he indicates and points his index finger at the piece of paper, "You know, so that the chip would not get sulfated and..." He stops when he realizes that the woman is looking at him very carefully.

“Thank you very much, really,” she says. “Now I just need my cell phone,” he laughs.

“If you want I can accompany you to buy it,” Daniel spits out the words. What am I suppose to do? He is not like that. “I mean, if you don't have anything else to do.”

Harper is surprised by the offer. However, she manages to hide her astonishment. The truth is that she had not planned to buy a new cell phone until next month, when she balanced the accounts of the store and paid a few debts to the bank, and saw that she had enough to afford a new cell phone. Well, it is not that the one she wants is very expensive, (one just like the one you had) but any unexpected expense at this time is not in her plans.

“The truth is...” she babbles. She does not know what to answer.

“I've finished my plans for today,” he interrupts, “and I was about to go to breakfast. Have you already had breakfast?”

She nods.

“I had a juice before I left the house,” Harper says.

“A juice? That is not breakfast. You must try to have a good breakfast, because it is the most important meal of the day, as it is the one that provides you with the caloric energy necessary to…”, he forces himself to close his mouth, again, realizing that he is babbling. But what the hell is wrong with me? Since when did I behave like a know-it-all in front of a woman? "

Harper smiles. She finds it adorable that this man, who has known her for less than a day, worries about the number of daily calories she consumes.

“I'd really like to eat something,” she says. Waffles with ice cream and fruit would be nice. What? Are you accepting the invitation of this man, to go to breakfast together? Unintentionally, she flinches at her thoughts. Why not, silly, her conscience whispers. If we are lucky, we can end up repeating what happened yesterday.

Harper shakes her head to silence that indiscreet little voice that makes itself felt at the least opportune moments.

“Good choice. You should take the opportunity to consume all the sugar you want at breakfast, well...”

Shit! He does it again. Why the hell is he so nervous?

“Hey, I really don't want to take your time,” she says and waves her hand in the air.

“Not at all. My mornings are pretty leisurely,” Daniel says casually.

 What the heck is he saying? This morning, in particular, he's due to go to Ryan's house to chat about a job offer from a men's underwear brand.

“So…” Harper points her finger toward the bus stop, "are we going the other way or…"

“Yes,” he nods. “I left my car parked over there.” He points his finger in the direction of the parking lot.

They walk side by side, in complete silence. She feels an army of butterflies fluttering in her stomach. He tries very hard not to start saying stupid things, it's something he can't control. When he feels very excited, he tends to talk more than necessary.

Just a moment! Why are you so startled?

He is not easily upset in front of anyone. He never allows a lady to upset him so much, to the point of making him act like an idiot. However, Harper has something that he fails to understand what it is, he is attracted to her, like bees to pollen. He realizes this when he feels the imperative need to stop in the middle of the park and kiss him on the lips. Having her in his arms has been a recurring idea since he climbed the stairs of the station, the day before, with the idea of ​​never seeing that beautiful lady again.

She is so different from the type of woman he usually spends time with, and that arouses his curiosity, he usually surrounds himself with exotic beauties, those women who look like they came out of a Victoria's Secret catalog, with heart-stopping bodies, perfect hair and always in heels. high. Harper's simplicity has him very perceived.

The girl who walks next to him wears a simple dress with a flower print, low shoes and her hair is disheveled in a high ponytail, since it is the trend of the moment. She is one meter sixty-odd centimeters tall, and she's very thin.

She is a small woman, who inspires very intense things in him.

For her part, Harper tries to hide how fast her heart beats being so close to Daniel, the way her body reacts to this man is incredible. She has never been the type of woman who succumbs easily to very handsome men; What's more, she tends to have a strange aversion to them because they have a reputation for being louts, but Daniel has something that makes her want to touch him, kiss him… Besides being fucking good, he has an overflowing personality. Very rarely does the complete package come. And while reason tells her to be careful, her instincts implore her to let go, to go wild and live in the moment to the fullest. Nothing else.

She is clear. She is not looking for love, she is not interested in complicating her life with affectionate relationships. She already has enough problems to complicate it with one more! Having a partner requires time that she does not have and dedication that she is not willing to focus on other than the family business.

At twenty-two, she feels like she's never fallen in love, and she's not desperate to do so either. She knows that love only brings complications. She had a slight infatuation with the older brother (for thirteen minutes) of one of her best friends. However, it was nothing more than platonic. Lara's twin is the most superficial being on the face of the earth and only relates to "barbies": plastic women with no brains at all, and Harper is more brain than anything else. They were completely incompatible.

She does not carry any sentimental injury. It is necessary to emphasize that. Simply put, love and relationships are not her priority. The most important thing for her is her family and the shop that she has run with her mother since she was twenty years old.

“Oh my God!” The voice snaps in her head and she stops short. Her mind goes blank. She whistles and opens her eyes wide, like she's looking at one of the seven wonders of the world.

“Is that your car?” she asks when she sees how Daniel approaches a spectacular car and opens the passenger door for him.

He nods his head in agreement.

Harper doesn't know much about cars, just what little she's seen in Top Gear, but she does see the branding on the front of the hood. You know that this brand of cars, in particular, is in the top ten of the most expensive in the world.

“Yes. Indeed,” Daniel smiles broadly. His ego is always inflated when a lady is dazed by seeing Monique. Yes. His car has a name. He decided to name his cars, as a fourteen-year-old teenager, dazzled after watching the Nicolas Cage movie “60 Seconds”. His first car was a 1980 Volkswagen Sedan, which he named Paula, in honor of his favorite Beatle, Paul McCartney. Then followed by Patricia, a 2005 Nissan Sentra, to finally arrive at Monique, a BMW Z4 of that very year, reddish ocher. This being a whim that he had for a couple of years, which was finally granted three months ago, and for which he still has a couple of payments to pay. “Go ahead, Miss,” he says, waving his hand into the vehicle.

Daniel's voice makes her wake up. He holds the door of his car and invites her to get in.

Is it okay for me to get in the car of a man I hardly know? She wonders. “Oh come on, if he had wanted to do something bad to you, he would have done it yesterday, in the station bathroom, instead of giving you so much pleasure.” Her internal Jiminy Cricket answers her.

She swallows thickly and half smiles, at the expectant gaze from those pair of blue eyes.

The car starts up and Daniel drives to Los Feliz Café, one of his favorite places in Los Angeles, and where he has breakfast every Saturday.

The journey is very short, so there is no time to chat.

They choose to sit at one of the tables outside the establishment and thus be able to enjoy the beautiful sunny morning. A young gentleman approaches them as soon as they sit down, puts a couple of menus on the table, and leaves.

“Do they sell Waffles here?” she asks, taking the menu. The question is tossed into the air, with such spontaneity that Daniel smirks.

“Have you never come here?” he answers with another question.

Harper shrugs.

“My father was the one who took us out to eat, on weekends, and he liked to go to places less...” he looks around. “American?” She laughed weakly. “He was a lover of Asian food.”

“He was?” Daniel frowns.

“He died a while ago,” she answers, not wanting to elaborate.

“I'm so sorry, Harper. I…” He feels very sorry for her lack of tact. “I did not want to…”

“Don't worry.” She winks at him.

He clears his throat.

“Yes. They sell Waffles here,” he says, answering her question and trying to dispel the discomfort of the moment.

“Okay. I'll take that,” she says. She doesn't bother opening the menu to read it.

Daniel nods to the boy who served them as he enters and orders two plates of Waffles with ice cream, fruit, scrambled egg, and bacon.

“Do you eat here often?” She asks.

“Yes.” he responds. “I like the service.” He smiles and takes a quick look around.

Harper nods and crosses her arms on the table, looking around as well. She doesn't know what else to say. What are you supposed to talk about with someone you barely know?

"Was your brother upset that you were late?" His question brings her out of her musings.

“What?”  She feels confused.

“Henry's graduation,” he clarifies. “Yesterday you told me you were late to...”

“Oh! Right,” she interrupts. “He took it well. I told him what happened and he understood.”

“Did you tell him everything?” Daniel asks with a certain malice and raises an eyebrow.

The memories hit Harper's mind and make her feel a lot of things, including embarrassment. She turns red as tomato and covers her face with her hands.

“Oh, my God!” She exclaims. This is so embarrassing. I…

Daniel cracks up, and Harper's reaction is adorable.

“There's no need to be ashamed,” he says. “Sex is the most normal thing in the world,” he says, intending to relax her. He gets the opposite result.

She opens her eyes wide at how uninhibited he is. Talking about the subject as if it were nothing. She can't help but feel something very strange when she realizes that maybe he is used to that kind of thing. While she's a little more reserved.

“It's just that…” she babbles. “God! Maybe you are tired of hearing the same thing so many times, but I have never done something like this...”

“If I got paid for the times I've heard that, I'd be richer than Bill Gates,” he jokes.

“Oh no!” She covers her face with her hands again. “I mean it. I had never…” She takes her hands off her face, “had sex with a stranger,” she whispers the last sentence, making sure only Daniel hears her.

“In theory we weren't strangers, because we both knew our names...” he says, laughing.

“I mean…” she cuts him off.

“I know what you mean, Harper,” it's Daniel's turn to interrupt, “and I really tell you that you have nothing to be ashamed of. We just let ourselves be carried away by our nature, we enjoyed the moment and we were cautious. That's it.”

“Why do I have the slight suspicion that it wasn't your first time?” Harper mutters.

“Because it wasn't,” Daniel responds out of inertia, and immediately regrets having answered the way he does and tries to remedy it. “I mean, it's not like I've done it many times either. Just two. It is just that…”

Harper frowns. That confession bothers her.

“That was a long time ago,” he adds, trying to clear things up, but inadvertently sinks deeper. Or at least that's what he feels. “What I want to say is…”

Harper raises her hand and smiles.

“You don't need to explain." I got it,” she says.

They both break into laughter and the mounting tension dissipates.

“You have a beautiful smile,” he mutters after a while.

Harper blushes.

Something inside Daniel's brain clicks. What kind of compliment is that? He's not the kind of guy to give compliments like that! It seems pathetic to him to resort to such methods, to woo a woman. He is used to being more direct and visceral. He does not beat around the bush, neither with detours nor cheesy phrases. When he wants to get between a woman's legs, he says it up front. He doesn't need to resort to cheap tricks.

“Daniel,” he hears his name and it doesn't take long for him to realize Harper waving her hand in front of his face. “Hello? There is someone there?”

“I'm sorry,” he shakes his head.

“I was saying thank you,” she whispers.

“Why?” He looks at her with narrowed eyes.

“For…” She shakes her head gently, "your comment."

“Oh!" Right.” He nods politely and forces himself to regain his composure.

The food arrives at the table and both are dedicated to tasting their dishes. Harper is the first to put a piece of waffle in her mouth.

“Hmm,” she savors it. This is exquisite.

“I told you.” Daniel looks at her and smiles. What little temperance he has managed to gather has gone to shit.

The woman in front of him is gorgeous. So different from the rest, with that matted hair, those slanted and very dark eyes, those rosy cheeks, that little upturned nose and when she smiles… God! Why does your heart feel like racing every time Harper shows you her perfect ivory teeth?

What the fuck is he feeling? It is an unpleasant sensation, because he feels an emptiness in his stomach, but at the same time it is pleasant, he cannot stop looking at her and wish with all his being, to be able to kiss that mouth, touch that skin, sink into it again...

Harper clears her throat and waves her hand in front of Daniel's face again. She frowns. She can tell he's distracted, he's probably thinking about all the things he has to do, and she's wasting his time.

Maybe it's time to start thinking about your things, too, and not be aware of that feline look, those appetizing lips, those strong arms, those big hands, those long fingers... God! That man drives her out of control in a huge way. In her life, she has never wanted someone as much as she yearns for him, on her, under her, next to her... touching her, making her moan...

“Harper?” It is up to Daniel to bring her out of her reverie. “Are you okay?”

“What? What?” She shakes her head.

“I was wondering if you already had in mind which phone you're going to buy,” he says.

 “One just like the one I had,” she answers and takes a piece of waffle to her mouth.

“Tell me. Are you from here?” Dan drops the question. Trying to sound very informal. He wants to know more about Harper.

“Yes. I was born and raised here,” she says, after swallowing.

“And do you work or study? What do you do?”, he continues.

Harper can't suppress her urge to laugh out loud.

“Did I say something funny?” Daniel frowns.

“No. It's not that.” She shakes her head. “It's just... it seems to me that you and I are doing things backwards.”

“What do you mean?”

“The normal thing is, you know how to go out to eat.” Harper waves her hand. She points to him and then points to herself, “meet and then... you know... the other...”

Daniel starts laughing at the comment, because she is very right. The normal thing is to know each other first and then the sex. Although in his case, he always tends to skip the first step, and whenever he has sex with a stranger, or failing that, a new acquaintance, he goes on with his life as if nothing had happened. The times he came face to face with one of his furtive lovers, he only pretended that he had never seen them in his life. It does not get involved, far from it.

Why can't Harper do the same?

“Well,” he clears his throat, “if you want us to return to the order of things, we could, you know...” He raises his eyebrows repeatedly, suggestively. This is the usual Daniel! “Now we can cross out the quote and jump to the next one on the list.”

“Oh, my God!” She covers her face with her hands, again, to hide her blush. “You are terrible.”

Daniel laughs out loud.

“Wait.” She looks at him with narrowed eyes. “Is this a date?” Raising an eyebrow. “Because I wasn't aware”  she jokes.

The man laughs so hard, it makes some people turn to see them. God! It feels so good to laugh the way he does. It has been a long time since he enjoyed the company of a woman so much, at least out of bed.

“Well. Then I'll take you on a date as such,” he says, playing along. “I invite you to dinner. Is tonight okay with you?”

Harper stops laughing and looks at him very seriously. She doesn't understand why Daniel acts that way. A date? It must be a joke, so she laughs out loud again.

“Yes of course. Very funny.” She points at it with her finger. “And where would you take me? To Birch?” She keeps laughing.

“I wouldn't take you to the Birch, but to a better place.”

“Oh yeah?” Harper opens his eyes and feigns a smile. “A place better than the Birch?”

“Yes. My house, and then we could, you know…” He speaks in that seductive tone that characterizes him.

Harper can't stop laughing. She does not know if it is because she finds the situation somewhat hilarious, or because she is freaking out.

“Forget it,” she manages to say, laughing, “that's not going to happen.”

“Oh, come on! We already had dessert. We don't have to be shy and everything else. We can save so much protocol.”

She stops laughing suddenly, realizing something. Daniel is very serious and looks at her carefully.

“Are you talking seriously?” She probes.

“Do I look like I'm joking?”

“Hey, Daniel, I really like you, but...”

“Excuse me,” the waiter interrupts. They both look up, “May I clear the dishes?”

The conversation is so entertaining that they do not realize when they finished eating. Daniel nods his head and helps the guy collect everything.

Harper seizes the interruption to stand up, seeing the perfect time to escape the epitome of lust. It is evident that this man only wants one thing, and even if she is not like the typical Puritan women who are scandalized by a proposal like the one he just made, she has dignity. And yes, it is true thats she acted impulsively when having sex with someone she had just met in a public bathroom, and it is something that she cannot understand how it happened, but it’s something very different accepting and allowing herself to be someone's sex toy, however handsome and sensual he is.

“Are you leaving?” he looks. He feels restless and anxious.

“Yes. I just remembered that I have something that...”

“Don't be a liar, Harper,” Daniel says playfully. I know you're making it up to go.” He also stands up. “You want to run away, " his voice is hoarse than usual “because you're starting to fear what might happen again if you listen to your instincts.” He speaks so softly and slowly that it sounds like a kitten purr.

For god's sake! Harper feels a tingling in the lower part of her belly. Daniel's voice is very erotic.

“Deny it,” he whispers, very close to her ear. “Deny that you feel an immense urge to jump on top of me and fuck me again, like you did yesterday.”

“I... ehmm... no..." she stutters.

Harper's legs are shaking, his mouth goes dry, and his heart beats frantically in his chest. She does not know what to answer or what to do. For a fraction of a second, she becomes a monosynaptic mass.

“Deny me that you want to ride me with the same impetus as yesterday, that you want me to make you moan, while my teeth and my tongue torture your delicious nipple...”

The very idea of ​​everything he describes makes Daniel begin to have an erection.

“Hmm…” She is speechless.

He moves closer to her and brushes his crotch to her hip. Harper flinches at the feel of something very hard against her.

“Look how you make me, Harper.” He licks his lips with surprising lasciviousness. “I couldn't get the sound of your moans out of my head. I want so much to get back into you and make you forget even your name.”

She bites her lip to stifle a gasp.

Daniel puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Let's do one thing.” Daniel's voice sounds like a whisper. “Let me take you to buy your new mobile and if at the end of the morning I have not managed to convince you to have a date with me, you can forget about me and go on with your life as if nothing had happened between us,” he adds, without moving away from hearing her.

Harper swallows thick and has to hold on to the table to keep from fainting. He holds her, too. Feeling those hands touching her, even if only to prevent her from falling, triggers in her a lot of pleasant sensations, and Daniel notices it, because a pair of hardened nipples under the fabric of that little dress, puts it in evidence.

“Just look at how you get just by me touching you,” he mumbled close to her mouth. “Just imagine how much I can make you feel with my tongue,” he licks his lips again - my fingers - he runs them gently along the edge of the female clavicle - my...

“Okay!” She cuts him off. “I got it.” She manages to put together enough strength from somewhere to talk.

“Let me pay the bill, honey, and we'll go,” he says, winking at her and walking away very slowly.

She must run out of there and get away from that addictive man. She knows this is the right thing to do, but she prefers to listen to her lower instincts once again. Sheer passion is what this man inspires in her.