Forty- nine

In a flash, Harper was in front of me and I was gazing up into his green eyes. The eyes looked tormented and ran over my face a couple of times.

I clutched the duvet around my chest tighter, aware of the closeness between our bodies and the toxic way we would react towards each other. Me being naked under the sheets and him being naked under his flimsy towel didn't exactly help.

Harper's eyes zeroed in on my hand which was still clutching his phone. He bent forward slowly and pulled it away from my ear. I let it go and watched as he pulled the device to his ear.

"I will call you back." My eyebrows rose in disbelief as I heard him say those words and I wiped away the remnants of tears from my cheeks.

I bunched the duvet in fists and crawled towards the edge of the bed, to get up and get dressed. Harper quickly put his phone on the nightstand, walked, and stood in front of me in all his naked glory. 

He bent and sat down in front of me, barring me from getting up without having a conversation. I took a deep breath and refused to look at him.

He put one of his hands on my naked knee and much to my displeasure, tingles traveled from my spine to my head. It at least made me look at him.

He gave me a soft smile and leaned forward to twirl a brown strand of my hair. He sighed and then looked at me with uncertainty in his eyes. If he didn't know where to begin, I did.

"That was Natalie, wasn't it?" I asked him, my voice already hoarse.

He weakly nodded as his fingers deftly played with the frayed edges of the duvet covering my legs.

"She is pregnant, isn't she?" He nodded again.

"It's yours, isn't it?" Harper's eyes snapped up to meet mine as if searching for something.

I was surprised that we were having this conversation and with so much subtlety and peace between us. I had expected chairs to fly and various desks to be broken.

Harper shrugged but it didn't look as effortless as it usually did. It looked like there was a weight on his shoulders which seemed to remove any signs of carelessness on his part.

And what about me? What had happened to me? Why was I not screaming or crying like I should have been? Was my mind coping with this news or rejecting it? 

"She says it is." He said slowly, as if measuring each thought, each word and he probably was.

An inkling of hope gathered in my chest as I heard those words but it was still hollow. Natalie said she was pregnant with Harper's baby, which at the very least meant that she had slept with Harper at some time, which would mean that my boyfriend and best friend had backstabbed me. Didn't make matters better for sure.

"What do you mean?" I asked him as I felt the walls of the room closing in on us.

"She says it's mine, but I don't believe it." I took in his form, sitting on the ground. He was naked and the floor was warm and I could picture the cold creeping into his body but that was the last of my worries right now.

"Why? Why don't you believe it?" I asked, my voice sounding completely hollow.

"We used a condom." It seemed like the air left my lungs as he said those words and I felt a tear drop from my eye.

Harper suddenly looked panicked as if he just realized what his words meant and he moved forward to take my hands in his and retreated away from him. I stopped moving away when he did too.

"I didn't, we didn't-", he stammered and tears immediately began to pool in my eyes. So, it was true, they had slept with each other. 

I immediately got off the bed from the other side, all the while trying to hold onto the duvet covering my body. A blast of cold wind hit my body as soon as I stood but I paid no mind to it.

Harper scrambled and got up in haste, not at all caring about the flimsy towel around his waist. His towel must have fallen because, in a moment, he was standing naked in front of me. Then, I was so hurt it wasn't at all hard to dismiss that small fact.

"Let me explain, please." Harper pleaded with me and moved forward again to touch me but that was the last thing I wanted. I swung my hand back and slapped him as hard as I could. I could see the red imprint of my fingers on his cheek and I could still feel the tingles on my hand. 

A strangled sob escaped from my lips and Harper moved towards me again to touch me. I held my hand up as a gesture for him to stop. 

"What do you want to explain, Harper? Natalie says she is pregnant with your baby and you didn't even deny it. That means that you slept with her, even if the baby isn't yours. What else is left to explain."

Harper opened his mouth yet again to explain but I didn't give him any chance. "Tell me, was it before or after you told me that you loved me, him?" I said as I punched his torso and as tears rolled from my eyes.

"What? No, no. It's not like that." Harper took my bald fists into his hands, stopping me from hitting him, something I still wanted to do very much. "You've got it all wrong." He shook his head and I wondered if it would fall from his neck.

My shoulders shook and I took several deep breaths to calm myself down. It took me some time for me to notice that the duvet had dropped from my hands and I was standing naked in front of him.

But there were bigger matters to deal with, like Harper's possible cheating on me.

I crossed my arms over my naked breasts in a vain attempt to cover them and walked around Harper. He tried to catch my elbow but I was too fast for him to do so.

"Zara, please, we need to talk. Just let me explain." He pleaded with me while I was trying to stop the tears that threatened to escape.

Everything was finally becoming clear now. Harper had cheated on me and had sex with my best friend, Natalie. I had just suffered fatal blows from two people I cared about. The fact that I would have to break up with Harper and break my friendship with Natalie broke my heart, yet it was inevitable. I just wanted to do it later rather than sooner. I simply didn't have the energy to do this sort of thing right now.

I locked myself in Harper's closet and slid down on the floor. I put my head in my hands and sobbed. Fists pounded on the door from the other side and I felt the wooden door vibrate behind my back.

"Zara, please. Let me explain." Harper cried out and I felt my heart clench at the helplessness of his voice.

I wiped away the tears and stood determinedly. I walked towards the shelves in the closet where I had kept my clothes. After much persuasion by Harper, I decided to keep some of my clothes so they could come in handy whenever I stayed the night or needed clean clothes to wear. 

I hastily picked a black top blue jeans and flip-flops. I put them on as fast as I could, aware of the pounding on the door.

I opened the door and I came face to face with a sight I never wanted to see. Harper was looking panicked and lost with tears streaming down his face. His wet hair was tousled as if he had run his hands through them many times.

It was weird how a single phone could do that to us. To any couple, for that matter. Not even an hour ago, I was sleeping soundly, still in bliss from the many orgasms I had experienced last night.

"Please, Zara. I did not cheat on you." He said the words in a strained voice and my eyes snapped up to meet him. Both of our eyes were probably red from all the crying we had done in such a short time.

Just then, we heard a knock on the door. Before any of us could say anything, the door opened and Natalie entered with bloodshot teary eyes. 

Looks like I would have to make my decision right now!