In response, Franky rolled onto her back, looking for belly rubs. Harper, of course, obliged, lightly scratching between her front legs.
“I’m just not sure I’m doing the right thing. I mean, I need the revenue. I promised myself when I came down here that by year four, this building would turn a profit, you know? And getting that unit rented would help keep us firmly in the black.”
Franky lolled her head to the side and gave Harper a goofy grin, as though she didn’t believe her.
“I know. I technically don’tneedthe bar to generate much of a profit. Breaking even is enough, and I still have a very nice nest egg from the settlement. But I don’t know what the future holds, and it might not last.”
She leaned down to press a kiss to Franky’s chin and dropped her forehead on her chest. “But she made me feel things that I simply don’t want to feel, which is the problem. I haven’t been a saint since Kelly, but I haven’t felt a deeper pull to anyone at all. Untilher. Fuck.”
She sent a sharp breath out through her teeth and leaned up to scratch Franky’s neck with both hands. “And it doesn’t matteranyway because she already signed the lease and is going to be here in ten minutes. So I’m stuck with her. Well…we’restuck with her, I guess.”
Harper used those last ten minutes to take another quick walk through the partially furnished apartment Charlie was about to move into and verify that it all looked good. She had Harper coming at nine thirty to pick up the keys so she could get back downstairs to get everything ready by ten when the bar opened.
She sat on the cheap white plastic chair on the landing between their apartment doors with Franky at her feet and hoped Charlie wasn’t going to be late. She didn’t have time for that. It was Thursday, and she was expecting the weekend crowd to start flowing in by midday.
At nine twenty-seven, Charlie appeared on a teal bicycle on the small sidewalk between Harper’s building and her neighbor’s, wearing a dark gray backpack and carrying a few things in the bike’s front basket.Prompt.She appreciated that.
Charlie looked side to side, so Harper stood and yelled, “Morning.”
Charlie’s head whipped up, and Harper belatedly realized she probably hadn’t needed to yell. She was only about a story and a half up. “Hey,” Charlie said, sounding less than enthusiastic.
“Sorry to startle you, but welcome.” Harper smiled her normal, flirty bartender smile but swallowed hard when Charlie smiled back, and that uncomfortable flutter started in Harper’s belly. She half wished she could go back and deny Charlie’s application. But it was too late, so she said, “Do you need help carrying anything?”
“No, thanks,” she said as she swung her leg over the bike.Why was even that move attractive?“I don’t have much.”
When she grabbed the paper bag and briefcase out of the basket and started heading up the stairs, Harper wondered if shewas going to be making another trip later with a moving truck. “How was the ride over?” She tried to make small talk since she wasn’t really sure what else to say.
“It was fine. It was only a couple of blocks. So close I could have walked, really, but…” She shrugged and patted the seat of her bike. “Is there a good spot to lock it up back here?”
“Yeah, either under the deck where you can chain it to a post, or there is a small storage area that you can use. I’ll show you once you put your stuff down.” She pushed open the door she’d already unlocked and gestured for Charlie to go ahead of her. At Franky’s jingling, she turned and said, “You stay here, pups. I’ll be right back.”
“You can let him come in. If that’s not against your rules,” Charlie said as she set all three bags on the kitchen counter.
Harper smiled to herself in learning that Charlie was at least a bit of a dog person. “He’s a she, actually. And it would be pretty hypocritical of me to not allow dogs in here, given that we live right next door.” She pointed to the wall dividing their apartments.
Charlie looked up from where she’d dropped to her knees to give Franky a little love, her mouth in a silent O. She blinked a few more times before she said, “I, uh, didn’t realize that you lived in this building too.”
Harper felt her entire body flush. “Yeah, this is my little Key West microcosm. Not that I don’t leave here. I do. Plenty, actually. But I do live and work here.” That sounded really pathetic. And it kind of was sinceplentywas an exaggeration. More likeoccasionally,if she excluded the pro bono law clinic that she spent a few hours a week at that was a few blocks away.
“Oh.” Charlie nodded, and Harper hated that she couldn’t read her face.
She scratched the back of her neck as things felt like they took a massively awkward turn. “Well, let me get out of your hairso you can go get the rest of your stuff and unpack and all that. As I mentioned—”
Charlie’s voice, unusually soft, stopped her. “I don’t have any more trips. This is it.”
Harper laughed nervously, one of her least favorite traits about herself, before she quickly said, “Well, I guess it’s a good thing this unit is partially furnished.” She was worried Charlie was going to take her reaction wrong and was relieved when she chuckled too.
Harper guffawed, and they seemed to feed off each other, escalating until they were both gasping for air. “True,” Charlie finally said. “Wow, that felt really good.” They were both still breathing hard but had managed to get themselves under control.
“It did, didn’t it?” Harper didn’t think she’d laughed that hard in more than three years. But it had felt fucking fantastic, even if it was over nothing. “Though that does make me feel a little guilty about how little there is here. I could loan you some things until you can get to the store. Do you have sheets? I provide a mattress but no linens or towels.” Harper’s curiosity was also really piqued as to how this woman, a woman with a fifty-thousand-dollar watch, had managed to get to Key West with seemingly nothing but perhaps the clothes on her back. And maybe that briefcase. Harper could definitely see her having carried that in whatever her previous life had been.
Her cheeks turned a little pink, and it was adorable. “Oh shoot. I bought sheets, but I didn’t think of a towel. I’m going to go shopping this morning, so I’ll be sure to put that on my list.”
“Okay, well, please feel free to stop by if you find you’re missing anything and need a little help to get you through. I always try to be a good neighbor. And if I’m not home, check in the bar. Odds are, you’ll find me there.”
She nodded knowingly. “A workaholic. I can commiserate.”
“No, nothing like that. It’s my penance…place. It’s my place.” That was a horrible slip. Did sheoccasionallyfeel like all this was her penance for surviving when her wife hadn’t? Sort of, but not really. She loved Key West. She’d loved giving away all her heavy coats to a secondhand shop that raised money for a health clinic for vulnerable community members before she’d moved from Chicago. This was the retirement dream. This was not apenance.