Chapter 10
I never expected things between Harlan and me to get awkward.
But after that conversation.
Even though we were both trying to maintain our usual dynamic.
This weird tension suddenly appeared between us.
Leaning against the floor–to–ceiling window at home, I felt pretty bummed out.
Harlan was clearly amazing, treated me incredibly well, and I really liked him too.
So why did I keep feeling like being with him was still so far away?
While I was lost in thought, my mom suddenly called.
The second I picked up, she was practically shouting.
“Sweetheart, have you really been dating Harlan Cross this whole time?”
I quietly turned down the volume.
‘Yeah.”
Mom was taking deep breaths on the other end.
‘My God, honey, why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
pouted.
‘You probably wouldn’t have believed me anyway.”
‘Plus we haven’t made anything official yet, so I didn’t mention it.”
Mom was getting excited.
‘Not official? Are you trying to hide something from me again?”
‘Sweetie, I did my homework before calling you this time!”
‘That Harlan Cross has been crazy about you for ages! How could you not be official?”
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From My Ev’s Plan B to A Big Shot’s Goddess
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Chapter 10
I froze.
“What?”
“Harlan?”
“Likes me? For ages?”
Mom made several knowing sounds.
“Oh yes.”
“Your aunt couldn’t help herself and asked Harlan’s nephew how things were going with you, and the poor kid looked miserable, saying his uncle wouldn’t let him go and went himself instead. Scared the hell out of me and your aunt!”
“Then I remembered what you told me, and it all clicked.”
“But we couldn’t figure out why someone like Harlan would steal his nephew’s blind date!”
“So we started asking around–old friends, acquaintances, the works–and finally pieced it all together.”
I was completely confused.
“What did you find out?”
Mom sounded incredibly proud of herself.
“Let me tell you everything.”
“Harlan’s indifferent to sex all these years. The only time he acted weird was during one semester when college started. Guess what happened then? That’s when my precious daughter performed at the welcome party and became famous overnight!”
‘Later, he kept two graduation photos–one from his own class, and guess what the other one was? Your class photo!”
“But the real smoking gun is those two dolls he’s had in his room for years. The female doll has ‘ES‘ carved under the base… those are your initials! What are the odds?”
“There are so many other details too. His nephew said when his uncle heard about the blind date setup, his face went so dark it scared him…”
The more Mom talked, the more shocked I became.
With this many coincidences… they really didn’t seem like coincidences anymore.
Back in college, plenty of guys had crushes on me.
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From My Ex’s Plan B to A Big Shot’s Goddess
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Chapter 10
But I was so obsessed with Garrick that I was pretty cold to everyone who showed interest.
If Harlan was one of them…
I probably didn’t give him the time of day.
And he still cared enough to keep my graduation photo?
Thinking about how he acted around me…
Everything suddenly made sense.
I’d assumed Harlan wanted to marry me because I was suitable, or because he needed a wife.
I never imagined it was because he actually loved me.
So when I started developing feelings for him, I kept trying to rationalize them away.
After all, I’d only started seeing him to distract myself from Garrick.
How could two people with no real feelings get together so quickly?
But if he’d been approaching me with genuine love from the start…
What reason did I have to hide or suppress my own feelings?
I felt like everything had just clicked into place.
After hanging up with Mom, I actually had the urge to go find Harlan immediately.
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