"Ready for some gore?" Harper raced into the living room, proudly holding a bottle of cheap wine she brought earlier at a nearby grocery outlet.
“You bought wine?”
“Kendal, put your phone away!”
“It’s Claire. She wants to talk to me.”
“Okay. Are we watching a movie or not?”
“We are.”
Between Harper’s demanding work and Kendal’s busy days at the university, it had been a good while since they actually sat down to watch a movie together, but that Friday night, they finally did.
“Then tell Claire to leave you alone for the next two hours.” Harper sat the bottle of wine on the coffee table and joined her housemate on the couch. “I thought you guys have broken up. And what happened to Ronnie?”
“I broke up with both of them.”
She shook her head. "Well, poor Claire. I kind of liked her, you know. She was a cool gal.”
Kendal scrunched up her nose. “You sound like my aunt again, Harper.”
Harper adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose then grinned. “What did I say that made you just thought about your aunt?”
“What you just said…”
She held her hands up and snickered. "But I’m just being honest."
"Well, you’re right." Kendal shrugged. "Claire just wants to be friends again. We started off as friends, so I guess why the hell not.”
Harper smiled. "Is it really what you girls are trying to save here?"
"Of course!"
She grinned. “Okay. I believe you. Now, let’s start this bloody movie.”
“The Thing?” Kendal read the title first before putting the disc into the player and plopped down on the couch. “Did they run out of ideas and just settled for The Thing?”
“Oh, no, my child, they had thought about it, and you’ll soon see why it’s called The Thing.”
“You’ve seen this?”
Harper nodded. She took the bottle of wine and positioned a corkscrew in the center of the cork, and started twisting it clockwise. “But not in its remastered Blu-ray glory. Could you grab 2 wine glasses from the kitchen?”
Kendal quickly stood up, her eyes back on her phone, and disappeared into the kitchen.
“I hope this cheap wine is worth every penny,” Harper said loudly, lifting the handle until the cork was halfway out. She pushed back her pair of glasses that was slowly sliding down her nose and pulled the cork out.
Kendal walked back into the living room with two glasses. “How much is it?”
“$6.99. Twenty percent off. I had to bag it.”
She sat on the couch again. “Wow. That is cheap,” she replied, neither of them really paying attention to the movie’s opening credit.
Harper poured the wine into the glasses and leaned back. “Oh, let me get the popcorn!” She stood up and sprinted into the kitchen. She grabbed the bowl when her eyes caught something moved through the trees outside her window. She took a step closer and surveyed the area as best as she could with the little light from the moon in the cloudless sky.
Suddenly, she saw it, and her heart quickened. It was a large dark shape that sat quietly in the shadows. She tried to make sense of what it was when it unexpectedly moved again. She looked down and saw what looked very much like the large beast in her dreams, sat right outside the window―and stared at her.
A cold shiver ran down Harper's spine at the uncanny resemblance.
“Harper?” Kendal’s voice from the living room tore her attention away from the large animal, and she quickly walked back to the living room.
“Are you okay?” Kendal asked.
“Sure.” She placed the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table and dropped down on the couch. “I just―there’s an enormous wolf outside.”
“Wolf? Are you sure? I think they only live in the wild or the forest. Are you sure it’s not just a dog?”
“No. It was massive in size, and the fur is really thick.”
“A huge husky? I saw a couple in the neighborhood last week.”
Harper shrugged. “Maybe it was.” She took the glass of wine next to the bowl and took one large gulp. She cringed and grabbed the bottle of wine. “This shit is too sweet.”
“Well, it is cheap,” Kendal remarked. “Let me grab some blankets and pillows. We can sleep here so we don’t have to crawl to our beds when we’re too sleepy to move.”
Harper gave her a thumb up and finished her first glass of wine in four sips.
Kendal returned with a duvet and two pillows when a knock on the door caught hers and Harper’s attention.
“Are you expecting guests?” Harper asked her.
Kendal shook her head; she pushed the table and sat on the floor with the pillows and the thick blanket. “But if it’s Ronnie, tell her I’m not here.”
“I thought you were messaging Claire.”
She sighed in exasperation. “Ronnie’s been trying to talk to me too.”
“Wow. They’re really fighting over you.” Harper stood up to see who it was through the peephole. Her eyes lit up as soon as she saw Lucas standing outside her door.
“Lucas!” she exclaimed cheerfully as soon as she opened the door. “Come on in.”
Lucas followed her inside. “Hi there, Kendal.”
Kendal, who was now holding her phone in her hands and scowling, looked up to him and gave him a quick smile. “Hey, Lucas!”
“Have a seat.” Harper offered. “We’re watching The Thing.”
“Oh, really?” Lucas’ eyes lit up, and he sat on the other end of the couch across Harper. He took a deep breath and then exhaled loudly, wiping tiny beads of sweat off his forehead.
Harper looked at him. “Are you okay? You look like you just ran a mile.”
“I guess you could say that.”
“Oh! Did you see that really large dog outside?”
“Dog?” Lucas’ face fell.
“I think it’s a wolf, but Kendal’s right. Wolves live in the forest. So, I’m thinking it was a big, overfed husky.” Harper chuckled.
Lucas’ lips tightened. “Overfed.”
“Yeah.”
“Wait a minute…is that Kurt Russell? It’s him, isn’t it?” Harper pulled a face at the TV screen. “What is he doing in this movie?”
“Ah-acting?” Lucas casually joked.
Kendal smiled at him briefly, then rolled her eyes and looked down at her phone as soon as she felt it vibrate in her hand. “I gotta take this. I’ll be quick.”
“Should we pause the movie?” Lucas asked.
“No. Don’t worry about it.” She ran to her room, quickly closing the door with a loud bang.
Harper pulled the duvet from the floor and placed it between her and Lucas on the couch. “So, why are you here?”
Lucas smiled at her very straightforward question. “I was…well, I was out drinking with some friends from high school.”
“High school? Wow! You still talk to your friends from high school,” Harper said, looking rather impressed.
“Yeah. And well, everything really got boring quickly, and after two bottles of beer, I left. On my way to my car, I figured I wasn’t really ready to go home yet…so…here I am.”
“And maybe convince me to withdraw my resignation?”
“Oh no! That’s not why I’m here.” Lucas looked deep into her eyes and continued, “Although, it’d be really great if I could make you do that.”
Harper smiled at him, thoughtfully. “I’ve made my decision, and you’ve already approved it.”
“I can―”
“No, Lucas, I’ve decided.”
“Okay. Well, what are we watching again?” Lucas turned to the screen and let out a sigh.
“The Thing!” When the title didn’t earn any reaction from him, Harper raised her eyebrows and shook her head. “You haven’t seen this movie, have you?”
“Nope!”
“Seriously?”
“Harper, I know you’re attracted to bloodshed, gore, and violence―”
“So nice of you to say it lovingly that way…”
Lucas grinned. “But I’m not. Documentaries are more like my type.”
“Right.”
They continued to watch the movie while Harper helped herself with two more glasses of wine when they suddenly became very aware that Kendal had not returned yet, and they were alone. But there had been so many instances when they were alone in a room, particularly at work. And it wasn’t like the two of them hadn’t sat like this before, but after Harper had started dreaming of Lucas, in a very intimate and most of the time lewd dream, she soon started to become more aware of Lucas’ presence, especially every movement in his body.
“Do you think Kendal has fallen asleep?” Lucas asked.
“I don’t think so. She must be talking to either Claire or Ronnie,” Harper answered, trying to sound casual.
“Claire? Her girlfriend? And who’s Ronnie?”
“Long story short, she cheated on Claire with Ronnie.”
“Oh, drama.”
“She was very dramatic for some time,” Harper said and returned her attention to the screen but were very aware of Lucas’ eyes at her for a moment before looking back at the movie.
Silence fell in the room again, except for Kurt Russell talking on the screen. Then halfway through the movie, Harper slowly felt the heat radiating from Lucas’ body, making it not too easy for her to focus on what she was watching. She glanced at the half-empty bottle of wine.
Then she carefully glanced over at Lucas, smelling the masculine and woodsy scent. She leaned back when she felt her head lightly spin, trying to get comfortable.
Lucas grabbed the bowl of popcorn and placed it between his legs. “Oh, this is intense,” he remarked, eyes still glued on the screen.
Harper bit her lip as she watched him squirm a little at a particular scene. “The suspense drives you crazy, right?”
Lucas smiled out of the corner of her eye. She took off her glasses, carefully placed it on the table, and pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Are you okay?” Lucas asked before placing the bowl back on the table and raising his arm, offering Harper to rest against him. “Come here.”
Harper thought about it for a few seconds. Sure, Lucas had always treated her nicely, but never this nice. It was always about offering her a hand, a quick hug, a pat on the pack, an honest conversation. A cuddle on the couch while watching a movie was definitely not one of those nice things.
She took a deep breath before deciding to take her boss up on it. She leaned her head against his shoulder and sprawled out right up against him as he wrapped his arm around her waist under the duvet.
“Can I?” Lucas asked, and it took Harper a moment to realize what he was asking.
“Sure.”
When Harper felt Lucas rested his hand on her upper thigh, she fought to keep her breathing steady and her attention on the movie. She briefly looked up at Lucas and saw her boss seemed totally unaffected by how close their bodies were against each other. So, she tried to shrug it off.
Then, Lucas looked down at her, and their eyes met. “Feeling comfortable?”
She nodded. Her cheeks turned pink. She decided never to buy the same wine again. Its strong alcohol content was obviously masked with its sweet taste.
“What?” she asked when she felt that Lucas’ eyes were still on her.
“Nothing.” Lucas went back to watching the movie.
Harper could feel her heart drumming loudly in her chest. What she was feeling towards him at this moment undeniably wasn’t friendly. Or maybe she hadn’t been feeling friendly towards him for a while now. But could she risk it?
She had seen women swoon over Lucas, and she had seen how he obviously had tried to avoid them. Harper didn’t want that. So she kept her cool and paid her full attention to the movie and not to the feeling of Luca’s hand caressing her thigh every now and then.
But when Lucas’ thumb started drawing tiny circles on the exposed skin right above the waistband of her pajama pants, she let out a gasp.
“What?” Lucas asked, looking down at her. His blue eyes turned dark, anticipating.
Harper swallowed then smiled. “Nothing.”