Invisible to My First Love (Harper and Maddox) novel Chapter 128

Chapter 128

Harper

After moisturizing my skin, I called Dean and placed the phone down, propping it against a bottle of perfume while I slipped into my underwear.

It didn’t take too long for him to pick up.

“Wow, finally got to check all the calls you missed this morning?” he asked from the other end of the line. “Oh, and look at the time. It’s now 5 PM.”

I slid my tank top over my head as I answered, “I can explain. There was so much going on. I wanted to call you when I wasn’t so occupied.”

As true as that was, I found myself thinking about how Maddox wasn’t too happy about Dean’s call and let it be known he wanted no competition.

“It’s quite the surprise to hear from you since we haven’t spoken in a while,” I admitted, reaching for my high- waisted jeans.

“I know I’ve been sounding like a liar for a while now, but not anymore. I was actually disappointed when you didn’t pick up because I wanted to tell you that I’m back in San Francisco.”

My hands froze midway through zipping up my jeans. “Wait, really?”

He chuckled. “Yup. After talking about returning to San Francisco for so long, I’m finally back. You know what? I wanted to come over as soon as I arrived, but I knew you were in Paris.”

I grinned like he could see me, pulling up the zipper. “Well, I’m back home now.”

As I sat down on the chair and reached for my sneakers, I heard him say, “I don’t think an hour has gone by without me coming across your photos and videos from your date yesterday. It feels weird, but Maddox seems….happy, like you really make him happy. I guess the dude’s really in love.”

My lips curved into a smile. “He really is.”

“Anyway, I really need to see you, Harper. We need to talk.” His tone was suddenly serious.

“Is everything okay?” My eyes narrowed as I stared at my reflection in the mirror.

“You’ll find out when I see you. It has to be in person.”

“If not for my current plans to spend time with my

friends-”

“I understand. We can do it tomorrow. By the way, I’m only in San Francisco for three days.”

My forehead creased as I grabbed the phone again. “Wait, I thought you just said you’re back.”

“Yes, but not permanently. There are so many places I need to be.”

“There you go again, talking like-”

“I know.” He chuckled. “Just meet me, okay?”

I sighed. “I definitely will.”

Ella and I took a trip to the grocery store near her place as we waited for Zoey. We wanted to bake and had run out of some of the ingredients.

As I pushed the cart, I’d given her my phone so she could check out all the pictures and videos Maddox and I hadn’t posted.

“You two make Paris look like it’s a fairytale,” she said with a hand on her chest. “My heart is just…” she trailed off with a sigh. “This is beautiful. Just so you know, I’m talking about Paris, not you two.”

I shook my head as I rolled my eyes at her playfulness.

“He’s taking me to Greece next.” I glanced at the ceiling like I could already see myself there.

Her eyes widened with delight. “Paris was so much fun that I can only imagine what he has in store for you two.”

I gave a half smile, thinking about all the other things that happened in Paris. I couldn’t even talk about how I’d finally given Maddox a chance. They thought it had been the case all along.

As she kept scrolling on my phone, her smile got wider and wider, but she paused and frowned when she got to the next picture from last night, one I had taken with the Barclay twins.

“They were there?” she asked, her voice a little harsh.

“Yup,” I said, reaching for some chocolate chips.

“And you didn’t say anything?” She raised her head to meet my gaze.

My head tilted with surprise. “Was I supposed to say something? I thought you didn’t care about Adrian anymore.”

She rolled her eyes as she handed her phone back to me. “I definitely don’t care.”

I raised my eyebrows like I didn’t believe her. “I spoke to them last night. They were even partying solo. Maybe it’s because I was around at that moment and they were trying to prove a point.”

“What point?” She grabbed the sugar from the shelf a bit too roughly.

“That they’ve changed. I had a chat with each of them again. Adrian misses you.”

“Harp, I don’t want to hear it.” She held up her hand to my face, then smirked. “I don’t have time to cry over him when I have that new hot guy rearranging my guts.”

“Well, at least I tried. So, can I see him?” I wiggled my eyebrows.

“Who?” She blinked like she wasn’t expecting that.

“Your new guy.”

“Oh, yeah.”

She smiled, taking out her phone and scrolling to show me a picture.

“Damn, he’s hot,” I said as I checked out the picture.

“Yup. That’s why I have no time giving a shit about Adrian. Fuck him.”

After getting everything we needed, we headed back to her place and Zoey arrived only a few minutes later.

I had to go over the same thing again with her as I told her about Aiden. Just like Ella, she was mad that I didn’t tell her about meeting Aiden in Paris, then went on to clarify that she just didn’t care.

I began to see a pattern but thought I’d keep my opinion to myself at that moment.

The three of us got involved in the baking process and when everything was ready, it was so mouth watering.

We sat right on the living room floor, tasting the goodness of what we had made.

After enjoying that moment for a while in silence, Zoey said, “I’m so glad Uncle Sebastian is finally divorced. I can now make a move.”

“Whoa,” Ella warned her. “He’s mine. Dean’s in town. Why don’t you have him instead?”

Zoey’s jaw dropped. “Look who’s talking. Aren’t you already fucking someone? Why not focus on him and leave Uncle Sebastian?”

“No. He’s too hot to just let go.”

“He was never yours.” Zoey crossed her arms.

“The same goes for you.”

After they bickered for a few seconds, I chimed in and said, “Neither of you stand a chance. You need to accept that.”

They both went silent before Ella spoke first. “Damn, that was…harsh.”

“It’s just the truth,” I said. “Maddox said his uncle isn’t looking for love any time soon.”

“Whatever he’s looking for…I’m available!” Zoey smacked her chest.

And just like that, I knew they were about to bicker again. I didn’t want to hear it, so I thought I’d change the topic quickly.

“I was waiting for Zoey to get here so I could tell you two about something that happened,” I said, setting down my plate.

They took note of the seriousness in my tone, making them pay attention to me.

“What’s up?” Ella asked.

“It’s about Grayson.”

Zoey rolled her eyes. “Ugh! What is it this time? I mean…what happened?”

I sighed, telling them word for word about what he’d done to me. From lying to me about my sister, to the notebook in the treehouse. By the time I was telling them about him confessing his feelings for me, their faces had turned red with rage.

Rocking back and forth, Ella said, “It sucks that you can’t avoid him completely because now that you’re Maddox’s girlfriend, you’ll be by his side at certain events and that piece of shit will be there. You know what? Slapping and blocking him wasn’t enough.” She clenched her fists as she tried to get up. “He needs to fucking pay! We have to-”

“No,” I said quickly as I pulled her back down.

“No?” they both asked in unison.

“Oh no.” Zoey shook her head with disappointment. “Don’t tell me you’re blinded by the fact that he has feelings for you despite marrying Tiffany.”

“Are you serious right now?” Ella gritted her teeth at me.

“Both of you, calm down,” I said gently. “It’s true. I always wanted him to notice me and love me. It turns out he always did, but I can assure you of one thing, learning about his current feelings for me doesn’t make me want to run to him and throw myself in his arms. He hurt me too deeply by using my desire to reunite with my sister. To me, that’s a more important factor than how he’s toyed with my feelings for years. I’m with Maddox now and nothing’s going to change.”

Ella relaxed her facial muscles. “If that’s the case, why did you stop us from wanting to get back at him?”

“He’ll definitely get what he deserves.”

I smirked as I told them about the current situation between Josh and Tiffany.

“Damn! That’s just perfect!” Ella clapped. “He’ll definitely find out and when he does, it’ll be a pain in his ass because it’s been going on for so long.”

“Wait, I see what’s going on here.” Zoey giggled while covering her mouth. “It’s not just that Grayson will learn the hard way, you don’t want us to get involved because Maddox will take care of it.”

The two of them looked at each other with a high five.

“Wait, there’s no such thing,” I quickly clarified.

Zoey scoffed. “And we’re supposed to believe that?”

“I mean it.”

“Hmm…” Ella leaned towards me. “You seem so certain.”

“I told Maddox about it all and he was furious, but he didn’t say anything about making Grayson pay for what he did to me.”

She lightly smacked my shoulder. “Like he needs your permission to get things done. I refuse to believe he’s decided to just let this go.”

“I’m with Ella on this!” Zoey said. “Harper, does it really make sense in that pretty head of yours that your boyfriend won’t do anything about this?”