Harm and Mac Moment: Chloe comes to visit.
Cass Eastham 2002
It was only a weekend visit, but Chloe insisted she visit Harm too.
Chloe grabbed Mac's hand and pulled her across the parking lot to the park with excitement, and was instantly giggly when they found Harm ready and waiting. Mac was left to watch Chloe and Harm banter back and forth like excited niece to favorite uncle. Harm treated them to ice cream cones and they strolled around the park a while. He gave the girl all his light-hearted attention with little or no knowing glances to Mac.
Finally, when Mac moved away to throw the rest of her cone away, Chloe took the opportunity to sneak a probing question to the man. "Why haven't you kissed her yet," the girl asked accusingly.
Harm gave her a half grin of amusement and shrugged easily. "What makes you think that I haven't?"
Chloe's jaw dropped in true preteen melodrama and Harm was climbing to his feet to leave when Mac returned.
Glitter colored Mac's eyes at the girl's expression. She looked at Harm. "What's that all about?"
Harm shrugged and grinned. "Chloe and I were just discussing... my talents in evasive questioning." A big smile spread across his face. He winked to Chloe and nodded to Mac. "See ya."
Chloe was in too much shock and confusion to argue his slick exit, but recovered enough to bombard Mac about it later. Chloe was now convinced that they already had kissed, and Mac was dodging the subject, but she wasn't denying it. This only spun Chloe up into a bigger frenzy, giggly and excited as it was.
She loved the girl, but Mac was thankful when her grandparents returned from their leisurely day of shopping and sightseeing to pick Chloe up that evening. Chloe sped out of Mac's apartment like a fired-up F-14, fueled only by her suspicions of Mac and Harm.
Mac closed the front door and dropped her back against it with a thunk. "I hate you," she said to the air, then started chuckling pitifully. She moved to the kitchen and picked up the phone. Punching the number in with the thumb of one hand , she pulled out a bottle of water with the other.
As soon as he answered, she couldn't help but laugh. "I hate you."
"Ha!" Harm spat into the receiver and bubbled up a giggle. "What did I do now?"
Mac leaned her hips against the counter and smiled into the air. "'What makes you think I haven't?' She's been interrogating me all afternoon."
He verbally shrugged. She could hear him settle into his couch. "Well, if I said yes, it would have been worse, and if I said no, it would have been lying."
"Well," Mac fought with the logic. "It wouldn't exactly be lying."
He rumbled a chuckle. He was fumbling with something else while he was talking to her. "Explain."
Mac breathed out frustration through an open mouth. Why did she call him again? "All right." She pealed from the counter and strolled into the living room. "The first one, you were kissing Diane, not me, and you admitted that at the time-"
"I admitted no such thing, but go on." The humor was still in his voice.
Mac breathed through her teeth before continuing, "And the second time, it was a..." she shrugged and flapped an arm, "kissing the bride goodbye sort of thing."
His voice sobered a little at the memory, but tried to stay bright. "I thought the kissing of the bride customarily happened on the wedding day, not the engagement party."
Mac shrugged and plopped into her couch. "And the third was under the mistletoe."
He grinned, "I was under duress."
His voice was totally sober now: quiet, controlled, and pensive. "Mac, I'm sorry. I did the best I could." He swallowed quietly. "Chloe's young and hormonal. There's nothing I could have said to calm her down without feeling like I was lying to her."
"You could have told her nothing was going on between us," she insisted quickly.
There was an eerie silence on the other end of the line.
Mac wanted to yank her words out of the receiver.
She glanced up at nothing in the air. "You're right," she sighed. She imagined numbers of people who had harped on her about Harm over the last few years. All those people that mattered to her and even the people that didn't. She wished the world would chock it up to just good friends.
She blinked when she realized they were still on the phone, and his end was as silent as hers. She sat up again, listening for him, but hesitated before speaking. She had fallen into a mental digression, but why was he quiet?
"Harm?" she whispered by accident. She was almost afraid she was going to rudely wake him up if she didn't.
"Yeah?" he muttered back, obviously not asleep, but not bursting with energy either.
She wasn't sure what to say. She wasn't sure how to make casual conversation again after such a strange topic. She paused and swallowed before speaking, but her voice was still softer and more pensive than she would have liked. "What are you doing?"
He let out a deep giggle into the receiver, "I'm waiting for you to finish yelling at me."
She tittered and shook her head, pressing her fingertips to her forehead and listening to him laugh even deeper. "I'm sorry," she sighed to a smile.
"Don't be," he said, easy and quiet. His voice sounded like he was settling in for a comfy nap. "Chloe just cares about you. I understand what she puts you through."
Mac lifted her brows a little, "You do?"
"Yeah," he said, a little surprised that she would question that. "Of course, I do." The deep giggle returned to his voice, "You don't think she's the only one that pressures you and I about ... 'you and I'... do you?"
Her brows wrinkled in all kinds of directions. "Who pressures you?"
There was a quiet gurgle in his voice as though he just realized he'd painted himself into a corner. He lifted his voice and let out a deep sigh. "Mac, I uh..."
"Uh huh," she insisted. "Tell me."
He considered this. "Why?"
"To make it fair."
She could hear him suck at his lips in thought, and then he sighed defeat. "My mother."
Mac was caught between snickering wildly and bursting with shock. She put a palm over her mouth and closed her eyes.
Harm started chuckling again, "No laughing."
Mac's snicker escaped her fingers anyway.
He dropped the phone to his chest and looked away. Harm closed his eyes, shook his head, and raised the phone back to his ear to listen to her stifled giggling. He rubbed his lips together, patiently waited for her to be done, but there was a new glow in his eyes now.
Her laughter calmed, and she was quiet on the other end again, trying to figure out what to say next. And though he couldn't see her, and he couldn't really hear her, he knew exactly why she was silent. He knew she was sitting there with her legs curled crooked under her and a hand probably held back a bare ankle to keep them there. He knew the expression on her face, and the way her mouth was open with a smile like she was completely caught off guard.
He knew just how much she was squirming, and silently enjoyed every minute of it until she cracked.
"I hate you," she finally spit in a whisper and let it boil up into laughter again.
Harm started to laugh, but he breathed too soon and the words came out more tender than he intended. "I hate you too." The voice was a carbon copy of the words it uttered.
There was a sudden silence on both ends of the line.
Mac's voice was suddenly smooth and cozy, "Good night, Harm."
He breathed in relief. He relaxed and smiled, "G'night, Sarah."
Mac's brows flicked, then rose.
Harm's eyes widened. His mouth opened. "I mean- eh-" And then he quickly hung up the phone.
Mac threw her head back, threw the phone down, and laughed.