4
"I'm back Harley." Mallet entered the hotel room with a bucket of ice... and a bottle of champagne. "Oh my God! You actually got champagne? Mallet..." "No, Harley, shut up. Here, have some champagne. Wait, no. There aren't any glasses." Mallet began searching for cups, even paper ones would do. "No, Mallet. Don't worry about the glasses. We have to talk." Harley walked over to the bed. "Sit," she said, almost as if giving an order. "What hon? What is it?" Mallet asked, genuinely curious. "We have to discuss something. We need to stop dancing around this." "Dancing around what? What are you getting at Cooper?" "This- these feelings. Your feelings, my feelings, just- feelings." "Feelings. Whoa, whoa, whoa, feelings." Mallet began to sing one of the worst songs of the century... possibly of all time. "Mallet. God, I hate that song. No, be serious. No more jokes."
Harley had a stern look on her face. "Wow. This must be serious. You look... almost evil." Mallet was truly interested now. "Thanks, I think. Anyway, we have to put everything on the table. Where do we stand Mallet? What's next for us? And I don't mean on-the-run wise. I mean... couple wise." Harley looked straight into Mallet's eyes. "Couple wise? You mean- romantically and such?" "Yeah, I guess. It's just, you know, it's obvious that we both still have feelings, and I think it's time we did something about them." "By "something" what exactly do you mean? Do you mean, like, um, you know, that? Or no. Because for the first time since I met you Cooper, I can't read your face. For the first time, I don't know what you're thinking. And I wanna know. I really do. What are you thinking?" Mallet was rambling, which usually meant he was nervous- or hot and bothered. Either way, he wanted an answer from Harley, and he wasn't going to wait much longer. "Honestly, Mallet, I don't even know what I mean. But I don't mean... that. I don't think we're quite there yet. But we do need to talk about our feelings. Assess them, I guess. Dissect them until we get to the very core." "This is going to be a looong night," Mallet laughed. "Yeah, but we need it. We need a long night to sort everything out."
"Ok, let's start from the beginning." "Which would be when? When we met? The root cellar? When is 'the beginning' Harley?" "When you cheated on me, Mallet. That's the beginning. That's when my whole world crumbled. That's when I felt like I had nothing- like I was nothing. You were the love of my life Mallet, and losing you hurt more than you could ever imagine." Harley's eyes began to tear up. "Yes, I can imagine it Harley. Because you are the love of my life. And I know I hurt you. I wish I could change what happened. I would give anything to go back and erase all the pain I saw in your eyes. If I could do it all over again Harley..." Now Mallet was beginning to cry, and Harley's face was buried in a pillow, as an attempt to hide her own tears. "I still... I mean, when I look at you, Mallet, I... it feels like it did all those years ago, when we were so deeply in love that I thought nothing would ever tear us apart. And I hate you for what you did to me. But behind all that hate, all that pain. When you look into my eyes, I still feel the way I did the moment I saw you. I..." Harley stopped, afraid of what she was about to say. "You what, Harley? You still what?" Mallet asked, even though he knew the answer. "Mallet, I... I... love you..." Harley began to cry harder as Mallet moved closer to her. "I love you too Harley. I love you too." Harley tried to avert her gaze, but she couldn't help looking deep into Mallet's bright blue eyes. Her heart was beating faster as she felt his breath on her face. "I love you," she whispered, as her lips parted. After a long, painful period, Harley and Mallet shared their first real kiss in ten years.