Callum & Harper by Fisher Amelie Read Free Book Online

me a management position and I’ll be forced to take it to support the eight kids I had with the girl I met at ju-co in my theater electives class but left me to pursue her ‘acting career’. I’ll be bitter and grow a beer gut...”
    “ Okay! Okay!” She giggled. “I’ll take the pallet but only if you take the pallet with me.”
    My throat instantly dried and the smirk that graced my stupid face fell.     “Wa- with you?”     “Yes,” she said turning her back toward me and taking a t-shirt and some shorts from her piles of clothing and heading for the door. She stopped at the edge. “You sleep with your feet at this end and I’ll sleep with my feet at that end.” Harper winked at me before leaving to change.
    “ Oh,” I said to no one, the blood returning to my face but disappointment following soon behind. You’re still sleeping right next to her, genius.
    I used the time she was gone to ready myself for bed. I usually slept in my boxers because I didn’t make it a habit to sleep with women, hardy har, har, but wasn’t sure what to do because I didn’t have anything else. I scrambled through my belongings and found a pair of old Adidas track pants. I removed my t-shirt and threw on the pants.
     
    Harper
    I can’t believe I suggested we sleep on the pallet together. I know why I did it. I genuinely couldn’t let him sleep in that gosh awful chair but if I was being honest with myself, it wasn’t the only reason why I did it. You can’t lie to yourself, Harper. And I couldn’t. Alright, fine. I did it because I wanted to know what it was like to lie next to a warm body, to feel close to someone sincere because sincerity is one of those rare human qualities that feels a bit like discovering a lost treasure. It is a rare commodity but once found, is absolutely priceless. That was Callum, pretty much in a nutshell. And I, to be perfectly frank, could count the people I’d found to be genuine on my right hand.   
    I came to the door and knocked before stepping in, so as not to disturb him getting ready.
    “ Come in,” I heard.
    But there wasn’t enough preparation in the world to ready me for what I saw when I opened that door. Callum, standing above the pallet, the lights out but the faint glow from the hallway glistening across his perfect chest and highlighting the eight pack that painted his stomach. I gulped audibly. I stood there, staring like an imbecile.     “Uh, Harper?”     I shook my head. “Um, yeah?” A blush crept up my neck and plastered my face in crimson.     “You okay?”     “Uh, huh. Why do you ask?” I said, biting my bottom lip to keep from a nervous laugh and staring at everything in the room but Callum, a feat in and of itself.     “Because you’re just standing there. Listen, if you don’t want to sleep with me on the pallet, I understand.”     “No, it’s okay.” I answered as breezily as I could. I set all my stuff on the table with our clean laundry and headed for the soundboard to turn on some low tunes. “Do you mind?” I asked.     “Not at all,” he said. “I can’t sleep without it.”     I look at him, surprised. “Neither can I.” It’s how I used to drown out the nightly yelling my last three foster parents used to embark on every evening after getting drunk or when they were getting in a fight or when I just wanted to drown out my situation.     I turned and walked over to the pallet. He watched me settle in before laying on top of the blanket I was underneath, his feet at my head, pulling another quilt at his side over his own body. Basically, we were as far apart as two people sleeping next to one another could get. After a few moments, he turned out the lights and it became pitch black and that’s the moment I chose to start laughing uncontrollably which, in turn, caused him to follow suit.     “What’s so funny?” He asked me.     “Everything, Callum. It’s all so incredibly