The Butterfly Effect

Chapter 23

Friday

After climbing up the apartment stairs to the third floor, Kirsten walked straight up to room 5C and knocked on the door. When the door flung open, a good-looking, curly brown-haired guy in gray Columbia University sweatshirt and black sweatpants appeared behind the door and a smile immediately curved up as he spotted her there.

"Hey, Kirsy!" His greeting sounded more like a cheer.

"Hi, Harley," Kirsten greeted back. "Thanks for buzzing me in."

"Sure." Harley stepped aside and jovially gestured her to come inside. "C'mon in, c'mon in."

She thanked him again as she got in.

"I'm sure Joey will come back from his classes anytime soon," he informed as he closed the door. "Why don't you make yourself comfortable?"

Just like every time she dropped by Joey and Harley's apartment, Harley started to be busy offering her any food and beverage they had there. After making herself comfortable—like he permitted—on the living room couch, she picked up one of the milk tarts from a rectangular box on the coffee table that he was so eager for her to have a taste.

"Hey, this tastes really good," Kirsten acknowledged after taking the first bite. "What's this?"

"I know, right." A smile spanned across Harley's face as he joined her on the couch after setting two cups of hot chocolate bomb beside the milk tart box. "My dad just got back from his business trip in Bali and he sent me many boxes of these milk tarts yesterday. You can take a box home if you want."

"Thanks," she chirped.

"So, what are you and Joe up to tonight?" he asked.

"We're going to check on my dad's birthday present. You want to join us?" Kirsten took another bite on her milk tart.

Harley gave her a dismissive shrug. "Nah, I'm good."

"Yeah, I can see why," she chuckled, "with you being all comfortable already in your sweatpants at 4:00 in the afternoon."

"Going to enjoy my last Friday night before exam comes."

After a satisfying show of marshmallow explosion from a chocolate bomb, Kirsten opened a new topic by asking, "By the way, I heard you won the photography contest last week."

Harley obviously held back a proud smile. "Yeah, I did."

"That's so cool! Congrats, Harley! Bet it was one hell of a shot, huh?" She cast him a meaningful look. "I saw you teaching some pretty Latina girl how to use the camera at campus café during lunch a couple days ago."

"What, who?" The next second, his eyebrows wrinkled as he shook his head. "Ah, yes. She's my classmate, she came to me to learn basic photography."

Smiling teasingly, Kirsten nodded her head. "Smooth."

"What?" Harley shrugged. "Seemed like she genuinely wanted to learn. I was just being nice."

"Let me guess. She didn't bring a camera?"

"She said she forgot."

"She didn't show you any of her shots?"

"She told me she didn't have nice portfolio."

"Did she ask you to meet up there at the café?"

"Well, yeah, she said it'd be cold outside."

Sighing, Kirsten shook her head as she didn't understand why this guy in front of her could be so clueless about this. Joey had once told her that Harley was this big ladies' man, but the truth she could see from knowing him for a year was Harley was just too friendly that he wasn't aware he might lead the girls to the wrong intentions.