Unrequited Love

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. And in Harper's case, it seems absence makes the heart grow creepily, uncomfortably fonder. 

Harper's first love is Gabe. She hasn't seen him for about a year, but he came by for a visit last week and she was beside herself. 

Side note: Gabe is a grown man with a wife and kids. 

First they watched her favorite movie: a BBC deep sea documentary. Not the most riveting. But Harper had Gabe sit and watch every second of it and even narrated most of it. 

"Look Gabe. Look at that fish swimming. Look at that other fish swimming. Look at that shrimp."

This went on for about 40 minutes. And about midway through she started calling him Gab. I think it was her attempt at a pet name. Gab was a good sport. 

At dinner Harper had Gabe sit next to her on the bench. The bench fits four people, yet Harper sat so close to Gabe he didn't have use of his left arm. 

"Harper give him a little space. He can't even eat," I said. 

"But I just love Gab," she said and nuzzled his arm with her face.

 

Another side note: I do not show affection this way, so I'm not sure where she's seen it. My guess is it's either from watching cat videos or it was an entirely primal attempt to scent mark him. In which case she probably marked him with Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue scent.  

"Seriously stop, you need to scoot over."

"I think you're yummy," she said to Gabe in a very Ron Burgandy way, not even acknowledging me. 

"Uh what? Harper scoot now," I said. 

"Yum yum yum yum," she said as she scooted an entire centimeter. 

She also insisted on taking several photos with Gabe. She's not looking in any of the photos of course, because she's looking at Gabe. 

To Gabe's wife Lauren: I can only apologize and say it's not her fault. I blame her parenting. I will do my best to make sure she doesn't cook your rabbit at any point in the future.