by Amber Lynn
She was flighty then, and from the little interaction he’d had with her in the ten years since, she was still scared of her own shadow. The trait could be frustrating, but Curtis found it endearing. He couldn’t stand people like her friend Nina, who said anything they wanted without a care who it hurt. That particular bitch was someone he could’ve gone the rest of his life without seeing again.
Hannah’s red hair easily stood out as Curtis scanned the room. All he had to do was follow Nina’s voice and then look a few feet away to where Hannah was awkwardly holding up the wall behind her. A small part of him was jealous of the wall for being able to feel her body lean against its white cinder blocks. Being jealous of a wall was foolish, so Curtis tried not to think about it.
During the years they’d known each other, Curtis had never hinted he wanted to get to know her better. For one, he didn’t think the declaration would go over well when her best friend was busy throwing herself at him. Curtis didn’t like that Hannah followed Nina around like a lost puppy dog sometimes, but he didn’t have a say in what she did with her life, so he remained quiet. Necessity eventually made Curtis forget about asking Hannah out, but he was doing his best not to think about those days.
He’d expected to see them together, since he knew they worked together, but he’d hoped Hannah would have asserted herself at least a little over the years. The woman was beautiful in an understated way. She never wore makeup, and yet her green eyes popped and lit up a room. There was no fuss to Hannah, which was probably the number one reason Curtis had always had a crush on her.
“Excuse me for a second. I think I need a refill.”
Curtis’ clear plastic cup was only half empty, but the words rolled off his tongue before he could think of a better excuse. He didn’t bother waiting for questions or anyone to mention they’d tag along. The whispers that followed him tried to guess his sudden distraction. Not surprisingly, the consensus was his feet carried him towards Nina.
The distance between the group he left and Hannah was about twenty feet, and it didn’t take more than five feet for Nina’s loud mouth to be the only thing Curtis could hear. She had a group gathered two people deep all around her, so clearly, she had to speak up. Curtis briefly wondered if she’d brought her own microphone.
Hannah stared off into space. Curtis assumed when she did that she was deep in thought. He’d always played a game trying to predict what she was thinking. They were never serious thoughts, just funny things that might be traipsing around her mind.
“So.”
Curtis allowed a second to make sure Hannah knew he was speaking to her. They were on the outside of Nina’s fans, without any of them too close, so it should’ve been obvious. Hannah never seemed to believe the obvious, though, as he remembered her often questioning everything.
“Are you thinking a deep grave or cement shoes?”
The look that crossed Hannah’s face elicited a chuckle out of Curtis. He didn’t mean to laugh, but the way her eyes scrunched for a second and then her brows lifted, all while her mouth moved to form words that didn’t come out was pretty funny. She wasn’t running away, which was all Curtis initially hoped for.
“Did I miss something?”
Hannah started blinking rapidly as her eyes darted around while she tried to fill in the blanks. The fact that she wasn’t frozen in place seemed like a good sign as far as Curtis was concerned. She had a tendency to turn into stone anytime attention turned her way.
“No,” Curtis said as he smiled and shook his head. “You just looked like you were thinking about something serious, so I guessed it was how to dispose of a body. I’m guessing that isn’t the case.”
A smile or laugh would’ve been a nice reply, but Curtis didn’t expect them. The horrified look he saw was exactly what he thought would happen. It was a clear sign that nothing had changed since high school. As odd as it sounded, that was a relief.
“I’m just joking around, Hannah. Everyone here knows you are the least likely one of us to kill someone. If I remember right, the honor for the most likely was Nathan,” Curtis’ voice trailed as he tried to remember the guy’s last name. It wasn’t someone Curtis had ever gotten close to.
“Perkins,” Hannah provided. “And I’m pretty sure he’s in jail for killing someone in a drunk bar fight or something.”
Curtis wasn’t sure if there was hard evidence backing that up or conjecture, but he wasn’t going to argue the statement. He’d already made a decent mess of opening up a conversation between them.
“I guess they should be more careful handing out those awards. They seem to be self-fulfilling prophecies, or whatever you want to call them.”
Having stood in front of Hannah to gauge her reactions, Curtis decided to turn and stand next to her with his back against the wall after he finished speaking. No one seemed to notice them, which was a little peculiar based on how much attention had been bestowed upon him. He wasn’t about to complain, but he’d planned on trying to find a space a little farther away from the others to talk.
“Yours was most likely to be on the cover of a sports magazine, which I believe you’ve done.”
Hannah paused as she held up her hand and counted four fingers. Curtis was surprised she went that high. Most people only brought up what was considered his “big interview.”
“Four times. I know there are other papers and rags you’ve been on the cover of, but I’m pretty sure only four of them were authorized interviews.”
The explanation was a little overkill. Curtis didn’t follow himself in the media, so which interview appeared where wasn’t on his radar. He only did them because his agent said it was good for his career. Curtis had played with the same team all of that career, and his contract kept him there for at least three more years.
“I’ll take your word for it.”
Curtis stood close enough to Hannah that it was easy for him to “accidentally” brush his hand against hers. It was nothing more than a soft touch, but he wanted to gauge her response. Her hand didn’t move away. An audible intake of breath was all he could pick up. Curtis pictured some kind of facial expression, like a little eye widening or her jaw dropping open slightly.
He’d never been the one looking to pursue a relationship. The girlfriends he’d had over the years came after him, so he wasn’t sure exactly how to broach the idea of asking someone out. He couldn’t just come out and say it, not after ten years of not speaking and little interactions even before that. It was a mess, and he blamed Nina for it. She was the one who told him to stay away from Hannah in high school, and somehow he had to explain that. The task was much easier said than done.
“How long are you planning on staying tonight?”
Both of them had kept their voices down throughout the conversation, but Curtis lowered his even more when he asked the question. He tried to keep his tone mild, or at least that was the word that came to mind. He didn’t want to make her think he was just looking to fool around with her because it was convenient.
“I’m the designated driver.”
She didn’t have to specify she meant for Nina. Hannah was at the woman’s beck and call. The thought made Curtis grind his teeth together.
“So not only do you probably hate to be here, but you can’t drink either? I might have to kidnap you for your own good.”
It was easy to picture throwing Hannah over his shoulder and running from the building. The woman couldn’t weigh much more than a hundred and ten pounds. At two-twenty, much of it muscles, Curtis wouldn’t have an issue picking her up.
The concept of kidnapping was probably a little too strong for the conversation, but it still didn’t send her running from him. Hannah laughed slightly. The noise took Curtis a second to classify and register since she’d rarely made a noise even remotely similar in his presence.
“I actually forgot for a few minutes earlier and had a glass of wine in hand ready to drink before I was reminded of my purpose tonight.”
Cur
tis was happy he missed that interaction. It was bad enough he could picture Nina waltzing over and saying something rude. He could even see her grabbing the glass out of Hannah’s hand and guzzling it down in front of her.
“What if I order a car to take the princess wherever she wants to go? I assume she could do that herself, but is too used to you being around to pick up the phone.”
It was hard not to sound bitter. Nina’s actions had never really cost him anything, other than his chance with Hannah, but he had an inkling of the toll it took on Hannah over the years. All he wanted to do was whisk her away somewhere Nina couldn’t find her for a while. He wondered if she’d open up more without the constant presence of Nina blocking out the sun.
Hannah’s focus had remained in front of them, but as Curtis turned his head to look at her a little better, he could see her looking over at him out of the corner of her eye. Her bottom lip was firmly between her teeth as she nibbled on it.
“We both know you’re not going to kidnap me, so I think we can go without car service. I can give you a list of other women who would love for you to pull the kidnapping act.”
The thought turned Curtis’ stomach. He didn’t audibly make a barfing noise, but it was pretty loud in his own head.
“No, I wouldn’t kidnap you.”
Curtis let his hand caress hers again, this time keeping the contact for a couple seconds longer. The first touch didn’t reveal how cold her hand was. Curtis spent a lot of time on the ice, and that was exactly what her hand felt like. He fought the instinct to grab her hand and try to warm it.
He wondered whether that was normal for her, or if something about the situation chilled her. There were so many things he didn’t know, yet over the years had let himself imagine. Curtis needed at least a decade with Hannah just to figure out if his imagination was anywhere near the real thing.
“I would like to spend some time with you, though. I’m in town this week, so maybe we can go out for dinner some night.”
A little shrug meant to make the words casual. Casual wasn’t what he thought of when Hannah was on his mind, but he feared too much direct intent would scare her away.
“I don’t understand. Are you looking for intel or something? Nina isn’t dating anyone right now, at least not anyone serious. You don’t have to go through me to get to her.”
“I’m not going through you to get to anyone.” Curtis moved so he was back in front of Hannah, making sure she could see the intent in his eyes. “I’m asking you out on a date. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for years. The timing just never worked out for us.”
A slew of questions, and maybe a shocked expression would’ve been appropriate, given the suddenness of the request. Curtis could have dealt with those reactions without second thought. Seeing Hannah’s eyes drift close and her head rapidly gravitate towards the ground as her knees buckled wasn’t something Curtis had envisioned when he thought about the moment.
Even momentarily paralyzed from the reaction, Curtis was quick enough to catch Hannah before her body fully hit the ground. It wasn’t the way he expected to find her in his arms, but he didn’t miss the chance to let it sink in that she was. If only they were anywhere other than the reunion and she was conscious, he would’ve called it the perfect ending to the evening.
Chapter 3
“Don’t you think we should call an ambulance?”
Even in Hannah’s dreams, Nina’s voice sounded like fingernails going down a chalkboard. Not necessarily the scraping, squealing noise associated with the action, just the fact that it grated on Hannah’s nerves. Only in her dreams could Hannah admit something like that. In real life, she wore her friend like a shield and was thankful for any and all protection it provided.
“What we need is for you to give me some room. I’m surprised you broke up your court to come check on her. Since you did, I’ll go ahead and tell you that I’m taking her home. I can get a car to come pick you up or you can ask one of your many adoring fans to give you a ride.”
Hannah felt motion, but she was too busy analyzing the male voice to react to her body being moved around. It had been a long time since she’d dreamed about that particular voice. In high school, it had been a fairly common occurrence, because back then she allowed her imagination to run a little more freely.
It was one of the only times she allowed herself to be foolish. Her experiences around the time made it stupid, but she always thought he was different than the other kids at school. Since she felt the same way about herself, it was easy to gravitate towards thinking about him as more than just another kid.
Once she joined the grown-up world of jobs and responsibilities, she didn’t let herself fantasize about Curtis. That wasn’t completely true. When an article came out about him, she sometimes had little thoughts of what it would be like to be in his world, but it never included hearing him tell Nina off.
“Excuse me? Put her down. I’m her best friend and the only person here qualified to make decisions based on her welfare. You’re not taking her anywhere.”
It would have been nice to have a visual sense of what was going on. Hannah couldn’t remember a dream only in audio. It felt like she was sort of floating around as the two of them fought. She hated only being able to imagine the expressions that went along with the words. Both of them sounded pissed, but without seeing Nina, in particular, she couldn’t tell how nuclear things were.
“You really think you can stop me? You haven’t had Hannah’s best interests in mind since long before high school, so don’t give me that crap about you being qualified for anything when it comes to her.”
Curtis’ voice stopped for a second and Hannah heard a deep breath from close to her head. Realizing that the reason she couldn’t see anything in the dream was more than likely because her eyes were closed, she blinked a couple of times and let her eyelids rise. A simple solution to the problem, which seemed to cause only new ones to appear.
Her brain should have put it together that dream Curtis had picked her up, but she wasn’t ready to see the black button-down shirt he was wearing up close and personal. Nor was she ready for the peppermint smell that she associated with him to instantly overwhelm her. Her extremities began to tingle, starting a sensation she didn’t remember swarming around her body. It felt like she was going to crawl out of her skin.
“Just because you make a few hundred thousand more than I do a year doesn’t mean you can come in here and throw your weight around.”
Hannah wanted to turn to see Nina as she responded, but she couldn’t look away from the defined edges of Curtis’ chin. Chiseled described the man perfectly and up close it wasn’t easy to resist reaching out and running a finger along the skin making up those defined edges.
“You need mental help, Nina. I’d think with all your money, you’d have plenty of doctors begging for you to spend some quality time with them.”
Curtis looked down and acknowledge with a wink that he saw Hannah’s eyes were open. The smile that spread across his face softened his coffee-colored eyes a little, but he still seemed pissed.
Hannah didn’t want to think the actions going on around her were reality, but out the corner of her eye she saw pale green lockers as she was carried down a hall. Most of the reunion had felt like her just going through the motions, but they were motions in the real world, not dream world. She didn’t remember exactly what would’ve caused Curtis to carry her around, but Hannah came to the realization he was, and he wasn’t struggling at all to do so.
“You don’t even know where she lives, and I’m not going to tell you, so put her down and let me take care of her.”
Nina actually sounded like she cared. Her tone didn’t change that much, but there was more assertion than she usually mustered for mundane conversation. Hannah still couldn’t see her, but she had registered the sound of her high heels against the polished white floor working overtime to keep up with Curtis. The man’s strides were probably one for every two of Nina
’s.
“There you go again making assumptions. You have never known anything about me, Nina. Thankfully, Hannah is up and can make her own choices. Since she hasn’t tried to escape from my arms, I don’t think she has a problem with me giving her a ride home.”
“All that means is she isn’t rude. Hannah, tell him to get lost and I’ll get you home and tucked into bed with some food to get your blood sugar up. I knew you should have had more than that salad at lunch today.”
Nina said the words, but in the twenty years they’d known each other, she’d never played nursemaid. Hannah didn’t see that starting anytime soon, so the promise felt like it was about getting Curtis out of the picture. Hannah figured that had to do with the fact he’d taken charge of the situation and wasn’t listening to a word she said.
“She’s probably right. I don’t want to waste anymore of your night than I already have.”
Hannah kept her voice quiet, like she had during the conversation with Curtis in the gym. She remembered bits and pieces of what they’d said, but most of it was a haze. She’d put together that for some reason she’d passed out, which wasn’t like her. The anxiety of the night had kept her eating to a minimum, but she had eaten enough she wasn’t starving.
Curtis stared down at Hannah. His eyes so focused that it felt like he was looking through her, maybe trying to read her mind. God help him if he had that ability, because there was never anything interesting rolling around in there.
“I asked you out on a date and you fainted. I think it’s my responsibility to make sure you get some food and are tucked in bed.”
Before Hannah had a chance to react, Nina flew into one of her tirades. Hannah wasn’t sure if anyone else had followed them towards the parking lot, but the decibels Nina hit made sure everyone in the school could hear her screeching.
“You asked her out. Are you an idiot?”