by Amber Lynn
All of ninth grade things had seemed harmless, but then things changed. She still teased and flirted, but Hannah picked up the hatred that carried through to the present.
“She did it to keep me away from you. There was some stupid girls ask the guys dance sophomore year and she asked me, along with about ten other girls. She got pissed and asked who I was waiting on to ask. I told her the truth and a week later the picture arrived in my locker.”
“And that was it. There had to be a note or something, right? She wouldn’t just send a picture and not list out some demands.”
Curtis shook his head as a sad smile crept on his face. Hannah bit her lip, waiting to hear what horrid thing Nina demanded.
“The picture said that if I ever came near you again, the picture was going to my coach. Like I said earlier tonight, I don’t know that it would have the same effect now, which I assume is why she came up with the idea of a bet. Either way, I’m tired of having that hang over me and I haven’t gotten over you. I’ve tried, but I don’t think I can ever move forward until I find out for sure.”
“Me? What do I have to do with anything? We hardly talked in high school.”
Hannah was confused. She was missing something and couldn’t tell if he hadn’t spelled it out or she was too dense to understand.
“True. From tenth grade on I had to keep my distance, and before that I was so busy with school and hockey that I didn’t think I had the time for a relationship. Even with that, when Nina asked, I told her you were the only person I would possibly consider going to the dance with because unlike all of the other stuck-up bitches in school, you have a soul. That obviously wasn’t what she wanted to hear.”
Not knowing what to say, Hannah just stared at Curtis. She wanted to close her eyes and hide, but she was frozen in shock. She didn’t know whether to be honored that Curtis had liked her by default in high school or mortified. He clearly liked her enough that he was willing to deal with Nina’s wrath, but it could’ve just been something on his part to beat Nina after all the years.
No, Hannah told herself. Curtis wasn’t like that. It wasn’t a bet. It wasn’t revenge. She had no idea what it was, but she couldn’t let herself believe he was using her. Her heart commanded that it wasn’t true.
“So, there, now you know why I hate her. I have no idea why she did what she did, but it left me in suspension for over a decade because I couldn’t get over the feeling that I missed my chance for something special.”
“Can we not talk about it anymore? I just want to lay here and think for a while. Is that okay?”
Hannah had questions, but she wasn’t ready to ask them. For a while, she just wanted to be and she didn’t mind if he was there with her. In fact, she liked the fact that he was, because even after everything he’d said and the confusion it caused, in his arms was the safest she’d ever felt.
“You can stay as long as you like.”
Curtis kissed her head again and pulled her body close to him so her head rested against his chest. Hannah closed her eyes and tried to make sense of her thoughts. It was an uphill battle, but she had to figure out how in the world to face Nina with the new revelation. She knew Nina was just looking out for her, but things had to change.
Chapter 12
There were plenty of ways of waking up that annoyed Curtis, but the small butterfly kisses Hannah spread out around his face wasn’t one of them. She could be his alarm clock any day.
“Sorry for waking you,” she said, a hint of shyness in her voice.
“You and that apologizing stuff needs to stop. There is nothing you could ever do that you need to say sorry for. Any clue what time it is?”
Curtis had carried Hannah up to his bed after she’d fallen asleep in his arms on the couch. He’d taken her dress off and hung it in the closet to make sure it wasn’t wrinkled in the morning, so their bare skin touched. He was falling in love with that feeling.
The thought made him want to kick himself for not asking Hannah out sooner. He’d been truthful in saying that it really wasn’t until he was twenty-two, maybe twenty-three that he had solidified his life enough to have a serious girlfriend. Being on the road at times for a couple weeks at a time throughout the year made him fearful of starting anything.
Life had taught him people were prone to cheat and lie, and he wasn’t into the drama involved with a girlfriend. Hannah’s personality always intrigued him, especially how it didn’t scream drama around every corner. She was laid back and willing to learn new things. If Nina hadn’t been in the picture, he would’ve tried sooner.
“It’s six-thirty. I need to get home and shower before I head to work.”
Curtis groaned thinking of how horrible that sounded. He had the day off and wanted to spend more time with Hannah. She was too responsible to play hooky, and he figured she wanted to verify his story. She hadn’t asked many questions, so he wasn’t sure where she settled. The morning kisses instead of a bucket of water were a good sign, but she didn’t seem like a bucket of water kind of girl.
She seemed so devastated the night before. He’d thought there would be two possible outcomes. She’d either yell at him and tell him he was a liar or she’d yell at Nina and tell her what a bitch she was. Curtis assumed either option would include some crying, probably some more questions and just generally more emotion.
Instead of doing any of those things, Hannah locked herself up in her thoughts. Curtis felt like a jerk for needing to touch her intimately while they were discussing her friend. He obviously wasn’t thinking clearly, but seeing her at the game and the proof of how much she’d started caring about him in a short amount of time overruled common sense.
“Can’t we just stay here all day?”
With his awareness becoming more awake, he grabbed his bed companion and rolled her so she was on top of him. She was in nothing but a bra and he was totally naked, so she felt what usually greeted Curtis between his legs when he woke up in the morning.
“Does that thing ever go away?”
They hadn’t really had sex the night before. He’d been inside her, but he saw it as more of them holding hands, just more intimately than people sometimes did.
“If you’re in the room, probably not. Right now, though, I’d say it’s eighty-five percent me wanting to have sex with you and fifteen percent I’ve got to pee.”
He calculated the percentages based on the fact he thought he could get off three times before he had to run to the bathroom. It was all wishful thinking.
“Well, I have a feeling you’ll probably get a chance to do the latter before the former.” Hannah sighed, and then laid her head on his chest. “I’m a little worried we’re moving too fast. This is all kind of overloading me right now and I think I need to take a step back.”
Curtis had been worried about that. When he’d gotten home, he thought she looked like she was getting ready to leave. He was thankful he’d bird-bathed instead of showering and interviews were short. If he’d even gotten stuck in traffic he could’ve missed her.
“Can you elaborate?”
He thought about adding that he understood if she wanted to think about things and yada, yada, yada, but he didn’t want to give her any easy outs. He wanted to know where her mind was heading.
“I just, I mean, there’s so much we still need to know about each other and every time we see each other alone, you end up inside of me. That’s not even bringing up the fact that it’s without a condom, which maybe we should think about a little more. That seems like the kind of decision people make after they’ve been together a while, not just wild hookups.”
Curtis rubbed her back and considered her words. So, they needed to get to know each other better and the condom thing was a bigger deal than she’d let on. Neither one of those sounded horrible.
“I’m not sure if I spelled it out, but I have never been with anyone else without a condom and I can get you any test results you need to see to verify I’m clean. Not that I’m pushing again
st what you just said. I just want to reiterate I don’t have anything.”
Hannah sighed and lifted her head to look at his face. She looked worried with her eyes downcast slightly.
“I think the part about you using protection with everyone else is what scares me. You’ve had years to develop feelings, whether they’re real or just because I was off limits. I never would have dreamed someone like you would like me that way, so I have no idea what I’m feeling. If we’re going to continue this boyfriend-girlfriend relationship you mentioned yesterday, I don’t want it to be about the fact I want to worship a part of your body because of how it makes me feel.”
Still no signs of her saying there wasn’t a chance. Curtis didn’t take a deep breath, but it felt like he did.
“I’m not opposed to verifying we’re compatible non-sexually. This isn’t just a whim for me. I know I made it sound like I was checking something off my list of life accomplishments or something yesterday, but you’re not just a quick fuck to say I’ve done it.”
Hannah shook her head quickly. “No, I’m not saying that. I just think your feelings are probably more advanced and I may need to catch up to make sure we’re on the same page.”
“So you aren’t madly in love with me and ready to promise your hand in marriage?”
It was a joke, but Hannah’s wide-eyed expression clearly stated she didn’t take it that way. Curtis could honestly say he was in love with her, since she was right that he had been for a long time. At least the idea of them being together was something he’d fallen in love with. He didn’t fool himself into thinking his fantasy life for them would happen immediately.
“I’m not proposing, Hannah. It was a joke. We haven’t even been on a date yet, and I promise not to propose until at least the third date. It’s a hard rule.”
She smiled, not enough that it made it to her eyes, but at least it took away the horror. Hannah was sad and scared, partly because of him. He blamed Nina for the majority of it, but he could take blame as well as he dished it out.
“I do really need to go to work, which means I’m going to see her.”
Curtis held back the gagging noises that immediately came to mind when he thought about seeing Nina. He couldn’t imagine how someone saw the shrew every single day and didn’t run from the building screaming at least once. Just the idea of seeing her had almost kept him from going to the reunion. Thankfully, the desire to see Hannah had won the day.
“And you’re unsure what to do about the whole blackmail thing?” Curtis guessed.
He would’ve loved to be able to guess that Hannah would take a gun and shoot Nina. With Hannah doing the shooting, it’d only be a flesh wound or something, but even that offered some satisfaction. He shook his head gently as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He needed to remind himself that Nina was Hannah’s best friend and just blackmailing him wasn’t going to change that, no matter how much he wished things could be different.
She nodded without saying anything. Her red hair was swirled in every direction, which didn’t help the idea that she wanted to slow their sex bouts down. Curtis thought about smoothing it out, but he liked the wild look too much to try to tame it.
“I’m leaving that up to you. Part of me worries what she’ll do, but now that you know about the picture, if she still has it, it won’t hurt you. That’s been almost as big of a concern as screwing up my career. I didn’t want to start something and have her pull the picture out and say I’ve been sleeping around on you.”
Hannah sat up so her legs were snug to the sides of his waist. The fingers on her left hand traced along the large tattoo of a tiger that ran along the left side of his stomach and around up his back. The part she traced was its paw.
“Is this in the picture?”
“Nope. I know people can manipulate photos to include that kind of stuff, but I can’t see how she’s seen it. I’m careful about the pictures the press take of me and anytime I’ve played with showing skin for magazine covers, I’ve made sure the tattoo isn’t there.”
Curtis wasn’t stupid, at least he liked to think he wasn’t. He’d gotten the tattoo shortly after high school to make sure the picture couldn’t be seen as something current. He figured the bigger, the better, so the tiger literally took up his entire back, with a paw and the tail carrying over to the front.
“I don’t have any tattoos.”
“I’ve noticed. You don’t seem to have a problem with mine.”
Since they’d spent most of their time together in the dark bedroom on the boat, Curtis didn’t know how much Hannah had seen of the tattoo. He knew she hadn’t gotten a close look, given the fact the lighting wasn’t great and he’d kept her a little busy exploring other parts of his body.
“No, I like tattoos. I’ve just been too chicken to ever get one. Did it hurt? That seems like it would’ve taken a lot of stabbing with needles.”
“Not really. I know some people will tell you differently, but it took days to do and I didn’t have a problem. I’ve probably got a high tolerance for pain, though.”
Hannah hummed a short noise of intrigue. Curtis knew he didn’t control what she did, but he did stop to think whether he’d like to see her with a tattoo. He wouldn’t recommend a matching one just because of the hours he went through sitting still. She could do it, but she could also have a lower tolerance for pain, and he didn’t like the idea of her being in pain in general.
“Maybe I’ll think about getting one. Obviously, it’s going to be smaller than yours, but I think it might be an interesting way to mark the turning point in my life.”
“And this turning point includes me, right?”
She hadn’t run from the bed, so he assumed they were still good. They just needed to act like two people dating instead of rabbits who couldn’t control their sex drive. Curtis could do that. He just hoped sex every now and then could be negotiated.
“I think so. I’m going to talk to her today so we don’t have to keep it a secret. I liked the idea at first, but that seems to leave us just getting naked and seeing how long it takes us to exhaust ourselves.”
“Good point, not that I see anything wrong with that. Do you want me to come with you when you talk to her?”
Curtis would rather get his teeth pulled, but he didn’t want Hannah to have to deal with Nina alone. Without him there, the conversation would probably go a lot smoother, a point he was ready to float by Hannah if she said yes.
“No, god no. You guys can’t be in a room together without screaming and I’d prefer to try to get you on her good side. When she hears you’re not out to hurt me, she has to change her mind. Maybe we can even get together and all have dinner.”
It was difficult to keep his laugh in, but Curtis managed. It was nice that Hannah still saw the good in her friend, but he couldn’t. His mind was already working on damage control. Hannah might not believe whatever new lie Nina came up with, but others could, and that could hurt both him and Hannah.
“Maybe we should just go back to bed.”
Another joke helped the dark thoughts clouding his head. It had to be getting close to seven, so Hannah would be running away from his arms any minute.
She leaned down and kissed him, not delicately, tongue was involved, but at the same time it was sweet and innocent. Too much more time with him and that quality would probably only come out on special occasions.
“I’ll call you after I talk to her to let you know how it goes. If it goes as well as I hope, maybe we can get together for lunch and do some of that getting to know each other I was talking about earlier.”
Curtis stuck his lower lip out in protest of her leaving. She smiled and rolled off the bed.
“I obviously can’t go to work like this, so you’re going to have to tell me where you hid my clothes.”
Showing off her body wasn’t the right kind of motivation she needed to get him to help with the problem, but he went ahead and pointed to the closet door.
“Your d
ress is hanging in there. I think I’ll hang on to your underwear until I get you back in person.”
Hannah’s mouth dropped open and her eyes widened, like she was appalled by the thought. The minx didn’t fool him as she skipped her way to the closet and got dressed. It was going to be a long day for Curtis waiting to hear how things went. He made a note to make sure he had ice cream on hand, because he was certain it wouldn’t end the way Hannah expected, and sad romantic movies he’d managed to watch over the years told him ice cream was mandatory in those situations.
Chapter 13
“We need to talk.”
Hannah hadn’t bothered making an appointment or even knocking as she waltzed into Nina’s office. Once she’d made it home, after reassuring Curtis that she wouldn’t make any rash decisions without talking to him, she’d taken a long shower. She needed the time to figure out how to approach Nina. By the time she felt like a prune, she’d decided the direct approach was best.
The annoyance on Nina’s face as she spun in her chair cut through Hannah. It wasn’t even nine yet, so Hannah hadn’t considered she’d be on the phone. It was more likely that she had the chair spun around because she was using the shelf behind the desk to prop her feet on as she painted her nails.
Nina gave Hannah a full perusal before her look softened a little. That basically meant she didn’t squint as much.
“I’m going to have to call you back, Stewie. Make sure to pick up my dress from the dry cleaner and buy me something sparkly for dinner tonight.”
Stewie was Nina’s present boy toy. She went through them like toilet paper. There was a new roll every few days. Two of Hannah’s brothers had got caught up in Nina’s web, so Hannah had the joy of hearing both sides of a couple of her break ups – if they could even be called that. None of them were serious, and Hannah didn’t know whether any of them had ever been considered exclusive.