“Fire at work,” he mumbled. “I’ll see you later?”
“Mmhmm,” she said, her eyes glued to the book.
He pulled on a hoodie and took off, and she made it three more pages before she found herself wandering across the hall.
“Well, well, well, look who came up for air,” Sara whispered as she pulled Hanna into the apartment. She braced herself for Logan, but it still hit her when his cologne drifted across the kitchen as he stood in front of the fridge.
“Hey!”
“Hanna Hanna bo banna,” Matty chanted, grabbing her shoulders. “Where’s Milo?”
“Work thing,” she said, waving her hand. “You guys wanna go grab dinner?”
Sara and Matty exchanged a glance as they waited for Logan to answer.
“Uh, yeah,” he said. “Definitely.”
It really shouldn’t have shocked her when a bouncy redhead chirped her name from two tables over halfway through their dinner.
And yet, Chloe caught her off guard. She leaned forward and said something to the man she was with before hugging him and sending him on his way.
“I’m so glad you guys are here,” Chloe said, pulling a chair up to their table. “That was, hands down, the worst date I’ve ever been on.”
“Oh, no!” Hanna said, moving a basket of chips closer to the end of the table.
“I keep telling myself I’ll stop dating finance bros, but here I am,” she said, laughing as she reached a hand across the table toward Logan. “Hi, I’m Chloe.”
He winced and shook her hand. “Finance Bro,” he said.
Chloe tossed her head back, cackling as Hanna patted her arm. “Chloe, this is Logan, Matty’s brother. Logan, this is Chloe, she works with Milo.”
Sara snorted beside her. Hanna didn’t need her to say it out loud. She knew it was the most politically correct introduction ever made.
“I’m sure you’re not one of those finance bros,” Chloe offered.
Logan shrugged as Hanna sipped her margarita. “I’ve had mixed reviews.”
“Everything’s okay at work then?” Hanna asked.
Chloe pursed her lips. “I… think so?” Confusion laced her answer.
“Oh, I just, uh, Milo has had a few emergencies pop up. I guess I thought you’d be involved.”
Chloe pulled her phone out of her purse, checking her messages.
“I would be. But no, everything seems fine.”
Sara leaned forward. “He might have meant at the bar?”
“Ah,” Hanna breathed. “That makes sense.”
She didn’t have much to offer the rest of the meal.
It was nearly eleven when Milo returned.
She’d gone to bed in the guest room, unsure of the kind of night he had in mind. She listened as his footsteps traced a path from the front door to his bedroom, and back toward the living room. The stairs rumbled under his weight before he knocked on her door.
Hanna slipped out from under the blanket and hardly had the door open before she was against the wall, her face caught in his hands as he parted her lips with his tongue. Her heart slammed against her ribs in the dark, lightning pulling at the edges of her vision as he dropped one hand lower, searching for skin beneath her t-shirt. She thought about stopping him for a second, just to at least say hey, how ya doing, but Milo was not a man who wanted to be stopped.
