An Unexpected Something New

CH 6

“Friends, huh?” She looked up at me with big doe eyes as I ran what happened next through my brain continuously. It had been two days and I couldn’t get this damn girl off my mind.

“Yeah.” I shrugged. “Friends. Why not?” I could feel my heart pounding so vividly in my chest but I didn’t want to let on how nervous I felt standing in front of her.

“You’ve only just met me. I mean…really, how do I know you’re not just trying to get in my pants since I told you I’m a virgin.”

“No-“ I objected but she finished her point first.

“How do I know you aren’t just trying to take advantage of the vulnerable jilted bride because the whole experience gets you all hot and bothered.”

I could hear her voice shaking and see her eyes lose their luster. I felt so bad for her, for the pain she was going through. I wasn’t mad as I stood there and let her borderline chew me out, I wanted to actually be her friend. Truth was, I could see why she would think that. Most guys probably would be trying to do exactly what she thought I was trying to do.

“Because I’m not.” I said adamantly.

“And how am I supposed to believe that?” she looked at me, her eyes demanding a response that would make her believe I wasn’t a scumbag just trying to take her V-card.

I swallowed nervously and stood there in front of her in silence for what felt like a week before finally getting the balls to open my mouth. “I…” Lame. Oh my Lord, so lame.

“Yeah, you have no idea what to say.” I saw tears well in her eyes as she rolled them and went to brush by me.

I was quick though and as I felt her body walk away I finally realized I had an answer for her. I grabbed her arm and spun her around and into me. “I don’t know what you went through with Derek, okay,” I stared intently into her eyes, the tension between us more serious than a heart attack. “I don’t know if he treated you nice or ran around behind your back. I don’t know how well things were with him before the wedding. But I know that in the short time I spent with you, nothing you could say or do would convince me that Derek not showing up that day had anything to do with you. It was his loss and he is going to regret it. I want to see you more because there was a reason I was at your wedding. There was a reason you walked into the bar I was at the other night. There’s a reason we met.”

Hannah looked down at the ground and a faint smile spread across her lips. My heart was still lodged in my throat but I simply couldn’t back down without a fight. “You really think so huh?” she had that playful look to her once more and I felt my shoulders relax.

“Yes. I really do.” That was as honest an answer I’d ever given in my entire life. The only thing I hoped was that she wouldn’t ask me why because to be damn honest, I didn’t know the answer to that.

“Okay.” Her answer was too sweet, too simple.

“Okay?” I looked at her as I turned my head in confusion.

“Yeah,” she nodded. “Okay. I’ll have dinner with you.”

“You will? You’re sure?” I couldn’t handle her yanking my chain.

She blushed and smiled her infectious smile. “Yeah. I’m sure. There’s no pressure since you aren’t trying to sleep with me.”

I know she meant it as a joke but the second she said that my colorful mind immediately thought about what she looked like underneath all her clothes. She had a nice, plump rack and those long legs...damn I was hopeless. Sometimes having the penis is a weakness.

“You don’t have to worry about anything. I’ll behave myself.”

“Behave yourself?” she teased. “I didn’t know that was a question because, well, this isn’t a date Crosby.”

I blushed and smiled at her. “You’re right. It’s not a date.”

“It’s two friends having dinner. Nothing more.” She glared at me like I’d better concur and I nodded my agreement.

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow…”

“No.” She shook her head. “That’s date-like. I’ll meet you. Just tell me where and when.”

I laughed at her fierceness. “Well if you give me your number…”

“Oh, something tells me you already have it.” Hannah giggled and went to turn to walk away again. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I couldn’t stop myself this time even if I tried, but I somehow grabbed her arm again and spun her around into me and into a hug. I could tell I caught her off guard but there was something about doing that to her that gave me a rush. She was such a ballbuster that when she was the one caught off guard, it showed the vulnerability in her she wanted to pretend didn’t exist.

“You better make a friends line and not cross it,” she breathed sexily into my ear before pulling away and looking me in the eyes. Her smile was such a damn turn on I wanted to pull her into me again…and I didn’t know why. I couldn’t tell you what had come over me.

“Don’t worry about me.” I playfully responded before letting her turn and make her way home with the Starbucks in her hands that probably was cold by now. Come to think of it, with the way in which I had spun her around and into me twice, I couldn’t figure out how it didn’t spill.

*****

I showed up to the restaurant with an extra pep in my step. My heart was racing a little faster than normal. I had wrestled with where to tell her to meet me. I didn’t want to take her somewhere sleazy and have her think I just wanted to get her liquored up and in my bed. I also didn’t want to take her somewhere fancy because it’d be too romantic, too intimate, and she’d think I was trying to make this a date.

So I was left with the dilemma on where to actually take her, and finding somewhere in the middle that didn’t say the wrong thing wasn’t exactly easy. Then again, I didn’t know what the hell I was trying to say. I just knew I wanted to go somewhere relatively private so I didn’t get pounded.

So here I was. When I arrived I didn’t know if I should go to our table and check in with the reservations or wait out front. I thought about getting her a single rose because I knew that a dozen would be too many, but that gesture in itself was too much and I knew it. I had text her and told her where to meet me as she had requested, and she said she would be there but I still had the lingering fear in the back of my mind that Hannah wouldn’t show up. I paced anxiously back and forth in front of the restaurant trying to decide how long I would wait if she didn’t show that when I turned I nearly bulldozed her over.

“Shit!” the word just fell out of my mouth as she gasped and stumbled backwards. I tried to enforce my quick reflexes and grab a hold of her to stable her on her feet. “I’m sorry Hannah.”

She laughed as she balanced herself and her hands grasped my arms. “Geez Crosby. Are you trying to kill me?”

It was then that I got a good look at what she was wearing. She had on a sapphire blue dress that matched the color of her eyes, making her face light up that much more—especially with the smile she was giving me from being purely amused. I’m man enough to admit I almost lost my breath.

“I-I’m good. I’m so sorry. I obviously didn’t mean to knock you over,” I stammered out.

“I know you didn’t. You did, however, look like you were waiting for your crack dealer to show up the way you were pacing back and forth,” she teased.

“See I couldn’t be bad if I wanted too.”

“Oh,” she tried to fight back a grin. “Something tells me that just isn’t true.”

“Do you wanna go in now? I’m starving.” I offered as I opened the door for her to enter first.

Hannah nodded her head. “I thought you’d never ask.”

After we were led to our table and took our seats I handed her a menu and started looking over mine.

“So,” she never looked up from her menu. “Tell me. What kind of things did you want to ask me?”

“You just aren’t going to drop this are you?”

She playfully shook her head no. “Can you blame me? You use it as bait to get me to have dinner with you and you expect me not to ask immediately?”

“We will get to that. But, how about first you tell me about you. Just you. Not Derek.”

“I don’t know if I even know where to start.”

“Okay, well, how about this. How old are you?”

She smiled and her shoulders relaxed like she was relieved. “I’m six months younger than you are.”

“Oh so then there was a little bit of an age gap between you and…” I realized what I was saying before I finished the sentence though it was clearly too late. I looked at Hannah and watched the smile quickly fade from her lips as she very slowly nodded her head.

“So much for not talking about Derek,” she shrugged as the waiter brought us water.

“I didn’t mean to even bring it up, it just came out. I don’t even know why.” I felt bad, I did. Constantly being reminded of him couldn’t have been fun for her.

“Did you laugh that day?” she looked down at her water as she lifted to her mouth for a sip.

I quickly looked up at her surprised she’d even think that. “No,” I said sincerely. “Not once, not at all.”

“You didn’t think I was a joke? You didn’t want to have dinner with me out of sympathy?” Hannah wasn’t asking maliciously, she was genuinely curious and borderline embarrassed as she tried to get inside my head.

“Hannah, no. I never laughed and I never thought you were a joke, ever. If anything I thought he was.”

“Really?” she looked up at me with an appreciative glance.

“I told you. I want to be your friend Hannah. We met for a reason—at least I think we did. When I sat down and talked with you at the bar the other night I felt like I knew you for years, not just minutes.”

“Yeah,” she chuckled. “I don’t know how I ended up telling you my life story. I don’t tell anyone things like that.”

“Well, maybe you knew deep down you can trust me. Ask Jordan, I’m a good guy to have around.”

“I’m sure you are,” she said as her lips curled up into a precious grin. “I just don’t want you to think I’m ready or willing to give you more that that.”

I’ll admit I didn’t like when she said that, but it was what it was and that was fine. I wasn’t looking for more either. “Don’t worry.”

We spent the next twenty minutes talking about growing up. I told her about Canada and she told me about New York. Our simple chitchat was so easy to come by that there were no awkward pauses or challenges to find things to talk about.

Things were going so well, we were just having fun making jokes and teasing each other that I didn’t see how anything could go wrong. Then we got our meals placed in front of us. Our conversation was flowing so well that somehow the dumb ass wedding came up and before I could think I said, “Well at least that’s behind you now.”

Big. Mistake.

Hannah lifted her head up and the genuine smile that was on her face from our banter, the laughing in her voice, the happiness in her eyes, was gone. Her mouth was a little agape and her eyes were stunned. “Behind me?”

“Hannah, I-“

“No… I was minutes from marrying him and then I was told he never even showed up. I had my dress on. I was going to move to Buffalo to be with him. I gave up a lot to be with him Crosby. He…he couldn’t even tell me himself that he didn’t want to marry me-- I had to hear it from someone else. He made me a laughing stock-- do you have any idea how embarrassing it is? And when I asked him why, when I asked him what I did wrong he didn’t offer any sympathy or any real answer. All he told me was ‘I just couldn’t do it.’ How do you think that makes me feel? So no. It isn’t behind me because I carry that embarrassment, that longing to know why he suddenly thought I was so terrible that I was deemed unmarryable—I carry that with me every single day.”

Hannah didn’t even bother trying to hide the tears that lightly made trails down her cheeks. Listening to her tell me the horrible, gut-wrenching feeling that plagued her everyday made me physically hurt for her. I wanted nothing more than to pull her into me and make it go away, but I had a more overwhelming feeling to beat the living hell out of Derek for doing this to someone. Like I’ve said before, I can see why some guys cheat on their girls, I can see why some guys call off weddings…because those girls aren’t worth it. But Hannah…I mean, I know I barely knew her, but I couldn’t see any negative qualities in her. She was funny and smart and so sweet. She was loyal and encouraging and just overall positive. Being around her made me happy and Derek had so much more of her…I just couldn’t understand it.

“I can’t imagine what you’re going through. And I can’t fix how you feel.” I cleared my throat and nervously tried to calm her down. “I’m sorry I’ve been so insensitive to the situation, but I’m not sorry I’m here with you. If he didn’t do what he did I wouldn’t be sitting here with you right now, and at risk of sounding selfish I wouldn’t want to trade this in.”

She delicately wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled at me. She was so cute I couldn’t totally focus on the seriousness of our conversation. “It’s funny how things work out,” she shrugged. “I’m sorry I lost it on you. I haven’t really talked about it so candidly to anyone. I’m sorry if I put you off.”

“No, I should have realized things that traumatic just don’t go away overnight.”

“Yeah…the funny thing is…I’m not upset because of Derek, I’m upset because of the situation in general. It’s like, if someone would have told me the story of what was going to happen to me before I went through it, but told it in a way where it wasn’t made obvious that I would be the one going through it, I would have thought I could never handle it. But here I am, handling it.”

“I think you’re doing a great job Hannah.” I looked at her, really looked at her.

“You’re definitely helping me out,” she gushed. “But I really do just want to leave all that stuff in the past.”

“If you want to get the check and go home we can do that.” I offered her an out though I was praying she wouldn’t take it. I didn’t want to ask her about the wedding, but I wanted to ask her more things about herself.

“No, it’s okay. I don’t want to go home yet. Let’s eat our dinner and get some dessert.”

I didn’t know what she meant by dessert but I sure as hell was going with her. Besides, I needed to know…well, wanted to know about her whole virginity thing. It just made her that much more interesting. “I’d like that very much.”

“Good. Any other questions for me,” she playfully asked.

“Actually. Yeah. You have to tell me more about the whole never having had sex before thing,” I felt my cheeks redden as I looked up at her with a grin.

Hannah’s face was equally pink as she looked back at me from across the table and sexily bit her lip. Though something told me she wasn’t aware of just how sexy she looked at that moment.