“You don’t remember? Somehow I doubt you’ve done much talking then, and I wouldn’t expect you to do more if you’re leaving with him.” She stood still and studied Hannah’s face. “You have your phone still? Right? So you can call for help if you need to?”
Hannah rolled her eyes. “I won’t need to call for help. It’s someone I know already. And yes, I still have my phone in the thigh holster thing you bought me for Christmas for when we go clubbing. I’m assuming you’re wearing yours too?”
Elena laughed again. “Of course! I got a fun moment earlier when someone tried calling me.”
Hannah laughed with her. “Did you answer?”
“Hell no! I just enjoyed it while it lasted. I almost gave some guy my number just to have him call me a few more times and finish the job, but decided that might be too forward.” She laughed some more, then grew serious. “Okay, so you know the guy you’re leaving with and feel comfortable with him, so that’s good. Any reason you won’t tell me his name?” She arched one well-manicured brow.
Hannah sighed. “It’s Matt.”
It was a good thing Elena wasn’t drinking anything right then, because her reaction would totally have been a spit-take. “Excuse me, what?” Shaking her head, she started muttering to herself in Spanish. “Chica, we came here tonight to find you someone else. The point was to get you a guy so you wouldn’t get caught up with him again.”
Hannah gave a one-shoulder shrug. “I know. But he’s here, and we danced and kissed, and I can’t help it. I want to go with him.”
Wrapping her arms around Hannah, Elena gave her a hug, holding her close for a moment to speak in her ear. “Okay. I get it. But be careful, okay? I don’t want to have to put you back together like I did last time.”
Hannah nodded, pulling back. “I know. But it seems different—he seems different. I just—I want to see what happens. It’s just for tonight, just to talk. I’m not going to sleep with him, I promise.”
Elena flashed her a devilish grin. “I wouldn’t make you promise that, not after what you told me before. If he was that good then, imagine what it would be like now that both of you have more experience under your belts. Literally. Ha!” Elena laughed at her own joke, and Hannah couldn’t suppress the smile that came to her own face at Elena’s unintended pun, even if she didn’t want to pursue that line of conversation.
“Haha. Yeah. Anyway, he’s waiting so I’m going to go.”
Elena waved, already moving back to the guys who’d been taking turns calling out to her and trying to lure her back to the dance floor. “Okay. Be careful!”
With Elena’s warning ringing in her ears, Hannah turned and made her way back to the door.
Matt had been scanning the crowd for what felt like forever, waiting for Hannah. After texting Chris that he was taking off, he’d held his phone in his hand for a moment waiting for acknowledgment. In response he got one word: Douche. With a shake of his head, he’d pocketed the phone again, bouncing on his toes, full of nervous energy.
She was taking longer than he’d expected. Did she have trouble finding Elena? Maybe. Or maybe Elena was talking her out of going with him. Given how he’d ended things between them before, Hannah’s comments about not wanting to make the same mistake again, and how protective he remembered Elena being, he could see her trying to convince Hannah that he was bad news and best avoided. He smirked at the memory of Elena cornering him one night shortly after he and Hannah had started seeing each other. She’d interrogated him and told him in no uncertain terms that she’d cut his balls off and stuff them down his throat if he so much as thought about hurting her friend.
The smile fell away as time continued to stretch out while he waited. Would Elena try to make good on that threat all this time later? Had he hurt Hannah? She obviously didn’t hate him or she wouldn’t have let him touch her, much less kiss him back like that. So maybe she’d just considered it a fun summer romance and let it go. Although, she’d seemed confused and hurt in her last email after he’d stopped responding. He hoped she didn’t hold it against him, because as of right now he wanted to pick up where they left off, and that meant he wanted her in his bed. Right now.
This wait was pure torture.
Finally he saw her pushing past the last few people separating them. He stopped bouncing, his lips spreading in a wide smile as she approached. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Her smile matched his.
“I was starting to wonder if you were going to come back.”
He could see her chuckle, though it was soft enough that he couldn’t hear it over the noise of the club. “I’m here. Sorry I took so long. It took a while to find Elena, and then I had to explain.” She gestured at him, as though that said it all. Hmm. What did she think she had to explain to Elena?
Instead of asking for details, he reached for her hand, leading her out the door. He wrapped his arm around her once they got back into the cold.
She looked up at him gratefully. “We took a cab. Door to door service makes it easier to go without a coat.”
“It’s not quite door to door, but my roommate’s car is just a block over and around the corner.”
Hannah’s brows came together. “Your roommate’s car?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “I drive a truck, but the three of us came together, so we took Chris’s car. I lost rock, paper, scissors and got stuck driving, though.”
Hannah’s steps slowed, forcing Matt to slow alongside her. She turned to face him. “We’re abandoning your roommates when
