One Friday night in April, Hannah, Elena, and a few of their other friends were out at a club downtown when an arm snaked around Hannah’s waist like it had the right to be there and had done it a hundred times before. Annoyed, Hannah turned, ready to yell at some guy for getting too handsy without permission.
“Daniel!” Her annoyance gave way to surprise at seeing her modeling partner for Megan’s paintings. “Hey! How are you?”
He smiled down at her. “Hey.” She could feel his voice rumbling in his chest where she pressed against him, his arm still tight around her waist. He glanced around over her head then back down at her, leaning in close to be heard over the music and the crowd around them. “I saw you earlier and kept waiting for Matt to join you. Is he here?”
She pressed her lips together and shook her head.
“Are you guys not …?” He let the question trail off, lifting his eyebrows.
She shook her head again. “We broke up a few weeks ago.”
His brows inched up just a little more before his smile spread even wider. “Well, I’m sorry to hear that.”
Hannah laughed. “Are you really?”
He tugged her tight against him, moving with her to the music. One shoulder lifted in a lazy shrug. “Sorry for him.”
Conversation was difficult on the dance floor, so they didn’t try to talk anymore, just danced. Hannah enjoyed herself more than she had in weeks. Daniel knew how to dance, and they moved together perfectly, allowing her to lose herself in the music, in this moment, her thoughts not taken up with worries about school or work or memories of Matt and how much she missed him. Matt didn’t even enter her thoughts once.
After a few songs, she went up on tiptoes and shouted, “I’m thirsty!” into his ear.
He nodded, threaded his fingers through hers, and led her off the dance floor to the bar. Leaning in close, his breath brushed against her ear. “What do you want?”
“Just water.”
He nodded again and pulled her behind him so that he could get drinks for both of them, water for her and beer for him. Once he’d paid, he pulled her off to the side, into a booth in the corner where they could talk. When she went to sit on the opposite side, he tugged her in next to him, his thigh pressed to hers.
She gulped down her water, aware of Daniel’s eyes on her as he sipped his beer. Warmth spread through her from his attention. Not the out-of-control desire that she’d always felt with Matt, but she didn’t expect that, even if she missed it. Daniel was interested in her, and he was friendly and hot. She’d always compared everything with what she and Matt had had together, trying to replicate that again. But what if the chemistry between two people couldn’t be replicated with anyone else? It didn’t mean what you had with someone else was better or worse. Just that it was different, right? If she had any hope of getting over Matt, she needed to stop comparing guys to him, stop trying to replicate their impossible chemistry.
Daniel’s muscular thigh felt good against hers, his large hands warm and pleasant when he touched her. So what if she wasn’t swept away by him? That was mostly raging lust, anyway. And she could certainly conjure enough lustful feelings about Daniel, with his warm, brown eyes and his chiseled chest and broad shoulders.
They chatted about classes, how the semester was shaping up, and Megan’s upcoming show.
“Are you going to the party at the gallery next weekend?”
Hannah groaned and let her head drop between her arms on the table, remembering the phone call with Megan earlier in the week. “I know you and Matt broke up,” she’d said, “and I’ve slapped him around for that, I promise, but you still have to be there. You’re a model in one of the best pieces. You already promised you’d come. You can’t back out.” Megan had overridden every protest Hannah had made. Hannah had grudgingly agreed to at least make an appearance. Megan had taken that as good enough.
“Yeah. Megan made me promise to be there, so I guess I have to go.”
Daniel chuckled, his white teeth flashing. “Yeah. She made me promise too. Wanna go together? I could pick you up, and we could make sure we have a good time. Especially since you sound like you don’t want to go.”
She thought about it for a moment, studying his face, and let out a sigh. “It’s not that I don’t want to go. It’s just—” She shrugged. “Sorry, you probably don’t want to hear this, but, I really don’t want to see Matt. And he’s her roommate, so I’d bet money he’ll be there. I—” She paused and licked her lips. “It’s only been a few weeks, and I’m not ready to face him again yet. If ever.”
Daniel wrapped an arm around her, squeezing her against his side. “All the more reason for us to go together. If you’re there with someone else, he’ll keep his distance. I’ve never known Matt to go after someone else’s girl.”
Hannah opened her mouth to suggest that Matt might not be ready to see her as someone else’s girl, but changed her mind. “Alright. I guess we can go together. If nothing else, at least this way I’ll have someone else to talk to besides Matt’s friends.”
He stared down at her, his eyes roaming her face and lingering on her lips. But she looked away, breaking the moment. It felt wrong to let Daniel kiss her now with Matt fresh in her mind. But the more she thought about it, the more it seemed like a good idea to go to Megan’s show with Daniel. And she hoped Daniel was right—that Matt would leave her alone
