Of Course, It's You

Chapter 25

HANNAH

Hannah glanced up to the porch and saw Carmen on her phone. She looked so beautiful sitting on her porch. She still couldn't believe that Carmen had agreed to come over. Hannah thought of the sight that had been in her passenger seat earlier. Carmen's hair was flying around from the open windows, and she looked peaceful. Hannah's hand almost slid to Carmen's thigh several times, but each time she stopped herself. That was, until a napkin flew from under Olyvia's car seat and made its way down near Carmen's feet. Hannah leaned to reach for it and accidentally grabbed Carmen's hand as she too tried to grab the napkin.

Olyvia was in hysterics at the funny sight of a napkin fluttering in the wind, but the two in front stayed quiet from the touch. Hannah swallowed; her throat very dry. She took the napkin and shoved it in the compartment on the door. This time, she set her elbow on the center armrest and gradually let her fingers inch closer to Carmen.

What the hell was happening? She hadn't felt like this since she was in high school.  Carmen didn't flinch, instead she took a big inhale and slid her own hand under Hannah's. Delicately, they intertwined their fingers until their palms were flat together. They stayed like that until Hannah pulled into her driveway.

Carmen made her way down to the yard.

"Everything okay?" Hannah asked.

Carmen nodded with a smile. "Yeah. My friend back home was checking in." She chuckled as she sat down in the grass, "I don't think she believed that I was here."

"We didn't take you away from other plans, did we?"

"Oh, no! I probably would have just continued working in the hotel." Carmen admitted.

"You really are a workaholic, aren't you?"

Carmen laughed, "that may have been mentioned a time or two before." 

Jason walked up to them and handed out beer bottles. "The food is ready."

"Thanks, man," Mike said. "So, ladies, I think you need to tell me more about Emryn."

"What about her?" Hannah asked as they all stood up and headed to the picnic table near the grill.

"She seemed really into you. She had gotten you all worked up the other night." He laughed.

Hannah could feel herself blush. "Okay, let's not stir things up. I work with her."

"Okay, but does that mean you can't see where things might go? I'm sorry. When's the last time you let loose?"

Hannah could only give him what she hoped was a very "don't-mess-with-me" look.

"I'm being serious. I'm really asking when was the last time you met someone?"

"I meet people all the time." Hannah said.

"You know what I mean."

Hannah could only huff a response. She was not going to let him entertain this topic of conversation. This was going way too far, so she held back a retort. This was supposed to be a fun day.

She shook her head.

"Aw c'mon!"

"Nope, nuh uh. We're not doing this."

"She hasn't really." Jason added for her.

"Excuse me! No. I'm not having this conversation." She waved a finger at them.

"All we're saying, is that you need to have some actual fun." Jason said with a smirk. His eyes quickly darted to Carmen and thank God she didn't notice. For the most part she seemed to be staying far away from the discussion.