Roommates with Benefits [COMPLETED]

Chapter 33 - Afterparty

Emma

Lucky's is cramped. I'm not sure who suggested it, but almost everyone who worked on the show is here, including many of the talents.

I step inside with Knightley, and a few people raise their glasses to me. I smile. We accomplished something tonight. We still have to go back tomorrow to clean the venue, but right now, we celebrate.

"You want a drink?" Knightley asks and nods to the bar.

"Vodka cranberry."

He raises an eyebrow, but I shrug. It's what I'm feeling like right now.

As soon as he makes his way past the people, Gwen bounces up to my side. She's still in her dress, a shimmering, Jessica Rabbit thing, that she doesn't quite have the figure to pull off. Most of us have changed out of our dresses.

"Oh, my gosh. Wasn't tonight great?" she says.

"Yeah." I spot Hannah by the bar, getting a drink.

"Did you see how much money we raised?" Gwen pulls up her phone. "Let me check the latest number."

Hannah takes the drink and puts her hand in her pocket. She changed back into her jeans as soon as the show was over. Her face pales and she checks her other pocket. She looks mildly terrified at the bartender.

"I should-" I try to break free. She must have forgotten her money.

"Look at this." Gwen hooks her arm through mine and I'm stuck.

Edwin walks up next to Hannah and I sigh in relief. He'll take care of it. I look over at Gwen's phone and balk.

"Wait, what?" I grab her phone and blink a few times. "That's six hundred thousand."

"I know." Gwen squeals. "We raised over half a million. Can you believe it?"

I glance over at Hannah, wanting to share the good news. Her eyes are watery and Edwin has turned his back on her. Shit. Did he snub her? Is he so wretched that he wouldn't even pay for her drink?

I try to pull away from Gwen, but before I can move, Knightley has pushed past Edwin and is smiling at Hannah. I release a sigh of relief as Hannah smiles up at him.

"And it was so much fun," Gwen says. "We should totally do it again. Maybe for a different charity next time. I think people are more willing to donate to, like, puppies or sick kids."

"Maybe," I say and look at her phone again. We raised over half a million dollars. Our goal had been one hundred thousand. My eyes roam the crowd. This was all because of Frank. I need to thank him, but he's not here.

Gwen sees someone more interesting and hurries off as Hannah and Knightley come up to me.

"Thank you," I say as Knightley hands me the drink. I beam up at him. He just nods and looks from me to Hannah.

"Let me know if you want to leave," he says and takes off. My eyes follow him as he walks up to the hockey players and talks to them.

"You won't believe what he did," Hannah beams. She eagerly tells me of how Knightley came to her rescue while I watch him sit down and laugh with the hockey guys. I love how he didn't even hesitate. He saw Hannah in trouble and immediately helped her.

My eyes drift to Edwin. There is no way I thought he would be good enough for Hannah. I must have been out of my mind. I see him for what he is now, and I'm only sad I put Hannah through the heartache.

"Oh, there's Avery." Hannah waves her cousin over.

"You were so good tonight," I say.

"Thanks." She's toned down her look again and stage-Avery is gone. But there's still an afterglow that makes her look beautiful.

"No, I mean it. Did you see how much money we raised?" I pull out my phone and open the page. "A lot of that is thanks to you."

Her face pales a bit at the number. "That's a lot of money."

"I know. Come on, I'll buy you a drink." I've already finished mine and Hannah's is also low, so I drag them with me to the bar and we order.

Music plays from a jukebox in the corner and a few people dance. We remain at the bar and Hannah becomes more outgoing as she slowly sips on her second drink.

Some of the talents do an encore, including the hockey players. And have the bar in stitches as they act all silly. I convince Avery to sing along to a song on the jukebox, and her stage persona comes out for those few minutes. The bar gobbles it up.

It's the perfect night.

"Well?" a voice asks behind me. I turn to see Frank holding out his arms. "We did pretty good, right?"

I smile. "Oh, my god. Thank you so much." I get up and give him a hug. "You did amazing. I think you and Avery were the stars tonight."

He glances over at Avery, who's smiling at her drink. Apparently, alcohol does not open her up like it does her cousin.

"Avery was amazing. But you're the one who organized it all."

"Well, I didn't do it by myself. A lot of people helped. Including Hannah." I gesture to the blushing woman next to me.

"Did you reach your goal? I did another post and linked the donation site."

"Yes." I'm almost yelling and realize I haven't eaten since lunch. I put aside my drink. "I owe you big time. We surpassed our goal by so much it's not even funny."

"Good, I'm glad. And as for owing me, I'll take my payment in hugs." He winks and I know he's joking, but I also think he's realized there's nothing between us. So I laugh and throw my arms around him again.

"I hope you know this means I'll be calling on you anytime I do a charity event in the future." My words almost die away as I open my eyes and see Knightley. His dark eyes are fixed on us. Me hugging Frank. I pull away. Frank laughs.

"And I might just say yes."

Knightley clears his throat. "I was just going to head home."

"Oh, sure." I grab my purse. "I'm ready."

He's already stalking to the door, so I say a quick goodbye to Hannah and Avery and hurry after him.

My head is spinning a bit as I breathe in the cold air. I'm tired and my feet ache, but I am so happy with the way the night went. It was perfect.

Knightley holds the car door open for me and gets in behind the wheel.

"You didn't have to come," he says. "If you were busy, I mean."

"I wasn't." I can't stop smiling and looking out the window. "I wanted you to take me home."