You're My Hope for the Future

Chapter 7

Paul got off the phone from ordering the takeaway and headed back to Hannah with a couple of the bottles of chilled beer. He handed one to her before sitting down.

"They said it'd be about 45 minutes."

"Okay." Hannah smiled, taking a sip of beer before her expression sobered slightly. "Paul? What does all this mean? I mean, are we back together or what?"

"Uhhh, I'm not sure Han." Paul answered, brow furrowed. "D'you want us to be?"

"Do you?"

"Hey, I asked first!" Paul grinned. "But I'll answer anyway. I've always regretted how things ended between us. You know I thought you were the one I was going to spend the rest of my life with. I'd like a second chance at that."

"I think we owe it to ourselves to take that chance. So..." Hannah concluded, "no more skirting the issue, we are now a couple, officially."

"Why can't we ever come to this conclusion without spending months in some stupid courtship ritual?" Paul chuckled.

"That would make things far too easy and boring." Hannah smiled, patting Paul's chest.

By the time the film was coming to an end, the takeaway had been eaten and all of the beer had gone. Hannah and Paul were cuddled up on the settee. As the end credits rolled, Paul looked down to find Hannah struggling to keep her eyes open.

"Hey, you." He said softly, nudging her with his shoulder. "Did you drive over? Only I'm not sure you should be driving after that beer, and considering you're falling asleep on me."

"Sorry." Hannah yawned, looking up at Paul. "Yeah, I drove. I'll call a cab or something."

"You could just stay." Paul offered, before hastily clarifying. "I mean, you can have the bedroom and I'll sleep on the sofa."

"Yeah? Okay." Hannah replied, yawning again and snuggling back into Paul.