Love & Secrets (Hartbig)

Ch. 10 First Kiss

Grace grabbed Chris's hand and walked into Skipps, she wondered why he seemed so nervous.  She ignored it and made her way into the back of the restaurant in her black high heels and dark purple dress.  As she opened the door to the back room all of the lights suddenly flipped on and sixty people stood there yelling surprise.
Grace stood there confused at first because she didn't understand why the cast party was a surprise. Until she saw the banner that read 'Congratulations on your Engagement'. Grace's eyes first landed on Mamrie who made her way to give her friend a hug.

"This is amazing,  thank you so much, I love it. "
" It's  no problem, but you should really tell Hannah that, it was her idea." Mamrie stated as she gave Grace a hug and walked over to talk to a group of people.  Grace stood there smiling surprised that Hannah  would do something like this

Chris grabbed Grace's hand so they could greet some of their guest that came out to celebrate. For the next twenty minutes she welcomed guest, thanked them for coming. The entire time she was searching for Hannah. She finally located her across the room standing by herself with a drink in her hand. Grace excused herself from Chris's side and walked over to Hannah, grabbed her hand and took her into the adjoining room. 

Hannah stood there waiting for Ingrid to come with plates of food. When she noticed Grace heading her way. They were still friends but the last several weeks were a little rocky. She had no idea what Grace was going to say to her. Grace grabbed her hand and took the smaller girl to the adjoining room before stopping in the middle of the room.

"Wow, what was that for?" Hannah asked with anger in her voice. 

"I just have to talk to you." Grace replied.

"Well, we could have done it out there you didn't have almost rip off my arm and drag me to another room."

Grace stood there facing Hannah with six feet separating them. She figured out her next words carefully. "I don't know I just needed to talk to you now and I didn't want you to say no to talking."

"Grace, I know things haven't been the best between, us but I wouldn't deliberately ignore you or not talk to you if you wanted to talk." 

While taking a couple steps forward, Grace asked Hannah, "Why did you throw me this party?"

"Because you're my best friend and I support you in your decision,  & besides I want you to be happy." Hannah told her. 

"You support my decision and you want me to be happy but I don't think this decision is the one that's going to be happy." Grace said with sort of a whisper.

 Hannah took a step forward asking "What do you mean the right decision?"

They stood there in silence for a few seconds, Grace didn't know how to respond. Grace was looking at the ground with the silence lingering in the air until she looked up at her stunning friend who had a confused look on her face. She finally broke the silence with, "I know you have this great thing with Ingrid and I am engaged but don't you love me at all?" As she asked the question she took another step forward now only an arm's reach away from each other. 

Hannah was surprised with the question, she didn't know how to respond. She took a swig of her whiskey and spoke. "Grace I may love Ingrid but it will never be the same to the way I love you. I could never love someone else the way that I love you." Grace and Hannah's  eye contact didn't break for a second during Hannah's speech as she continued her voice started to raise. "So don't you question that I don't love you because every day when I wake up you're the first thing that I think of." Grace closed the distance between them with one final step.

Grace's hands reached out and crossed Hannah's face as she turned her head slightly to kiss the shorter girl. Hannah's drink fell to the ground which caused to get both of their shoes wet but they didn't care. Hannah's hand grabbed on to Grace's arm as she embraced the kiss. Her other hand reached around and grabbed Graces lower back to pull her closer. Grace grabbed a chunk of Hannah's hair as they stood there kissing each other like they never kissed another person in their life. They finally pulled apart to get some air. They stood there with Hannah's head resting on Graces chest.  They had nothing to say because they didn't want to interrupt this perfect moment. As Grace reached to kiss Hannah again, their lips barely touched as they heard a plate drop to the ground. 

They both released their grasps on each other and turned to notice Ingrid across the room standing there with two plates of food on the ground. Hannah ran over to Ingrid and grabbed her hand before she could leave the room.

"Wait don't leave, let me explain." Hannah spoke as she dragged Ingrid further into the room.  

"What do you have to explain, you're off kissing someone else & not just any anyone your best friend who's engaged. Besides were at her engagement party, together. I left to get us some food and then I couldn't find you so I started to search for you I thought something was wrong so I went to search for you. I thought you were upset about the movie still."

"Wait what about the movie?" Grace asked.

"Not the right time time Grace." Hannah replied

"Two hours ago you said you were in love with me and you gave me a necklace and now you're kissing someone else." Ingrid stood there asking with confusion on her face while Mamrie walked through the door. 

"Wait, Grace & Hannah kissed, really that's exciting." Mamrie expressed with joy as she walked over to Grace. 

"Wait, you gave her a necklace?" Grace said. 

"Will the both of you be quiet right now?" Hannah asked turning towards Grace and Mamrie. She turned back to Ingrid. "Babe, Grace and I just kissed it was a spur of the moment thing. I'm sorry you had to find out this way." Hannah grabbed Ingrid's other hand trying to comfort her. 

"Just tell me that it didn't mean anything and I can forgive you. Tell me you don't have any feelings for Grace and we can go on acting like it didn't happen."

All four of them stood there in silecne until Hannah let go of Ingrids hand, let out a sigh and said "I can't, I can't say that it didn't mean anything because it did."

Ingrid turned around and left the room leaving Hannah, Grace, and Mamarie in silence.