Page 6 of Unfinished

“Did you just ‘ew’ me?” Bas laughed and I could tell she was growing on him.

Hannah gestured her thumb towards me, “He stands a better chance than you and I only agreed to speak with him because he looked like a lost puppy in need of rescue.”

Bas looked at me like he wanted to take my man card and I shrugged, “It got her to agree to talk to me.”

“You should really go for someone a bit more challenging, Bas. The red head was going to be too easy.” Hannah smirked.

“Alright, who should I be going for?” Bas challenged Hannah, who started scanning the lawn.

She grinned and pointed out another girl, “Her, the platinum blonde in the white tank and cutoffs.”

I grinned at Hannah because I recognized her as one of her friends and I was wondering what she was doing to Bas.

“Alright, if I win her over you have to give your number to Liam.” Bas bet.

“Sure,” she accepted, but the smile on her face told me I was probably screwed. Bas walked off and headed right over to the platinum blonde. He greeted her and she looked him up and down and walked away, causing Hannah to start laughing and Bas to scowl at us. I gestured to keep trying, hoping he could pull this off for me.

I noticed Hannah pulling out her phone and I grabbed it from her, “No cheating and telling your friend to not give in, he’s already going to have a hard time.”

“You’re no fun.” She clicked her tongue at me.

Leaning close to her, my mouth near her jaw, “No, I just really want your phone number.”

Her breathing paused and her lips parted. She scooted back into her chair and snatched her phone from my hand and gave me a mischievous glare. I leaned back in my chair, needing to make sure I took it slow. I didn’t want to scare her off.

We spent the next couple of hours talking about everything from where we were going to college to favorite movies. She was going to Frick Institute of Tech in Pittsburgh with the intention of getting a Masters in Computer Science. Her favorite movie was The Fifth Element. Then the topic turned to our parents.

After she had only mentioned her dad living nearby I made the mistake of asking, “Where’s your mom?”

“Who knows, she took off when I was thirteen. She came to visit once when I was sixteen and I haven’t heard from her since,” she explained.

"Sometimes I wish my mom would take off. Mine is a narcissistic bitch who wants to control my entire life. I sometimes feel like the only reason they had me was to take over the advertising company my dad runs."

“Wow.” She looked down at the beer in her hand.

“What?” I asked and she looked me up and down like she wanted to hold back her thoughts.

Hannah shrugged and explained, “Fuck it, we probably won’t talk again anyway. Your parents seem horrible for putting expectations on you that aren’t something you’re passionate about.”

“It’s the truth.”

“If I were in your parents’ shoes, I’d let my kids do whatever the hell they wanted. You don’t have kids so they can walk in your footsteps.”

“Yep, but we have three generations of running these businesses, so I’m obligated to take the reins.”

“It’s still bullshit. It’s like procreating employees.”

She looked at me and I stared into her eyes. While her initial judgment of me was irritating, it had more to do with her lot in life being different from mine. Hannah was no bullshit, said what she meant, and wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. She didn’t care if she impressed me at all and that intrigued me. It made me reconsider my plan to stay single this summer.

We spent a couple of hours sitting by the pool talking and, for the first time in my life, I felt like I was being treated like I was human. There was a comfort here that I’d never known before. I realized how much I wanted this in my life, how I needed someone like her in my life. She was intoxicating, not what I was expecting, but everything I didn’t know I needed. Hannah was real and she didn’t give a single shit about my name or my money.

Chapter 3

Hannah

Liam was staring at me. Those ice-blue eyes felt like they were cutting right through me while setting my insides on fire at the same time. It was surprising that we’d managed to sit here talking non-stop for who knew how long. We shouldn’t have anything in common to talk about but the conversation flowed freely between us.

I’d known about the Teresi family my entire life, they were rich and admired, like all the other rich families in this town. I never imagined that Liam Teresi and I would be sitting down and sharing things with each other that we probably didn’t share with anyone else. We knew each other through mutual friendships in high school, but he mostly kept to himself or with his cousins.

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