Page 62 of Mostly Loathing You

As the door clicks shut behind him, I resist the urge to break out into laughter at the utter insanity of the situation. It’s not uncommon for the guys to discuss my single life, as the rest of them are in long-term relationships, but even I know that if Jackson knew it was Hannah, he would probably gag at the realization.

“He’s gone,” I yell to Hannah a few seconds before I hear my bedroom door creak open. “It was your brother.”

“What did he want?” she asks, but she doesn’t seem to care.

I’m sure at this point she knows what was said, but to my shock she doesn’t say anything about it. The painful reminder that she’s used to it makes me want to pull her into my arms, but then I remember I’ve never been much better than her family.

Who does she have, then? It sure as hell has never been me.

“Just wanted to stop by on his run. Although, once he took in the state of my apartment, he deduced pretty quickly that someone was here.”

“Did you tell him it was me?” Her eyes go wide as she asks.

“What? No, of course not! I just said there was a girl in my room and that he should go.”

She nods, gnawing on her bottom lip. What she’s thinking, I can’t be sure. Her thoughtful expression morphs as a smile spreads quickly across her lips before she breaks out into laughter.

“Fucking Jackson.” She shakes her head as she continues to laugh, sitting down at the island as if nothing happened.

“Yeah, fucking Jackson.” I smile at her, my anxiety from before melting the moment her eyes meet mine.

Despite my insistence that she stay a bit longer, Hannah is insistent that she has to get back to her apartment.

“I have an audition coming up and I really need to rehearse,” Hannah says as she frantically moves through my apartment, looking for her keys. Although they are sitting clear as day in the bowl on the entry table, I don’t say anything. Her inability to find them is buying me precious time to convince her to stay.

“You could rehearse here!” I blurt out without realizing how frantic I sound, causing Hannah’s eyes to lock on me with a perplexed expression.

I’m also confused.

“I don’t have my sheet music, or my monologue…nor do I have my laptop with the accompaniment for the song.”

“Do you have the sheet music and monologue in digital form, by any chance?” Why I won’t let this go, I’m not sure; I just pray she doesn’t register my desperation despite it being glaringly obvious.

“I guess I have them on the cloud, but that doesn’t solve the track being on my laptop. It’s fine, Liam, it’s not a big deal. I’ll just head home.”

“I have a keyboard! I could play it,” I blurt out.

Hannah looks up at me with her brows scrunched together. I can see her mind working a mile a minute behind her eyes. “You…play piano? How did I not know that?”

“And guitar.”

Her wide, piercing green eyes stare up at me, the confusion enmeshed with what appears to be interest as she steps toward me. “Here I thought I knew everything about you.”

“Happy to still be able to keep you on your toes.” I grin down at her before pressing my lips to her forehead. I’d done it earlier this morning, but she was in a sleepy daze. This time, I don’t miss the way she tenses at my tender touch.

“Okay…I’ll stay.” She doesn’t say anything about the forehead kiss, which I’m thankful for.

I pull my silver keyboard from where it’s lived for the past six months, untouched, at the back of my living room closet. I haven’t had a lick of inspiration, so I’ve spent most of my time gaming or taking work home with me.

As I set the instrument onto its fold-out stand, Hannah steps up next to me, admiring the keyboard silently.

“Did you print the sheet music?” I ask as I turn the instrument on. It emits a faint electrical hum as it powers up.

“Yeah,” Hannah says, reaching over to my printer and pulling off two matching sets of sheet music with “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” scrawled across the top in big block letters.

“Jesus Christ Superstar?”

“How could you possibly know that?” She chuckles as she yanks the sheet music from my hands, revealing the smaller font below the song title indicating the show it’s from. “Oh.”

---