Today is a day that Hannah has looked forward to with both pleasure and trepidation. Her brother Trey turned twenty-one today. Hannah is happy for him—she has always doted on her baby brother, and she was very happy to help with his plans for his birthday party this evening. But as the plans got more and more complicated, Hannah began to get a bit concerned, and when it turned out that her mother would have to be out of town tonight, leaving Hannah alone to chaperone numerous young people celebrating both a birthday and their last semester of college, the concern turned to outright anxiety.
Hannah, however, is a problem-solver, and she immediately called in the cavalry. The “band” arrived an hour before the party was to start, bringing provisions—water bottles, various snack foods, and coffee. “I also have two dozen eggs in here,” Nina said, hefting a large grocery bag, “and other stuff we can use to start sopping up the alcohol later on. Some people are staying the night, right?”
“Ooh, I always loved omelettes when I was mid-party,” Hilary said, snatching the bag. “I can’t wait. Which reminds me—you’re getting us brunch to pay us back for this, right?” She eyed Hannah.
“Of course, and thank you all very much for saving my bacon,” Hannah said.
“Bacon,” Hilary said—she seemed to be hungry. “Is there bacon in here? Yes!”
“Erin and Ray are on call to be designated drivers,” Hope told Hannah, referring to her girlfriend and Hilary’s husband, respectively. “How many people are coming?”
“A lot,” Hannah sighed. “But Trey assures me it’s going to be a very chill party—mostly they’ll just lounge around playing beer pong and Kings. So it shouldn’t be too hard for us to keep an eye on them.”
“Still, maybe we should have one more person driving,” Hope said.
“Does that mean I can’t drink?” Hilary complained.
“You shouldn’t be drinking anyway,” Hope said, eying Hilary’s stomach.
“Don’t tell me what to do, Hope, you’re not a doctor. Anyway it’s way too early to tell.”
“Sometimes you don’t have to be a doctor to just know,” Hope said smugly.
“I can drive,” Nina said, shaking her heads at the others. “But if the hospital calls I’ll have to bail on you, and then you might have to start calling Ubers.”
Hannah checked her phone, hesitating a moment. “Well, I might have someone coming to drive, too.”
Immediately all three of her friends had their eyes on her. “Oh, really?” Hilary said, with a predatory delight.
Hannah sighed. “He’s still not sure he can make it—”
“He?” Hope repeated, grinning.
“Will you all stop,” Hannah said, turning her back on them. “We’ve been on all of one date.”
“Which is one more date then we’ve heard about,” Nina pointed out, and she settled herself at the kitchen table, waiting.
Hannah rolled her eyes, but she sat down at the table with the others and told them how she and Jack had met, how he had apologized for standing her up for Valentine’s Day.
“How funny!” Hilary said. “That bouquet sounds like a monstrosity.”
“Still, it was sweet of him,” Nina said. “And apparently you forgave him, if you went out with him after all. How was the date?”
Hannah’s smile could have told them all they needed to know, but they listened avidly as she described the restaurant, and afterward figure-skating—“at which I utterly humiliated myself,” she admitted. “But he didn’t seem to mind.”
“Did he offer to kiss all your bruises better?” Hope asked innocently.
“Of course not,” Hannah said as the others laughed. “He’s a gentleman.”
“A gentleman would have offered.”
In the middle of the suggestive exchange that followed—I understood little of it, I admit, but enough to know that they were referring to sex, which apparently has been absent from Hannah’s life for quite a while—the front door opened, and Trey’s voice rang out, calling for his sister. She had hardly gotten out of her chair before he appeared in the kitchen door, hauling a 24-pack of beer and a large package of red plastic cups. “I forgot the ping-pong balls—do we have any clean ones?”
“Just put water in the cups,” Hilary suggested. “Saves you from wasting beer when they get spilled, because they will.”
“I brought extra ping-pong balls,” Nina said, smiling as she got up. “They’re in the car, I’ll grab them.”
Trey set down his burdens, seized her face, and kissed it. “How did such cool ladies ever become friends with my sister?” he asked, hugging Hope and high-fiving Hilary in turn. “Oh, and one of your guys is here, I told him to just come on in. I’m going to get the hard stuff—any suggestions?”
“Always,” Hilary said and trailed after him. But she stopped short in the hall, and her delighted “oh, hello” to the person in the hall made Hannah hurry after her. She was just in time, too—Hilary had just about cornered Jack in the front room.
“Hey, there,” Hannah said, managing to convey both welcome to her date and warning to her friend. Hilary stepped back with a smile, but she didn’t go far. “I didn’t think you were going to be here until later.”
“Well, I figured after my failure on Valentine’s I needed to make up for lost time,” Jack said. He leaned down to kiss Hannah’s cheek. “Hey.”
She couldn’t help but smile, a fact that Hilary observed. “And you’re sure you don’t mind?” Hannah asked him. “I know babysitting a bunch of drunk kids is not all that much fun.”
“On the contrary, I’m looking forward to a very entertaining evening,” he said, grinning. “I always did get the best blackmail material as a designated.”
“Right?” Hilary laughed, inserting herself into the conversation. “Hi, I’m Hilary. I’m the best friend.” She offered her hand to him, with a smile that would have made a less brave man imagine a threat.
Jack accepted the hand without hesitation. “Nice to meet you, Hilary, although I admit I’m confused. I understood that the best friend came in triplicate in Hannah’s case.”
Nina and Hope, who of course were listening from just inside the other room, laughed at this. “Okay, Hannah,” Nina said, coming out of the kitchen. “He passes the first test. Jack, I’ve got to grab something from the car, but when I get back we’ll talk.”
“I look forward to it,” Jack said with sincerity, although Hannah was grimacing.
I am not entirely sure if Hannah’s friends were in fact testing Jack, but if so, he passed with flying colors. As the party got started, Jack immediately won prestige in the eyes of Trey and his friends by being an excellent beer pong player. He managed to be “cool”—that ever elusive quality—without drinking a drop, and he also managed to situate water bottles next to the heaviest drinkers and guide anyone who started to look green closer to the bathroom. In the midst of the mingling, he also spent time talking with each of Hannah’s friends, getting to know them and probing them for hints about how to get along with Hannah, even as they were probing him.
“She definitely likes you,” Nina said to him, much later in the evening. The two of them were watching as Hannah tried to persuade a friend of Trey’s that he did not, in fact, want to start doing chin-ups from the curtain rod. “That’s rare enough. Hannah tends to hold back when it comes to relationships, hence why she hasn’t had one in a while.”
“Well, I’m glad to break that streak,” Jack said, smiling at her across the room. As if she felt it—and perhaps she did—Hannah glanced up, caught his eye, and returned the smile. “She’s got a lot to give, I can tell. Any doctor who can take time for individual patients like she did for Lily…”
“Hannah did talk to me about your niece’s case,” Nina said with a bit of professional demeanor. “It sounds like she’ll have less scarring than initially predicted. Her treatments are going very well.”
Jack turned his full attention to Nina, his face stark with relief. “You really think so? That’s so good to hear. I’ve been worried that this will completely ruin her life.”
“Well, she’ll always have scars,” Nina cautioned, but she was moved by Jack’s obvious love for his niece, and beginning to understand Hannah’s attraction to him. “But yes, I think they will not be disfiguring.”
A loud shout from across the room made them both look up, and they saw Hannah with her hand over her face as the belligerent young man started doing push-ups instead, while a small crowd gathered and began to count.
“Should we go help her?” Jack asked.
“Nah, she’s got it covered. At least he’s not going to break his back this way.”
Hannah, also satisfied that she had done all she could do, started to move towards Jack.
Watching her come, Nina said off-handedly, “You know if you hurt her, we’ll kill you, right?”
Jack nodded, absorbing that with more seriousness than I would have thought. “All three of you together? Or will you designate a single assassin? Just so I know what I’m dealing with.”
“It’ll be Hilary, and you won’t be able to deal,” Nina assured him.
“Oh, then you’re probably right.” He shook his head and took a long drink from his water bottle. “Well, Lily needs me, so I guess I better take good care of Hannah, for her sake.” He winked at Nina and moved to join Hannah, taking her hand as they headed off to check on the rest of the party. Nina watched them go, and approved.