Chapter 13

Hannah put down her phone, pursing her lips into a self-satisfied grin. She was always a morning person, and even though she hadn’t needed to go to work that morning she’d still been up at 5:30 AM for a run on her treadmill, followed by some light yoga. Getting a call from Ollie before he had to head to work himself wasn’t unheard of, but usually he was a lot more groggy.

That morning, when she answered the phone, he’d had a pep in his voice that didn’t usually show itself until at least after 10, and that had answered her first question - how had the date gone?

Apparently, really well.

He’d dropped the real bomb on her then - they were going to go on another date. Ollie, her Oliver, her best friend who hadn’t dated anyone ever, was going on a second date. With a celebrity crush!

She was shocked, and thrilled, and really hoped the thrilled part was what she’d let get through the phone to him. She was always careful not to ever insult him, even if she could sometimes be a bit of a bitch to other people at work. Ollie was her person, and she never wanted him to feel like he was less than that in her eyes.

Once the phone call had ended, Hannah had flopped down onto her couch and looked out the window of her apartment at the surrounding buildings, grinning to herself. “Ho-ly shit,” she said, shaking her head. She’d finally gotten Ollie to start dating.

The fact that Ollie had been cagey, especially about the end of the date, told her that he’d even gotten a little intimate with April. Maybe some making out in the car? Some heavy petting? She could only imagine his face when he touched her boobs, and she’d done plenty of Googling leading up to the date - April had some pretty big tits. Not massive, but way more than Hannah had herself.

There was a part of her that wondered how intimate they could have gotten. Heavy petting at most, and kissing, right? It was a first date after all, and Ollie couldn’t have been too confident since it was his first real date. That made Hannah picture Ollie happily dating someone, and them being able to go on double dates together. And what if it went really, really well in the long term and he married April? He would be so fucking cute as a husband with whoever he ended up with. Just imagining him doting on a loving wife gave Hannah a warm-and-fuzzy feeling, knowing how much he and her had helped mold each other. He’d raised her expectations of boys since they’d met in middle school, and while that meant her dating life was cratered with failed relationships, none of those craters were very deep or painful.

Hannah tried to picture April and Ollie, married and living together out in the suburbs somewhere. And for some reason that ... put a pit in her stomach. Ollie out in the suburbs meant he’d be living farther away from her than they ever had before. He wouldn’t be just a quick walk away. Hell, she’d picked her apartment building primarily because he was 5 minutes down the street.

If Ollie got married, there wouldn’t be as much Hannah and Ollie time.

Suddenly, Hannah felt like she needed to go to the gym and get a proper pump on. She needed to burn off the negative energy she was feeling to try and stay positive. Ollie dating was good. She just needed to make sure that April wasn’t going to go and steal him away from her.

Zara couldn’t believe it. She set her phone down and stretched, wincing a little as the Vegas sun leaked around her big sunglasses. Stretching out by the pool was supposed to be relaxing, but after the week she’d had it wasn’t helping. First, that bitch Heather Gardner had started horning into some of the jobs that Zara had already booked. Just because the cunt had won Miss Mississippi or whatever didn’t mean she should be considered a hot commodity. Then Eric had been so cold with her during her last shoot.