Chapter 1
My parents called to tell me they were heading to my childhood best friend’s house to meet his blind date.
At that moment, my childhood best friend, Frank, was fast asleep beside me.
I thought they were joking. “Frank,” I whispered, “they’re saying they found you a blind date.”
He hummed, a lazy sound, and pulled me tighter into his embrace. “Alright, Hannah. Pick out an outfit for me in a bit, maybe do my
hair.”
When I didn’t move, he cracked open an eye and scoffed. “Hey, what’s wrong? We’re just bed buddies. You didn’t actually think was
going to marry you, did you?”
I couldn’t process it. All I could do was move, a flurry of awkward motion. I couldn’t look at him. I pushed him away, scrambled to
off the floor, and pulled them on haphazardly.
pick my clothes P
“Hannah, look at me.”
Frank propped his chin on his arm, his eyes glinting with amusement. “You didn’t really think we were boyfriend and girlfriend, did
you?”
The phrase “bed buddies” echoed in my head. My hands were shaking so badly I couldn’t fasten the clasp on my bra.
Frank threw back the covers, revealing the lean, sharp lines of his abdomen, and knelt on the edge of the bed. His hands moved
with a familiar ease, fastening the hooks for me.
I kept my head down. “Who’s the blind date?” I asked, my voice tight. I forced a bitter laugh. “Please don’t tell me your parents just
grabbed some random person from a park bench.”
I looked at myself in the mirror, at the constellation of red marks dotting my skin, my legs still aching from the night before.
Frank, now wearing nothing but a pair of gray sweatpants, came up behind me and buried his face in my neck. “It’s Angela.”
He flickered those handsome, almond–shaped eyes at me. “You remember. The senior from the art department in college. Angela.”
He added, a genuine note of excitement in his voice, “You know, the thought of seeing her again… I’m actually a little nervous.”
My hand, holding a tube of lipstick, froze. Of course I remembered. Frank had a massive crush on her, but before he could confess,
she had moved abroad. I thought that was all in the past.
Frank watched me in the mirror, his lips pursed. “Hey, Hannah. Don’t go getting any funny ideas about me.”
“We grew up in diapers together. I mean, yeah, you’re… beautiful, but I see you as a brother.”
“You’re my best buddy–for food, for road trips, for… bed.”
It felt like a physical blow. A chill spread through my body. I looked at his smiling face and could only manage a weak, trembling
smile in return.
He kept going. “Besides, I know you so well. I know what you’re going to wear every day, right down to the matching underwear set.”
“It’s almost… boring.”
“Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and see you sleeping next to me, and honestly? It scares me.”
“It scares me that one day, maybe we’d end up like our parents joked, actually married. My whole life, just… mapped out from start to finish.” He shuddered, as if the very thought was terrifying.
I dug my nails into my palm, fighting to keep the tears from falling. “I have to go.”
wrapped myself in my coat and fled like a coward.
Chapter 1
04.39
I wrapped myself in my coat and fled like a coward.
I thought Frank and I were in a relationship. We acted like any other couple. We ate together, went on dates, hung out with friends. During games of Truth or Dare, we would kiss each other deeply and say “I love you” without a second thought.
Frank would pick me up from work every single rainy day. He would secretly hold my hand under the table at family dinners.
I had no idea that what I thought was a six–month relationship was just a childish game to him.
“Hannah?” My mom tapped on the car window, peering in with concern.
I snapped back to reality. Seeing my tear–streaked face in the rearview mirror, I quickly wiped my eyes, called out a shaky response,
and got out of the car.
“Mom!” I threw my arms around her, burying my face in her shoulder to hide my expression. “I missed you,” I said with a laugh.
My mom, holding a bag of groceries, took my arm, looking relieved. “Honey, why were you just sitting in the car? You scared me.
Didn’t you see the news about people suffocating in their cars…?”
