Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 169272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 846(@200wpm)___ 677(@250wpm)___ 564(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 846(@200wpm)___ 677(@250wpm)___ 564(@300wpm)
“Do you want to talk top ten lists for movies?” Hannah asks.
“Hell yeah. Of all-time or by genre?”
“All-time.”
“Hmm.” I pause. “Okay, in no particular order, I’d say Groundhog Day, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Fight Club, The Lobster.”
Hannah bops in her chair. “Those are all on my list, too!”
“No way. The Lobster is on your top ten list?”
“Absolutely. It’s a masterpiece.”
I’m blown away. I’ve never met a woman who’s seen that film, let alone loved it like I do. “Isn’t it incredible?”
Hannah nods and bites her lip. “Maybe we can watch it together some time, even if we’re watching on our respective laptops in different cities.”
My heart leaps. “It’s a date. Or I could come to Seattle, and we could watch it after the salmon dinner you promised me.”
She blushes. “That sounds great.”
My heart rate spikes. “I’m flying to DC tomorrow for a job. I’m not sure how long it’ll take. A week or two, at most. Would it be good timing for me to come to Seattle after that?”
“It would be perfect timing.”
“Okay. Awesome. It’s a date.”
“It’s a date.”
“Cool. A date.”
We sip our drinks, but I’m barely able to get the liquid into my mouth through my wide, goofy grin.
Hannah puts down her glass. “Grease. Where does it rank for you? Top ten? Top twenty?”
“Oh, top ten, for sure. For sentimental reasons. It’s one of my mother’s all-time favorites, so I’ve watched it with her a thousand times.”
“My sister and I watch it every year with our mom on her birthday! At this point, we’ve seen it so many times, we treat it like a speak- and sing-along extravaganza!”
“I’d pay to see that.”
“No need. We’ll do it together when you come to Seattle.”
“Awesome. Sounds like we’re going to be busy.”
“You might want to plan on staying in Seattle at least a few nights, since we’re going to have so much on our itinerary.”
“Frankly, I think we’d be doing ourselves a grave disservice if I didn’t plan to stay for a full week and take you out every night.” Shit. Was that too much, too fast?
“Perfect!” Hannah sings out, and I sigh with relief that I haven’t fucked things up by being overly excited.
“True story,” I say, resting a forearm onto the table, “Grease is the movie that helped me learn to dance before my first school dance in seventh grade.”
“Aw. Was that your first date?”
“Fuck no. My first date was in college. I was a late bloomer.”
“Me, too!”
“No way.”
“Oh, Henny. I was so shy in high school.”
“Same here.”
“But continue.”
“It was one of those everyone-come-to-the-gym-and-dance-together kinds of things. And I was so excited to go. But I’d never danced in public before, only in my bedroom. And when I went on YouTube to learn, everything was too complicated for me. So, my mom suggested I dance like they do in Grease, because I’d known that choreography basically my whole life. So, that’s what I did.”
Hannah is dying of laughter. “Please, tell me it all worked out for you, and this isn’t the story of the time you got horrifically bullied at a school dance.”
“Who could possibly bully a kid who’s Greased Lightning? That was the night I discovered I’m a dancing god.”
Hannah squeals with glee.
“Or maybe it’s my villain origin story,” I add. “Because that’s when I became addicted to making people cheer for me on dance floors. It was in that moment Henn the Dancing Maniac was born.”
“Hannah the Dancing Maniac can’t wait to join him.”
We clink glasses and take hearty sips.
Hannah peeks at Josh and Kat, and when it’s clear they’re still in their own little world, she returns to me. “So, tell me. Have you seen Pride & Prejudice? Not the BBC miniseries from the nineties. The movie from the 2000s with—”
“Kiera Knightly and Matthew MacFayden. Yes, of course, I’ve seen it. Many times. I love it.”
“No way.”
“It’s probably number ten on my overall list, but it’s number one on my Love Stories and Rom Coms List, thanks to Mr. Darcy’s hand-flex. You know when—”
“Mr. Darcy flexes his hand—”
“After guiding—”
“Miss Elizabeth into her carriage! That’s iconic!”
“It’s only one of the most sensual moments ever captured—”
“In the history of cinema!”
“Agreed!”
The energy between us is fire. In fact, the shock and excitement that’s practically ricocheting off our bodies couldn’t be more palpable if we’d just discovered we were married in a past life. Suddenly, though, skepticism visibly washes over Hannah’s pretty face.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
Hannah snickers and waggles her index finger at me. “Ha! You and Kat almost got me.”
5
HANNAH
Henn looks deeply confused, so I flash him a knowing side-eye and say, “Kat told you all about the hand-flex in Pride & Prejudice, didn’t she? She told you I’d lose my shit if you mentioned that scene?”
Henn pulls a face like that’s patently ridiculous. “Kat didn’t say a word about Pride & Prejudice to me. I genuinely love that movie.”