to what Noah’s life had been like for the last ten years, the change felt almost surreal.
The only sobering thing in Noah’s life was the fact that he still hadn’t talked to his mother. She’d been out of the country for two weeks, which gave Noah a good excuse to avoid telling her about Alex, but now she was back, so Noah had scheduled lunch with her for the next day. He was strangely calm about the whole thing. Sure, his mother would not be happy about his relationship with Alex. She’d never hidden her dislike for Alex particularly well, but she’d get over it. Noah had no doubt about it. It might take her some time, but his mom loved him, so she’d come around once she saw how happy Alex made Noah.
Hannah stomped into the office and took a seat across from Noah’s desk. “Okay, I want the jury to note that I’ve been good for two weeks already. I haven’t pried, meddled, schemed or stuck my nose where it shouldn’t be.”
“Umm… congrats?” Noah offered, not sure what Hannah was getting at.
“No! Not congrats,” Hannah said, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re supposed to come clean! Sean told me that if I give you time you’ll tell me what’s up with you, but you haven’t, and I’ve got to tell you, people are getting worried around here, so tell me right now: are you dying?”
Noah started laughing. “What?”
“It’s a perfectly logical question, dude. You’ve been acting crazy for the past two weeks. You leave the office when we close. You smile all the time. I’m not even going to mention the vacation we forced you to take. I mean, you didn’t try and sneak into work even once. What’s up with that? I was all prepared to chase you away from here. I had this plan where we would all take one window and wave to you, but you never showed, and then you come back from your vacation, and it’s suddenly like you have freaking cartoon birds flying around your head. You’re all friendly and you chat, even though you never used to do that, and you even smiled at Mrs. Donovan, even though she kept calling you young man in that condescending tone of hers.” Hannah took a deep breath. “Katie said that you looked like you were in love, but I mean, there’s realistic and then there’s totally out-there, so let me ask you once again, are you dying?” She took another deep breath and slumped back in her chair, glaring at Noah.
“Do people get super nice when they’re on their death bed?” Noah mused.
“My great-uncle Archie was real, shall we say, challenging. I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but the guy was an asshole. He told me I was never going to be a princess when I was four.”
“The horror,” Noah said dryly.
“Hey!” Hannah snapped and pointed her finger in Noah’s face. “That left scars on my soul that will never heal.”
Noah raised his hands quickly. “You’re more regal than any princess I know.”
Hannah leaned back in her chair. “Anyway, once Uncle Archie learned he had cancer, the guy seemed to figure that he should make a last-ditch effort to be decent ’cause, you know, paradise and stuff.”
“Are you trying to tell me that I’ve been an asshole to everybody for all these years?” Noah asked.
“You were never an asshole. Just… really reserved. You snuck out of your own birthday party, for crying out loud. You’ve never been the chatty type, and you’re always so serious, so the constant smiling has raised some questions. I’m not even going to mention the fact that you storm out of here every night after the clinic closes instead of staying for five extra hours.”
Just then, Noah’s phone started vibrating, but before he could grab it, Hannah had snatched it off the desk.
“Alex,” Hannah said with a raised brow as she read the name from the display. She glanced at Noah with a sly look in her eyes. “Now where have I heard that name before?”
“Curiosity killed the cat,” Noah said. “Now give me back my phone.”
“I don’t think so,” Hannah said as she slid her finger across the screen and lifted the phone to her ear. “Well hello, there, Alex.”
She moved away from Noah as if she was afraid Noah was going to tackle her for the phone, but in truth, it wasn’t like Noah was hiding Alex, and Hannah was his closest