Simon had not talked to Hannah since the meeting in the pizza parlor. He didn’t really know what to say to her. After she told him about her childhood and her dad passing, she had looked so vulnerable and so sweet. Fighting the urge to kiss her had been the most difficult thing he had done. He had to get up and walk out. She must have thought he was mad at her.

They were about to meet up again and he couldn’t stop thinking about her. The way that she bit her lip while she was concentrating and the way her eyes lit up when she was talking about science. He could tell that this was going to be a problem. He was smitten.

Walking into the bar, he looked around. She wasn’t here yet, but he didn’t expect her to be. He had been late to their last meeting. He hadn’t told her why and she hadn’t asked. He was glad she hadn’t asked. She already felt sorry for him enough without him throwing in the fact that his mother also was struggling with an illness. And knowing her background, it would hit far too close to home for her liking. He didn’t want to bring it up with her right now.

Talking about his childhood and baring his soul for her had been such a difficult thing to do. He couldn’t even comprehend how she felt for him now. Pity was such a difficult emotion for Simon to deal with. He had seen it so many times in his life. He would keep this meeting light and fun. She needed to see the carefree side of him as well.

He picked a table in the corner that was quieter than the rest of the bar. He had selected the venue this time. He thought a more casual location and some beer would help lighten the mood and keep the conversation going in a good direction.

“What can I get for you?” the waitress asked.

“I’m not quite sure at the moment,” Simon responded.

The waitress smiled at him broadly and replied. “Of course. Just let me know when you’re ready. I can get you whatever you need.” She winked at him and walked away.

Just then he saw Hannah. She walked in through the door, glancing around her like a deer in headlights. Once she spotted him, she beelined for the table, keeping her eyes towards the ground.

“Hey,” she said by way of greeting as she sat at the table.

“Hello,” Simon replied. “How’s your day going?”

“It’s going alright,” Hannah replied quickly. She seemed a bit preoccupied. She kept looking around her and then back at her hands in her lap.

He wanted to make her feel comfortable and could tell something was wrong. “You look beautiful.”

Her light green eyes locked on his. Her cheeks flushed a rosy pink and he could tell that she appreciated the compliment. “Thank you.”

Her lips looked so soft. He wanted to see how they felt and fought the urge to lean across the table and sample them with his. “So what do we need to discuss today?” He cleared his throat and tried to read the menu that sat in front of him.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a small notebook. Opening it to a page in the center, she glanced at it briefly before replying. “Well, we need to decide what we want to tell them about future plans and such. I’m a planner and they know that, so they will expect us both to know what we want out of the relationship.” She used air quotes when she said the word relationship.

“You? A planner? I never would have guessed,” he teased.

Hannah laughed. “Yeah, I guess I make that pretty obvious, don’t I?”

“Only slightly.”

“My mom teases me about that sometimes and said I was born on the day of my due date because I had to know exactly which day I was going to be born. I’m never late for anything, so she thinks it’s funny to exploit any form of humor at my expense.”

“She sounds fantastic,” Simon said.

Hannah smiled, staring off into space. She looked happy for a moment. “She is pretty fantastic. She’s always been so good to me and loved on me so much.”

She must have realized she was staring off into space because she shook her head and redirected her attention to Simon. “They will love it if you tease and play. My family is always impressed with humorous boyfriends.”

“So you have a lot of experience bringing boyfriends home, do you?”

“No.” She turned a little pink. “This would be the first time, actually.”

“I am honored at this opportunity then.” Simon did a mock bow of his head and she laughed. This could actually work in his favor. His humor was silly and something that came quite naturally.

“Can I get your order?” The waitress asked, interrupting their conversation.

“I would like a pint of whatever you have on tap. Something dark, please. And an order of nachos. Hannah?”

Hannah looked caught off guard. “Um, I don’t know. I’ll have the same.”

The waitress walked away and Hannah leaned towards Simon across the table. “I have to tell you something, but you can’t laugh.”

Simon used his finger to cross his heart and put his hand up as if promising. “I swear.” He didn’t even crack a smile, but it made Hannah giggle.

“Alright,” she said with a dramatic pause. “I’ve never drank alcohol before.”

Simon stared at her with his eyes wide. “Never?” he asked incredulously.

“Never. Well, a sip here or there from my mom at family dinners, but not casually. And wine with communion. I mean, I just never had the chance really. In high school, I didn’t want to break the rules and almost never went anywhere anyhow. And since I was in college I have been really focused on my grades and such.”

With a heavy heart, Simon realized the burden he had placed on this woman. “I’m so sorry. We don’t have to be here. I just thought a pub was a good place to chat. I didn’t know or I wouldn’t have suggested it. Please don’t feel like you need to try it on my account.”

Hannah waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. I want to.”

Simon guessed that she was probably just saying that for his sake, but he wasn’t sure. “Really, it’s not that big of a deal, we could just walk over to the coffee shop across the street.”

“No, it’s all good,” Hannah said again. She reached over and put her hand on Simon’s in a reassuring gesture. They stayed like that for a moment, just relaxing in the quiet atmosphere.

* * *

The waitress placed a pint of something dark and frothy in front of her. Next to it was the plate of nachos that she ordered.

“Had I known it was your first drink ever, I probably would have had you try something different. This is a dark beer. It really isn’t for the faint of heart.”

She glanced up at him and put the beer to her lips. “Here goes nothing.”

The first sip was bitter and strong. She made a disgusted sound and put the beer back on the table. “Ack, how do you drink that stuff?”

Simon laughed at her as he sipped his drink. “It’s not that bad, you’re just not used to it.”

“And I never will be either, cause I am never drinking that again,” she replied with distaste.

He smiled at her and then waved the waitress over. The woman might as well have drooled all over Simon. When they had placed their initial order, the waitress had twisted her hair around her finger and giggled, like a little school girl. It was ridiculous. Hannah felt irritation roll across her as the waitress bounded over with a ridiculously large smile plastered across her face.

“My friend here doesn’t like the beer, can we get her something else to drink? Something a bit easier to get down.”

The waitress looked at her and the smile disappeared almost immediately. “What do you want?” she asked with a hint of what Hannah thought was disdain in her voice.

Hannah wasn’t sure if she wanted this woman serving her a drink. “I’m not really sure.” She looked to Simon, hoping he had a suggestion.

“Let’s try a red wine. You like black coffee, so you can’t want anything too sweet.”

“Sounds great.”

The waitress nodded and wrote down a note. “I’ll get her a cab sav,” she said to Simon with a smile on her lips. She even had the gall to wink at him.

Has she no shame?

“Thank you,” Simon replied to the waitress.

As she left, Hannah couldn’t help herself. “I’m afraid if you smile at that waitress she might faint. I’m surprised that she didn’t ask you out just then.”

Simon laughed and shifted in his seat. He looked uncomfortable. “What do you mean?”

“She was practically drooling over you.” Hannah knew it was petty. She wasn’t even dating Simon, nor was she interested in a boyfriend right now. She just didn’t think it was polite to be flirting with someone who had another girl already at the table.

“No, I don’t think she was.”

“No really, it was obvious. It couldn’t have been more obvious,” she said with a bit of irritation in her voice.

“Hmm.” He took a swig of his beer and abruptly changed the subject. “So let’s figure out where this pretend relationship is headed.”

For some reason, hearing him say pretend made her feel a flash of something. She wasn’t sure what she was feeling, but she knew that it wasn’t good. Probably because she had put so much time and thought into this scheme for her mother and pretend meant it didn’t matter. Semantics weren’t that important though.

“Okay, how long have we been dating?” Hannah thought this was a great place to start.

“If you are taking me home then we should probably have been dating for a while. Let’s say the first day we met. Had I asked you out then, we could reasonably have been dating this entire time.”

“When was the first day we met?” Hannah asked. She wasn’t sure if it had been before their first group project.

Simon finished the chip he had been eating and then responded to her. “The first day we met was actually the first day of class. So it was the Wednesday after the semester started. You were sitting in the third row back and I spotted you across the room. When I walked by, you stopped me to ask something before I got to the front of the class. You needed to borrow my pencil because yours broke.”

Hannah took a deep breath. She hadn’t remembered that interaction until he mentioned it. Now that he mentioned it, her mind flashed back to that moment. She had thought he was very handsome. She actually broke her pencil on purpose so she could borrow one of his. He had been introduced in class as the assistant professor a few weeks later, so she didn’t make the connection. She was too wrapped up in her studies and trying to do well in all of her classes to think much about men or even friends for that matter.

“Yeah, that would work,” she said. She felt her cheeks burning. She hated that her skin always betrayed her. Every time she felt embarrassed her cheeks would flush a deep shade of red. It was the curse of the fair-skinned family she came from. Every one of them had fair skin and freckles.

The waitress brought her a glass of red wine and Hannah took a hesitant sip. The liquid was crisp, slightly bitter and dry. She loved it immediately. “Oh, this is good.”

Simon beamed at her while she sipped it again. “I thought you might like that.”

She felt warmth spread through her fingers and her toes. “So, what was our first date?”

“Well, I like first dates to be low pressure. Like the coffee shop. But the second date would be fun. I would say that I took you bowling. I beat you of course because I am amazing at bowling. I would walk you to the ice cream parlor and then take you for a walk in the park. Pretty sure you would say I had cheated because I won the game, but really you just couldn’t hit the pins to save your life.”

Hannah had been leaning in ever so slightly as Simon continued his story. He leaned in a bit closer to her across the table. Hannah continued to sip her wine, rolling the liquid across her tongue and tasting the different flavors on her palette.

“I don’t know. I might have won.” She was sure she would have lost. Bowling was not her forte.

“Then when I was ready to take you home, I reached out and grabbed your hand like this.” He reached across the table and took her hand in his. “You probably said you had a great time. And then I would tuck that piece of hair behind your ear.”

He took his free hand and ever so gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She closed her eyes, focused on the feeling of his hand brushing her cheek. It sent a wave of shivers over her body. She jolted a bit when she felt Simon’s lips brushing hers gently. They were soft, and the hair on his chin lightly bristled against her skin. She felt warm and a bit dizzy.

Simon sat back in his chair, ending their kiss, and Hannah let out a slow sigh.

“That’s probably what I would have done.”

Why had she kissed him? Why had she let him kiss her? She shook her head, trying to clear the buzzing feeling in her skull but it didn’t really work. Her half full wine glass sat next to her hand when she realized the alcohol was probably affecting her slightly. That must be why she kissed him. That must be the reason. She didn’t even want a boyfriend and she certainly didn’t want to date Simon. He was a great friend.

Hannah cleared her throat. The wine had made her throat a bit dry. “I think that would work. I’m pretty sure that is all we needed to figure out.”

“Sounds like a plan then,” Simon said to her. He had a smug smile on his face which really irritated Hannah. Like he knew how his kiss had affected her. “Did you enjoy your wine?”

“I did,” Hannah said. She didn’t mention how it made her feel. He was already overconfident. He didn’t need to know that she loved how relaxed she was right now, though not too uninhibited.

Without even acknowledging it, he obviously knew she enjoyed the kiss. She had leaned into him and she had even kissed him back. She really needed to avoid kissing him again. She didn’t want to lead him on and make him think he had a chance with her when he really didn’t. She was determined to graduate and focus on her work.

“Good, well then I guess I will pick you up tomorrow morning and we can drive to College Station to see your mom.”

“Alright. I’ll be ready at seven,” Hannah replied, standing up and adjusting her bag.

She walked away and out the door of the pub without a backwards glance. Why was her heart racing? She felt all tingly everywhere. She knew that it had nothing to do with the wine, and part of her heart acknowledged that it had everything to do with the handsome man she had just kissed.

At seven o’clock Simon was still waiting in the car at the curb just outside Hannah’s flat. He had texted her as soon as he arrived ten minutes ago. He was surprised she hadn’t clambered out of the house immediately, waiting on him to get there. She liked to be on time. Thinking it would be best to check and make sure everything was okay, he got out of the car and went to the front door.

He knocked lightly on the door, but when there was no answer he pounded on the door more deliberately. Still no answer. He was starting to worry that maybe she had forgotten, or worse, changed her mind. He started to give up hope that she would answer and turned back toward his car. He would try and call her later in the day and figure out what had changed her mind.

It had to have been the kiss. That was the only thing he could think of. He shouldn’t have kissed her. Simon didn’t think he could have stopped it if he had wanted to. She had sat across from him with her lips slightly open. When he touched her hand he saw her shiver. Her lips tasted as sweet as he thought they would.

Right when he reached the sidewalk, Tracy answered the door. She looked half asleep and her eyes were only halfway open.

“Hope I didn’t wake you up.” Simon jogged back up to the door.

Obviously not appreciating his bright demeanor, she rolled her eyes heavenward and stepped aside to let Simon in. “Why are you here?” Her voice was low and hostile.

Simon walked through the front room. “I’m here to pick up Hannah. Where is she?”

“She’s in bed, crazy,” she replied curtly. “Just like you should be.”

“No, we are headed to College Station today,” he said quickly.

“Not at four in the morning you aren’t,” Tracy replied. “I’m going back to bed.”

Sure enough. Simon glanced at his phone. It was 4:00 a.m. Not seven. Simon had arrived three hours too early.

“Just snooze on the couch,” Tracy called out over her shoulder. She disappeared through the hallway and Simon took a deep breath.

How could he have gotten so mixed up on time? He swore the alarm had gone off at 6:00. But he must have just dreamt it and gotten up. Muttering to himself and cursing his ridiculousness, Simon grabbed a throw off of the chair near him. He didn’t want to drive all the way back to his flat, so he lay down on the couch and fell asleep.

* * *

Hannah laughed so hard she couldn’t stop. “I can’t believe you got here at four in the morning.” She was gasping for air in between fits of giggles.

Simon had a grumpy look on his face. “I just misread the clock. It could happen to anyone.”

Deep breathing wasn’t even helping her slow down the peals of laughter. This had to be the funniest thing Simon had ever done.

Simon reached past her to the floor of the passenger seat and grabbed a bag next to her ankle. “This is for you.”

Peering inside the bag Hannah saw two of her favorite things. A bag of Swedish Fish and a bottle of diet Dr. Pepper. “These are my favorite! How did you know?”

“I asked Tracy the other day while you were busy. I thought it would be nice to have your favorite treat on the ride. I know it’s not that far, but it could help.”

“Oh, thank you, that is so thoughtful.”

Simon shrugged his shoulders as if to say it was nothing. Hannah felt warm all over. Thoughtfulness like that was not a common trait and made her feel special. She suddenly felt very aware that she hadn’t gotten him anything, nor did she know what his favorite treats were.

“So what is your favorite treat?” Hannah asked.

“Starburst and Sprite,” he replied.

She made a mental note of it for future reference, should the need arise.

“There’s another bag down there by your feet for Ginny,” he said. When he said her name, Ginny’s massive head poked up from the back seat, in between Simon and Hannah. Simon reached behind him to pat her head, but she licked him before he had time and moved back to the seat.

Hannah reached down and found a back with dog treats. She passed one back to Ginny. “Thank you for that. She already loves being in the car, but now you won’t be able to get her out.”

Comfortable silence followed, broken when Simon asked, “What do you like to listen to?”

She grabbed the iPhone from him and began to rummage through the list of songs on his playlist. “I’ll pick.”

Shifting over to recently played music, she was able to get a sense for his taste in music. Every band she saw was someone that she liked to listen to. “Hey, you have good taste in music.”

“Well, I think so,” Simon replied smiling over at her. She turned on the Strumbellas and opened up her bag of Swedish Fish.

They had just gotten on the freeway when they ran into a line of traffic. The freeway became a parking lot. “We may have a longer trip than we thought,” Simon remarked, taking his hands off of the wheel and putting the car in park.

“Might as well take some time to get to know each other better. You know, so we can answer questions if we get asked anything random at my mom’s house.” Hannah was still munching away at her candy.

“Yeah sure,” he replied, putting the car in drive again. The line had just started to move. About five feet later it stopped again. This time Simon just left the car in drive.

“Tell me your happiest memory,” Hannah said. She kept telling herself she really needed to know this stuff, not that she wanted to know it because she found Simon interesting. He was quiet for a minute, looking out the window at the car in front of them and tapping his hands to the rhythm of the Kings of Leon.

She waited patiently while he thought. Ginny poked her head up again to beg for attention. She tried to nab a Swedish Fish out of Hannah’s hand, but Hannah was too quick.

“It would have to be the day that my mom took me to King’s Cross and we got to see Platform 9 3/4.”

“You’re a Harry Potter fan, huh?”

“Oh yes. Harry Potter came out when I was little and my mom read them to me on Sundays right before bed. Those nights of reading are some of the best memories that I have with her. I grew up with Harry. He was my friend when I was lonely. I know that sounds kind of stupid, but there were nights my mom wouldn’t get home until late and I would just stay up and read. I must have read each book a dozen times or more.”

“That’s so cool! So they have an actual Platform 9 3/4?” Hannah asked.

Simon nodded, sipping a soda he had sitting in the center console.

“I would love to see that,” Hannah said wistfully. She loved Harry Potter. She had even gone so far as to attend the midnight premiere of all the movies. It was a tradition with her and her mom. Her sister would sometimes tag along, but Harry Potter wasn’t as big of a deal to her. She much preferred reading sweet romances and long epics.

“Maybe sometime you can go to England and see it. I’d be glad to show you about,” Simon replied.

She could see herself visiting England with him. He would be the best tour guide with his quirky humor and quick wit.

“I’ve never been outside of the country, so that would be a wonderful adventure.”

“There’s nothing like it. Visiting other countries is eye opening.” The car line was moving again. “Your turn.”

“My favorite memory is when me and my sister would play in the woods together not far from our house. Sometimes we would take the horses out, and a picnic lunch, and then just ride for the day. We would ride, eat lunch together and pretend we were survivors of a plane crash and had to figure out shelter, food and how to build a fire. It was fun.”

“You had me up until the plane crash idea. You didn’t really do that, did you?”

“Yes I did! It was fun. Don’t make fun of me.” She tried to give him a withering stare, but it ended in laughter.

“Oh no, I would never presume to make fun of you, Hannah. I just merely thought that you weren’t the type to make believe.”

“You would be surprised at my imagination,” Hannah replied with a grin.

“I’m sure you can imagine a lot of things.” The way he said this made Hannah’s cheeks go flush. Surely he wasn’t able to tell that sometimes her mind wandered when she was with him. The way that he looked at her might spark her imagination to play out a kiss or a tender moment.

The cars began to move once more and soon they were passing the accident that had held up the lot of them. “Now, what I really need to know from you is how you feel about affection?”

“Affection? What do you mean?” Hannah asked. Her cheeks burned with heat and she felt a warm feeling in her stomach.

“Well, if I was dating a woman very seriously and she wanted to bring me home to meet her parents, I would be affectionate with her. I would probably hold her hand and snog her a bit.”

“I have no idea what that means,” Hannah said, raising her eyebrows in confusion.

“Kiss. I would kiss you,” he clarified.

If her face heated up any more, it could light the car on fire. “Oh, well, um, I don’t know,” she stammered. What could she say to that? She wanted to feel his lips on hers again. Could she say that? Was that the right thing to do?

“If you want this to be believable, we will have to show affection to each other. It only makes sense. I just want to know how comfortable you are.”

“To be honest I’m not sure how comfortable I am with any sort of affection, but I do see your point. It would be much more believable.”

Hannah looked out the window at the passing buildings. They were starting to get shorter and smaller as they approached the outskirts of Houston. Again, her mind wandered away from her. Simon, with his perfectly shaped lips and his evening shadow, standing in front of her. He would move her hair aside like he had at the bar and then lean in to… Hannah shook her head to clear her mind of the annoying daydream. She didn’t have time for this.

“Your turn to come up with a question,” Hannah said.

Simon shifted a bit in his seat and took another sip of soda. “Alright, tell me about your first kiss.”

After an awkward moment, she spoke up. “Well, you were there, so I don’t really need to tell you about it.”

Simon looked at her with his eyes wide, then glanced back at the road. “What? Really?”

“Is that so surprising?”

“Well, yeah, I would have to say it is.”

Hannah felt irritation well up in her, along with something that felt a bit like shame. “Well, I just never got around to kissing anyone else. I never really tried to date anyone. I didn’t have the time.”

“No, don’t take me wrong. It’s only surprising because you are so attractive. I figured you would have men falling all over themselves to date you.”

Hannah tried to scrunch down in the seat a little bit more. Hoping to disappear from the car entirely, but also thrilled at the compliment, Hannah found herself at a loss for words.

Simon didn’t press her any further, and she didn’t have the guts to ask him another question. She had already made such a fool out of herself she figured she should probably stop while she was ahead. Plus the drive to her mom’s house wasn’t that long.

The rest of the trip passed in relative silence, broken only by a pit stop at the gas station and the alternative music blaring on the radio.