HANNAH
I paced in my room, the phone pressed to my ear, trying to concentrate on my manager’s voice, but my mind kept wandering.
"Yes, I know," I muttered into the phone, spinning slowly, finding comfort in the familiar rhythm of my body moving. "I’ll focus on my healing, I promise. My role’s in two months, I can do this. I just need time."
I had to. I had to stop being distracted by everything, especially by him.
"Good. Remember, no distractions. NO BOYS. You need to be ready," my manager replied, her voice firm but caring.
I sighed and glanced out the window, absently letting my fingers trail through the air as I continued talking, but the moment my eyes fell on what I saw outside, my breath hitched. There he was. Jeremy. Standing there, looking directly at me, his intense eyes watching, waiting.
For a split second, I froze. My heart raced, but I quickly recovered, forcing myself to maintain composure.
"Uh, hold on a second," I muttered to my manager, abruptly ending the call. The space between us—the invisible walls that separated us—suddenly felt suffocating.
I moved toward the window, trying to pretend I wasn’t shaken. But when I opened it and saw him standing there, that familiar smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth, I couldn’t help but feel a flood of emotions rush over me. There was something different about him now. I wasn’t sure what, but he was not the same Jeremy I had known before.
"Didn’t expect to see you here," I said, trying to sound casual, but my voice betrayed me, cracking slightly.
“I thought I’d drop by,” he replied in that low, easy tone of his. But there was something heavier beneath his words, something unspoken.
Without waiting for permission, he climbed through the window with an ease that made me feel small in comparison. He didn’t ask for permission, didn’t wait for a signal. He just... came in. And now, his presence in my room felt more intense than ever.
I moved away from the window, my mind racing, trying to ignore the fact that he was just standing there—watching. I tried to go about my business, but everything in my room felt amplified with him in it. Every move I made seemed under a microscope.
He didn’t say anything, just made himself comfortable on my bed, eyes following me as I moved around the room. I tried to ignore him, tried to block out the way his gaze felt like it was pulling at me, but it was impossible.
The phone call with my manager ended without me even realizing it. There was nothing left to distract me. And so, I moved toward the bed, hesitating before sitting beside him. I kept a careful distance, making sure not to touch him, but the air between us seemed thick with everything that had been unsaid.
We were quiet for a while. The silence between us was comfortable in a strange way, like we both were feeling things we didn’t know how to say aloud. Finally, I broke the stillness.
“I haven’t been home in so long,” I said, my voice quiet. I was almost surprised I was saying it out loud. “I’ve been so caught up with the city... with everything. Russel and I—well...” I paused, feeling the sting in my chest. “I don’t love him anymore. I don’t think I ever did. I was just lonely. That’s why I stayed.”
The words felt like they weighed a ton, but they were out now. And I felt strangely lighter, like admitting the truth had finally set something free.
Jeremy didn’t move, didn’t say anything right away. He just listened. And somehow, that made it easier to speak. Easier to admit things that I had kept buried for so long.
“Why didn’t you talk to me?” he asked, his voice softer than I expected. There was no judgment, no pressure. Just a simple question.
I turned to look at him, and for the first time in years, I saw the Jeremy I remembered—the one who used to care, the one who always seemed to know me better than anyone else. The one who had been there.
“I didn’t want to be a bother,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.
His eyes softened then, but there was a sadness in them too. He didn’t speak immediately. Instead, he just looked at me, like he was searching for something.
“You’re too special to ever be a bother,” he said quietly, his words hanging in the air between us.
I swallowed hard, my heart skipping in my chest. I hadn’t expected that. I hadn’t expected any of this. And for a moment, all I could do was look at him, the weight of his words sinking in, making everything else fade away.
We stayed like that for a long time, just looking at each other, until something shifted. Something changed in the air between us.
Without warning, Jeremy leaned in. His lips found mine, and everything else—everything that had been weighing on me—faded into the background. The kiss was slow at first, tentative, like we were both testing the waters, seeing if this was real.
And then, suddenly, it wasn’t just a kiss. It was more. His hands found my body, pulling me closer as I responded in kind, my fingers threading through his hair. He kissed me deeper, more urgently now, as if he’d been waiting for this moment just as much as I had.
My heart pounded in my chest, my body reacting to him in ways I couldn’t explain. His hands slid down my waist, pulling me closer, making my breath hitch. I felt his body press against mine, and I realized, in that instant, that Jeremy was no longer the boy I used to know.
He wasn’t a kid anymore.
And neither was I.
I clung to him, my hands sliding down his chest, feeling the heat of his skin, the strength of his body beneath my fingertips. His lips never left mine, and everything—every moment of loneliness, every doubt—seemed to disappear as we lost ourselves in each other.
This was what I had been missing. This was what I had been craving all along.
And as Jeremy deepened the kiss, as he held me close, I couldn’t help but wonder how we had gotten here. And, more importantly, how much longer I could keep pretending that this was just a moment. Because right then, with him holding me in his arms, it didn’t feel like a moment at all.
As I leaned into Jeremy, my heart raced, caught off guard by the intensity of his kiss. I had always known him as the guy who cared more about his machines, his physics, and fixing broken things than anything else. But now, he was anything but detached. The way his tongue trailed along my lower lip sent shivers through me, igniting a fire I didn’t expect to feel from him.His hands gripped my thigh possessively, pulling me closer as if he wanted to consume me whole. I could hardly process the shift in him; he was no longer just the boy I remembered but a man who radiated raw desire. The heat between us was palpable, and I found myself surrendering to it completely.
“God, you smell incredible,” he murmured against my skin, his breath hot and tantalizing. The way he groaned made my pulse quicken, a sound so primal that it sent waves of excitement coursing through me. It was almost as if he was begging me to make him stop—yet every fiber of my being wanted to push him further.
It felt like something real. Something that neither of us could ignore anymore.
"No boys," I whispered as I gently pushed him away. He sweetly smiled at me.
"Yeah, no boys," he agreed.
****