Cold Hands Ch. 02

"Haley, sweetheart?" I opened a dialog with her. "Whatever is wrong, I will work very hard to make it right. Please tell me what I have done wrong. I love you and would never hurt you."

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Haley let out a wail of despair and made a break for her bedroom. She made to slam her door shut as she escaped my evil clutches, but Hannah had been intuitive enough to move quickly before Haley broke away from me and therefore was immediately on her heels. Hannah made it inside of Haley's bedroom and turned to look briefly at me before gently closing the door. I staggered over to the couch with my heart in my throat. I sat down and tried to figure out what in the hell that I had done wrong. Dinner had gone just fine with the three of us happily laughing and joking and conversing as if we had been like this for all of our lives.

The only elephant in the room was that I had deflowered her sister earlier that evening and she knew fully what Hannah and I had done before "coming home" to her. My mind kept circling back to that over and over again. It was the only explanation that I could come up with that made any sense at all. Over the next ten or fifteen minutes, I could occasionally hear Haley crying as Hannah tried to comfort her. I cursed myself over and over again. Hannah and I had not even had a proper first date yet! And I had already popped her cherry and flooded her body with my semen. Haley had every right to hate me and be upset with me, the emotional connection that I shared with her sister notwithstanding.

Hannah reappeared from Haley's bedroom and came to sit with me on the couch. She was calm and collected which in no way matched my own apprehensions.

"I have fucked everything up, haven't I?

"No babe," Hannah assured me. "She's hiding something from me. She is ashamed of something and I can sense it. We made a pact when I was 13 to never lie to each other or keep back secrets ever again because we both did something terrible to each other way back then. I'm not going to go into the details about what happened, but we nearly went to war with each other until Mom stepped in and sat us down. We forgave each other and never screwed up like that again.

"This feels vaguely familiar to what happened almost 5 years ago. She and I will work it out and everything is going to be fine. So don't fret about it. It wasn't anything that you did and in spite of what Haley has convinced herself, I'm not going to get angry over whatever it is. This is not on your shoulders at all, so please relax okay?"

My throat was too choked up to talk and my eyes were watering. Hannah got up and re-positioned herself by sitting in my lap and pulling me into a tight embrace.

"I'm so sorry!" I croaked into her neck.

"Shush, shush, shush. I already told you that you didn't do anything wrong."

"I raped you earlier tonight! That has to be what all of this is about! Haley doesn't trust me anymore because I took your innocence tonight."

"No!" Hannah's forceful voice accompanied her firm grip on my face as she pushed me back enough to stare me directly in my eyes. "Don't you FUCKING dare have any regrets over making love to me tonight! If you do that, you will ruin the most wonderful memory that I will ever take with me for as long as I live! DO NOT GO THERE, DAMN IT!"

"Yes, dear." I managed to look her directly in the eyes as I acquiesced to her command.

"Good. Now, against what I had planned for tonight, I'm going to go spend the night with my sister. I REALLY wanted to sleep with you again and maybe make love one more time. But there will be other occasions that call upon us to do things on the spur of the moment that may not be what we originally wanted to do. So just in case matters resolve themselves before morning, you're going to go sleep in my bed. That way I can still join you later on tonight if Haley and I get our shit together.. Okay?"

Hannah gave me a lovers kiss after I nodded my ascent, then she returned to Haley's side once again closing the door. I had become somewhat familiar with their home so I easily found some plastic containers to put all of our leftovers from supper away. I hand washed my own pots and set them near the front door so that I would not forget them come morning. I double checked the locks on the door and then turned off all of the lights in the apartment before retiring to Hannah's room. I stripped down to my skivvies, adding my laundry to Hannah's hamper then climbed into her bed and slid between the sheets.

I was still somewhat troubled, but I had full confidence in my Hannah and unshakable faith that she could resolve this problem what ever it may be. She had no doubts that she would get to the root of the problem and fix it, so I gave her full jurisdiction to handle this. It was still a few minutes before I convinced myself to totally relax and get some rest. Tomorrow was nearly here already and with it would come a busy day at my job. I closed my eyes and slowly drifted off into a restless slumber.

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...to be continued!

Appendix

[a] A number of actual real places were included in this chapter of my story. You can perform a Google search for these should the mood strike you. A partial listing would include: National Institute Of Standards And Technology, Legacy High School, and Promised Land Dairy. I encourage you to delve deeper into these as it will enrich your understanding of this fictional narrative.

[b] I am fairly certain that anyone who knows anything about cooking knows that you can use Campbell's Cream of Mushroom^® soup as a base for any number of sauces and gravies. Campbell's published a cookbook once long ago that featured one of their soup varieties in each and every recipe. It was an invaluable resource for some of my own recipes when I was in my twenties and looking to expand my personal menu. The Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook and River Road Recipes are still the top two cookbooks in my humble opinion. But all three should grace everyone's Kitchen Bookshelf.