Sharing Hannah

“Then why are you here in his office?”

I stopped, instantly at loss. For five long seconds I couldn’t say a single thing.

“We work on the other side of the building, Brooke,” said Chloe. “Remember? Yet here you are, still hunting him down. Still having the same lover’s quarrel that you—”

“We are not lovers!” I shouted, adding an almost maniacal laugh. “Trust me. Your brother—”

“Her brother came in early to get some work done,” Chris cut in, addressing himself in the third person. “And found you sitting at his desk, screwing around with his computer.”

Chloe stared at Chris for a long moment. She blinked three times, then looked at me.

“Is that true?”

“You’re goddamn right it’s true,” Chris answered for me. “In fact—”

“Shut up little brother,” Chloe snapped. Her jaw went tight as she turned to face me. “I want to hear it from her.”

I was seething by now. Ready to explode at any moment, all over them, all over anyone and everyone. I didn’t care what Chloe thought anymore. At this point, I barely cared about anything.

“Your brother needs help,” I said coolly.

Chloe crossed her arms. “You’re not answering the question.”

I laughed, mockingly. “Hell, you’ve probably been making excuses for his antics your whole life, so you don’t even see it. It’s second nature for you. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that—”

“STOP!”

My boss hissed the word more than said it. She herself had reached a breaking point. The grim look on her face was that of an ice queen.

“Not another word from either of you,” Chloe said calmly, into the silence. “Not until I leave this office. And when I do? You’d better apologize to each other. You’d better make up, or agree to disagree, or make a pact to ignore each other for the rest of your lives for all I care. But you’d better agree on something when I walk out of here, or you both might be looking for jobs tomorrow.”

Chloe glared at us each one more time, then she spun on her heel and disappeared without saying a word. It left Chris and I looking back at each other, in uncomfortable silence.

I started for the door.

“Brooke wait,” he called after me. “Don’t you have anything to say to me?”

I stopped, turned around in the doorway, and regarded him coldly.

“Yes,” I told him. “You should probably learn how to delete your browser history.”

As all the color drained from Chris’s face I shook my head in disgust.

“Very fucking creepy.”

Forty-One

BROOKE

The tiny spare rib popped and sizzled, dripping grease into the fire. The flames leapt up, engulfing it more. Caramelizing the outside skin, to a delicious dark-red color.

“Move over,” Adam prodded, poking his dumpling my way. “You’re hogging again!”

The place still had a few diners, even this late. It always did. King Wok made some of the best Chinese food in town, and their pu-pu platter was second to none.

“You don’t even need to cook the dumplings,” said Trey. “They’re already cooked.”

“Everything is pre-cooked,” said Adam.