An unlikely romance sprouts from a chance encounter between Cliff and Hannah after she spurns his good deed. ----------
Cliff tries doing a good deed for financially distressed Hannah by paying for her expensive car repairs. He expects nothing in...
Mr. Cento had been right when he told Hannah she could trust her staff. The event was running perfectly. She had very little to do except drift from area to area to let all her employees know she was still there. Good thing too. It gave her plenty of time to monitor Cliff's behavior with his hot, young date.
She had been able to watch them from the kitchen without being seen except for when they were out of view during the time the two of them ate dinner on the patio.
As the night wore on, she realized Cliff's sister had lied to her. Cliff and the girl were more than friends, the way they held hands, the way they embraced and rubbed their bodies together during the slow dance, and the way they smiled for each other.
And now, apparently, he was in the process of leaving, probably taking her to his place for a happy ending to their romantic evening.
She had lost him.
Why had she been so stubborn? Why hadn't she given their relationship more of a chance?
Hannah groaned. She didn't want to stay any longer to watch so many other couples having a happy time. Mr. Cento was making rounds with the guests, going from table to table. Since he was occupied, she decided to sneak away to the bar. Although she wasn't much of a drinker, tonight she really needed one. Or maybe two or three.
The bar was nearly empty with everyone out in the main hall. Hannah plopped down on a barstool. Her attentive bartender hurried over. "What can I get you, boss?"
"Make it a cosmo."
"Coming right up."
She realized now what the old saying meant when someone wallowed in their drink. It didn't take her long until she held up her cocktail glass for another one.
"There you are," Cliff's sister said. She sidled up on the barstool beside her.
Hannah shot her a sidelong glance. "Have you come to gloat? I'm not in the mood."
"I would never do that," Izzy said in a sincerity laced tone.
"Did he send you to see me?"
"Cliffy doesn't know I'm here."
"What do you want?"
The bartender set a second Cosmo in front of her.
"I'm here to tell you a story," Izzy said, "but before I do, I'm gonna need one of those." She pointed to Hannah's drink.
Hannah nodded to the bartender indicating she would take care of the tab.
"The story is about a young girl." She paused. "Actually, the story is about me, but I'm gonna tell it to you in third person, because it makes telling it easier."
It didn't escape Hannah's notice that Izzy was buzzed, and she really didn't give a damn about her story. Before she could object, Izzy started talking.
"The girl is eleven years old. Her brother is nineteen and in his second year of college. The age gap meant they traveled in different circles and had little in common. The girl looked up to her brother and thought he was cool. The brother occasionally played with the girl but was mostly indifferent toward her."
The bartender set the cosmo in front of Izzy. She took a sip before continuing.
"It was summer recess, and the brother was home from college. The girl was a hot mess of emotions. She just had her first period and was trying to navigate puberty."
Izzy looked at Hannah. "Do you recall what it was like living through that? Do you remember the pressure of starting middle school for the first time, bottom of the totem pole compared to the older kids? How about the confusion that comes with leaving childhood behind and not really knowing what to do or how to act as a young adult?"
She kept talking. "Then there's your body morphing into different shapes, sometimes making you feel like a stranger in your own skin. What about the sudden interest in boys and the helplessness in not knowing how to get them to like you back? Remember how they used to treat you as an equal in grade school, but then they started looking at you as something...less?"
Izzy took a breath and a drink before continuing. "The point I'm trying to make is that's the time in a girl's life when she's very vulnerable to bullying and emotional damage. Without love and without support, a girl that age is easily broken."
She took a stuttering breath. "When I was eleven my mother broke me."
Some of what Izzy said resonated with Hannah. It was the loss of her job and fiancé that had finally broken her, but she had been an adult at the time with more fully developed coping skills. Hannah survived her pre-teen years because she had the love and support of her parents. Apparently, Izzy didn't.
She swiveled her barstool to face Cliff's sister. "What happened? What did your mother do to you?"
Izzy unleashed a mirthless giggle. "Oops, I think I just switched from third person back to first person. Oh, well, it's probably for the best. Maybe it'll allow me to exorcise the pain I still carry." She held up her now empty cocktail glass. "Can I have another one of these? I swear it will be my last drink of the night."
Hannah shrugged and motioned for the bartender. "You don't need my permission. I'm not your mother."
"Thank God for that. Actually, this is where my mother enters into the story. It was the club's summer social of eleven years ago. Mom was out getting her hair done, and she had bought an expensive designer dress to wear for the event, a cute red number. She had it laying out across her bed. Earlier in the day, I had asked if I could try it on, curious to see how it would look on me, you know since I was starting to develop."
Hannah flashed back to her own pre-teen years and how she enjoyed dressing up in her mom's clothes.
"Anyway," Izzy went on. "Mom said no. Since she was gone, and I was at the age of pushing boundaries, I decided to wear it. I mean, the dress was laying right there across the bed, so it was too great a temptation."
The bartender returned with Izzy's drink, and she took a sip. "I thought I looked cool and all grown up and went to show Cliffy. He was outside patching up a leak in our empty swimming pool. He had drained it to fix the leak. I got his attention and twirled around, showing off, and tripped. I fell into the gunk he was using to patch the leak and got it all over the dress."
Izzy closed her eyes and took a moment as if she needed to recall the details.
"The dress was ruined, and of course, at that moment Mom returned and found me. All three of them, Mom, Dad, and Cliffy stood there gawking at me and the soiled dress. Dad wore an expression of pity, Cliff looked frightened, and Mom's face was twisted in a rage like I had never seen before. She looked ready to murder me. She stepped toward me with her hands held in front, and her fingers twisted into claws."
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