TBWCYL_Final-36

Chapter Thirty-Two

Hannah

It’s Saturday afternoon, and brilliantly sunny outside. Sunlight pours through the front windows of Prometheus, warming it up like a greenhouse inside. Adele is in the back re-doing the psychology shelves, and Alex is here, fresh from her Oasis hot chocolate run. Now she’s up front, happily ensconced in some Dan Brown book that made Ben roll his eyes.

She’s got a really nice new guy, unlike all the losers she’s dated before. I don’t know how someone as beautiful and smart as Alex can be such a disaster where men are concerned, but she swears she’s got a radar for the walking time bombs. The new guy is coming to pick her up after work. She wants me to meet him, in case she’s missing the douchebag signs again.

But for now, I’m glaring at the computer terminal with Jasmine hovering over my shoulder.

“I don’t understand why you have to enter it there if you already recorded the sale,” she gripes.

“Because it doesn’t show up in inventory if you don’t,” I explain.

“You know you could just link those databases, right?”

I glance at her. “You can?”

Jasmine rolls her eyes. “Retail 101. Here, let me see.” She navigates back to Settings, and within minutes, she’s reconfigured the system. “There. Now when you enter a sale, it automatically adjusts the inventory program. We’re going to need to streamline this system once the website is up and running.”

So after some convincing, I took Ben’s old job at Prometheus. At first I wasn’t sure— I mean, who am I to work in a bookstore? Before Ben handed me that first book last fall, I didn’t even read for fun. I could never do for someone what Ben did for me. But he said most people who wander into bookstores have come there because they already love to read. I don’t need to save anyone’s life through literature— I just need to learn the stock and ring up sales. And it means I get to spend my free time here at Prometheus, which is hardly like working at all.

The first time Jasmine visited me at work, she was horrified by Ralph’s antiquated business practices. Now she’s determined to drag Prometheus into the twentieth century. She signed up for a special seminar in advanced business models in the fall, and for her final project, she’s building a website for the store.

But that’s three months away. Spring semester is over, and she’s headed home. She only stopped over to say good-bye before she and Sean head back to Akron. I’m going to miss the hell out of her this summer, but it’s only for a few months, since we’ve decided to get an apartment together off campus next year.

The bell over the door tinkles, and Ben and John come into the store. We’re all headed to the movies, but John’s got plans later, so Ben and I will be on our own for our last night before I go home. I’m only home for a week, though, before I come back for the summer session. I’m taking a few classes, still exploring my options. Plus, now I have my job at Prometheus.

Ben is staying in Arlington for the summer, too, working his ass off at World of Books. He’s been there two months, and they’ve already made him an assistant manager. He doesn’t love wearing the dumb red polo shirt every day, but sometimes I stop in to surprise him. I almost always find him dragging some stunned customer through the store, that light gleaming in his eyes as he talks about every great book they pass. He’s found a way to make it work for him, even there.

Ben crosses to the register and leans across the counter to kiss me. “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself.” I grab him by the back of the neck and pull him in for another kiss.

“Okay, break it up, kids,” John says over Ben’s shoulder.

I giggle. “All right, we’ll save it for later.”

“After I’m gone, please,” John says. “Hey, Commander Jasmine.”

Jasmine scowls at him. They don’t exactly get along. “Hey, Slacker John,” she quips.

“Corporate domination looks good on you, Commander J.”

She runs a scathing glance over his messy hair, wrinkled plaid shirt, and faded jeans. “Slacker PhD Candidate suits you, too.”

John chuckles and shakes his head.

“Okay,” Jasmine says. “Sean’s waiting. I gotta go.”

I sigh. “So this is it?”

“Until September.”

She pulls me into a ferocious hug. Jasmine’s hugs are nearly a punishment. “Girl, I’m going to miss the hell out of you.”

“Me, too. Call me, okay? I want to know how your internship is going.” Jasmine’s spending the summer with her grandmother in Chicago because she landed herself an internship with the manager of the Four Seasons Hotel. They didn’t even have an internship program, but she tracked down the manager’s email and talked him into creating one just for her. I wouldn’t expect any less from her.

Ben hugs Jasmine good-bye. She finally decided, despite our rocky start, that she likes him. John makes like he’s going in for a hug, too, and busts up laughing at her horrified expression. “Catch you in the fall, Commander J,” he calls as she leaves.

I watch her leave Prometheus with a lump in my throat. When I get back to our room tomorrow morning, she’ll be gone and the year really will be over. It’s so bittersweet that it makes my heart hurt for a moment. Then Ben slides his arm around my shoulders and smiles at me, his eyes shining behind his glasses, and all I feel is the sweet. The bitter was worth it.

Much later that night, after the movie and dinner, John leaves for Smitty’s, and Ben and I climb into his bed. Wrapped in sheets, skin on skin, as close as we can get, Ben presses kisses against my shoulder, arm, collarbone, the hollow at the base of my neck.

“It’s just a little over two hours to Cleveland,” he murmurs. “Maybe I could come up on Sunday. World of Books closes early on Sunday.”

“But you have to open the store on Monday.”

“Not till eleven. I’d see you. I could kiss you.”

“My dad likes you, but he won’t let you sleep in my room. This”—I kiss him to punctuate my point—”won’t happen.”

“I don’t care. I’ll drive up just so I can kiss you good night on your front porch, and then I’ll drive back.”

I giggle, partly at his dramatic declarations and partly because his kisses tickle my neck. “Don’t be silly. It’s only a week, and then I’ll be back in the summer resident dorms.”

Ben chuckles. “If you think you’re spending a single night in those summer resident dorms, you’re crazy.”

“What do you mean?”

“John’s going to be in Arizona for six weeks doing that observatory thing.”

The implication sinks in slowly. “We’ll have your apartment to ourselves?”

“Every night.”

I flush. Every night? “Oh…um…”

“You can keep a toothbrush at the summer dorm if it makes you feel better,” he says. “But I want you here with me.” His grin is wide and infectious. I might explode from happiness this summer, Ben and me together like this every night. I run my thumb over his bottom lip.

“I changed my mind,” I whisper. “Drive up on Sunday, just so you can kiss me good night.”

“I will, I promise.”

“Except you have to go see your parents, too.”

Ben sighs and buries his face into a pillow. I feel bad reminding him, but it’s important for him to keep trying to repair things with them. He’s talked to them once or twice on the phone, stilted, awkward conversations that didn’t last longer than ten minutes. Still, it’s Ben’s family. One day they won’t be so disappointed in his choice, and when that day comes, I want them to still be speaking, so Ben can see it for himself.

“I’d rather come see you.”

“I’d rather you come see me, too. But you need to see them. And once I’m back in Arlington, I won’t want to let you go.”

He kisses my shoulder, the side of my neck, my cheek, and the corner of my mouth. “I love you.”

“I know.”

“I can’t imagine ever loving someone else the way I love you.”

My eyes water. “I know.” And I feel the same way— This just feels so right. There will never be a more right person, a more right love than this one.

“We can’t promise forever just yet.” He brushes a strand of hair out of my eyes.

“Not yet.”

He chuckles. “I mean, I can’t promise I can afford groceries next week, so big life commitments should probably wait. But I promise one day I will promise you forever. I’ll change your life, Hannah.”

I hold his face in my hands, full of all the love bubbling up in me. “You already have.”

The End

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