Page 68 of The Perfect Secret
“Do you have everything you need?” Marc asked.
“I’m good.” He was sweet. Hannah tried to keep an open mind. “Do you all do this often?”
Marc put his arm around the back of her chair. Hannah flinched, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“About every couple of weeks,” he said. “We’re a pretty social group.”
“That’s nice. Thanks for inviting me.”
A guy on the other side of Jill leaned forward. “Hey, Hannah, I’m Travis. How do you like the place so far?”
“Everyone is friendly. I’m getting my feet wet on the accounts. We’ll see what happens.”
“Well, I’m in your tech group. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask.”
Conversations about movies, music, and sports swirled around her. Hannah participated as she could, listening more often than not.
Focusing on the talk around her kept her from thoughts of Dan. Or it should have. Her mind drifted to him on occasion—when she saw Alan’s blue eyes, she was reminded of Dan’s, except Dan’s were darker; when Marc laughed at something, shecompared his mid-level tone to Dan’s deeper one; when Kari twirled her hair, she thought of Tess. Each time her mind drifted to Dan, she tried to steer it to this restaurant, these people. It was exhausting.
She turned to Marc. “Is this your go-to after-work place?”
He nodded. “I prefer it on weekends. They have live bands on Saturday nights and sports on the weekends.”
“Sounds fun.”
“We should go sometime.”
Hannah smiled. He meant well; maybe she could drag Aviva and Jacob with her. She took another sip of her beer. “How long have you worked at the office?”
“About five years. I worked at a larger firm for about three years before that, right out of college. How about you?”
“I was at my previous firm for just under five years.”
“What made you leave?”
Hannah played with the beer bottle. Office gossip wasn’t her thing. Still… “I wanted a change and the timing seemed right.”
From the knowing look in his eye and the way his lips twitched, she thought he knew she was putting him off. “I like to keep things exciting, too. It’s why I live in Manhattan. Lots to do, lots of people, always something happening.”
She swallowed. Life would be much easier if she could fall for him. She couldn’t get Dan out of her mind.
For the next half hour, she made an extra effort to participate in the conversation around her. She laughed at jokes, gave opinions when asked and accepted an offer to shop with some of the other women at the table. Marc ran through descriptions of colleagues. His perceptions were pretty good. Some of them made her laugh. She started to relax.
“Your officemate, Stan. He’s a trip. One of the smartest guys I’ve ever met. Has an innate knowledge of what will work withthe public and what won’t. But his sense of humor? Oh boy. Do not, I repeat, do not, drink around him when he speaks.”
“You mean I have to add him to the list?”
Marc looked at her blankly for a moment before he shook his head. “Yeah, between the two of us, your dry-cleaning bills will be pretty high.”
“Or yours will be.” She winked.
“Hey, I haven’t done anything yet. Can I ask you a personal question, or are you going to change the subject back to work again?”
Hannah let out a deep breath. “How about this. I’m reluctant to get too deep into personal questions at this time. But you can ask, and if I’m not comfortable, I won’t answer. Deal?”
“Deal. Every time someone new starts, there are questions about whether they’re single or not. So, are you? Single, I mean.”
Her chest tightened. She shouldn’t be. She didn’t want to be. But she was. “Yes. Newly so.”