Chapter 4
Three weeks later, what began as a seven-minute arrangement had evolved into something considerably more consistent, dinner meetings becoming a regular occurrence neither of them quite acknowledged as dating, though it certainly resembled exactly that.
“You’re doing it again,” Ethan said one evening, watching Hannah across another restaurant table.
“Doing what?”
“Overthinking whether this is appropriate. I can see it in your expression.”
“Can you blame me? You’re not exactly a conventional dinner companion.”
“No,” he agreed. “I’m not.”
Priya, now working at this restaurant too after a brief conversation with Ethan that Hannah suspected involved more than simple networking, brought their usual order without needing to ask.
“She likes you,” Hannah observed, once Priya left. “Whatever you said to help her get this job.”
“I simply mentioned her reliability to the owner. Nothing more.”
“That’s not nothing, coming from you.”
Ethan’s expression softened slightly. “I wanted to do something decent for someone connected to you.”
The gesture, small as it seemed, revealed something increasingly apparent about the man beneath Richmond’s careful, guarded reputation.
Before Hannah could respond, her phone buzzed with an urgent message from St. Vincent’s, requesting immediate coverage for an unexpected staffing shortage.
“I need to go,” she said, gathering her things quickly.
“I’ll drive you.”
“Ethan, that’s not necessary—”
“I insist.”
The drive to the hospital passed in comfortable silence, though something had shifted between them, an unspoken acknowledgment that this arrangement had evolved considerably beyond its original, desperate purpose.
“Thank you,” Hannah said, as he pulled up to the hospital entrance. “For tonight. For everything, actually.”
“Hannah,” he said, catching her hand gently before she could exit the car. “I know this started as something ridiculous and impulsive. But I’d like to continue seeing you properly, if you’re interested.”
Hannah studied his expression, searching for the calculation she expected, finding instead genuine, uncertain hope.
“I’d like that,” she said honestly. “Though you should know, this wasn’t exactly part of my life plan.”
“Neither was falling for a nurse’s aide who agreed to fake-date me for pie,” he replied. “Yet here we are.”
