Chapter 47

I turned to look at Laurence and he looked just as surprised as Hana. I reminded myself that he was gay. Then I remembered he had been in the closet until the last couple of years. Could he be an ex-boyfriend of hers? Her background check hadn’t revealed any such connections, but then it wasn’t that detailed.

“Hana?” Laurence asked.

“Well, this is a surprise,” Hana said, looking a little nervous. It put me on edge, something was going on between the two of them and I had no idea what it was.

“Why don’t we step into my office,” I said, trying to get a grip on the situation.

“Yes, I have made some coffee and cookies,” Hana said, switching her focus back to me.

“I will help you carry it,” I told her. My instinct was to walk up to her, kiss her and show Laurence that I had claim on her. But the strange tension had me walking up to her and placing my hand on her back to show her I wanted her to walk to the office. On the kitchen counter she had made a tray with the coffee and cookies, I took it as I followed her and I heard Laurence follow us. Without me asking, Hana took the visitor’s chair and moved next to my office chair. I put the tray on my desk and noticed there was no trace of her working there the entire day. I knew she had been as I had set her laptop it up the morning before I left for work. I spotted her laptop bag leaning against the bookshelf and made a mental note to tell her she didn’t need to pack it each day. As Hana handed out the mugs of coffee, asking Laurence if he needed milk or sugar, she seemed to have relaxed. It made me feel a little better. I waited for her to sit down before I took my own seat and looked between the two of them. They hadn’t mentioned the fact they knew each other or how.

“You had some questions for me?” Hana asked.

“Oh. Yes, that is right, Miss Bishop,” Laurence said.

“Just Hana, please,” she told him. He nodded and gave me a glance, as if I would object. I didn’t. I just sat back and watched, trying to figure out what was happening. As Laurence asked his questions, Hana wasn’t able to answer many of them. She had had very little insight into their economy, Simon had handled most of it. She could give him the official bookkeeping of Simon business as she had got that during the divorce. But none of us was foolish enough to think it was an accurate record after we had found out what the business did. Hana could also provide him with names of people that Simon would trust enough to ask for help with hiding money. I didn’t say much, I ate cookies and watched the two of them work though the questions.

“I think that was everything. Thank you for taking time to help me,” Laurence finally said. We stood up.

“No problem. Let me know if you have any other questions,” Hana told him. He nodded and we walked towards the front door. Laurence hesitated.

“How is Wictor?” he asked. Hana paused and gave him a smile.

“He’s good,” was all she said.

“Tell him I said hi,” Laurence said before saying goodbye and leaving. Hana stood and looked at the door for a while.

“Are you going to tell me what that was?” I asked as she turned towards me. She looked hesitant.

“I knew Anthony for a short while in college,” she said. I narrowed my eyes. Then I remembered Laurence asking about Wictor.

“Is Wictor gay?” I asked. Hana looked surprised and I felt like a clumsy fool. I knew better than to stumble around like an idiot like this.

“He’s pansexual,” she explained. “Do you know that…?” Her question died halfway to completion.

“That Laurence, or Anthony, is gay? Yes, he has been open with it,” I told her.

“Oh, good. I was afraid to out him. He was pretty deep in the closet when I knew him. I didn’t want to say something that would give him away if he still wasn’t comfortable sharing that part with others. Good for him, I’m happy he is open with who he is,” she told me. It made the awkward meeting make sense to me.

“So he and Wictor dated?” I asked as I walked up to her.

“Well, no. They had a thing. Wictor never called it dating as Anthony wasn’t comfortable being open about it.” The moment she stopped speaking, I did what I had wanted to do since I saw her. I drew her into a kiss. She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me back.

“Now I feel better. Thank you for the cookies, they were fantastic,” I told her and kissed her nose. She smiled.

“You should know, you ate them like you were starving. Did you eat lunch?” she asked.

“I did. But I can’t resist you cookies,” I told her. It was a half truth. I was addicted to her baking, but the cookies had acted like a distraction as well. “You look worried, why?” I asked as I noticed the small wrinkle between her eyes.

“I’m just wondering how I will tell Wictor I met Anthony. He insists it wasn’t something serious, just a bit of fun. But I have a feeling that he was more into Anthony that he let on. And when Anthony found a girlfriend and stopped seeing Wictor he was heartbroken,” she told him.

“You feel like you need to protect your friend,” I said.

“Yes. But at the same time. If Anthony now is open with who he is, maybe it can be the start of something? Right?” she asked.

“Maybe,” I carefully said. I didn’t want to get her hopes up.

“Do you know if he is seeing someone?” she asked.

“I have no idea, sweetness. I just work with him from time to time. We don’t keep track of our employees’ love life,” I said with a chuckle.

“I guess that is fair,” she agreed. “Well, I will just have to tell Wictor about it and then we’ll see where to go from there,” she decided.

“Sounds good. How about we treat ourselves to some take out as I made us both work late,” I offered.

“Oh no, mister. Don’t try that again. I have everything prepared for a meatloaf. We just need to put it into the oven and boil the potatoes,” she told me.

“You don’t have to cook for me, Hana. We can do it together,” I said.

“I like cooking, especially when I’m not going to eat alone. But I like the idea of cooking with you. We did good when we baked,” she told me and giggled. I laughed and kissed her. We walked into the kitchen and I did the bare minimum by placing the ready meatloaf into the oven for her.

“I have a question,” I said as we set the breakfast counter to eat.

“Shoot.”

“When I got home I wanted to kiss you when I first saw you. But I didn’t. Partly because of the tension between you and Laurence, but also because I didn’t know if you would be comfortable with it. Would you be comfortable with me telling other people about us?” I asked.

“First, why do you call him Laurence?” she asked.

“Habit from my time in the navy, I guess. At work we mostly use the last name or a nickname,” I explained.

“But you call John by his first name,” she pointed out.

“Oh, his name isn’t John. It’s Albert,” I told her and she looked at me like I was crazy. “John is the name he uses when he goes undercover and it stuck, so now everyone calls him that,” I explained.

“Confusing, but okay. Back to your question. I don’t know. We haven’t had the discussion about what we are. Things have just… happened,” she said. She was right. I had been so focused on making sure Hana felt the same way as I did, I didn’t even think about this part. I walked up to her and pulled her into my arms.

“How do you see us?” I asked. Then I regretted the question. Maybe she would be too timid to answer? Had I placed her in a situation she felt cornered? “Uh, you don’t have to…” I started to backtrack.

“It’s okay, Hunter. For once I do know what I want and I feel safe enough to tell you,” she said. I relaxed and waited. “I really like you Hunter. You have only made me feel safe and special. And there is chemistry between us as well. I would be happy with telling people we are officially dating,” she told me. I had to smile at her.

“Boyfriend and girlfriend?” I asked, feeling like I was too old for that kind of thing, but I didn’t have a better word for it.

“Yes,” she agreed happily. “Exclusive,” she added. It wasn’t quite a question, but not a statement either.

“Definitely,” I told her with conviction. “I have no interest in anyone but you, sweetness,” I assured her. “And you are okay with people knowing even if they know about our relationships with Simon?” I asked, I needed to be sure.

“Yes. If we are doing this, we can’t hide from that. People will find out and we will have to get used to it. How do you feel about it?” she asked.

“I don’t care. My feelings for you don’t have anything to do with him. No relationship is without complications,” I told her. Hana nodded, it looked like we were in agreement and I sealed the conversation with a kiss. “Tomorrow when I come home I will greet you with a kiss,” I promised her.