Chapter 85

I had sent the list of apartments that I had received from my contacts to Hana. We snuggled up close on the couch and looked at her iPad.

“Hunter, I can’t afford this place,” she told me as we were looking at the first apartment.

“It’s within the budget you gave me,” I told her.

“It can’t be. It’s not far from here, has two bedrooms and a livingroom, and it has a door man in the building.”

“And a working elevator,” I added.

“So how am I able to afford it, even on the budget I gave you?” she asked.

“The owner of the building is an old client,” I said.

“Hunter. I can’t let you pull strings so I can take advantage of some poor landlord,” she told me. I had to chuckle.

“The man is worth millions. If he agrees to lower the rent on one of his apartments by a hundred dollars a month, it won’t bankrupt him,” I pointed out.

“Still.”

“Just look through the list and don’t think about the rent. The rent that is listed is the rent you need to pay. I will even be kind enough and not pay it for you,” I said. She huffed, but continued to go through the list. I had already gone through it, so had a group of investigators to make sure nothing shady was going on. I had removed two apartments from the list as the investigators had found things that went on nearby that I didn’t want Hana near. I pulled her a little closer. She had had a rough day. When I had called earlier I had been worried at how tired she sounded. Seymour had texted me to let me know they were done and that my girl had been brilliant. I was happy that I found her with more energy than I had feared as I came home. Now, after feeding her, she looked almost back to normal. How the fuck was I going to let her go to a place where I couldn’t take care of her? I hated everything about it. But I would do it.

“Which ones did you like?” I asked as I saw she was finished with the list.

“Um. I kind of liked them all, they are all great,” she said, as if I would take offence if she like one more than the other.

“But there were some you liked more,” I told her. It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah. The first one and the one with the glazed balcony,” she admitted. I smiled. They were my top two as well.

“I can make the calls tomorrow and we can go and look at them when you get off work,” I offered.

“Okay, sounds good,” she said. I could feel the same reluctance from her as I felt.

“I don’t like this any more than you do,” I told her.

“I know. Thank you for doing it anyway.”

“Sure thing. Do you want to watch some TV, or do you want to do something else?” I asked.

“Would it be okay if I do some baking? I have some new ideas I want to fiddle around with,” she asked.

“I will never say no to you baking. I’ll go and work out for a while,” I said.

“Be careful, don’t over do it,” she reminded me as we got up from the couch.

“I won’t. I’ll see you in a while.” I was grateful to have some time to work out. It usually cleared my head, and I needed to sort through some things. I tried to work through everything as I used the treadmill, I switched to lifting weights after a while and still I found no solution I liked. Everything I went through in my head. My head told me I needed to let Hana move to her own apartment. I had never seen myself as overprotective or clingy. But with Hana I was both. On the plus side, both the apartments she liked were owned by the same man. Hector and I went back years and now his company hired us to design the security for every new building they build. That meant I knew the security in both of the apartment complexes were up to my standard, and I knew I could talk Hector into allowing me to put some extra security measures into Hana’s place. As the air filled with the scent of freshly baked cookies, I decided to abandon the workout. When I looked at the clock, I was surprised that I had been at it for an hour. I took a quick shower and joined Hana in the kitchen.

“Something smells amazing,” I said.

“I have made hazelnut cookies with vanilla and a coffee drizzle,” she told me and handed me a cookie. It was still lukewarm and I didn’t hesitate before biting into it. The flavours exploded in my mouth. The nuttiness, the round sweetness of vanilla and then a bitter note from the coffee.

“Amazing,” I groaned before stuffing the rest of it into my mouth.

“It’s not too grownup?” she asked.

“Well,” I said as I tried to analyse it. “I wouldn’t serve it at a kids’ party, but as a grownup, I love it.” She smiled at me.

“I guess I can always make regular chocolate chip cookies for children,” she said.

“Sure, and the ones with sprinkles on.”

“Right. And then the grown-ups can have their own cookies,” she told me.

“It’s a good idea,” I agreed. Hana was packing up her equipment and cleaning the kitchen. I took the dishcloth and started wiping off the counters.

“You don’t need to do that,” she said.

“I know.” I continued to help her clean and when we were done I got a kiss and plate with cookies as a thank you.

“I have an early morning meeting tomorrow. We have a team meeting and as we always need someone to man the phones, we usually have them before we officially start,” she told me when we were back on the couch, watching a cooking show.

“Okay, I can make my own breakfast,” I said.

The next morning I was awoken by Hana’s alarm going off. I was about to get up with her when she kissed my cheek and gently pushed me back down.

“Get an hour more sleep. I will see you this afternoon,” she told me. I should have got up with her to be a gentleman. But she would soon head into her meeting, and the bed was warm and smelled like Hana.

“Remember the apartments, we will look at them,” I incoherently grunted and fell back asleep before I heard her reply. When my own alarm woke me up a little over an hour later, I felt more awake. I got ready and headed down to the kitchen. I knew myself well enough that I knew I wouldn’t make breakfast for myself. But I also knew Hana made sure we had fruit at home. I could take one or two of those with me. When I got to the kitchen, there was a brown paper back sitting on the counter. It had a yellow post it on it that said;

‘Don’t forget I love you.’

I smiled as I opened the bag and saw a breakfast burrito, a stack of cookies, and an apple. She was amazing. I debated if I could go into my office to give her a kiss, but it didn’t seem appropriate. I didn’t want to disturb her when she was working. But I wanted to do something. I looked at the post-it and smiled again. I took it off the bag, opened the refrigerator and found the container with leftovers I knew Hana would have for lunch. I put the note on the top of it and place it back in the refrigerator. Happy with myself, I went to work. As I was walking to the elevator, Jason joined me.

“What have you got there?” he asked, looking at my paper bag.

“My breakfast,” I said, switching the hand I was holding it in to get it further away from him.

“Any cupcakes in there?” he asked.

“No. Who eats cupcakes for breakfast? It’s a burrito. Are you sniffing the air?”

“I can swear I smell something sweet,” Jason told me.

“What are you? A fucking bloodhound? There’s no cupcake in my bag,” I said.

“Maybe not, but there is something in there. Cookies?” he asked. I glared at him.

“Fine, there are cookies. She made them yesterday. It’s a new recipe she is working on,” I admitted.

“And you thought you could sneak them past me?”

“They are my cookies, Hana packed the breakfast bag for me,” I told him.

“But you wouldn’t deny your best and oldest friend one or two of them, right?”

“I’ll give you two if you do me a favour and make time tomorrow to look at Hana’s new apartment with me and help me plan the security system for it,” I said. The smile fell from Jason’s face.

“What the fuck have you done?” he asked.

“What?” I asked.

“Why is she moving out? You have to have done something,” he insisted. I realised I had forgotten to tell him about the latest turn of events.

“Let’s talk in my office,” I said. As we got to my office, I opened the bag and got the cookies out and split them between the two of us. Then I told him about Hana moving out.