THE ANXIOUS REVELATION
Angel's Pov
I check her room first. When I knock, she opens the door, phone to her ear, a blush on her face. Oh.
I start to turn away but she vigorously gestures at me to come in as she ends the call with who I believe is Jameson, because she calls him her darling.
“Angel honey, what are you doing here?” she says a little flustered. “You left Andrew downstairs by himself? He'll be lonely.”
I hide my smile. Anna wants to talk to her boyfriend. How very cute. I wish I had a boyfriend. . . He’d be here with me right now and I could leave Anna alone. “No Anna, he went to work.”
“I guess it couldn't be helped,” she smiles, nodding. “Do you want something, Angel?”
I shake my head, rocking from heel to toe. She grin and pats her bed and I bumble up and sit beside her. “You want to talk?”
I nod, grateful I didn't have to say it outloud like some sort of needy, adult baby. Anna’s grin widens. “I have been meaning to tell you about something Mathew did a few days ago.”
She clears her throat and launches into her story of Mathew rigging up his phone to the doorbell so he could order junk food behind her back, laughing all the way. It's a cute, funny story. I laugh too.
Soon, I find myself lying against her. Anna doesn't make a single noise of protest when my head touches her shoulder, doesn't even slow down the story. Slowly let myself rest. Not sleeping, but not quite awake either. The kind of rest that tells your body you’re allowed to stop bracing for something awful.
Because I am. I'm okay.
I'm roused up by the sound of a phone ringing. Anna pauses at it, and for a moment I don't even realize it's mine. “Hello.”
“Hi Angel,” Hank says and I can sense jitters in the cadence of his voice. I'm outside Andrew's house.”
Oh. He's here? I perk up, eager to see him. I place my hand against the soaker and whisper, “Anna can we continue our chat later?”
“Yes, sure Angel,” she giggles and winks at me, the cutest wink using the whole half of her face her right eye is on.
“Thanks, Anna,” I whisper back, holding back a laugh.
“I'll be right down,” I say to Hank, jogging out of the room. There's no need for me to still be in the line so I disconnect the call as I hurry down the stairs.
I'm my haste down, Andrew's shorts start slipping off my waist and I yank them up, giggling, as I barely slow down. At the door, before I step outside, I roll the waist of the shorts once more until it's snug.
Hank is leaning against his car, hands crossed, leg tapping. He looks good with the shoulders and lips I remember but that's not what makes me grin. It's just. . . Seeing him makes me feel so much relief, and reminds me that everything is back to normal.
He turns then, sees me standing there and immediately rushes to me.
“Hi—”
I'm engulfed in a hug that cuts me off. He crushes me to him gently, an embrace that has my bare feet lifting off the ground and a smile on my face. By the time he drops me I have to tighten the shorts again.
He watches me — I can feel his green eyes on me and when I look up at him I see his face is wearing a soft look, although he can't seem to shake off the anxiety in them. I wonder what's bothering him.
He places a hand against my cheek and stares down at me with such a soft look in his eyes I don't know what to say.
“I can't believe you fucking got kidnapped,” he rasps, a tonr of relief so obvious and deep. I pause. If I didn't expect Andrew to be so affected by this, then I expected it from Hank even less. “I'm so sorry that happened to you, Angel.”
I don't know what to say, what to do, how to react. So I open my mouth, about to make a joke, or at least say something to diffuse the atmosphere when Hank shakes his head. “Please Angel, let me. . . Let me talk.”
I blink at him, nodding. Hank takes a deep breath as if bracing himself and I listen closely as he starts talking, his voice a mere whisper, “When you didn't reply to me on the first day, I didn't think anything of it. By the second day I stopped by here to say hi. The man at the gate told me you weren't here, and wouldn't tell me where you went.”
He shakes his head, his pretty hair catching the warm morning light. “So I called Mr Hills and he didn't pick up either. And then I started thinking that maybe you went on a vacation or something. I was a little hurt you didn't even tell me about it but it was okay. You wouldn't have to tell me if you were travelling.”
He pauses here and clears his throat. And for the first time, his eyes leave mine. He places his head in his palm, moving his thick glasses out of the way. They fall back down in his nose as he looks at me again.
“But it wasn't. It wasn't okay. It would pop into my head randomly throughout the day and slowly I began to lose my shit. I wanted you to tell me, wanted to mean enough to you that you'd want to tell me.”
He stutters out a laugh, and aggressively runs a hand through his hair. It ruffles it but he absentmindedly pats it down again as he continues talking.
“Then today, when you replied, when you told me what happened so many scenarios flashed through my mind, each worse that the last, you even though you were texting me. I couldn't sit still. I had to see you.”
I'm touched by his concern for me, his care and I smile up at him. He's still talking, his words gushing out in an unhurried, nervous stream.
“Five minutes later, I left my shift and I was in my car coming here. Even now, I want to examine you, make sure you're fine. I can't believe it, what happened to you, Angel,” he says, sounding like he might cry and pulls me in closer.
I hug him back, hands around his neck. He's warm and he smells good, safe. Usual. “It was on the drive here everything started to make sense, everything clicked in place,” he whispers softly, hand cradling my head.
“Angel,” he says, pulling away to search my face. “I realized that I like you.”
My eyes pop open, widening to the size of the plates we used for breakfast. He chuckles, his big hands coming up to cup my face, gently, almost reverently. “I like you so so much. And you deserve to be taken out to dinner first with a big bouquet of flowers and I promise I will, but I just can't wait.”
I'm still mulling over his first words, over the care he’s shown to possess for me, when I catch these ones. Can't wait? Can't wait for what?
He lets go of my face to grab my hands. His smile is a little wobbly around the edges bu
t his green eyes are almost glinting. “Please, Angel. Will you be my girlfriend?”