Page 34 of Pretend I’m Yours
And, just for tonight, I would pretend they were true.
15
Drake
“Not much to choose from, huh?” Hannah said when we glanced over the dinner menu. There were three entrees listed, as well as a few sides. But it was all food that I didn’t particularly care to eat. Sure, I was fine with doing it while at this dinner, but nothing looked particularly appetizing.
“Why is it that the more expensive the food is, the less appetizing it looks?” I asked.
Hannah giggled and covered her mouth with her hand. “I don’t know,” she admitted.
I grinned and looked back at the menu in front of me. “You want to get out of here?” she asked suddenly. I gave her a look of surprise.
“I thought you had to stay for all the speeches and everything?” I asked.
“Not really. I just had to make an appearance, and we did that,” she set the menu down. “I’m not that hungry after what just happened with Brandon anyway.”
“Great,” I said, trying not to let the relief show through my voice. I rose from the table and she wrapped her hand around my bicep as we made our way toward the door. There was a sea of people in the center, and it was hard to walk in a straight line.
But Hannah was clearly done socializing with these men and women, and I didn’t know any of them well enough to feel the need to stop and chat. I’d spoken with a couple of men from the fire department, and that was fine with me.
We burst through the door into the cool night and I hailed a cab.
“You’re clenching your jaw hard enough to break your teeth,” Hannah said. “Are you okay?”
“Just pissed off by that jack wagon and how he treated you,” I said. “God, I hate that guy.”
“Me too,” she said softly. “Thank you so much for what you did for me tonight. I can’t believe I was lucky enough to meet someone like you.”
“I’m glad that I’m able to help. I can’t imagine what it must be like for you to have to do things like this,” I said. “I was such a fish out of water in there. I’m sure everyone could figure out the truth.”
“What truth?” Hannah asked. “It’s not like they’d get to see a marriage certificate or something.”
“I mean the fact that I don’t come from money. I didn’t fit in with any of them. I loved my country and I served it well, but I did it for the money. I did it to impress a girl because I didn’t have the money to give her the life she wanted, and I had to do anything that I could.”
“I thought you looked like you fit in perfectly,” Hannah said.
“Really?” I asked dryly.
“Really. I saw you from across the room a couple of times, and I thought that you matched the attitude of the most elite in the room,” she said with a smile.
“Arrogant snob?” I asked. “That was what I was going for.”
Hannah laughed and the tension eased inside me for the moment. As always, she could bring me to a better place.
“Not what I was thinking,” she said with a shrug. “I was thinking more elegant and confident.”
“Not quite what I would use to describe most of the people there,” he said.
“They aren’t all bad. It’s just those who think money is everything and want to make a show of how much they have that get on my nerves. You know, people like my parents and every other relative I’ve ever met. And their friends,” she added.
“So pretty much everyone there,” I joked.
“Alright, alright. Listen, now that we’re out of that hell hole my appetite is returning. You want to go get some real food?” she asked.
I nodded. “Nothing about that menu sounded appetizing to me. I couldn’t even pronounce half the shit there.”
“Don’t feel bad. Neither can I,” Hannah said. “And that was the stuff my parents fed me when I was a kid.”
“I think they just shove a bunch of letters together so you sound ridiculous when you order on purpose,” I said. “Makes you think that you’re getting more food than you are when they do it that way.”
Hannah laughed. “Pizza. Short and simple and plenty of food.”
“Bingo,” I said. “That’s the best idea I’ve heard all night.”
We quickly decided on a pizzeria not far from the club where we’d met, and I gave the driver the new address. Within a few minutes we were on the sidewalk heading inside, looking as out of place once again as I’d felt when we were at the gala.
Only this time, Hannah and I were the two who looked like the rich snobs. She was wearing a tight, bright red cocktail dress that hugged all her curves. It was barely long enough to cover her ass, and her black, strappy high heels only made the outfit sexier.
