Page 23 of Worth the Risk
“Sure. Turns out she works for the team, and she’s the niece of one of the coaches, which also makes her my next door neighbor’s niece as well, so yeah. Totally worked out,” I respond sarcastically.
“No way!” Ari shouts. “You’re joking.
“Wish I was.”
Arianna remains quiet, a feat in itself, as I explain everything that occurred since I left her apartment.
Hannah
Imake it back to the apartment building in a daze. I’m not too proud to admit that I sneak into the apartment building and trudge up the fifteen flights of stairs, all because I’m petrified of running into Luca.
I pause as I reach our floor and struggle to contain my panting breaths as I strain to hear if anyone is in the hallway by our doors. I cautiously open the door and step out, only to stop dead in my tracks when I see a woman standing between our doors.
I’m hit with a wave of jealousy immediately, until she turns to face me. Her eyes match Luca’s, and she has the same nose. Her right wrist is wrapped in a cast.
“You must be Arianna,” I blurt out, and her eyes widen.
“You’re the neighbor,” she responds.
“Hannah.”
“Hi, Hannah. Luca didn’t tell me your name. Just told me I accidentally cockblocked him,” she says with a smile. I laugh quietly. “Do you know where he is?”
“Umm, no, I’m sorry. I don’t,” I tell her, looking down at my feet. She cocks her head to one side as she studies me.
“Something happened. What did he do?” she asks.
“Nothing intentionally,” I tell her. “It’s just not going to work out.”
I walk to my aunt’s door and unlock it.
“Hold up. I need more information. He was completely smitten with you!” she says. “I’ve never seen him so taken with someone. He talked about you all weekend.”
I sigh as I open the door.
“I work for the Wolves. I’ll be traveling with the team. We can’t … we can’t be together.”
“Oh, yeah. He may have mentioned that. Are you as bummed as he is?”
“Yep.”
I step into my aunt’s apartment and am turning to say goodbye when she hustles in right behind me. Huh. Okay, come in, I guess.
“Wait. There’s not an actual rule, though, right? I mean, it’s the twenty-first century. There’s no way it’s an actual rule you can’t date a player,” she says as she throws her purse down on the counter and meanders over to the couch to sit down. I stare at her incredulously, and she gives me a wide smile. “We’re friends now, Hannah. This is how I make friends.”
I laugh nervously. I don’t have many friends, and I’m unsure if this is normal.
“Do you have any wine? This feels like a wine conversation.”
“Uhh, actually, I do. My aunt sent me a bottle of wine from Italy,” I tell Arianna as I walk to my fridge and pull it out.
“She sent you wine from Italy?” Arianna screeches.
“No,” I giggle, “she sent me wine from the liquor store down the street. But she said it was made in Italy, and the grapes came from a vineyard she toured.”
“Sweet. Let’s pop that sucker open and tell each other all our deepest and darkest secrets!” Arianna says with glee. She grabs the bottle from my hand and stares at the label. “This is a vineyard in California, not Italy. She must have just ordered the wrong one. But wine is wine, and I never let alcohol go to waste.”
I learn about Arianna’s job at a hotel, and her opinions on the lack of dateable men in her town. She tells me how her parents are still so in love forty years after they got married, and how she won’t settle for anything less than what she has witnessed her entire life. She does say her dad can be crabby, as well as one of her older brothers.