The days went by quickly. Hanna always got home by bus, and if Caleb saw her outside alone, she just told him she was waiting for Sean, who was almost there. He believed her and then left, but Hanna was actually waiting the bus.

The same thing happened on Friday. It was exactly a week since her break-up with Sean, but it was also the last day she had to go and come back from work by bus, since her car was going to be ready on Saturday, the next day. Hanna was waiting the bus and Caleb got outside, in his casual clothes, and his fresh cologne filled the air.

"Hanna, is someone coming, yeah?" he asked as usual, fixing the collar of his shirt.

"Yeah, Sean is on his way. He should be here any second. Thanks though, Caleb." she lied, nodding.

Caleb nodded and waved at her, walking to his BMW parked to the other side of the street.

When he was far, Hanna started getting a little worried. The bus was late and it was darker than the other days. She tightened her coat around her body, staring to feel a little cold, looking down the street to see if the bus was coming. There was no one in the studio anymore, and Hanna felt a shiver run through her spine when a guy with a can in his hand started walking toward her. He was wearing a black beanie, an hoodie of the same color and a pair of ripped jeans, and he looked clearly drunk.

"Hey, baby... What are you doing here alone?" he stuttered, smirking.

Hanna swallowed and took a few steps away from him, slowly. The neighborhood was totally desert except for her and that guy. She was hoping with all herself that the bus was coming.

"Hey, hey, hey... Don't run away." he continued, throwing the empty can away and grabbing her wrist.

"Let me go!" Hanna shouted, trying to escape from his grasp.

But she couldn't. He was stronger, and his grasp was too tight.

"Shhh... Don't worry, baby. I'm here with you now." he smirked, grabbing her other wrist as well and pushing her against a wall.

Hanna squeezed her eyes shut and moved her head to the side, without knowing what else to do.

"Don't touch her!" came a man's shout from somewhere near her.

Then, she heard some weird noises and suddenly she felt free from the guy's grasp. She opened her eyes to find Caleb punching the creep right on his face, hard enough to make him fall to the ground. The guy quickly stood up and ran away.

"Run, fucking bastard! Don't you dare come around here ever again!" Caleb yelled as he let the guy go.

He finally rushed to Hanna, cupping her face into his large hands.

"Hanna, hey... Are you okay?" he whispered earnestly, looking straight into her eyes.

Hanna nodded briefly, sobbing lightly, with tears into her eyes. Caleb sighed and wiped them away as Hanna finally threw herself into his arms. Caleb held her tightly, gently stroking her hair.

"Shhh, it's all over... It's all over..." he whispered.

Caleb kept holding her for a few minutes, waiting for her to calm down a little. Then, he slowly pulled away from her, lifting her chin with his idex finger.

"Hanna, where the fuck is Sean? He's always been on time! Do you see why I don't want you to be alone out here when it's dark now?" he questioned.

Hanna sniffed before replying.

"S-Sean... Sean's not coming. I was waiting the bus."

"What? Why didn't you tell me you didn't have a ride home?"

"I didn't want to bother you. You already took me home once, I didn't want to—"

"Hanna, stop. It's dangerous out here. I may be your boss at work, but I'm a person exactly like you, first. There's no problem for me to drive you home, got it? I don't want anything bad to happen to you. So you're never going to take the bus again... That's for sure." he cut her off.

"It's okay, today was the last day I had to take the bus anyway."

"Wait... The last day? You've taken the bus for the whole week?" Caleb widened his eyes.

Hanna sighed deeply.

"Yes." she admitted after an istant.

Caleb sighed as well, licking his lips and shaking his head.

"Look, I need to talk with your boyfriend. What's so important that he hasn't been able to come pick you up for the whole week?" he continued.

"No, don't talk to him. Please."

"I have to, Hanna! He needs to understand that it's not safe for you to take the bus from here at this time, and—"

"Sean and I broke up last week. You know, I didn't fail any exam, I just... I broke up with him." she interrupted him, shrugging slightly.

Caleb remained speechless for a second, then nodded shortly.

"Oh... Okay. Okay, I'm sorry then. But you still could have told me you didn't have a ride." he said.

Hanna bit her lower lip and nodded as well, lowering her head.

"Anyway... C'mon, I'll take you home." he continued, offering an hand to her.

Hanna accepted it and the pair got into his car.


The drive was completely silent. Caleb remembered the way to her house, so she didn't need to tell anything. When they arrived, though, Hanna was a little hesitant to get out. Caleb turned his head to her.

"Hey... Don't worry, okay? No one's going to touch you now. You're safe. And just for the record, I didn't kill that bastard just because he couldn't do anything before I arrived. But now it's over. And... You're never going to be out there alone again. I'm willing to become your personal driver, if that's necessary." he smiled.

Hanna gave him a small smile back.

"I didn't even thank you for what you did. I'm such an idiot... Thank you so much, Caleb. Seriously." she said.

"I don't need you to thank me, Hanna. I just did what I had to. I was getting into my car when I heard you scream. I didn't wait a second more to run back to where you were."

"Well, I want to thank you."

"It's okay. You're welcome."

Hanna stayed silent for a second before clearing her throat and then speaking again.

"Caleb... My mom's not home, she went out with her bestfriend, and... I don't want to be alone tonight, after... After what happened. So... I was just wondering if you wanted to come inside. I could cook dinner or something... As a thank you."

Caleb looked surprised, and Hanna immediately regretted what she had just said.

"Ugh, I'm sorry, I... I wasn't thinking. You have someone who's waiting for you to come back home, and... It was a stupid question, yeah. I'll just call one of my friends, that's it." she said immediately after.

Caleb laughed slightly, shaking his head.

"There's no one waiting for me to come back home, actually." he said then.

"Aren't you married?" Hanna asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Yes, but... My wife is not home...at the moment."

"Oh... Okay. So..."

"Hanna, I don't want you to cook me dinner after what happened. I think it'd be better if I'm going to cook for the both of us, so you just think about relaxing, okay?"

Hanna raised her eyebrows.

"Are... Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah. I love cooking. But if it's not a problem to you, I'd be more comfortable cooking in my own kitchen. Are you okay if we go to my place?"

"Oh... Okay, sure." she replied then.

"Great." he said, restarting the engine.

"Are you sure I'm not going to disturb?"

"Don't worry. It's okay. There's no one home, well, besides Charlie...my Golden Retriever." he smiled.

"Oh my God, I love them!"

"Well, that's a reason more to come then."


Caleb's house was huge. He had this wonderful garden outside, where there was even a large pool, and then a short walkway which took to the front door. Caleb parked his car into the garage and then walked to the front door with Hanna by his side. Suddenly, a big reddish brown dog came from the back garden of the house, probably alerted by the engine of the car, and immediately jumped on Caleb.

"Whoa, Charlie! Hey there!" he exclaimed as the dog licked his whole face, wagging its tail excitedly.

"Oh my God, he's so beautiful!" Hanna said, stroking the dog's soft fur.

"Well, looks like he likes you too." he chuckled, as Charlie started licking Hanna's face as well.

Hanna laughed and played with Charlie for a while, as Caleb opened the front door.

"Okay, bud. Go play now, alright?" he said then to his dog, kneeling down next to him.

Charlie, then, obeyed and ran away.

"C'mon, get in and have a seat." he told Hanna, closing the door behind her back and carrying away both of their coats.

Hanna took a look around. His house was really nice...at least for what she could see. Just the living room was very spacious, and well-furnished. The walls were cream and there was a wood flooring. Everyone could tell that Caleb was rich as hell. She took a seat on his red couch, as Caleb walked to another room, probably the kitchen. While he was away, Hanna looked around herself with more attention, but she didn't see any picture of his wedding or anything related to his wife. Caleb came back shortly after, carrying two glasses of red wine.

"Do you like wine?" he asked as he sat next to her and handed her one of the glasses.

"Sure... Thank you." Hanna smiled, grabbing the glass.

They bot took a sip, then Caleb looked at her again.

"Are you feeling better?" he asked.

Hanna sighed before replying.

"Yes. It was...awful, and he scared the crap out of me, but...but thank God he didn't have the time to touch me... I... I will never thank you enough for what you did, Caleb."

He looked at her and nodded, smiling slightly.

"No problem. Okay, you just...enjoy your wine, I'm gonna cook something, alright?"

"Okay." Hanna replied, smiling.


Caleb cooked an excellent dinner. They ate talking about light-hearted topics, Caleb trying not to make her think about what had happened a few hours earlier. When they were done, he showed her the rest of the house, and Hanna felt surprised by how it was huge and beautiful.

When they were in the bedroom, though, Hanna finally noticed a picture of Caleb and a woman, accuratelly placed in a frame on the drawers. They were clearly dressed as groom and bride. She approached that and looked at it. The woman looked really beautiful, with long dark hair and a tanned skin.

"Is this your wife?" Hanna asked casually.

Caleb let out a deep breath and scratched the back of his neck.

"Yeah." he said then.

"She's very beautiful."

"Yes, she is." he said softly, pursing his lips.

He looked totally uncomfortable talking about her. There was something weird in the air, and Hanna could feel it.

"What's her name?" she asked, although she already knew that.

"Melissa."

Hanna then understood that he didn't really want to talk about her, so she just replaced the frame where it was and turned back to him.

"I should probably go home now. My mom must have come back." she said.

"Oh, okay. Let's just have another glass of wine before that, yeah?" he smiled.

"That's okay."

They came back to the living room, then Caleb went to the kitchen and returned onve again with two glasses of wine. Hanna accepted one, so they sat in silence on the couch, drinking.

"So... Are you gonna fire me?" Hanna asked out of the blue, placing her empty glass on the coffee table in front of the couch.

Caleb swallowed his last sip and widened her eyes at her.

"What? Why am I supposed to fire you?" he asked as he placed his glass on the table as well.

"I got this job because Sean's dad knew you. But now... Sean and I are no longer together. So..."

"And so what? Look, Hanna... John Ackard is a very professional person and also a mature man, so he's not gonna ask me to fire you or anything just because his son and you broke up, that's for sure. And look, even if he does, I'm not gonna fire you just because someone told me to. You're doing really good at the studio, seriously, you're helping a lot. And you've always been on time, polite, nice with patients, so I wouldn't even have a single reason to kick you out. That's it."

Hanna sighed and bit her bottom lip.

"I'm sorry, by the way." Caleb murmured suddenly, after a few instants.

"For what?"

"For you and Sean. You know, you two looked like the couple that was never gonna split up. Maybe... Maybe you're gonna make up. Never say never, right?" he smiled slightly.

Hanna smiled back, but her smile was totally sad.

"In this case, well... I really don't think so. Technically, I was the one who ended things... But I had a very good reason to." she said, almost in a whisper.

Caleb looked over at her, waiting for her to say something else, if she wanted to.

"Sean cheated on me." she added then, lowering her gaze.

She heard silence from him, but then he laughed slightly. Hanna looked over at him almost incredulous of his reaction.

"Is that so funny?" she couldn't help but snap.

Caleb pursed his lips and shook his head.

"I'm sorry." he said then, looking at her.

"What does make you laugh?"

"Two things, actually. First... That I really don't get why he did what he did when he had a girl like you. It's so ridicolous that it makes me laugh."

"You mean?" Hanna furrowed her eyebrows.

Caleb smiled and shrugged.

"Well... Why did he try to find something better when he had the best?" he said.

Hanna laughed and blushed slightly at his compliment. He was so charming even when he made a simple compliment.

"What's the second thing?" she asked then, turning slightly on the couch so that she could look at him without feeling any pain at the neck.

Caleb changed a bit his expression, lowering his gaze for a moment.

"I... I can perfectly understand how you feel, Hanna." he murmured, almost ashamed.

He turned around as well and lifted his head before continuing.

"My wife cheated on me too. She and her...boy, they had this plan before our wedding. They just wanted to steal me some money and then leave the country together, disappearing. Melissa and I had been together for four years before getting married around one year ago. She was always around at the studio, that's why they know her there. I don't know when she started cheating on me, but I think that stealing my money has always been her only thought. But I was in love, maybe too much that I didn't want to realize that Melissa wasn't in love with me, instead. So... I married her, and I was the happiest man of this world. But then... After a couple of months, she just disappeared. There was this guy, his name was Wren, she told me he was one of her friends from Chicago, well... He was always around. I honestly found their relationship a bit weird, but...I trusted her. But then, after the wedding, he disappeared just like her. And the bank account which Melissa and I had in common, the one we made after the wedding, was totally drained. It was then that I realized how stupid I was."

Hanna remained silent for quite a long time, not knowing what to say, before murmuring something.

"I... I'm sorry, Caleb. I didn't know..."

Caleb smiled slightly.

"Don't worry. No one knows." he shrugged.

"How long she's been gone?"

"Ten months, I think... More or less, yeah."

"Why do you keep this a secret?"

He sighed and took a moment before replying.

"There's not a real reason. I just... I'm a reserved man, and... And I don't like to let people know about my private. But I guess I also feel a little... Ashamed."

Hanna blinked at him. He looked really emotional.

"Why do you still keep your ring? Just to make sure no one's gonna suspect that you're no longer together?" she asked then.

Caleb shook his head slightly.

"I didn't apply for the divorce. I didn't slide off my wedding ring. I... I've only been able to put away her things and our pictures, all of them besides the one of our wedding. I'm... I'm a reserved man, but I'm also a very loyal man. I promised I would love Melissa for my whole life, whatever happens, and that's what I'm gonna do. I'm still married to her, she's my wife. I won't break my promise." he said with decision.

Hanna gave him a sad smile, which he returned.

"Well... Melissa had a wonderful man." she said sincerely.

"I guess she only loved my money, though."

"But you loved her. And... In my opinion, you're probably still waiting for her to come back, aren't you?"

Caleb sighed deeply.

"It doesn't matter anymore. No one cares about how I feel or who I love. You know, people thinks that money means happiness, but that's not true. Money means...money. That's it. I know that. Look at me, Hanna. I have this huge house, a private pool, an awesome car, a good job...but the only one who really loves me is my dog. I don't have friends, I don't have someone to say goodnight to, I... I'm alone." he replied then.

"Well... You could start a new life if you just found the strength to get over your wife. That way, you may find your happiness or someone who makes you feel truly loved. I don't want to sound tactless, but I think that she doesn't have the right to stop you from living you life. Caleb... What you said before about your promise to Melissa is really admirable, sure, but that's not fair to yourself. She has already broken the promise you two had. You didn't break it. It was her. That's why you should feel free to start over now. Maybe you should divorce, maybe you just need to turn the page..."

"It's not as easy as it sounds."

"I know."

Caleb nodded as well.

"Why did you tell me, though?" Hanna asked.

He shrugged.

"I think you can understand me. And not just because you happen to be in my same situation, but also because... I don't know, but I feel like trusting you. You're a special girl, Hanna. So... Yeah, I'm definitely not going to fire you." he replied, smiling.

Hanna smiled back.

"Thank you." she said then.

"You're welcome."

They locked eyes for a long moment before Hanna's mobile started ringing. She cleared her throat and took it from her purse, picking up.

"Hello?"

"Hanna, where are you?" Ashley asked, concerned.

"Mom, hey... I'm with doctor Rivers, he's right about to take me home."

"But it's almost midnight! You've been working for the whole night?"

"Uh... Yeah, sort of. But... I'm on my way now, don't worry."

"Fine. I'll see you later."

"Bye."

Hanna hung up and looked over at Caleb.

"I need to go home. My mom's back." she told him.

"Sure. Let's go." he nodded.

After saying goodbye to Charlie, the two hopped in his BMW and Caleb drove till Hanna's house. Once they got there, Caleb turned to her and cleared his throat.

"Thanks." he said.

"For what? I have to thank you, Caleb, not the other way around."

He shook his head.

"For the first time in a while, I didn't feel alone. Thank you for the company, and...for listening to me." he said then.

Hanna smiled.

"I was good too. And don't worry, I'm not going to tell anyone about...that." she replied.

"Then I owe you another thank you." he chuckled.

"However, I would appreciate if you're not gonna tell about what happened at the bus stop as well. My mom always gets to know anything, I don't want her to worry."

He nodded slowly.

"Okay... But, once again, you will never have to take the bus from there at that time again. If you don't have any other way to go back home, you just tell me. Deal?" he added.

"Deal." she smiled.

"Alright." Caleb smiled as well.

"Well, this is me, so... I'll see you next week."

"Of course."

Hanna was about to get out of the car when she turned to Caleb again and reached out to hug him. He remained still for a moment, probably surprised by her gesture, but then he sneaked an arm around her back and pulled her closer, returning the hug. Hanna enjoyed for a few seconds the warmth of his arms and the deep scent of his cologne before pulling away slowly.

"You're a really nice person, Caleb. And you deserve your happiness." she said then.

Caleb smiled.

"You too, Hanna." he said then.

"Okay, so... I'll see you next week, but... If you ever need someone to talk to or if you just feel alone, well, you can always give me a ring." she blurted out.

Caleb looked at her attentively, then nodded.

"I'll keep it in mind." he said.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Hanna."

She gave him one last small smile before hopping out of his car for good.

Hanna told her mom some lame excuse not to make her know that she had been at Caleb's for the whole evening. They hadn't done anything bad, and between them there was nothing, but she knew her mom wouldn't have been happy if she had known. After all, despite Caleb being a really nice and kind man, he still was her boss, and he was nine years older than her and, most of all, he was married. Yeah, at least technically.

She went to bed shortly after, thinking about him. He had saved her from that perv in front of the studio, he had gladly taken her to his house and cooked her dinner, he had listened to her when she had opened up with him about Sean and he had opened up with her about something no one knew about. She felt they had a strong chemistry. They were similar in some ways, and Hanna had actually enjoyed their quiet evening together.

She closed her eyes rather happy despite her tough day.


A/N: Guysss! Here's your long intense chapter :) You left 14 reviews to the second chapter — :D — so I HAD TO update ;) sooo... Finally the truth about Caleb's marriage! What do you guys think about it? One of the guests guessed correctly, she cheated on Caleb, yeah... And then she ran away with his money and another money :/ (sorry for making Wren the bad guy, lol) ...Kind of a bitch, right? Poor baby :( So, just to clarify, this is NOT the only "glasses of wine" moment of the story ;) There are gonna be more and more glasses, haha :P Also, what do you guys think about Caleb coming to Hanna's rescue? Maybe a little cliché, yeah, but I wanted to portray Caleb like the sweetest guy he is, in this story too, so... I had to make him the savior of the situation :) But, seriously, I'm impressed by the love you all are showing for this story. I'm beyond happy to see that you're so intrigued about this new project :D Thank you so so so much, it means a lot. Now you just have to tell me if you enjoyed this chapter as well – I hope so :) Throughout the next chapters you'll see the development of things between Hanna and Caleb obviously ;) So... That's all for now. Keep up your amazing support, you're the best ;) Until next time! Love! xx -Atramea.