Hanna rooted through Madelyn's luggage until she finally came across what she had spent the past half an hour looking for: shoes. They were a pair of white sandals, which Hanna was pairing with a pair of yellow, gray and white patterned shorts and a white laced shirt. Madelyn was in the living room, but the blonde could hear her squeals from the bedroom at the end of the hall. She was playing with Chloe's dolls as she waited for her mom, but the game seemed to have evolved slightly.
Aria quietly tapped on the bedroom door and poked her head around. "Hey," she said as Hanna looked up. The brunette wandered in, smiling. "What did Caleb want?" She was referring to the phone call Hanna had received in the middle of breakfast, which Hanna had to up and leave to answer.
Remembering what the call was about, Hanna realised she had to bluff. "Oh, it was nothing important. It was just about Bella."
Suspicious, Aria creased her eyes. "Really?"
"Mhm," the blonde replied. She picked up Madelyn's sandals and gave her friend a small smile as she walked past her and into the living room. The two toddlers were building a tall stack out of piles and piles of books that filled the room. As she stood by the door, Hanna called, "Maddie, come here."
Madelyn pouted but obediently followed her mother's orders and dragged herself over. She let Hanna slide the shoes onto her feet, but the second Hanna moved her hand away, Maddie jumped up and ran away.
"Chlo," Aria said as she entered the adjoining kitchen. She started filling up the coffee machine and grabbed two mugs out of the cupboard. "You need to put those books back before Daddy gets back. You know he doesn't like you ruining them."
"But Mommy," Chloe groaned.
The brunette gave her daughter a look which immediately shut the toddler up. Hanna stood back, watching from the couch, and couldn't help but smile: it was quite the sight. "If you don't tidy up properly, you won't come with us to the playground."
As Chloe reluctantly started picking up the books, Hanna whispered in Madelyn's ear, "Go and help her." She pointed in the direction of the bookcase, where Chloe was heading, and Madelyn soon ran off and, too, picked up the books. Although they weren't in the same order as they had been before, and they were rather messy, the books were soon stacked back up on the bookcase.
"Wow, I might have to start getting Maddie to do some manual labor back at home," Hanna joked as she noticed their "handy-work".
Aria chuckled and shook her head as she handed a steaming cup of coffee to the blonde. Hanna gratefully received it, and took a sip, but cringed as it scolded her tongue. She placed it on the table beside the couch to let it cool. The brunette let out a loud laugh as she headed to her front door, where she proceeded to pick up a pair of sneakers for her daughter. After spending another 2 minutes persuading Chloe to leave Madelyn for 30 seconds so she could put her shoes on, Aria picked up her purse and smiled at Hanna, who was already raring to go.
Half an hour later, Aria and Hanna walked side by side as they wandered through a park located right in the heart of Manhattan. Maddie and Chloe were running ahead, giggling as they scared of the birds.
"Are you excited for this interview?" Aria asked, looking up at her blonde friend. Even her heels didn't make her tall enough.
Hanna shrugged. "I suppose so. I mean, it's not a big deal. I've already got the job; this is just so we can discuss when I start."
"Are you going to become one of those hot-shot designers that earn thousands a day?" the petite adult teased. Hanna gave her a faux glare but laughed. "It could happen, though."
"In my dreams. I'm grateful though, this job pays really well. Since I'm going to be spending my eternity designing wedding dresses, it should do, too," Hanna replied. She moved her focus from her friend ton her daughter, who was now picking up random leaves from the ground. Madelyn brought her hand up to her mouth and was about to eat a leaf when Hanna exclaimed, "Don't!" The blonde hurried over and snatched the dirty, dried-up leaves from Maddie's hand. "Madelyn, how many times do I need to tell you? You do not eat leaves, okay?"
Aria, who had followed shortly behind, chuckled. "So this has happened before? Does Maddie regularly try and eat leaves?"
The brunette was joking, but Hanna replied with a very firm, "Yes." She decided it was not a good idea to let Madelyn loose again, so got the toddler's pink, chubby hand and held onto it tightly. As she started walking again, Hanna said, "One day kid, you're going to eat a leaf and Mommy won't be here to stop you. Leaves are dirty and horrible and are definitely not food. You'll get sick if you eat one."
"Why?" Madelyn asked. Besides eating leaves, another thing Madelyn had also taken an interest in was asking why all the time. It drove Hanna and Caleb mad.
"I just told you! They're dirty and horrible."
Aria was to the left of Hanna, and was smiling in amusement. She'd never had that problem with her daughter, but thought it'd be funny if she did. Clearly Hanna didn't feel the same way. Not long after, Hanna glanced at her phone and had a near panic attack when she saw the time.
"Oh my God. I need to go," she gushed. Luckily enough, Aria explained to the blonde that she wasn't far from the road, where she'd be able to catch a cab. Before Hanna rushed off, she bent down and gave Madelyn a quick kiss on her forehead, although Maddie did not enjoy it. She wriggled out of her mom's clasp and ran back to Chloe. "Thanks, Mads. It's nice to know you love me back."
"Bye Han," Aria laughed as Hanna hurried off. The blonde glanced back and gave a small wave.
It didn't take long for Hanna to arrive in front of her college friend, Kyra's, store. It was a petite boutique in the centre of New York City, that was becoming more and more popular day by day. Hanna had been more than thrilled when Kyra got in touch and asked Hanna to co-own her store; it was a huge move upwards towards Hanna's dream of being a celebrity's stylist — she might actually get known in this shop. Although Hanna didn't originally want a career in wedding gown designing, the money had been too good to pass up.
"Hanna!" Kyra exclaimed when she saw her old friend walk through the doors. Kyra Emerson was a very fashion forward person; she always had been. She was wearing a daring bright yellow skirt, but contrasted it with a calm navy blue knit. Hanna noticed the gold chain hanging from her friend's neck, and knew immediately that it was the latest Tiffany necklace to be released — she had never been more jealous. Kyra's dark auburn hair flowed loosely past her shoulders, and she had a pair of golden earrings in her ears.
The blonde grinned and headed inside, proceeding to be engulfed in an overpowering scent of Coco Mademoiselle — although Hanna usually loved the perfume, it was currently giving her a headache.
After a quick greeting, Kyra started showing Hanna around the small store. She was taken to the back, where there were a few dresses hanging on the racks.
"Do you remember Angel from college?" the auburn asked as the two girls walked around. Hanna responded with a nod. "She was the original designer. Turns out she sucks ass. Majorly."
Hanna let out a laugh and asked, "Oh yeah?"
"Yep. You know we were planning on starting our own store together, right? Well we did, and that's how this came about." Kyra gazed around the room they were currently in. "But 3 months into it, Angel decided she didn't want to design wedding dresses anymore and quit."
"Just like that? Wow, she does suck," Hanna replied. There was a slight part of her that felt guilty: she didn't actually want to do this job that much, so she wasn't sure if she'd be able to hack it for long. "How many clients do you get a day?"
Kyra shrugged, but answered, "It varies." She led Hanna through to a staircase beyond a door at the end that led to the upstairs stock room. "Can be 5, can up to 10. We seem to get more as time goes on."
"Hm," Hanna mumbled. She stared around the room with pictures of various fashion designers' wedding dresses, such as Romona Keveza; Vera Wang; Angel Sanchez. How was she ever going to live up to their dresses?
"Han, are you alright?"
"Yeah, sure," the blonde stuttered. She needed an urgent talk with Caleb. "Kyra, is it okay if we finish this tomorrow?" Hanna was already heading towards the door.
"Well, actually I—"
Hanna didn't let her friend finish; she just interrupted with, "Okay, bye. See you tomorrow."
The blonde walked straight out of the door, not looking back once to see Kyra utterly confused. She carried on walking down the sidewalk, passing all the cabs that were parked up, waiting for customers. She carried on waling straight through the park she had been in earlier with Aria, Chloe and Madelyn. She even found herself automatically heading the way back to Aria and Ezra's apartment, even though she'd only walked this route once. There was one thought in Hanna's head the whole way: she was not going to be able to do this job. She couldn't compete with a Vera Wang dress. She didn't even want to design wedding gowns to start with. This just wasn't going to work out well.
"Hanna?" Aria asked when she saw the blonde walk through the front door. Hanna gave a brief smile as she continued inside, but didn't give any explanation. Madelyn was sitting on the couch, next to Chloe and Ezra, watching her favorite movie, Frozen. The toddler was so engrossed in the movie, she didn't notice her mother walking in. "Maddie, look. Mommy's home!" Aria called out. She was in the kitchen with her son, Caden, on her hip.
"Hey, Ar, I need to talk to Caleb so is it okay if you can watch Maddie for a few more minutes? I don't know how long I'll be," Hanna said, already pulling her phone from her Givenchy purse.
"Of course. Is everything okay?"
The blonde nodded, whilst heading down the apartment's hallway. "Yeah, it's great. There's just something I need to talk to him about."
Minutes later, Hanna sat cross-legged on the guest room's double bed. She was biting the skin around her left thumb as she waited for Caleb to answer her phone call.
"Babe? Shouldn't you be at that interview thing right now?" he said as he picked up.
"Caleb, I can't do it." The words came out in a groan, although Hanna was intending them to.
Confused, Caleb tried to think what she was on about. He couldn't come up with anything. "Can't do what?"
"The job!"
"Why, what happened?"
Hanna dropped her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You should have seen the dresses Kyra had in her store. I can't compete with them! My drawings looked like a three-year-old did them compared to that."
At that moment, Caleb could hear the truth in Hanna's voice; she was clearly worried. He wished he was in New York with her, and was able to hug her. "Babe, it's okay. Kyra obviously thought they were good enough otherwise she wouldn't have asked you to do it."
A/N - ooh so hanna's having second thoughts on her new job ;)) will she take it?
review!