Hanna jumped off Caleb, waking up suddenly because of her mobile ringing from the pocket of her jeans. She used around ten seconds to open her eyes and realize she was cuddling with Caleb on his couch, with the smell of his cologne mixed to the wine under her nose, and there was also a dim light coming from the large window of the living room. She picked up without seeing who it was.
"Uhm... Hello?" she said through the speaker, as Caleb slowly started waking up as well.
"Hanna! Where the hell are you? Do you know what time it is?" her mom yelled from the other line.
Hanna felt her head explode. She already had a huge headache, her mom shouting wasn't helping at all. She rubbed her eyes and moaned slightly.
"Mom, don't worry, I'm okay..." she mumbled.
"You're okay? Seriously? God, Hanna, I've always let you go out, whenever you want, and I have never even wanted to know what time you come back, but I need you to come back! I can't wake up at six 'o clock in the morning to drink a glass of water and see you're not in your bed! What do you have in mind?"
"Yeah, okay, mom... Just stop yelling, I'm coming home." Hanna murmured, quickly hanging up.
She snorted and moaned again, as Caleb rubbed and than opened his eyes.
"Hey..." he whispered, smiling softly at her.
"Hey, morning." she whispered back, stretching herself.
"I guess we both fell asleep without realizing it last night..."
"Ugh, yeah. Sorry if I woke you up, by the way."
"Don't worry. Is everything okay, though?"
Hanna sighed before replying.
"It's just my mom, she's a little too apprehensive. I know what you're thinking, I'm twenty-three and she treats me like I was thirteen, yeah... Now you see why I didn't want her to know about that creep at the bus station?" she muttered, getting up from the couch.
Caleb took a deep breath and smiled, a little sadly.
"That's not what I'm thinking, absolutely. Actually, I was thinking that I'd give anything to have my own mom back here. And trust me, she was as apprehensive as yours." he told her.
Hanna bit hard her bottom lip.
"Shit, Caleb... I'm sorry, I didn't want to..." she whispered.
"It's okay." Caleb told her, standing up.
"Being honest, my mom is the person whom I love the most in this world. She has basically raised me alone, since my dad and her splitted up when I was just a kid. And you know what's the funny thing? My dad cheated on her, too." she mumbled.
He took her hands in his and shrugged.
"She's a strong woman, then. She's your mom indeed." he smiled then.
Hanna smiled back, shyly.
"Go home now. She's worried for you. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have let you drink so much wine last night... It was my fault." he continued, slightly brushing his fingers on her cheek.
Hanna laughed slightly.
"It wasn't your fault. Plus, I enjoyed it. Even if... Well, maybe if we hadn't fallen asleep, we could have had some more fun." she replied, biting her lip, halfway through awkwardly and seductively.
Caleb raised his eyebrows at that. He didn't know how much Hanna was experienced in sex, but he actually liked supposing it. So he simply smirked, pulling her closer to him and then giving her a long lingering kiss.
"You okay to drive?" he asked when he pulled away.
She nodded and Caleb led her out taking her by the hand. As soon as they exited the house, Charlie ran to them and Hanna said goodbye to him as usual by now, then they got to her car.
"Well... If you want to come back later today, I'll be here. Otherwise, I'll just see you at work on Monday." he said, opening the door for her.
Hanna grinned.
"Unless my mom locks me in the house...I'll see you later." she told him.
"Good."
Hanna leaned in and kissed him one last time before getting into her car. She watched him from her rear-view mirror as he pulled out of the pocket of his sweats and then lightened up a cigarette, and then saw Charlie ran to him again. She smiled at that sight.
She didn't know why, but she liked seeing him like that, standing in the middle of his garden, in his simple sweatpants, with a cigarette between his lips and with his dog faithfully sitting by his side. That wasn't doctor Rivers, thirty-two years old, married and with the big house. That was just Caleb, the man she liked.
He waved at her and she smiled one last time before pulling out of his driveway, speeding toward her own house.
Hanna opened the front door of her house and immediately noticed her mom waiting for her behind it, with her arms crossed over her chest and a definitely angry expression.
"I hope you have a very good excuse." she told her.
Hanna sighed and closed the door behind her back.
"I was with my friends, mom. Chill." she snapped, rolling her eyes.
"It's almost half past six in the morning, Hanna!" she shouted.
"So what? I'm twenty-three years old, damn it!"
"It doesn't mean anything! You have to come back home and spend the night here and not God-knows-where!"
"I was at Spencer's, okay? We just fell asleep on the couch, we didn't notice what time it was until you woke us up calling me!"
"You should have texted me saying you were there before anything!"
"I'm no longer a baby, mom!"
Ashley sighed and rubbed her forehead.
"Hanna, no matter how old you are, you'll always be my baby and I'll always be your mom. I need to protect you and keep you safe. Maybe I should have never let you so much freedom, that's it." she added then, less loud than before.
"Okay, mom, look... I'm sorry. You're right, I should have told you I was at Spencer's. I promise that's not gonna happen again. Alright?"
Ashley sighed.
"Go to your room now. And stay home for the whole day." she murmured then.
"What? No, mom, that's not gonna happen!"
"Yes, it is."
"No, you don't get it. I need to see Caleb today!"
It just slipped from her lips. Shit.
"Caleb? You mean Doctor Rivers?" her mom asked.
"Yes, Caleb Rivers. We need to fix some papers and stuff for the studio."
"But it's Sunday."
"Yeah, well, last Friday I told him I was going to help him this weekend."
"I don't believe you, Han. You're just looking for a way to get out of here without my prohibition."
"I'm telling the truth, mom. What, you need to call him to ask him if that's true?" Hanna raised an eyebrow.
Ashley paused for a second before replying.
"So... You will be at the studio?" she asked.
"Of course. Where could we go?"
"I thought the studio stayed closed on weekends..."
Hanna snorted.
"Look, I don't know. But I know that I have to help him today. You can't forbid me this. It's work stuff, mom. And I owe Rivers a lot. I do have to do this." she said then.
Ashley sighed.
"Okay, if that's work... You can go. But you need to come back here right after that. What time do you have to go?" she asked.
"Four 'o clock." Hanna told her, saying the first thing come up to her mind.
"You have to be back by seven thirty."
Hanna rolled her eyes.
"Fine." she snapped then.
Ashley nodded toward the stairs, and Hanna walked to her room, sighing. Once entered her room and closed the door, she climbed on her bed and smirked. Someway she felt guilty because of the lies with her mom, but she was too happy about what had happened to Caleb. She took her mobile from her purse, which had thrown to the floor a few seconds earlier, and texted him.
Get the bathing suits ready. I'll see u later :P
He replied shortly after, and Hanna's smirk grew even more.
So we're officially going to share the pool? :)
If u still want to... ;)
Oh, you'll see ;)
Hanna let out a small giggle before drifting off to sleep, still a little tired from her last night.
She woke up around eleven in the morning. Her mobile was ringing loudly, and she cursed herself because she hadn't silenced it before falling asleep. She looked at the caller ID with narrowed eyes and picked up snorting.
"Spence, what the hell! It's Sunday morning!" she muttered.
"Good morning to you too, sunbeam. It's eleven, by the way."
"Sorry... What's up?" Hanna sighed.
"The girls and I wanna go to the mall later. You're with us, right?"
"Shit, I can't..." Hanna moaned.
"And why is that?"
"My mom put me in punishment because I got home like four or five hours ago... God, seems like I'm thirteen years old instead of twenty-three..."
"What? But... You got out of the club with me and Toby last night and it was only midnight! Where the fuck have you been for the whole night?"
Hanna stayed speechless for a moment. Dammit, she shouldn't have told her. And no, she was definitely not going to tell Spencer that she had been with Caleb at his place drinking wine, laughing and making out for the whole night. She couldn't, or at least not yet.
"Uhm... Yeah, well... You remember Holden, that friend of Sean's, right? Yeah, we just... We met at... Uhm, at the gas station... We just...started chatting and then he asked me if I wanted to come to his place... I said yes, because I honestly didn't want to come home yet... But no worries, absolutely nothing happened. We just watched a boring lame movie and then we both fell asleep on the couch. I woke up at six 'o clock because my mom was calling me freaking out... That's it." she stammered.
"Holden Strauss? I didn't know you liked him..."
"I don't! I was just bored, and he was nice, so I thought 'why not?', but... That's it, I told you."
"Well, whatever. There's no way you can convince your mom, right?"
"You know her, Spence. I guess I'll just see you guys at college tomorrow."
"Okay, Han. You're the usual troublemaker, by the way!"
Hanna chuckled slightly.
"I know, yeah... Buy something nice for me too, though!" she added then.
"We will. Bye, Han!"
"Bye, Spence!"
Hanna hung up and decided to go downstairs. She helped her mom cook lunch, feeling guilty for the worry she had caused her and for the lies about Caleb. They ate together, and even if Ashley was still kinda mad at Hanna and also still convinced about the punishment, she didn't act so tough with her. However, when it was four 'o clock, Hanna hastily left the house, promising her mom she was just going to help Caleb.
As soon as Hanna reached Caleb's house, she immediately smiled. She saw him shirtless, in the garden, mowing the grass. The sun was illuminating him and his arms were slightly covered by a light coat of sweat, which made his skin look pearled. His abs were hard and tense, and he looked absolutely hot. Charlie was lying on the carpet of the front door. Caleb lifted his gaze when he heard an engine and smiled brightly when he saw it was Hanna. She parked near his BMW and Caleb walked to the car in time to open the door for her, with that charming smile of his.
"Hey." he said as he helped her get out offering his hand.
"Hey." she replied, smiling and grabbing his hand.
She shut the door closed and locked eyes with him for a long moment before Charlie interrupted them almost jumping on Hanna.
"Hey, hello to you too!" she laughed, slightly bending over to give the dog some attentions.
"Shit, Charlie... Are you seriously cockblocking me?" Caleb muttered, stroking the dog's fur as well, as Hanna laughed more.
Caleb grabbed a tennis ball from the ground and throw it far enough in the garden to make Charlie run after it. Then, he pur his hands on Hanna's hips and leaned in so that their noses were touching.
"You look gorgeous, you know that?" he whispered.
Hanna smiled as she linked her arms behind his neck.
"Said the sexy shirtless man." she whispered back.
Caleb laughed slightly before joining their lips together, kissing her softly. It was sweet and short, but it still gave Hanna's legs a weakness feeling.
"How did it go with your mom?" he asked then, with their noses still slightly touching.
"Oh, well... She let me get out of the house just because I told her I was going to come to you. Obviously, she thinks it's about work, but... Yeah, I managed to come."
Caleb raised his eyebrows.
"Work? On Sunday?" he asked.
"Whatever. What could I say?"
Caleb laughed and then pulled away from her, but grabbing her hand.
"Let's go inside. We need to put the bathing suits on, right?" he smirked.
Hanna didn't reply but smirked back, following him inside holding his hand.
A/N: Hi everybody :) Sorry for the late! I totally can't believe this story has almost ninety reviews to just 6 chapters :O You guys are simply the best :D Seriously, your words and support mean a lot to me. I'm so so happy that you all are enjoying this ride that much! So I hope the morning-after chapter was enough good for you ;) Sooo... Things between Hanna and Caleb have just started :) What do you think it's happening next? Since things just started, I can tell you that they will keep this as a secret for a while. For the ones who want Caleb to open up more to Hanna about himself, I promise he will, you just have to wait a little and give their relationship some time to evolve ;) but you won't be disappointed :D Oh, you're welcome for the shirtless-sweaty-Caleb mowing the grass ^^ I'm sorry I can just describe but not show you, but well, still better than nothing, right? :P Well, then, thanks everyone for reading :) I'd be happy if you keep letting me know what you think of the development of the story, it helps me a lot to write... And, just for the record, I think you're gonna love the few following chapters ;) Thank you again for the support and happy PLL day — You're probably watching it right now but here in Italy I have to wait for it until tomorrow... Hope it's gonna be good :) Love you guys! xx -Atramea.