Chapter 14
When Emily re-entered the kitchen, Alison was on the phone and the rest of the room seemed tense. Paige approached Emily and handed her a much needed glass of wine. Emily's demeanor did not go unnoticed by Paige. She seemed less irritated than before but just as rattled. She tried to ignore it, but when she saw Hanna emerge, moments later, out of the same pantry her stomach dropped.
"Everything okay?" Paige asked Emily, putting a hand on her forearm. Emily just nodded and smiled, before taking a long sip of her wine. Paige watched Hanna walk back over to Jordan and take a glass of wine he was holding out for her. Something seemed off with them too.
Paige sighed to herself and took a large drink from her own glass of wine as she walked to the table to take a seat, knowing she'd need the strength to get through the evening. Once they were all seated, they waited patiently for Alison to hang up and join them for dinner.
"Who was on the phone?" Spencer finally asked the question on everyone's' mind.
"Lorenzo. He was calling with the time of death. It seems Charlotte was killed around 4am. He said this is good news. We are one step closer to finding her killer." Alison replied ominously, as if she was silently inspecting each guest's reaction to see if they were somehow involved in the murder. The girls all glanced at each other wondering exactly what Alison was up to.
"Let's say grace." She said in a much harsher tone than she had hoped. She had been doing her best to try to hide her suspicions.
Hanna could hear the conversation that was happening around her, but she hadn't stopped reeling from her talk with Emily in the pantry. She had wanted to say so much more. It always felt like there was never enough time, like there was never a right moment. Hanna hadn't realize before, but there was so much that Emily didn't know about how she felt and what really happened that summer. She didn't why exactly, but she knew that she needed to tell Emily. She needed her to know the truth, for once.
"Ahem…Hanna…hand." Jordan interrupted playfully, trying to get her attention so that they could say grace, wondering why she had been distracted and distant all evening.
Jordan broke her trance long enough for her to realize what was happening at the table around her. She flushed with embarrassment, having been caught not paying attention. She glanced around the table as an apology, but caught Spencer's knowing look. Ignoring it, she quickly put her hand in Jordan's on her right and looked to her left to find Emily sitting next to her with her hand held out towards her. Not wanting to seem awkward in front of Jordan, or the rest of the table, she placed her hand gently inside Emily's.
The simple touch of their skin sent chills and heat through both girls' bodies. The two temperatures seemed to converge in Hanna's chest where they were battling for dominance and causing her heart to beat wildly. She opened her eyes briefly to see if Emily had noticed, if she had a similar reaction and found Emily looking at her curiously. Emily tensed and Hanna's hand twitched.
Spencer was surprise at Alison's version of 'grace' and opened her eyes halfway through the blessing to see if anyone else was reacting similarly. However, instead of finding other confused faces, she found that only Hanna and Emily's eyes were open, but glued on each other. Spencer quickly shot a glance over to Jordan to see if he noticed the look being exchanged by his fiancé and her former lover, but his eyes were glued on Caleb, whose head was still bent down towards the table.
The realization finally hit her that Jordan must have thought Caleb was her more recent ex. It explained all of the weird behavior and Jordan's curiosity. But it didn't explain why he wasn't more curious about Emily. Unless he didn't know about her at all. Which would explain why Emily and Hanna seemed to be fighting about something.
Spencer's thoughts were cut short when she heard Alison conclude "grace," which honestly sounded much more like a threat than a blessing.
Spencer subtly kept he eyes on both girls as they quickly pulled their hands away and turned towards their respective significant others. She also noticed that they spent the remainder of the evening avoiding each other whenever possible.
The majority of dinner conversation was light and superficial. Most of the people around the table knew there were plenty of topics "off-limits" for polite dinner party etiquette, but the only wildcard was Alison. The girls had not spent much time catching up with Alison since being back in Rosewood, so she had plenty of questions for each of them. Questions not all of them wanted to discuss so publicly or even at all.
"So Jordan, I'm so glad you were able to make it. It's nice to finally meet Hanna's fiancé. Have you set a date or location yet?" Alison asked, feeling left out of the loop when it came to Hanna's life.
"Actually, I was going to surprise Hanna with the news, but since you asked…. My uncle called me today and said we could use his estate in the Hamptons. As long as we do it before the end of the summer." Jordan replied, looking over at Hanna to gauge her excitement at the news.
"This summer?! Like as in a few months?!" Hanna asked as she practically choked on her wine. She could practically feel Emily's eyes on her, waiting for her response.
"Wow nice. My parents have a place in The Hamptons. It's beautiful in the summer!" Paige chimed in, trying to ignore Emily's subtle discomfort at the topic of conversation.
"I know you love the Hamptons….I thought you'd be more excited." Jordan says, confused as to why she wasn't jumping at the opportunity.
"I am excited. It's just a lot to think about having to plan a whole wedding in just a few months." Hanna explained, not wanting to hurt Jordan with her lack of excitement, but also not wanting to hurt Emily but seeming overly excited.
Spencer noticed the obvious tension on the conversation and wanted to lighten the mood. "Hanna, you know I'm always available if you need organizing tips." Spencer joked.
"Speaking of which…how about you guys….are there wedding bells in your future?" Alison asked setting her sights on Spencer and Caleb now, instead of Jordan and Hanna.
"Umm…we've talked about it. But honestly right now we are both more focused on the campaign and our careers." Spencer replied as Caleb smiled in agreement.
"I get that, but you two have been together forever. Isn't it about time?" Alison kept on probing.
"Not forever. Four years isn't an unreasonable amount of time." Caleb replied while laughing nervously.
"You guys have been together for four years?" Jordan asked, confused on the timeline of their relationship vs. when he and Hanna would have broken up .
"Yeah, it was the summer after sophomore year. Spencer had been in Paris visiting Emily and Hanna and then decided to stay an extra week in Spain. It just happened to be the same week I was there. It was quite the chance encounter." Caleb responded before Hanna could chime in and change the conversation. She could tell that Jordan was starting to realize there were holes in the story he believed to be true, but she just hoped it was more curiosity than suspicion that was spurring on his questions.
"Emily, I didn't know you visited Hanna in Paris. You should've made it out to London. I personally prefer it over Paris. Plus, we could have met years ago." Jordan joked, not realizing the painful wounds he was unintentionally opening.
She knew that Jordan didn't know how his words had hurt her, how they reminded her of their painful break-up and how Hanna choose London over her. She wanted to bite her tongue and laugh it off, but she couldn't help herself. She stared at Hanna and responded, "London has always been on my bucket list. Hopefully, I'll make it there...someday."
It quickly occurred to everyone at the party, except Jordan, that he clearly didn't know the full story. Even Paige, who hadn't seen most of the dinner guests in years, knew more of the story than he did. They could all feel the tension building between Hanna and Emily. It would have been natural for anyone to feel uncomfortable when having their break-up is being openly discussed, but it really wasn't being discussed at all, because Jordan remained clueless to the subtext in Emily's response or the change in mood around the table.
Finally the tension became to unbearable and Spencer decided to break the awkward silence. "Whether London beats Paris is debatable, but nothing tops Rome. The architecture, the food, the wine! Speaking of which, I'm going to open another bottle, anyone want some?"
Everyone let out a soft chuckle at Spencer's joke, knowing they were all in need of more wine after the turn of events the evening had taken. Jordan finally caught on to everyone's change in demeanor but was felt like he missed the punch line on Spencer's joke. Everyone around him laughed, but he wasn't sure why. He remained quieter than usual the rest of the evening, feeling self-conscious that perhaps he had said something wrong.
Thankfully, the rest of the evening went on rather uneventfully, but neither Emily nor Hanna dared to look at each other, for fear what might lie in the other's eyes. When the night finally concluded, they all said their goodbyes, which resulted in more than a few awkward hugs.
Emily asked Paige to drive her home, figuring that she shouldn't spend another night away unless she wanted her mother to hound her with a million questions. Paige understood and honored Emily's request. Partially thankful to have the night to gather her thoughts on how she wanted to bring the topic of Hanna up to Emily. She needed to make sure things were really over for Emily. It was clear that Hanna had moved on, but there was something about Emily was acting around Hanna that worried Paige. She just wanted to make sure she brought up the subject delicately. She didn't want to come off like she didn't trust Emily or push her away with suspicion.
The car ride home was relatively quiet, both Paige and Emily were lost in their own thoughts. Emily could tell that Paige had something on her mind after they left Alison's, but she was too emotionally exhausted to ask her what was wrong. Emily couldn't help but replay the conversation in the pantry over and over again. What did Hanna mean when she said that of course she kept the table?
At first Emily was just happy that she obviously meant something to Hanna, but then after seeing Hanna's reaction to her touch at dinner made her secretly wonder if there was more to it. Maybe she wasn't as happy with Jordan as she seemed? There was a time that Emily would have been delighted to know she still had some kind of effect on Hanna, but now it just made her feel guilty. She was with Paige now and Hanna was with Jordan. That was the way it was supposed to be so they could go back to being friends. Right?
Hanna and Jordan returned back to the loft after dinner. Jordan told Hanna he was exhausted from traveling, so he headed straight to the bedroom to go to sleep. Only he couldn't sleep. He kept thinking back to the events of the evening and all of the things that didn't make sense. He had expected Caleb to have reservations about meeting him and to act tentatively around him, but he hadn't. He recounted the details of Spencer's Madrid story and how the timing wasn't quite right. Most of all he couldn't stop thinking of how strange Hanna acted throughout the night. She seemed distracted and cold.
Hanna stayed in the living room, knowing she was too distracted to sleep and didn't want to keep Jordan up, knowing he had to travel back to New York the next day. She did too, but she just couldn't turn her mind off. She kept replaying everything over and over in her mind. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get the piercing look in Emily's eyes when Jordan mentioned the table, their interaction in the pantry, the touch of Emily's hand against her own, out of her head. And if she was being honest, she really wasn't trying all that hard.