Page 42 of Novel Problems

“Hey, Hannah.” George paused. Her voice sounded different. Perhaps more tender than usual, or slightly tentative?

Shit, she’s going to talk about the kiss.

My heart skipped a beat.

“Yes?” I said. I drew in a breath and held it, waiting for George’s response.

“You mentioned your hearing loss made it hard to hear at the café. Is there anything I can do to help with that?”

I exhaled at the unexpected question.

As I considered how to respond, the sun’s warmth seemed to penetrate deeper through my body. My hearing loss had happened gradually over the past few years, its cause unknown. There was a history of hearing loss in my family, so it might have had a genetic component. The only person I’d really spoken to about it was Tania, but she hadn’t been very sympathetic. She’d certainly never asked ifthere was anything she could do to help and had grumbled every time I turned subtitles on the TV, complaining it was distracting. I think I’d known deep down that Tania’s response wasn’t reasonable, but it had undermined my self-confidence, making me feel guilty or nervous every time I had to ask her or anyone else to repeat something.

“Thanks for asking. I really just need to find my hearing aid.” Or go and buy a new one, which I probably should do. But the thought of forking out thousands of dollars was not appealing, especially not when I had so much financial uncertainty at the moment. Once I turned in my manuscript andThe Realm of Furieswas released and was, fingers crossed, selling well, I’d feel more comfortable about spending that kind of money. “But the main things you can do are facing me when you speak, being aware that if you’re on my left side, I may have trouble hearing you, speaking clearly, and not having the background music up too loud, which you don’t do anyway.”

Novel Gossip’s brick walls, expansive glass front windows, and wooden floors weren’t great in terms of noise reduction, but they were gorgeous, and there was no way I was about to suggest George cover them up for me.

“Thank you. That’s good to know. And if you don’t hear me, please tell me. I’d rather that than you accidentally agreeing to something you don’t want to do.”

I laughed. “Yeah. Although, it turned out pretty well last time.” Apart from the days of guilt and agonizing over when to tell George, which were decidedly not enjoyable. And us both nearly having a heart attack when George discovered me signing books in the middle of the night.

“Hey, I’m not complaining. It’s the best miscommunication I’ve ever had.”

My heart warmed at George’s words and I let out a deep breath, soaking in the sunshine. Some of the general anxiety I’d been holding floated away on the warm, gentle breeze. While this wasn’t how I’d anticipated my afternoon playing out, it might be exactly what I needed.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

GEORGE

While being stranded on a kayak with my employee-slash-favorite-author-slash-crush was not consistent with my plan to keep a professional distance from Hannah until I’d had more time to assess the situation, it was very pleasant. Extremely pleasant.

And on the plus side, now that I was lying on the kayak, eyes closed, the sun’s rays warming my skin, I couldn’t see Hannah in her distractingly figure-hugging tank top that was only partially covered by the life jacket. And there was definitely no way I could kiss her without capsizing the kayak and us both ending up in the river.

It also made it easier to ask Hannah if there was anything I could do to accommodate her hearing loss—something that’d been weighing on my mind ever since she’d mentioned it on Thursday night. I’d been worried I might use the wrong words or accidentally offend her, but if I had, she’d given me no indication. It was a shame, really, that I hadn’t had enough time to work out what to do about our kiss, because this would have been the perfect opportunityto raise the subject. Although, perhaps not, because if it didn’t go well, then my only options would be to abandon ship or stay lying there, in awkward silence, until we were rescued. No, our current state, relaxing in the sun, enjoying the gorgeous weather and Hannah’s company, was too pleasant. I didn’t want to rock the boat—literally or figuratively—by bringing up the kiss. I exhaled.

“You know, I don’t think I’ve felt this relaxed for months. Maybe years,” I said. Conscious that Hannah had her eyes shut and that she’d just said it was easier to hear when she could see the speaker’s face, I made an effort to project my voice and speak clearly.

“Tell me about it. Perhaps we should try getting stranded on kayaks more often.”

I smiled at the warmth in Hannah’s voice. “We could set up a business where we offer people a relaxing meditative experience in kayaks without paddles.”

“Yesss! We could call it the Paddleless Peace Experience.”

I chuckled. “Or Oarless Oasis.”

Hannah laughed. “I love it! Where can I sign up?”

We spent the next twenty minutes imagining our new business, making suggestions that were more and more absurd. At one point, Hannah laughed so much I could feel the kayak shaking.Damn, I like spending time with her.

Finally exhausting the topic, we lay there in comfortable silence.

Well, it was initially comfortable.

The longer I lay there, the longer I had to think about Hannah and the elephant in the kayak. Our kiss.

The more I thought about it, the more I itched to know where I stood with Hannah. It wasn’t in my nature to put off a conversation like this. Not only that, but myplan to wait until after my day off had been based on me keeping our interactions professional and avoiding one-on-one time with her. I hadn’t factored in us being stranded in a tandem kayak in the middle of the Hudson River.

Would waiting until Tuesday to speak to Hannah really give me more comfort about my staffing concerns or clarify my feelings for Hannah? Josie had done a great job today. It seemed highly unlikely that everything would fall apart tomorrow without me, especially with Ben and Hannah working as well.

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