“What’s the matter?”
“No corkscrew,” she told him as she fought the urge to stomp her feet in frustration. “I can’t believe I got my hopes up for nothing!”
“Hannah…”
“Why can’t something go right here, huh? Isn’t it bad enough that we’re stuck? Is it too much to ask that maybe things could suck just a little less while we’re here?”
“Um…”
“And I get that it’s been all of fifteen minutes, but still!” She knew she was getting stupidly riled up and part of her wanted Gage to argue with her, but all he did was turn and reach for his satchel. It was crazy to think he had a corkscrew in there because…well, let’s face it, normal people didn’t carry corkscrews around for wine emergencies.
Or did they?
A minute later, he held up his keychain and smiled. “Crisis averted!”
It wasn’t obvious what he meant so she waited for him to explain.
“Believe it or not, this used to belong to my grandfather–it’s a Swiss Army knife.” He looked at her again before going on. “This particular one doesn’t have the corkscrew attachment, but we can definitely improvise.”
Was it wrong that she wanted to kiss him with gratitude? Or that she blurted out, “You’re my hero”?
All he did was smile at her as he stuck one of the attachments carefully into the cork before slowly twisting to pull it out. Hannah knew she’d never been so happy to hear that little popping sound in her entire life.
“Wine and cookies. This is just like some of my favorite girls’ nights!” she told him with a chuckle as he handed her the bottle. “Only…no cups.”
“Not to worry,” he murmured, reaching into his satchel again. “I’ve got my travel mug that I use for my coffee in the morning.” He grinned at her. “And it’s clean.” Pulling the lid off, he tossed it back into the bag. “We can either share the cup or one of us can just swig from the bottle. Your choice.”
There was a part of her that knew it was a bit unladylike to swig from the bottle, but…
“You use your cup. I don’t mind the bottle.”
“Deal,” he said with amusement.
Hannah poured him a generous portion before putting the bottle down. “If you’re interested, I have another tin of cookies that have a bit more of a variety in them.”
“I really want to say that I don’t want to eat all the cookies your mother sent with you, but…I have a feeling dinner won’t be happening any time soon.”
“Please, I don’t even want to think about it.” She reached into her weekender bag and pulled out the second tin she stashed in there earlier. Getting comfortable again, she took the top off and smiled. “Ooh…jackpot!”
Gage leaned closer and inhaled. “Damn. That smells delicious.”
And so do you…
“Okay,” she said a little too loudly, making him move back. “We’ve got some red velvet crinkle cookies, which are pretty good. Then we’ve got hot cocoa cookies with marshmallow–a personal favorite of mine.” She gingerly moved a few cookies aside to see what else was in there. “Peppermint kiss, peanut butter blossoms, and…gingerbread kiss.”
“Wow, that is a lot of choices.”
Nodding, she told him, “It’s only the tip of the iceberg. My mother has a Christmas cookie repertoire of about thirty. If I had stayed longer, I would have had an even bigger variety. For all I know, there are different ones in the other two containers she sent with me.”
“Seriously? She sent you home with four containers of cookies?”
“I don’t think she wanted to, but I begged and played up the whole how much I was going to miss out by not coming home for Christmas angle.” Picking up a peppermint kiss, she shrugged. “I’m not completely proud of it, but now I’m thankful I have them. For all we know, we can be stuck here all night.”
Beside her, he groaned. “Maybe we should limit how many cookies we eat from this point on. If we gorge on them and wine, things could turn ugly fast.”
“Ew…don’t even talk like that,” she teased. “We’re adults. Surely we can tell when we’ve had enough.”
He simply shrugged and took a red velvet cookie. “Red cookie and red wine. Not quite what I had in mind for dinner.”
“Agreed.” Turning her head, she looked at him. “What were you going to have?”
“I was going to make some fettuccine Alfredo–and not the frozen kind or something you heat up in the microwave–the real deal. And you?”
“Takeout. I was most definitely going to order some Chinese food while I unpacked and relaxed after a stressful day of travel.”
For the next few minutes, she told him about some of the humorous things she witnessed at the airport while waiting for her flight and he shared some of his favorite airport adventures with her. They drank wine and tasted cookies, and it was almost enough to make her forget they were stuck in an elevator that could plummet to the basement at any moment. But Gage was a great conversationalist, she realized. After they exhausted the topic of people-watching at the airport, he told her about his job–which sounded mind-numbing to her–and she talked about hers.
After a while, her stomach started to protest the amount of cookies she had eaten and Gage seemed to be on the same page. Packing the cookies away, she poured a little more wine in his cup before taking another swig from the bottle.
“So…I told you about my family,” Gage was saying. “And all my sisters. What about you? Any siblings?”
“Oh, yeah,” she said wearily. “A pair of overachieving ones.”
He let out a slightly drunken snort. “What does that even mean?”
“Two sisters and they’re both doctors.” Rolling her eyes, she took another drink. “I never wanted to be a doctor. Like ever. Can’t stand the sight of blood.”
He nodded.
“Doctors sort of run in my family. My dad’s a podiatrist and my mom’s a physical therapist.”
“Wow…and your sisters?”
“Angela’s a gynecologist and Ellen’s an orthopedic surgeon.” She let out a snort of her own. “Show-offs.”
“That’s a lot of doctors for one family.”
“Tell me about it. My dad’s brother and his whole family are doctors too! My uncle is a urologist, my aunt is a cardiologist, their son–my cousin Jeffery–is an endocrinologist, and their daughter–my cousin Amanda–is an oncologist. Whole damn family of overachievers. And then there’s me.”
“What’s wrong with you?” he asked.
Hannah glanced at him and grinned because he looked way more relaxed than he had when they first got on the elevator. His hair was slightly mussed and he had a perpetual grin going on and all in all, he was very appealing. Dark eyes, dark hair…kissable lips…
Maybe I should stop drinking…
“Hannah?”
“Hmm?”
“You were saying there was something wrong with you,” he prompted.
“I don’t know. I just never found any appeal in medicine. I’ve always been more artistic and creative and I think my parents were hoping it was just a hobby. The thing is, I’m good at what I do and it makes me happy.”