Re: [Ren's apartment.]
She let him talk about the book. The book was safe, and the book was comfortable, and even his commentary about faded pages and curl-soaked edges was something known. She was comfortable there, upon the couch, curled a little sideways as she looked at him. Her feet were up and tucked beside her, and she finished her beer and set it aside, taking just a moment after to rest her elbow on the back of the couch and prop her temple against her curled fingers. "I think it's the type of book that people read and re-read, and that makes them want to change things. They don't want to be the people in the book. The story is beautiful, but it's really, really bittersweet. It's about lost things, lost time." She'd thought about it a lot after, about the fact that time was both endless and borrowed for her, and she wasn't sure if she was making the most of the now.
She wasn't expecting him to come back to Louis so quickly, but she didn't so much as blink cornflower blue in surprise. Temple against her fist, she listened. She had liked Louis, and she had liked the woman, the one Louis became, but she didn't like them anymore. Anyone who couldn't see how wonderful Ren was, who hurt him, wasn't someone Hannah could like.
Hannah almost, almost interrupted. She almost jumped in and told him that he didn't need to apologize to someone who had hurt him, but she pressed her lips together and waited. She didn't want him not to talk, and she wanted him to spill everywhere if he needed to. So, shhhhh, and she waited, and she listened, but that was all he said, and then he mentioned New Year's Eve. She smiled. "I went to a party in the city with a really good friend. It was beautiful, and I won't ever forget it," she said truthfully. But she wasn't the one who needed talk, and she knew that. She'd known Ren long enough now, and she knew him well enough now, and she knew.
"Why did you need to apologize? I don't think you said anything wrong, not when you told me about it," she said, and she stood to get them both fresh beers. It was maybe a little entitled, moving around his space like she belonged there, but Hannah was never, ever aware of things like that. She came back, and she sat again, and she sat the two beers on the coffee table. Her head was a little swimmy, and she giggled slightly before curling up again at his side. "You can say what you're feeling," she told him. "I know you don't like talking very much, not about Ren, but it might be good. You didn't do anything, anything wrong." She looked over at him.