The Lifetimes I Remembered

Chapter Eight: Hannah

Hannah carefully tied the apron around her waist, her eyes never leaving the guy who was busy wiping tables. Ivan looked casual and carefree, talking to customers with such ease. There were moments when his smile would drop and she couldn’t help but assume that the topic must be something he didn’t like.

She couldn’t say that Ivan was a readable character or it was her memories of previous lifetimes that gave her judgment on him. But she would be glad if it was the former because it meant she wasn’t going crazy, having memories of lives that she should be unaware of having lived.

“Hannah!” Hazel called her out, snapping her hands in front of Hannah. She was only dropping by at the café. She and Emerson had the day off. Hannah and Ivan had the after-school shift together and it was probably the first time that they were plotted to have the same shift.

Hannah looked at Hazel. She was still slightly annoyed by how obnoxious Hazel could be and how clingy the girl could get, but since Hazel always latched onto her and since their schedule at school was almost the same, Hazel evidently grew on her.

“Yes?”

“You have the day off tomorrow, right? Do you want to work on that History project assigned to us?” Hazel asked. Since Hannah barely knew anyone at school, Hazel had volunteered to be her partner for the History project Mr. Danvers gave out.

Hannah nodded. She didn’t have anything better to do anyway other than try and search for Dominic’s birth parents. She had tried to contact Camilla, Dom’s birth mother but she was living in China and seemed to be too busy to bother. She’d been trying to figure it out all week but miserably failing.

She needed a break from it and the History project seemed like a really good idea.

“Sure, I’ll be there,” Hannah answered, separating the bills from the earlier shift into a neat pile. Ivan would be the one to take it home to Cheryl later, along with what they were going to make when theirs was over.

Hazel smiled brightly as if Hannah coming over to theirs was the best thing ever. “Great! Oh, and you and Ivan should close up early. A storm’s coming and storms are the worst here in Blue Valley.”

She waved goodbye at Hannah and then headed to where Ivan was serving a couple of college kids. Hazel clung onto Ivan’s arms and he immediately swatted her away. From where she stood, Hannah saw the flash of hurt in Hazel’s eyes at Ivan’s rejection.

“Ivan! Give Hannah a ride home later. I’ll leave my car here as Joe had requested. I’ll save some dinner for you in case you get hungry and you have your medicine with you right? Cheryl doesn’t want your flu to worsen,” Hazel reminded with a small smile, the worry evident in her tone.

Hannah hasn’t noticed the difference in Ivan but as soon as Hazel mentioned it, she saw the darker set of bags under his eyes and how tired he looked. She wondered why he didn’t ask Hazel to fill in for him. “I could’ve filled in for you, you know.”

Ivan shook his head. “I told you, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“Then give Hannah a ride home, okay?” Hazel said, leaving the café before Ivan could respond.

Hannah turned to Ivan. “It’s okay. You don’t have to drive me home.”

Ivan furrowed his eyebrows and headed to the counter, where Hannah was stationed. He handed her an order and then said, “Didn’t you hear the queen? Storm’s coming. I’m driving you home.”

“I can call my brother,” Hannah said, shaking her head. She wasn’t sure that Dom would agree given how spiteful he was towards her nowadays but there had to be even the slightest bit of care that remained in his heart.

Ivan rolled his eyes at her. “I’m driving you home and that isn’t up for discussion. We’ll close early before the storm worsens.”

Their plan on closing early didn’t happen. They were going to close at around 7 PM, which wasn’t their usual time, since there were no customers. Louis had already left at around 6:30 and both Ivan and Hannah were preparing to close the shop.

Hannah glanced at Ivan who was placing the cash that they’ve garnered the entire day in an envelope to bring to Cheryl. Somewhere in the middle of their shift, the heater broke and it had grown colder by the second, it was also one of the reasons that the customers stopped coming. No one wanted to have coffee in a freezing café.

Ivan coughed and groaned. As the temperature in the room dropped due to the broken heater, Ivan’s cold had gotten worse. Hannah turned to him and said, “We should go home now, Ivan.”

He nodded in agreement and grabbed the keys but just as they made their way to the entrance of the café, the wind picked up and lightning struck, the rain fell heavily and both of them stared wide-eyed at the disaster waiting for them outside.

“We can run to the car,” Ivan said, his voice sounding different because of his cold. Hannah nodded in agreement and both of them dashed outside. But Ivan still had to lock the café so he was soaking wet in just a matter of seconds.

“Oh my god!” Hannah suddenly screamed, staring at the falling tree with frightened eyes. She couldn’t begin to explain what happened next. One moment, she was standing in the rain, scared the falling tree that was sure to hit the two of them, and the next they were back in the safety of the café.

“Are you okay?” Ivan asked her and she turned to him, still shaken by what had happened. “The wind was so strong; it must’ve caused the tree to fall. They did say that Blue Valley gets the worst side of the storms every time.”

Hannah couldn’t speak for a moment. Numbly, she nodded at Ivan and noticed how wet their clothes were. “There are extra clothes that Hazel mentioned she had lying around here. She said she meant to donate them to Goodwill but ended up unloading them here and completely forgot about them.”

“Okay. I’ll try to call someone for help,” Ivan said as she headed at the back of the café. She managed to salvage two worn out shirts that would fit the two of them, basketball shorts for Ivan and a neon yellow jogging pants. She changed into the clothes before handing Ivan his.

“Great,” Ivan muttered with a sigh. He pulled out his phone and began punching numbers. After a while, groaned in defeat, “Lines are dead. I guess we’re really stuck here tonight.”

“At least we have light,” Hannah said but just as the words left her mouth, the bulb sparked and Hannah jumped to Ivan’s side. Just like that, they had no power. She looked at Ivan sheepishly, “I guess I spoke too soon.”

They were stuck in the café for the night.

Ivan changed his clothes and went back to where Hannah was. She was seated in one of the tables of the café, trying in vain to contact someone. She glanced at Ivan and noticed that he was vaguely shaking.

He noticed her staring. “It’s cold.”

Hannah stood up and realized that he must’ve been shaking because of the rain and earlier, Hazel had mentioned he wasn’t feeling too good. She quickly headed to the kitchen to fetch him a warm washcloth. “Stay here. You need to be warmed up.”

As much as Hannah had been trying to avoid him, she couldn’t fathom not helping him.

She sat in front of him and wiped his face with the cloth tenderly. Ivan had his eyes closed; his breathing was beginning to go ragged. “Do you feel dizzy?”

Ivan could only nod. Hannah helped him up and let him settle on the couch. He sprawled on the couch, resting his head with his eyes closed. For a moment, a sudden fear struck Hannah. She imagined Ivan lying motionless in front of her, dead.

“Hannah?”

His voice brought him back the present, erasing any thoughts of a dead Ivan that had haunted her memories since she woke up from the accident. “Yes?”

“I don’t feel too good,” Ivan admitted, his eyes still closed, “I feel nauseous.”

“Lay down,” Hannah commanded and he obliged, resting himself on the couch gently. Hannah removed her coat from herself and placed it on Ivan since his shaking continued and became evident. “I’ll make you something hot.”

“You could just lie beside me.” Hannah raised her eyebrows at his suggestion and even in his weak state, he managed to smile. “Body heat.”

Shaking her head, Hannah headed to the kitchen, saying, “I’m going to make you something hot to eat since we’re stuck here for the rest of the night.”

She couldn’t make out Ivan’s response but she couldn’t stop the smile that formed on her lips despite the situation they were in. She had avoided the guy since the last shift they had together and had busied herself figuring out her brother’s biological parents yet no matter how much she had veered the other direction, some way, she would still end up smack dab right into Ivan.

“Here,” Hannah said once she was back in the room with Ivan. He had his eyes closed but opened them once he heard her voice. He sat up a little bit but Hannah saw how weak he seemed at the moment and remembered how Ivan isn’t his best self when he was sick.

She cursed at herself for even allowing herself to remember that.

“I’ll feed you,” Hannah couldn’t stop herself from saying. Ivan looked taken aback for a moment but allowed her to do so. The silence around the room was palpable and the sound of lightning and thunder ripped through it in such a sudden way that caused her to jump.

Ivan chuckled. “You’re still scared of thunderstorms.”

The comment made Hannah pause and Ivan seemed to realize what he just said. He opened his mouth to speak to try to cover it but couldn’t seem to think of what to say. Hannah fed him in silence and once his soup was done, she set it aside and began eating her own.

She could feel Ivan staring at her, could feel those pools of ocean blue eyes burning a hole through here, seeing her soul. For a moment, she thanked the heavy rain outside, because at least the noise that it made covered the frantic beating of her heart.

Hannah finished her meal in silence and then headed back to the kitchen to wash the dishes they had used. When she came back, Ivan was still awake and he was shivering. She noticed that the temperature had dropped again and the coolness of the outside was starting to seep faster in the room.

She knelt beside him and rubbed her hands together and placed them on each side of Ivan’s face, unable to stop herself from doing such an intimate gesture. Ivan’s ocean eyes stared at her and she saw a flash of emotion in his eyes but she didn’t want to name what it was.

But it didn’t help, not even the slightest. Ivan’s skin still felt cold and she worried he might end up getting hypothermia. She had managed to shelter herself at the canopy the café had at the side when they were outside but Ivan was trying to lock up the café and there wasn’t much shelter in the entrance. The rain had soaked him head to toe when he was already sick.

She remembered he mentioned body heat and although she knew that he was joking, and that he had a girlfriend, and that there were risks she knew were possible. But her worry for Ivan erased all the thoughts that haunted her.

“Scoot over,” Hannah said and Ivan did as he was asked, the confusion evident in his eyes. Hannah lay beside him and faced him, their faces too close and Ivan had to wrap his arms around her so she wouldn’t fall off to bed.

Hannah closed her eyes for a moment, savoring his touch. The familiarity of it was comforting and Ivan held her with such security. She opened her eyes and met his ocean blue gaze. “Not one word to anyone about this.”

Ivan smiled and Hannah swore that the entire world suddenly came to a stop. “You’re just hugging me to give me body heat. There’s no harm in that.”

Hannah rolled her eyes but allowed Ivan to pull her closer. In that moment, even if she knew in her heart that it was fleeting, she allowed herself to melt in the embrace of the only person that she truly remembered, the seemed to be engraved in her brain and heart.

For a terrifying second, she realized she was teetering on an edge and she was so close to falling.

And she actually wanted to.