“What the hell are you doing here?” Hope hissed even as she kept a casual smile on her face. 

Ryan furrowed his eyebrows. “I didn’t just show up here. Landon invited me. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“You shouldn’t have come.” Hope’s eyes grew dark as she sipped on her wine again.

“I couldn’t just turn down the invitation,” Ryan said with a smirk. 

Hope tilted her head and narrowed her eyes at his smug expression. “It apparently wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Well I couldn’t exactly show up to one of these while I was sleeping with his wife, now could I? But now that we’re no longer a thing - no, wait, were never a thing? It’s all so very confusing.” He paused while Hope just glared at him. “I would’ve given you a heads up if you didn’t change your number to avoid me.” 

“That’s not why I changed it.” Another sip of wine. At this rate, she’d need a second glass - or a third or a fourth. 

“Then why’d you change it?” 

Hope stared at him for a beat. “Come with me.”

Ryan watched incredulously as Hope slipped the attendant a hundred-dollar bill so they would leave them alone in the coat closet. 

“Must be nice to have money like that,” he quipped. 

“Focus.” Hope faced him in the low light. “You remember how I told you about the flowers and the creepy poem?”

“You mean when you accused me of sending them? Yeah.” 

“Well those weren’t all the weird messages I got.” Hope launched into retelling the entire story, all the way up to the text she got just now - the one she hadn’t told anyone about. By the end of the story, she was shaking and close to tears. Ryan took her hands in his. 

“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” His thumbs stroked the back of her hands. 

“No, it’s not.” Hope blinked back hot tears. “Because I thought it was over when I put up all those cameras and changed my number, but it’s not.”

“Shh, shh.” Ryan put his hand on the back of her head and pressed it to his chest. 

She closed her eyes and leaned into his embrace.

“You’re safe right now, okay? They can’t get you here. I won’t let anyone hurt you.” 

Hope nodded and wound her arms around him. For all her trying, here she ended up again, right back in his arms. She wanted to stay there for the rest of the day. She couldn’t imagine walking back out into the gallery and facing everyone again - her clients and her friends and her husband. It was all too much. All she could do was listen to Ryan’s heart beating steadily in his chest and let it soothe her.

She tilted his head up to look at him, meeting his eyes as he smoothed her hair back from her face. 

“Ryan …” 

“I know,” he said quietly. 

Hope shook her head. “Not that.” She stood on her tiptoes to press her lips to his. 

“Oh.” His hands moved down to hold the side of her face, and he kissed her back. 

“The attendant won’t be back for a bit.” Hope was already shrugging the shoulders of her elegant dress off and trying to kick off her ridiculous heels at the same time.