“Everything okay, big guy?” I ask tapping him slightly on the shoulder. In a friendly fashion of course. Not because I like the warmth of his body against mine, even if it is only a shoulder.
“Why do you meet at this particular comic shop?” he asks.
I have to think about it for a second. Why do we me here? Oh right. “It was too cold for Aspen at our regular location. We came here last year and we liked it so much we kept coming back. She doesn’t handle the cold very well.”
I may be slightly understating how much Aspen hates the cold. Anytime it gets below forty-five degrees she walks around in her heavy winter coat. We had a slight dusting of snow one year and I worried she was going to faint. Southern California girls cannot handle themselves up here.
“Why don’t you go to Aspen’s house? Or go back to your original location?”
“We used to sit on this big gorgeous hill over in a city park. It was pretty.” I could talk Aspen into it once the temperature warms up in the spring.
Hudson looks at me in horror. “Out in the open on a hill?”
I nod, but slowly because I worry he’s setting me up for a trap.
“Hudson, we’re fine. I’m fine. They’re fine. You’re fine.”
He mumbles something under his breath and then turns back to continue surveying out the window. “This big ass window says differently.”
I’ve tap him on the shoulder once more since there’s nothing else to do for him. Once Finn gets here with our breakfast burritos, I’ll eat as quickly as possible and allow him to sweep me back to my apartment. It’s the least I can do for the man. Otherwise he might suffer a heart attack. And nobody wants a hot dead guy lying on the floor. Least of all me.
There’s nothing I can do for him except get through the interrogation and eat breakfast fast, so after giving him another thirty seconds of my silent condolences I turn back to my over fluffed cushion.
“Why aren’t Simone and Trey here?” I ask once I’ve repositioned myself.
“Business meeting in New York. He’s finalizing new investors for the next project.”
Finn has sold lots of games over the last two years, but only the big ones earn headlines. His most recent was definitely a headliner.
“Clare made up an excuse about being short staffed at the community center. And since it doesn’t involve a vague illness, we’re pretty sure it’s the truth.”
I laugh. I’m not yet accustomed to Clare’s extreme need to get out of commitments with the group, but she’s gotten much better over the last few months. Normally she’s happy to be here, but her tendencies to dodge group activities rival my own.
“Enough with trying to change the subject,” Marissa cuts Aspen off. You’d think they’d run out of questions, but you’d be wrong. With fewer women here, Marissa isn’t stymied by additional people, and her laser focus is dead on in smaller groups. It’s scary.
“Okay, we want to hear what you did, which isn’t sex but is close enough you’d blush over it? Where were you when this happened? And how many times?” Marissa ticks off one finger for each question in her arsenal.
I sigh, releasing a deep breath. There’s no way around this. Best to meet death head on.
“Okay, listen,” I say and watch as Aspen hits Marissa on her shoulder with the back of her hand as hard as possible. They both stare forward and smile like two small children waiting for me to pass out the candy.
“It happened New Year’s Eve. Things got a little hot and heavy, but we ended it before something sexy happened.”
“Why?” Marissa asks with her mouth hanging open in shock.
“I don’t know,” I say lifting a shoulder. I don’t know a lot of answers lately. “He’s going back to Maine as soon as the situation is cleared up and then what would we do?”
“I was ready to follow Ryland to Italy, or Mexico, or some other godforsaken country that would have beautiful buildings but not this comic shop. Plus, it’s so far in the future. Live a little.”
“Yeah,” Aspen chimes in. “Don’t you remember the whole ‘eat the burrito’ shit?”
“He’s your burrito. Get on top and ride him,” Marissa says in a fashion only she could say with a straight face.
“I’m not the burrito riding kind of girl.” It’s a stupid lame excuse, I’m aware, but as soon as we were to do the deed, my mind would go in overdrive. I’m not a ride him and leave him girl. There are times I wish I was. Although the longer Hudson is here, I worry I’ll be heartbroken when he leaves even if we don’t have sex. It’s easy to forget he’s here keeping me safe and will go home eventually when it’s just the two of us hanging out in my apartment.
“Besides his anxiety prone moments,” Aspen says nodding her head to Hudson who is standing ramrod straight in front of the window his foot tapping faster and louder, “he seems like a nice guy. He’s not the kind to try and do you in the front seat of a Honda Civic.”
“Hey!” Marissa says, hitting Aspen without any force. “It was a Honda Accord, and I told that story in the strictest of confidence.”
