Not helpful. Not safe how? Because too many people know the code or because the gangster who shot up Richie is sitting outside watching me? I’m too scared to ask for clarification and thankfully Hudson doesn’t give me time. With his long legs it only takes four steps for him to reach the living room where he pulls back the mini blinds and sheer curtains. Hudson peers out at the empty streets below the window. No one goes out on Christmas Eve.
“Would you like a tour?” I ask because nothing else comes to mind and I need to fill the silence.
The minute he nods his head in acceptance I regret the offer. I didn’t think before speaking again. He’s basically seen the place. Besides a small bathroom and the tiny bedroom that barely fits a bed and dresser, the next biggest thing in the apartment is the walk-in closet. It’s a wonderful closet.
Hudson and I walk through the apartment, and the more I show of each tiny space the more self-conscious I grow. He probably lives in a huge McMansion or something. I’ve got an idea of what the East Coast is like. Big houses that fall right out of a Martha Stewart catalog. All those golden retrievers wearing bandanas that match their bearded owners’ plaid flannel shirts.
Cupcake, the younger of my two guinea pigs, squeaks in her cage and runs in a circle. Her little feet kick out bedding onto the floor. Her reddish brown spotted white body disappears under the little hammock in her cage. The space is tiny, so she kicks out her sister guinea pig, Ginny, a black, brown, and white combination who sheds hair anytime you look at her. She’s worse than a dog. But I couldn’t get a dog past Ryland’s vigilant eyes. Quite frankly the only reason my guinea pigs have gone so long without being noticed is Ryland never enters my apartment. Marissa is sure to keep him far away from the cage and the possibility he’ll hear them. She finds my flouting of the no pet rule hilarious.
Hudson recoils even though he’s nowhere near her splash zone. “What is that?”
“A guinea pig. You’ve never seen a guinea pig?”
Hudson steps closer hesitantly. “Not in person. It’s a giant furry rat.”
“Hey! Cupcake doesn’t like to be described as a rat.” I open the top of the guinea pig house and snatch Cupcake from the bottom. We snuggle noses to make up for Hudson’s comment and then I put her back. “Don’t you like animals?”
Hudson’s lips make a hard line as he studies the guinea pigs in their cage. “I used to like dogs, but I had an incident recently.”
“Incident?”
“Don’t ask,” he waves away my question. “Wasn’t there a rule on the piece of paper stuck to your refrigerator, which said no pets?”
How the hell did he see that? He didn’t walk in the kitchen. What else has he noticed? Hopefully not the bra hanging from the bedroom door handle.
“The rules are from Ryland, the landlord. He’s lightened up a lot since I moved in a few months ago.” Kind of. A little. In small ways. Mostly when he’s out of town.
“You’re allowed to have them?” he asks because he can’t let it go. I’ve been alone in his presence an hour and already I’m annoyed. Obviously, I lack people skills.
“Well,” I smack my lips together. “The important part is Ryland isn’t aware.”
“I see.”
“I’m best friends with his wife, so it’s okay,” I rush to explain myself.
The expression on his face says he doesn’t believe me. “Ryland, I met him at the party. He’s the soccer player?” Hudson asks as he walks back out to the living room.
I nod even though I’m two steps behind and he doesn’t see. “First Aspen lived in this apartment when her boyfriend, now husband, was renting the penthouse from his friend Ryland. He’s a major video game person. Finn, not Ryland. Finn invented Dragons Reborn, I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it, but he sold the game for mega money. Now he’s super rich and married Aspen in the fall. Then Simone met Trey. Now Simone used to be a top executive in New York, then she lost her job, and her mom died, and she lost her apartment here in San Francisco. So, she lived here with Aspen but it only lasted two weeks then she ended up with an apartment in Finn’s building.”
Hudson looks back at me as I suck in a breath from my run-on sentences. “Why does she live with Finn?”
I shake my head. “No, not like that. Finn’s company maintains the apartments in his building.”
“Does he let everyone live there?”
“No, let me finish the story. Simone gets to live there because when she was looking for a job Trey offered her the secretary position with the company. And then yada yada they ended up together.”
“That’s it? Yada yada and story over?” Hudson asks picking up his bag from by the front door with a smile.
Men. Do they not understand how women tell stories?
“Who sat at the table with you?”
“Oh, those two were Clare and Grant. Clare runs the San Francisco Community Center where she helps teenagers and… I’m not sure what Grant does. But he works with money. Anyway, Grant bought the house Clare and her best friend, Drew, live in. They live there together now.”
“All three of them?” Hudson asks in astonishment as if he believes I’m describing a porno video.
“Not like that.”
