I bounce the pad of my thumb over accept and then decline, accept and then decline.
“Rosie?”
“Yeah?”
“I have to go,” I say, my goodbye becoming drowned out by her laughter and then I stab the green accept button.
“Hello?” I peer down at my fingers, watching as I spin the plain gold band of my ring around and around the circumference of my digit.
“Are you back at your apartment?” Those are the first words out of Hudson’s mouth, not “Hi” or “Hello” or “It’s me Hudson, Rosie gave me your number so I could call you”.
“Mhm. Where are you?”
He ignores my question. “Do you know how shit scared I am right now, thinking something might have happened to you, Giselle!”
Oh.
He’s not a happy bunny. Not in the slightest.
And it’s all my doing.
I stumble over to my sofa, falling back into the soft cushions when my knees begin to feel weak beneath me. “Why would you be worried?”
“Why am I worried?” he scoffs. In the background I hear the sound of a passing police car siren. “Why the fuck am I worried?! Maybe because you ran out on me, clearly upset, and just fucking disappeared into the night? Anything could have happened to you, and I wouldn’t have had a fucking clue!”
“Hudson—”
“I had no idea if you’d gotten into a taxi or walked or was standing somewhere, on the side of the road, waiting for a godforsaken bus! I don’t even know how far it would take you to get home! And you’re asking me why I’m walking the streets fucking worried.”
My heart settles somewhere in the base of my throat.
I inhale jerkily, skin clammy and prickly all of a sudden.
“Hudson, I’m sorry, I—”
“I don’t want you to be fucking sorry,” he utters. “I want you to tell me where the fuck you live so I can make sure you’re safe.”
“I am safe, I promise, I—”
“Your address, Giselle.”
“Hudson,” I try again. “You really don’t need to—”
“I’m not asking again. Text me your address, Giselle.” And with that, he hangs up, leaving me to hear the loud thrum of my blood coasting through my veins.
Pulling my mobile phone away from my ear, I save Hudson’s phone number into my contacts list and then key my address into the blank text message box. I wait for the two ticks beside my name to appear, grey for only a millisecond before they turn blue, and I know Hudson has read my message. He must have been on the other side waiting, phone in hand.
His reply comes through instantly.
Hudson: I’ll be there in 10.
Chapter 11
Hudson
Ineed to see her.
I need to see with my own eyes that she’s okay.
