“In my defense, I just moved there a few months ago.”
“Brilliant.”
“Hey, this isn’t my fault,” I protested. “Okay, it’s a little my fault. But I’m usually very responsible.”
“I’m sure.”
“I am!” I insisted. “Ask anyone. I’m the fun responsible one. Anica is the uptight responsible one. I’m the one who remembers to bring snacks and knows where the nearest bar is.”
“Very useful skills.”
“They are! Life skills. People skills.” I jabbed a finger in his direction. “Which you could use more of, Mr. I-Need-Everything-Perfect-All-The-Time.”
“Yeah, I’ll definitely take the advice of a drunk woman who doesn’t know her own address.”
“Stop being an asshole, asshole.”
He sighed again, deeper this time. “Look, I can’t leave you here, and I can’t drive around Chicago all night hoping you’ll recognize your apartment building. So we have two options: a hotel, or my place until you sober up enough to remember your address.”
The thought of going to either was a little too enticing. “Your place?”
“It’s not far from here. You can sleep it off in my guest room, and we’ll figure out where you live in the morning.”
“How gentlemanly,” I said, unable to resist teasing him. “Are you sure you don’t have ulterior motives?”
His jaw tightened. “Despite what you might think of me, I don’t take advantage of intoxicated women.”
“That’s not what I—” I started, feeling suddenly guilty. “I didn’t mean it like that. I was joking.”
“Well, it wasn’t funny.” He pulled out of the parking space.
We drove in silence for several minutes, the alcohol in my system making me feel alternately giddy and remorseful. I hadn’t meant to implyanything about his character. If anything, I knew from our one night together that Hudson was nothing but respectful, despite his dominant tendencies.
“I’m sorry,” I finally said as we stopped at a red light. “That was a stupid thing to say.”
He glanced at me. “It’s fine. You’re drunk.”
“Not an excuse. And I’m not that drunk.” I straightened in my seat to prove it. “Just... pleasantly tipsy.”
“Can you remember where you live now?”
“Shut up.”
The light changed, and he accelerated smoothly. “Uh huh.”
I watched the city lights blur past, feeling the pleasant buzz of champagne and the strange comfort of being in Hudson’s car.
“You know,” I said after a while, “we never finished our conversation about Lia and Manny’s proposal.”
“We’ll discuss it tomorrow.”
“But what do you really think? Do you want to work with me?”
He glanced at me briefly. “I think we could create something impressive together. But that depends on whether we can maintain the balance we found for the engagement party.”
“That’s... not what I expected you to say.”
“What did you expect?”
