Even more cursed now, because it wasn’t just the site of my humiliation, but Hudson’s, too.
“If you don’tneedto, then why do you work at all?” my mom probed.
Hudson just dug in deeper to his chicken parm. “I like working. I like staying busy. I like being helpful.”
Mom rolled her eyes. “What a waste. Scout, stop picking at that bread, you know our family carries our bread right in our pooches.”
I was Pavlov’s dog. I immediately put the bread down.
“I’m just surprised, is all,” my father said, after slurping back a glass of the two-hundred-dollar bottle of red wine that he’d ordered and I’d be stuck paying for. “If you could do anything, if money’s no object and you get to do whatever work you want, why sex toys?”
The waiter passing by stumbled when he heard that, but he made a valiant recovery. Hudson didn’t bat an eyelash. Instead, he subtly picked up a piece of bread from the communal bowl and set it down on my plate.
“It’s an interesting vertical. I knew nothing about it when I started. I’m industry agnostic, so when I start a new job, I want to go where I can learn and expand my skills.”
“But it’s such a ridiculous job, isn’t it? We tell people Scout works with computer chips.”
It shouldn’t have surprised me. Of course they didn’t tell people that their precious genius daughter was working in thepersonal pleasure industry. Still, I pointed out, “I’m not that sort of engineer, Mom.”
“We know that, but they don’t. This way we don’t have to answer humiliating questions about your work.”
Humiliating. I was humiliating. Suddenly even the bread didn’t look appetizing. “Sure. I get it.”
“I don’t,” Hudson said, shocking me right down to my core. He didn’teverdisagree with people. At least not so openly. “And I don’t think there’s anything ridiculous about this job. Do you know how much good Scout’s work does for people? Have you ever even bothered to ask her? She gives people autonomy over their own bodies. She helps people foster healthy relationships with their sexualities and with their partners. She’s made more people happy than the rest of us at this table combined, probably many times over.”
My father snorted. “Son, you don’t have to flatter our daughter. We’re very realistic about her prospects and her profession. Think aboutyourcareer. Areyougoing to put this little dalliance in the personal pleasure industry on your résumé?”
“What, that I got to work with Dr. Scout Porter, one of the most talented engineers in the country?” He nudged me. “Yeah, you bet that’s going on my résumé.”
“Darling, don’t fuss,” Mom tutted in my father’s direction. “He’s clearly just having sex with her for the professional benefits. Let him lay it on thick if he thinks it will help him.”
“Mom.”
Not very much of a protest, but it was all I could muster. Not only because I couldn’t believe she’d demanded it of Hudson, but because I couldn’t believe she thought so little of me.
“It’s better you find out now rather than later, Scout,” she said flippantly, “and I knowyou’renever going to ask the question because you don’t want to hear the answer.”
“I’m not his boss,” I pointed out meekly, as if saying it quietlywould stem her anger at being questioned. “I don’t have hiring and firing or promoting power over him. Having sex with me wouldn’t gain him any advantage.”
“But you and Clara are close. He must know that.”
“Clara doesn’t even know he and I are together,” I said. Not explaining why—that I was afraid of failing in front of her. “We’re keeping everything low-profile.”
“Ah, yes,” my mother droned, eyes crinkling at the corners, “because that worked so well at your last job.”
Breathe…breathe…“This isn’t like that.”
“How can you be so sure? Do you really think a girl like you can handle those decisions, Scout?”
“Why do you think so low of her?” Hudson snapped, in the harshest tone he’d used all night.
This was not friendly, guy-about-town Hudson. Not the perfect boyfriend material. Dad blinked. “Excuse me?”
“You think the only reason I’d sleep with your daughter is to get something out of her. That that’s the only reasonanyonewould want to sleep with her.”
“That’s not what we said,” Mom hedged.
“No, but it’s what you implied, and I find that incredibly offensive.”
