Page 4 of Secret Hudson

Hudson goes to shake my hand and I take it, holding it just a fraction of a second longer than I should.

“Nice to meet you, Hudson. So, you make amazing coffee, and you take pictures like these? You may want to go hide somewhere. Ava might try to kidnap you if you’re not careful.”

Hudson chuckles.

“I don’t know why you’re laughing. I totally might.” And she's dead serious, too.

“Well, let me know and I’ll go pack a bag. My place is right upstairs.” He points toward the ceiling.

“Hold on, there’s an apartment up there? Is it connected to the store or do you have to go outside to get there?” I’m temporarily distracted by the prospect of being able to trick the photogs outside into leaving us alone. Plus, on some sneaky level I'm already wondering what Hudson’s place looks like and I want to get inside to see for myself.

“Stairs are right behind that door over there. Why?” Hudson curiously peers back and forth between Ava and me.

“We got followed in here. Any chance you’d let us go hide up there, then invite the blood hounds in to see for themselves that we’re gone, in hopes that they will move on?”

He grins. “Hm. I don’t know. Then you’d be able to leave. Not sure I like that idea.”

“Oh my,” Ava chirps. “Do you two boys need a minute? I can go pretend to check out those lanterns over there and then awkwardly act like I can’t hear you while you do your little flirty things.”

“Are you fucking kidding me with this? A second time? What, my game isn’t weak enough, I need you to blast canyons into it?” There's no point in trying to avoid being embarrassed now. Besides, Ava decided the moment she tasted Hudson’s coffee that she’d find a reason to keep him around, so he might as well get used to dealing with our craziness. Or, if he can’t, now is as good a time as any to weed him out, toss him in the dirt pile before I become too attached and believe there's some sort of a real possibility where there's really just another Garrett waiting to move on to fucking old dudes.

“Would you relax? Your game was fine until you started shrieking like a pre-pubescent boy.” She shakes her head and shifts to Hudson. “So, you gonna take us upstairs or what?”

He nods. Not looking nearly scared enough considering the amount of psycho we just unleashed in front of him. Shit, maybe he's accustomed to stuff like this. Maybe he has friends like Ava, too. Now that's a terrifying thought.

What if we do get together? What if we have to deal with twice the loudmouth best friends? We’ll never be able to have them over at the same time. It will have to be a rule. One neither of them can ever know about, of course. Which probablymeans I'll have to move, since living next door to Ava kind of gives her the freedom to just drop by anytime. Maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

“So, Hudson, you’re kind of taking this whole thing in stride. This sort of thing happen to you often?” I walk right behind him as we go up the stairs. It's impossible not to look at his ass. It's the kind of ass that makes you wanna say, Garrett who?

“Do I frequently hide sexy rock stars and their quirky managers in my apartment to help them escape the paparazzi? I wish!” He turns back and winks at me. Holy shit. He's definitely flirting.

“Well, now that I know this is an option, I’ll have to keep it in mind next time I’m being chased down the street.”

Hudson swings the door open to his place and instantly daylight washes over all three of us. The place is bigger than I expected, with tall windows lining the main wall. There isn’t much in the way of furniture, but that seems to be intentional.

“Feel free to make yourselves at home. There’s stuff in the kitchen if you guys are hungry. There’s Netflix on the TV, but no cable, and you’re welcome to the computer over on the desk. Bathroom is right down this hall and, yeah...I think that’s about it. In the meantime, I’ll go see what I can do to shake your tail. Wait, that didn’t sound right.” He's actually blushing. “You know what I meant. Okay. I’m going back down. Shit.” I hear Ava suck in air like she's desperately trying to hold back laughter.

As soon as the door closes, and Hudson is out of sight, she starts giggling like a psychopath.

“Oh my GOD! How cute is he?! You have to ask him out. I’m serious, Royce. If you don’t, I will.” She's already busy examining his shelves for things she can use to make herself believe she knows Hudson better than she does.

“I’m pretty sure you’re not his type, Ava.” I come up beside her to check out the picture frame she’s holding.

“You never know, he could go both ways. Look, he’s with a chick right here.” She holds out the frame for me to get a better look.

“That’s his mom, dumbass.”

“Really? You think? Well, she looks fantastic. Just think, he’s got her genes! You should totally make babies with him. I’m just saying. Your kids would be ageless and beautiful.” She sets down the picture and moves on. “I’d even volunteer my uterus.”

“Yeah, okay. Got an egg to spare as well?”

She just shrugs and continues to sift through the pictures.

“What’s with all the baby talk anyway? You pregnant or something?” I’m joking, but when she doesn’t answer, things suddenly aren’t so funny. “Ava?”

She glances up at me with scared eyes. She and Blaise are solid these days, but that doesn’t mean either of them is ready to throw a baby into the mix.

“Does Blaise know?”

---