Page 15 of Crash and Burn

I shook my head. “Ok, let’s go.”

*

On the car ride, I told her all about my friends. Mostly, I told her about Lex and how we got into the mess in the first place. I didn’t tell her about Devina, just that my friends wanted to see me “get out there” and talk to more people, and by people, they meant women. Amelia didn’t ask any questions as to why, which I was thankful for, because I couldn’t handle that conversation, especially since we barely knew each other. Telling her that I needed her help because my wife died, and I just wanted to hole myself away in my house seemed too deep for how little we had interreacted with each other.

We pulled up to Carter and Lex’s house and saw Cole and his girlfriend Darla were there. Then I saw Vinny and Bianca’s car in the driveway. They have two great kids, a boy Angelo, and a girl, Gianna. Vinny and Bianca are an amazing couple. They were high school sweethearts and eventually married.

I took a deep breath. I felt the panic rising in my chest and put the car in park with both hands white knuckling the steering wheel as I stared out through the windshield.

“Hudson.” Amelia said my name softly, almost in a whisper, which made me turn my head. I didn’t say anything but looked at her. “We can sit here for a minute. We don’t have to rush in, ya know.”

The words felt lost in my chest, but somehow Amelia got it. She took off her seatbelt and turned her whole body to face me and still speaking softly, said, “I want you to think about your happiest time in the world.”

I was confused. “Why?”

“I want you to think about it.”

My happiest time in the world had been the trip Dev and I took to seeShinedownin concert. It was easily the best time because everything that could’ve went wrong, did, but it wasn’t a big deal, and we had the time of our life. My hand relaxed a little.

“See…your hands are relaxing.”

I leaned my head against the steering wheel, still staring at Amelia.How did she do that? How did she know to do that? Is my stress that obvious?

“Hudson. We can stay as long as you want to stay.”

I finally find words. “What if they ask how we met?”

“Tell them. I work at Sharon’s. You spilled your coffee all over me and the rest is history.” She grinned like she was trying to hide from laughing.

I let out a sigh and smiled, rolling my eyes. “I didn’t spill itall overyou.”

“Tomato, Tah-mah-toh.”

That made me laugh. “You’re nuts for agreeing to this. You know that, right? I mean, really, I’m sorry in advance.”

“Would you stop? Everything is going to be fine. Are you ready to get out of the car?”

I took a deep breath and nodded for her to look to her right, because I saw Carter walking towards us.

“Showtime, friend!” She said it with such excitement. I wondered how she could be so calm about all this. I nodded in agreement and opened my door.

Carter and I shook hands. He patted me on the back and said, “Hudson! My man! It’s about time you got here.” Then he turned to Amelia and with the biggest shit eating grin said, “I’m Carter. Hudson’s good-lookin’ best friend.”

“You need fucking help.” I said and I rolled my eyes. Amelia laughed.

“Nice to meet you, Carter.” She shook his hand, then crossed her arms across her chest and looked over at me, expecting me to introduce her.

“This is Amelia. She works at Sharon’s. We met for the first time when I grabbed some coffee there a couple of days ago.”

Carter grinned again turning his attention to Amelia, “And you’re already invited to the barbeque. Well, you must’ve really made quite an impression on our Hudson, here.”

“Don’t start your shit, Carter.”

“Ah, so she’s already seen your charming personality and still agreed to come. Fantastic. You’ll fit right in, Amelia.” He winked at Amelia, making her laugh. I laughed too, knowing I hadn’t been easy to be around.

Carter wrapped his arm around my neck, pulling me along. “Come on you two. This should be interesting.”

It was rowdy as we walked to the backyard, and then silence hit. I could feel the tension rising and clenched my jaw when I saw everyone, including the girl Lex invited to the barbecue just staring at us. Lex walked over, hugged me, and whispered, “I didn’t know you were bringing someone, Hud.” She pulled back and forced a smile, then turned to Amelia, reaching out to shake her hand, “Hi, I’m Lex, Carter’s wife.”

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