Page 11 of Here's to Tomorrow

I turn to bring the Coke to my cousin, taking a few steps forward and glancing around, checking each of my tables to make sure I have everything I need.

Holy shit!

I apparently have some untapped superhero powers because I just had some serious Spidey-like reflexes going on to catch this Coke midair, without looking.

Those devastatingly perfect green eyes? The ones that belonged to that insanely hot mechanic? Yeah, I just caught them staring at me.

Hudson is here.

My chest feels so heavy and my breaths come in rapid succession. I’m frozen to the spot.

And then I’m not, because I’m stumbling sideways.

“Shit, Rae! Sorry!” Maura, my best friend, rushes out and runs right into me, in front of Hudson. She grabs my arm to help steady me. “What the hell, woman? You were just stopped right in the middle of the floor.”

She’s now looking at me with a mixture of concern and slight aggravation. I guess concern wins because then she looks over in the direction of where I was staring.

“Who is that? Why’s he staring at you? Do you know him?” She starts firing off questions, looking back and forth between Hudson and me. I pull her to the side, out of Hudson’s view.

“Remember when my car broke down and I told you about that hot mechanic guy?”

She nods her head. “Henry?”

“Hudson,” I correct her. “Well, he’s here.” She steps over to look again. I pull her back. “Stop it! He’s going to know we’re talking about him. I can’t believe he’s here.Holy shit. I can’t believe he is here. I invited them in two weeks ago! That’sforeverago!What in the world is he doing here, Maura?”

This is what most would call “freaking the fuck out”, but in all honesty, it’s normal for me, so Maura doesn’t even bat an eye.

“Looks like he’s waiting to make his drink order, possibly order some food, with hot friends. Why didn’t you tell me he had hot friends?”

Shewouldfocus on that. I can say with one hundred percent certainty that Hudson’s friends, no matter how attractive they are, won’t measure up to him because he’s beautiful. It’s not just because of his looks, though he’s not lacking in that department with his ink-black hair and towering, well-built frame. It’s his eyes that put him in the front of the pack. The eyes that talk and flirt with me. They’ll draw me in every time when it comes to him. I can tell already.

“I didn’t know. Well…I kind of did. His friend Tucker wasn’t bad to look at. But back to the important thing here—HUDSON IS HERE!”

Cue mini panic attack. My lungs are on fire and the air I’m sucking in rapidly does nothing but fan the flames.

I’m not even sure why I’m so worked up. I met this man two weeks ago. Two entire weeks. We didn’t even spend that much time together, didn’t exchange numbers. It was just a short car ride. Sure, we laughed and smiled a lot, but that shouldn’t lead to this freak out.

I mean, sure, it could be because I’ve spent the last two weeks thinking of nothing but him. I don’t know what happened in that shop or during our test drive, butsomethingpassed between us—something nice, something I know I’m going to like if I ever get the courage to ask for his number, like I almost did before his buddy interrupted us.

Now he’s here, at my place of employment, sitting in my “section” and looking like he belongs inmyworld.

And fuck me if I don’t want him to.

“Snap out of it, Rae!” Maura shakes my shoulder, jolting me out of my own head. “You need to put on those old-ass big-girl granny panties you wear, go out there, and ask him what he wants to drink. Keep it light. Wait for him to say something about seeing you again first. God, I feel like I’m back in high school all over again.”

With that, she walks off, leaving me standing in the hallway still holding this damn Coke.

* * *

Hudson

The woman I’ve been thinking about nonstop for the last two weeks just froze in the middle of the bar when she caught my eyes burning holes into her.

The internal battle of whether that’s good or bad has been warring inside me since.

No matter the answer, I don’t think I care. She’s still beautiful, still has that weird magnetism about her. I still feel like I know her, even though I don’t, and she still makes me wish I did.

I have a feeling that if the other waitress hadn’t crashed into her, she would still be standing there staring at me. I’m positive they were talking about me in that hallway because I saw the other little blonde waitress peek around the corner to look at me, which I have to admit makes me feel a little…giddy.

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