Page 69 of The Reading

Franny started really laughing, and it was one of my favorite sounds in the whole world. “Oh, God, that’s the best,” she said, trying to control her laughter. “You better hurry up and marry her, Hudson. I mean it. That’s the type of aunt I want for my children.”

“I’ll get right on that,” I said dryly.

“Oh, c’mon, Hud,” she said. “The woman’s been with you for four years and hasn’t quit on you yet. She’s gotta like you a little bit.”

“I don’t want her to like me a little bit, Franny,” I said. “I want her to love me eventually.”

“”Well, you’re not a gay security guard, so I think you need baby steps here,” she joked.

“You’re such a turd,” I laughed.

“But you love me anyway,” she snickered.

“But I love you anyway,” I agreed.

*****

Zara~

The man kept track of my periods.

What in the hell?

I was supposed to be working, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how Hudson Royal kept track of my menstrual cycles, so that he could make life a little bit easier on me when I was prone to crazy acts of violence once a month.

When I thought about my past relationships, I couldn’t remember any of my ex-boyfriends making that kind of effort. As sad as it sounded, Hudson keeping track of my periods really was the nicest thing that a guy had ever done for me. It was actually rather remarkable. Most men shied away from that particular topic, but not Hudson. He had seemed perfectly comfortable with telling me all about his sister’s struggles when she’d been younger.

Suddenly, I was seeing the man in a whole new light. Gone was my grumpy, moody, demanding boss. In his place was someone that cared enough to invest himself in what was going on in my life. As my mind raced over the past four years, it was easy to see the signs now. My workload had been lighter during the weeks of my period, and Hudson had always made himself scarce during that week, too.

Those thoughts led me back to Madam Brousseau and that stupid prediction. She’d told us all that our soulmates were already in our lives, but we’d just been too stupid to notice. Well, not in those exact words, but that’s what she’d been hinting at. So far, her predictions had been spot-on, and this whole period thing had me thinking things.

Things that I shouldn’t be thinking.

Just because Hudson tracked my periods did not mean that he was the one. One nice gesture did not equate to soulmates. It’d be ridiculous to assume so.

Grabbing my phone, I called Hattie because she was my last incoming call, and it didn’t matter which friend that I called for this mini-crisis. We were all close, and the advice was guaranteed to pretty much all be the same.

“Hey,” she answered.

“Are you busy?”

“We’re on our way to my parents’ house for-”

“Hudson tracks my periods, so that he can make my life easier during shark week,” I blurted rudely.

“Hudson Royal,your boss?”she shrieked.

“The one and only.”

“Holy crap, Zara.”

“Right?”

“Wow…this is just…wow…”

“What do I do?”

“Are you still at work?” The girls all knew that Hudson liked to work me around the clock.

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