Behind His Lens(37)

As I adjust my dress and awkwardly take my seat, Hudson’s arm hits the back of my chair with a thud. I can’t meet his eyes or Jude’s. Guilt hits my stomach and I’m not sure who it’s for, Jude or Hudson? I can feel the tension emanating around the table. Hudson’s hostility practically blankets my skin, but he doesn’t really have the right. We clearly aren’t here on a date.

“What’s up, Hudson!” A voice booms behind us, and I inwardly sigh, relieved to have a distraction from my swirling thoughts. But the reprieve is short lived when I realize how many people are trailing after that voice. In a flash of movement and screeching chairs, our tiny table is overtaken and suddenly we’re in the middle of a rowdy group of Hudson’s friends. Bodies envelope us from all sides, patting Hudson on the back and offering greetings. I nod my head and offer introductions, but I can’t remember a single name after it’s all said and done, except for one: Olivia. But that’s only because she went to the same high school as Hudson and me. I shouldn’t have been surprised that she stayed in touch with Hudson; they ran in the same crowd.


Olivia was one of my good friends growing up, but we went our separate ways after junior high. She turned into a heavy partier and I focused on dance and studying to get into Columbia. She’s still as gorgeous as ever with her rich brown hair and classical features.

“No way! I can’t believe you’re actually at a club! I thought you fell off the face of the planet after high school. After everything went down…” she drawls as we awkwardly greet each other. Her words are masked with a cheesy, high-pitched voice that makes my ears ring.

I plaster on a fake smile and quickly fill in the lull at the end of her sentence before she can say another word. “I haven’t seen you in forever. How have you been, Olivia?” I ask, knowing that the surest way to avoid things I’d rather not discuss is to turn the conversation toward her. At least girls like her are predictable in that sense.

“I’m good. Just working in P.R., but I’m sure you knew that.” She gives my body a once over, but we aren’t in high school anymore and she can’t intimidate me the way she used to. Her eyebrows rise in approval as she appraises the nude Louboutins. Thank you, thank you, Naomi.

“Oh, I didn’t know, but that’s so great,” I ooze before glancing down at my light blue cocktail. Would I have turned out like her in another life?

“Yeah. I’m with one of the best firms in New York,” she says with a bored tone before scanning the group because, clearly, I’m not worthy of her time. When her head stops swiveling and her almond brown eyes narrow, I already know who she’s locked onto. Jude. He’s nodding and his head is dipped low, listening intently to one of Hudson’s friends. The gesture shadows half of his face in the club lighting, making him appear even sexier and more mysterious. Olivia practically locks onto him with her phasers.

“Excuse me a minute,” she clips out, waving her hand in front of my face and moving away before I can even reply.

Well then.

I watch her move toward him in her slinky black dress and I think for one long second about tipping my drink onto her so she has to go clean it off in the bathroom. But this isn’t Mean Girls and I’m not a capricious teenager… sadly.

“Hey, Charley! Come meet my friends.” Hudson beckons me over with a manicured hand. His gaudy, diamond-encrusted watch shines in the strobe lights like a disco ball, momentarily blinding me. Who is he trying to emulate? Jay-Z?

For the next five minutes, I stand stoically as Hudson and his friends toss back liquor and discuss the hottest “ass they’ve pounded lately”. I try my damnedest to keep my gaze from falling on Jude. Olivia cornered him right after she left our conversation and I’m pretty sure if she stepped any closer she’d be inhaling his sexy, flawless, f*cking stubble. Damnit.

Look away.

Naomi and Bennett are off canoodling; otherwise I would have used her as a scapegoat the second Hudson’s friends started comparing dick sizes. Oh, I’m sorry, maybe it was yacht sizes. I don’t want to force myself onto her and Bennett as the third wheel. She’s been so supportive lately; she deserves some alone time with her new guy.

“So where have you been keeping this one, Hudson?” One of his friends asks with a slurred smile. I decide on the spot that his plucked eyebrows and fake tan have to be part of an early Halloween costume.

“Yeah. She’s too hot for you.” Another friend chimes in with a signature grunt. Hudson folds his arms over one another and the edges of his mouth curl up at his friends’ approval of me.