He waited until I locked my door and guided me toward the elevator where the doors opened almost as quick as he pressed the button. We stepped inside and I was immediately overwhelmed with the closeness of him next to me. The scent of that fresh cologne, smelling like fresh laundry and clean air.
“It’s just dinner,” he said, and from the reflection in the mirrored doors, he held that same amused look.
“I know.”
“You look ready to bolt. If you’re not comfortable…”
“I am.” I was also being an idiot. I knew that, but I was strung tighter than piano wire.
The elevator came to a stop and I burst out of it, Hudson laughing behind me. “Yes, you seem calm.”
He was going to think I was crazy anyway, and heck, he’d already had several fine doses of seeing my strange behavior. I might as well tell him.
I slowed my steps and waited for him to catch up. Wrapping my arms around my stomach, I did my best to protect myself while admitting, “I know this isn’t a date, but well… it kind of is for me, you know? Dinner with a guy I don’t really know that well? And, well, I haven’t had that…”
Emotion bloomed at the backs of my eyes as Hudson’s amused expression morphed to something else, sadder with a hint of pity.
It was the pity I hated the most.
“I don’t do well with people. Loud places. Restaurants or crowds where there are eyes on me.”
“Come on,” he said, and placed his hand at my back. I jolted from his touch. Even through my sweater, it burned my skin, shocking me. Heat traveled from my back to my front and then lower. I fought the urge to shiver beneath him so I didn’t give away the effect his hand had on me. “Where we’re going, it will be okay and if you’re uncomfortable, you can leave at any moment. No harm no foul, okay?”
“All right.”
Sometimes the build-up to an uncomfortable situation was worse than the situation itself. At least, that’s what Nancy tried to teach me. I willed my heart to slow, blew in through my nose and out through my lips as we headed outside and turned left at the corner of our apartment building.
Outside, the sun was beginning to set in the distance, casting the lightest hues of orange and purple across the city’s sky. The air was crisp, the stray red and gold leaves peppered our path along the sidewalk.
“So where are we going to eat?”
“Somewhere quiet. Little company. To be honest, I noticed your discomfort when we were at Crème, so I took that into consideration for tonight.”
I thought I’d hidden my tenseness quite well that night. The fact he still noticed said a lot. A lot about him as a man, a friend…
“That’s sweet.” We turned another corner of the apartment building and I glanced back to where we’d come from and then up at Hudson. We’d effectively made a U-shape in our directions and I glanced up at him. “Did we go the wrong way?”
“Nope.” His hands were loose at his sides and a hint of amusement twinkled on his cheeks. “We’re right where we’re supposed to be.”
“But—”
“Trust me.”
And for some stupid reason, I was starting to think I did. “Okay, but…”
We reached the corner, and Hudson turned another left, taking us right back to the entrance to our building and this time, I was more than curious.
“Did you forget something?”
“No.”
That amusement shone brighter as he walked us straight to the elevators. My heeled foot tapped on the tile, echoing the light sound in the elevator bank area. “But—”
“You said you’d trust me.”
“But—”
The doors opened and he escorted us inside. Had I not promised to trust him, had it not been for his mischievous smile reflecting against the mirrored doors, I would have thought he was already tired of me. That my baggage was too heavy for him to carry.
Instead, the doors opened and he swiped a black card in front of a scanner I’d never had to use and the letter “P” at the top lit up.
“The penthouse,” I said, things slowly clicking into place. “You live on the top floor.”
“I did say I lived here.”
As the elevator rose, the tension in my shoulders fell with matching degrees until I was a loose as a wet noodle. “You could have just told me to come up here.”
“I could have.” He shrugged, slid his hands into his pockets. “But if someone’s taking you on a date, you deserve to have them pick you up at your door, and when I saw how tense you were when I got here, I thought a walk outside and fresh air might help. But if you don’t…”
“I do.”
The doors opened again with only one door to the left. He headed that way, dropping his hand at my lower back to lead me in the direction of his apartment.
I waited until he opened the door and stepped in when he held it open for me.
My jaw almost hit the tip of my heeled shoes, it unhinged so quickly.
“Hudson.” I spun to face him, and for the first time since I’d met him, caught a flicker of nerves before he swiped it away with one of his charming smiles.
“Again. Anyone who takes you out on a date should make the effort.”
Oh boy, had he. I practically drifted on air toward the table that was already set. Gold-colored chargers sat on a white tablecloth beneath white and gold-lined fine china plates. Pale peach rose petals graced the white linens with a large bouquet in the middle, surrounded with tapered and lit candles in holders that matched the fine china and charger plates.
“This was unnecessary.” My fingertip ran along the edge of his table. I glanced at him to see him at the kitchen counter, pulling a champagne bottle out of a bucket and ice.
“It’s non-alcoholic,” he said, as if he could sense my unease.
“Why?”
He unpeeled the gold paper around the neck of the bottle. “Because you said you can’t have alcohol.”
“No. I mean, why all this? For a dinner to celebrate a part-time job and a B on an accounting test?”
“Maybe because when I do something, I want to do everything to the best of my ability.” He popped the cork, making me jump at the unexpected sound and filled two champagne flutes.
As he carried them to me, I wobbled on my heels.
“But—”
His head fell forward so he looked at me through his thick lashes, a pale pink hue blooming on those perfectly carved and clean-shaven cheekbones. “I suspect you’re a person who doesn’t think you’re worthy of much, maybe you’ve never been shown you are, maybe the last six years twisted that, but I think you are. And I wanted to show that to you.”
Emotion threatened to overwhelm me. I was so shocked by all he’d done, I could have been knocked to the floor with a feather. How… how did this kind of guy waltz right into my life?
“If you know what I’ve done…”
“I know enough, Lilly. Which is why I’ve done this.”
He held out a glass and my hand shook as I reached for it. This was too much for someone like me.
My fingers grasped the thin, crystal flute and Hudson clinked them together. “To new beginnings,” he said.
“To new beginnings.” My tone was wistful, bubbling with the faux champagne and that hope rising inside of me, even as I tried to blink back tears.