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48
He’s Not Coming Back
PARKER
We’re at the Edge in Hudson Yards. It’s the tallest roof deck in the Western Hemisphere, suspended 100 stories in the air with a glass floor and angled glass walls looking out over Manhattan’s glorious skyscrapers.
Hudson has his arm around me as we savor the taste of the crisp, cool champagne in our glass flutes and watch the sunset colors melt into each other.
There are wide strokes of orange and pink painted across the sky with tiny white veins of clouds in between. It’s beyond beautiful and there’s even a slight breeze carrying mild tones of vanilla.
“Isn’t it cool up here?” Hudson asks as we stand against the glass wall, staring below. Everything is so insignificant from up here.
“It’s beautiful,” I breathe, pressing my palm against the cool glass. “I can’t believe a place like this actually exists.”
“Maybe, we can find more places like this,” Hudson tells me. “I love traveling and exploring.”
The thought of us going on more dates in the future with the possibility of a hopefully normal relationship gave me butterflies.
It’s the best feeling in the world, standing up here with Hudson’s arms around me. Things can be good.
Things will be good,I think as I turn around to wrap my arms around Hudson, but as I do, I immediately want to swallow my last thought, because I see a familiar face come into view. Eric is there standing a few feet away from Hudson and me and before I can quickly turn back to the glass wall, he turns his head and his eyes shift directly to me.
“Parker? Is that you?” He walks over to us and I feel like melting into the glass floor beneath us.
Hudson stiffens beside me and turns around to see Eric standing right behind him.
“Don’t you remember me? Or was that like just a one-time thing and then you forgot all about me?” Eric asks. “I got your text but that was pretty cold of you, Parker.”
His tone is weird, almost cruel and mocking as he looks from Hudson to me and then back, his gaze lingering on Hudson a little longer.
What the hell is he doing?This is not how he is.
“I’m sorry, but who the fuck are you?” Hudson asks stepping forward, squaring his shoulders and towering over Eric.
I grab his hand and curl my fingers around his wrist to keep him from doing anything stupid.
“Just a friend,” Eric says coolly.
“How do you know, Parker?” Hudson asks.
Eric’s blue eyes flicker to mine for a split second before he looks at Hudson and smiles. “Oh, it was more of a coincidence, but I know you too, Hudson.”
“What?” I look up at Hudson, whose face is blank. He also doesn’t know what the hell is going on.
“Do you remember my sister, Hudson? Her name was Lily,” Eric says.
Hudson doesn’t reply. He looks like he wants to murder Eric instead of talking.
Eric turns to me and reaches into his coat to get something. “They said she killed herself, but I know it wasn’t that. Lily told me everything. But I made Diana cry and beg too after I started making her call Parker and then your brother.”
“Diana?” I look at Hudson. That was the name of his ex…
“I shoved her off that building,” Eric says to Hudson as he hands me a picture of a girl with icy blonde hair, naked in a bed with blood across her arms and on the bedsheets.
“It was a reminder. I took it when I found her,” Eric’s voice is shaky and his left eye twitches. He looks crazy.
I look away and feel the bile rising in my throat as Hudson suddenly starts walking away from where Eric and I are standing.
