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“Anyway,” Eli went on with a shit-eating grin. “Yesterday morning, I found him on Instagram.”
At that, Hudson gripped his wheels and gave one hard push, rolling to the table. “Wait, soI’mthe monster for throwing out cookies, but you stalked him, and that’s fine?”
“I didn’t stalk him. He’s got some famous online bakery and he was all over my recommended page.” Eli grinned as he sipped his coffee, his gaze locked onto Hudson’s. “He had a video about you.”
“Fuck,” Hudson breathed out. “Does he know who I am? Who we are?”
“Not that I could tell,” Eli said with a shrug. “You don’t show your face on media, so how could he?”
It was Hudson’s hard limit with the twins and their media campaigns, and he had no regrets considering it didn’t seem to be hurting their business at all. He let out a small breath of relief as he sat back and listened to Eli continue to tell his annoying neighbor’s story.
“I guess he had some shop which he lost after a major surgery. He hasn’t gone into detail but I’m pretty sure it was a gut thing because I caught a glimpse of a stoma bag in one of his vids. Some people asked, but he didn’t answer those comments.”
Hudson squeezed his eyes shut and told himself he would not be feeling sympathy for this nosy guy. “So?”
“So nothing,” Eli said primly. “He just seems like a genuinely kind person. And ofcoursemy loyalty is with you,” he drawled, leaning toward him. “I’m not gonna go be his best friend and pet the new stray cat he seems to have adopted…”
Fucking wonderful. A stray cat.
“…but at some point, you two will probably cross paths, and you might want to consider what a dick you’ve been.”
Hudson spluttered. “I returned the first plate fully intact with a very clear note about no thanks and he ignored it.I’mnot the dick in this situation.”
Mostly. He knew he was a dick in general and he was fine with it. But he wasn’t going to be painted as some monster for setting boundaries and then enforcing them.
Eli sighed again. “Anyway, whatever. I don’t think he’d drag our company even if he did figure out who you were. And I know people tend show one face to the internet, but he genuinely seems like someone who’s kind for no reason.”
“That won’t last,” Hudson scoffed, and he felt Aspen and Rain both staring at him hard. They were younger and still wildly optimistic about life and love, and he didn’t want to crush that. But he also didn’t have it in him to lie.
“Is this about Austin?” Rain asked.
Hudson’s jaw clenched. “This is about reality. People will promise you anything under the sun because they don’t think anything will change. Then shit happens. You age, you mature. Sometimes you gain weight, or you lose it. Sometimes you become disabled. And then suddenly all those promises are too much of a burden to keep.”
“Not every man would have left you,” Eli pointed out.
Hudson’s face fell and his eyes narrowed, but he kept his mouth shut until Aspen and Rain escaped the room. When the door shut, he cracked. “Fuck you.”
“I’m not trying to—”
“Fuck you,” Hudson said again. “Why do you think it matters to me that someone else might not have left me? I wasn’t dating someone else. I was married tohim, andhedecided that getting his ass railed every night by a human penis—his words,” Hudson added, thinking of the last major fight he had with Austin, “was more important. He said what I could give him wasn’t enough.”
“I know,” Eli said quietly. “But you don’t have to be pissed at the whole world because he’s a superficial asshole.”
“I was born pissed at the world,” Hudson muttered, running a hand down his face. “Being paralyzed by a fucking spinal tumor didn’t change my personality. It just took away a few more fucks.”
After a second, Eli laughed so hard, it made Hudson’s own lips twitch upward. “God, Hudson, I hate you.”
Hudson just shrugged, mostly because he knew Eli didn’t.
“I’m not saying you should be your neighbor’s best friend. And I’m not saying that he should keep sending you baked gifts. But it wouldn’t kill you to talk to him.”
“Might kill him,” Hudson said, mostly because he was irritated that Eli was making sense.
Eli stood up and walked around the table, dropping into the chair next to his friend. “It won’t. Just like getting back out there to remind yourself that not everyone is going to be a massive, cheating shitweasel like Austin won’t kill you.”
Hudson squeezed his eyes shut. “Maybe it’s time we both admit that I’m just not a good partner, Eli. Austin liked it when I was an asshole because he got off on it. Take that away and what’s left of my personality?”
Eli bit his lip and shook his head. “Are you perhaps not considering that Austin was an asshole too and that you both brought out the worst in each other?”
