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“Or you could just wear these.” Hudson walked over, a pair of leather flip-flops in hand, and held them out to me.
Hudson owned flip-flops? Of course, they probably cost three hundred dollars, but he didn’t even wear clothes that would go with footwear like that.
He must’ve seen the baffled expression on my face, because he rolled his eyes and said, “I’m not gonna walk around a strange house barefoot in the middle of the night.”
“And you would have to do that why?”
“I guess you’ve never stubbed your toe trying to find the bathroom.”
Now I was wondering how many strangers’ houses he’d been sleeping at that he’d found it a problem.
“Fine.” He dropped the flip-flops on the floor. “Wear them or don’t.”
As he brushed by me, I sighed and peeled off my socks, then slid my feet into the soft leather. They were just about the right size, thank God. I hadn’t really wanted to accidentally step into any of the pools of water we’d left on our way up anyway.
I caught the door just as it was closing and jogged to catch up to Hudson.
“Thanks,” I said.
“You’re welcome.”
There. We’d just had two seconds of civilized conversation. The impossible was possible.
Now to see how long that lasted.
As we passed back through the lobby, I could see the rain coming down in sheets even harder than before. The lights flickered briefly, and there was an ominous groan from something giving way outside. Shit, the power was gonna go anytime now, and I wanted to eat myself comatose before that happened.
“I think we may need to make a run for it,” I said, and the both of us made a mad dash for the diner. Hudson got there first, and when he pulled the door open, he went still.
“Uh…we may have a problem.”
I looked past him to see people in booths, people crowding tables, every seat at the bar top taken. It was like everyone had the same idea and wanted to make sure they loaded up before everything went to hell.
The smell of burgers on the grill had my stomach growling, which meant there wasn’t long before my hangry inner beast made an appearance.
“I got this,” I said, pushing Hudson aside so I could find us a spot.
Scanning the crowd, I looked for the people most likely to leave next, and when I zeroed in on a two-top in the corner, I walked that way fast. I didn’t have a problem standing there until the occupants finally had enough and left, but luckily they sensed a starving man on a mission and wrapped things up fast.
“Nicely done,” Hudson said as we settled into seats across from each other. He grabbed one of the unused napkins they’d left behind and began wiping the table while I commandeered the menu.
“Was that a compliment, or did I just hallucinate?”
“I was just saying your aggressive tendencies came in handy this once, that’s all.”
I rolled my eyes and held the menu up to block his face. I wouldn’t be able to control what came out of my mouth if I didn’t get some food in it soon.
“Drinks?” The waitress didn’t bother with pleasantries, just got straight to the point.
I didn’t mind, and I didn’t even really need to look at the menu, because I wanted one of everything. I rattled off a list of food that took two pages of scribbling, while Hudson went with a simple burger and fries.
Oh, and a water. Seriously, hadn’t he had enough of the shit outside?
As the waitress left to place our orders, Hudson arched a brow.
“Drew, you do know it’s one night; we’re not going to starve.”
“You don’t know that.”
