Chapter 40

Beverly sat in the booth watching the band play and the couples sway to the music. Hudson had gone to the rest room, and she felt tears well in her eyes.

She didn’t want to go.

In the deepest recesses of her heart, she knew she had fallen in love with Hudson, but she also knew that he would never love her back. Her first time in love and it was with someone who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, return the feelings.

She was so pathetic.

Wiping her eyes, she chastised herself for the pity party she had going on. What she should be doing was enjoying her last night with Hudson and remembering every detail of it so that when she was out on her own, she would have something to look back on and smile about.

Or cry.

She guessed that would depend on how she would be feeling at that moment.

What she did want to remember was how special she felt being with Hudson. It was very apparent that the women at the bar and at dinner found Hudson very attractive. Beverly heard the whispers and watched the woman blatantly ogle Hudson from behind their wine glasses, but he seemed oblivious to it all, his full concentration on her. She felt like a fairytale princess.

Fate and Destiny—two words she really hadn’t given much thought to. She had always believed that people made their own choices, and their decisions led to the circumstances and outcomes that were the end result. For instance, she chose to not get help for her addiction, and the outcome was her losing a job she loved, her whole career gone.

But was it possible that Fate and Destiny really did have a plan for everyone?

Her mother had always said that there wasn’t anything in life that didn’t happen for a reason, and that God gave you exactly what you needed at that point in your life.

That didn’t always mean it was what you wanted.

If that were true, then what was she doing here with Hudson? What was the grand master plan? How could this heartbreak be exactly what she needed? She certainly didn’t want it. How would this brief interlude impact her life?

And now she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there were beings from another world living among humans, and that humans had no idea. She had promised she wouldn’t tell anyone about the secret, and she planned to honor that promise, so that was something that she would simply carry with her.

She didn’t understand what all of this meant to her in the grand scheme of her life. Maybe it didn’t mean anything. Maybe it was just a quick stop over that showed her that family came in many different varieties, that she could pick herself up and go on with her life, and she wasn’t the loser junkie she originally thought she was.

And that she had been missing out on a lot in the bedroom.

Taking a sip of wine, a man stepped into her view of the dance floor. She looked up at him, and he stared down at her with cold, dark eyes full of hatred. A very uncomfortable feeling rolled through her, as well as an almost unmanageable need to get up and run as fast as her legs could take her.

She swallowed, reminding herself that she was in a public place, and nothing was going to happen. And also that if she needed to, all she would have to do was scream.

“Can I help you?” she asked, putting down her glass.

The man looked disheveled, like he had been sitting somewhere for a long time. His white shirt was wrinkled and had a couple of dirt marks, and his pants definitely needed to see a hot iron. His black hair was cut tight to his skull.

He didn’t say anything, just stared at her. His hands curled into fists, opening them, then closing them, again and again.

“Do you need something?” she asked, irritation starting to override the uncomfortable feeling.

The man mumbled something, then rocked side to side, still clenching his hands into fists.

Beverly looked around for Hudson, but didn’t see him.

“Would you please excuse me?” Beverly said, trying to get out of the booth. The man stepped in front of her, blocking her exit.

Sliding back into the middle of the booth, fear took over, and her anxiety ratcheted up a few notches. Thoughts of little white pills danced in her head, making her even more anxious.

“What do you want?” she said, hearing the fear thread through her voice.

The man smiled, and Beverly was certain she was looking at living, breathing evil, but then chastised herself for being so dramatic.

He tilted his head at her, as if she were a foreign object he wasn’t familiar with. Then he slowly looked around, glanced back at her, and headed for the exit.

Beverly exhaled, relief swimming through her as she watched Hudson approach. His smile faded as he got closer to Beverly.

“What happened?” he asked as he slid into the booth next to her.

“I...I’m not sure. This man came up to the table and just stared at me. Then he started mumbling and making fists...it was really strange, and a little scary.”

Beverly watched the color drain from Hudson’s face, and he looked down at the floor.

“What did he look like?” he said in a hard tone, still examining the floor.

“He looked...normal, Hudson. He had on a white shirt, black pants, and his hair was cut really short.”

Hudson slowly turned to Beverly. “Did he touch you?” he bit out.

Beverly stared at Hudson for a minute, not sure about this new side of him. Gone were any traces of the man who had been spinning her around the dance floor and laughing minutes before. What was before her now was a hard man, a man who looked as if he could rip someone apart with his bare hands. And frankly, the transformation was almost as scary as the man who had come to her table.

“No,” she said softly.

Hudson looked around the bar area, and Beverly noticed the muscles in his arms get tense.

“Hudson, it’s not a big deal,” she said, laying her hand on his arm, trying to calm him, but it seemed to agitate him even worse. “It was just some guy who had a little too much to drink or was mentally ill. It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not, Beverly. It’s not fucking fine. And we’re leaving. Now.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the booth as if he were removing a coat from the seat instead of a hundred-and-fifteen pound human being.

Holding on to her hand a little too tightly, he quickly walked toward the valet, his eyes scanning everyone in the area.

“Hudson,” Beverly said.

No answer.

“Hudson.”

Now Beverly was getting a little angry. She certainly didn’t need to be dragged around like some ragdoll.

“Hudson!” she said forcefully, stopping and pulling away from his grasp. “What the hell is going on?”

He turned back to her, palpable anger radiating off him. “We need to get out of here. Now,” he growled.

“Why? It wasn’t a big deal, Hudson.”

He stepped up to her so that only an inch or two separated them and glared down at her. “It’s a very big deal, Beverly,” he hissed, his face hard. “That man was a cocksucking Colonist.”