Rogue Affair

by Rhys Everly

  My voice went a bit higher than I liked, and I could only imagine what Hudson must be thinking, but I was starting to get the attention of the other patrons.

  Hudson’s face hardened.

  “Keep it down dude,” he whisper-shouted. “You might not like that I work here, but this is still my job. And if your highness doesn’t mind, I’d like to keep it.”

  He walked away from me before I could come back with a retort. Or another unreasonable demand.

  I took a deep breath. Followed by another. And another.

  When I turned around, Hudson was nowhere to be seen.

  Which served me just right. I didn’t need to keep that pointless argument. It was making me petty. And the last thing I wanted was for him to come out the bigger man.

  With him out of the picture, I returned my attention back to the task at hand and stomped to the notice board to pin my flyer, then left Espresso Blues to go around the rest of the places like Kyle and I had agreed.

  And by doing that, tried to also forget about that horrible encounter.

  When I was done, I still didn’t feel any better, but I knew what would cheer me up.

  I took my phone out and opened the Cinderfella app.

  There were a few date requests already, both from guys I’d chatted with on the app before and some I hadn’t and who preferred the whole blind first date idea.

  I accepted Dom24’s date request and sent him a message.

  MrRomantic: Well, Dom, you got yourself a date. Just tell me when and where, and I’ll be there.

  As long as it was in a public space, of course. I might be addicted to finding the perfect man, but safety still came first.

  And just like that, as soon as I even thought of the words perfect man, Hudson came to my mind.

  Problem was, there was nothing perfect about Hudson.

  Other than his piercing grey eyes.

  Four

  Hudson

  We closed the store at seven. It was one of the benefits of working in a café, and one of the main reasons why I took the job.

  It meant I finished early enough to catch the bus home and was able to get up early the next day, whether to help out on the farm or go back to work.

  This day couldn’t get any better, honestly, so I couldn’t wait for it to end.

  Natalie wanted me on the floor for the rest of the day, even when it got a bit busier after lunch.

  Which was fine by me.

  I didn’t know what I’d do if I worked in such close proximity with Natalie every day.

  The woman was insufferable. She wasn’t even the boss, yet she acted all high and mighty. And she expected me to be flawless on my second day.

  If she wanted to ring up orders and make a hundred coffees at the same time, she was more than welcome to try.

  I was having fun on the floor, cleaning tables and collecting cups. It was quite relaxing, as opposed to the hectic counter.

  But of course, having a more quiet time at work meant that I kept running through my conversation with Nathan.

  I shouldn’t have snapped at him. He had every right to be mad at me.

  But I also needed this job. And if I was gonna lose it, I’d rather it’d be because of Natalie than because of him.

  My apology was long overdue.

  For turning my back on him, and for trying to kiss him on prom night.

  It must have confused the shit out of him, and I couldn’t even blame him.

  Although I still didn’t know where he stood on believing me about the fire.

  I never got a chance to ask him.

  Well, I guess if the whole town believed I burned the gym down that night, why would Nathan believe any different?

  I could see it from his point of view. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d lied to him. I’d lied about always being his friend.

  I lied about sticking with him through thick and thin.

  Why wouldn’t I lie about setting that fire?

  Natalie grabbed her things from the staff room, and I took that as my cue to do the same.

  To my surprise, I came back out before her. And when she did, her face was made up and she smelled floral.

  “Are you working tomorrow?” she asked as she turned the lights off.

  I shook my head.

  “Good. I need a break from today’s nightmare,” she said.

  I opened my mouth to retaliate just as she approached the door. But I didn’t get the chance because she opened the security alarm flap and started keying the code, so instead, I looked away and scanned the noticeboard which was full of posters and ads.

  A flyer caught my attention. It spelled out ‘tutor’ in capital letters, and there were cut-outs on the bottom with a phone number.

  I tried to read it more thoroughly to get the details, but I didn’t get the chance.

  “Come on, dude. We need to go or you’ll set the alarm off,” Natalie yelled.

  I balled my fists, took a deep breath, and snatched a cutout with the phone number before walking out of the café.

  “Good night to you, too, douchebag,” she said when I walked away without saying anything to her.

  Petty bitch. Must be nice up there on your high horse.

  I walked to the bus stop, and just as the bus to Cedarwood Beach arrived, I typed out a text message to the number.

  “Hi. I saw your ad for tutoring lessons. I’m looking for someone to help me with my GED. I’m trying to graduate this year. Do you think you can help me?”

  I forgot to add my name, but I didn’t manage to rectify it because as soon as I paid the fare and my butt hit the seat, I passed out.

  When I got home, I found Dad sleeping in front of the TV, an array of empty beer bottles on the coffee table, which really should just be renamed into beer table because Dad never drank any coffee.

  I took my shoes off and the first step of the stairs creaked when I tried to sneak up to my room.

  “You remembered you got a home, huh? You better get to bed boy. You’re helping me pick strawberries tomorrow,” he mumbled.

  I opened my mouth. There was so much I wanted to tell him.

  I wanted to tell him I was tired and it was my day off.

  I wanted to tell him that I had other stuff to do.

  I wanted to tell him he needed to pay me better for my time and not shout that he put a roof over my head every time we argued about it.

  I wasn’t a kid any more. And if I was going to save enough money to get out of here, I needed all the help I could get.

  But he didn’t care about any of that. I didn’t have the energy to have that conversation so late at night. And besides, by the time I turned to glower at him, he was asleep again.

  I always wondered how he managed to wake up so early when he got so wasted in the evenings, but I guessed after so many decades as a farmer, his sleep cycle was the only normal thing about him.

  I climbed up the stairs, and as soon as Romeo heard me pull down the attic staircase, he barked his head off, tail wagging, excited to see me.

  As if I hadn’t left him alone all day.

  “Hey buddy. I missed you today. Did you have fun on your own?” I asked and looked around the room.

  His food bowl was empty, his kibble spread out across the floor like patterns of a crop circle, and his water was all splashed out around the bowl.

  My bed was a mess, which meant he must have found shelter under my comforter, and his stinky poos in the bathroom filled up the room with a crappy smell.

  “Oh, Romeo. Look at that mess. Why can’t you eat straight out of your bowl? No one’s gonna steal your food,” I said, but petted the back of his head to let him know I wasn’t actually mad at him.

  Yes, he was unruly and never listened to me, but I loved him. He was the only sane thing in this house. And he wasn’t even human.

  I picked up his poos and flushed them down the toilet, mopped his pee off the floor, and then took him for a walk in the backyard—the fenced in kind. It was too d
ark and late to chase him around the farm.

  When we got back to my room, I crashed into bed with Romeo by my side and pulled my phone out.

  A text message was waiting for me.

  “Hey. Sure I can help you with your GED. Where are you based? I can do classes on Harlow U campus, or I can meet you off campus somewhere. Whatever suits you. I charge $30 per lesson, btw,” the tutor had responded.

  I couldn’t help the smile creeping in my lips.

  It might have been a shitty day, but at least it ended on a high note.

  I was just hoping this person didn’t think I was a total failure like Damon.

  “Campus works for me. Wanna meet tomorow afternoon?” I replied and only realized there was a typo when I reread the message.

  “University Library at 3pm? Does that work for you? I can text you more details when I get a spot,” came the guy’s reply.

  I sent a thumbs up and a smile emoji and breathed a sigh of relief.

  I opened my Cinderfella app like I always did before bed and scoured the app for new guys to talk to.

  Most guys didn’t last long. As soon as I told them I wasn’t interested in meeting in person, they moved on to the next guy.

  I couldn’t blame them.

  But meeting anyone was a complicated affair. And besides, what if it was someone I knew? Or worse, someone that knew me?

  No.

  Until I got out of Cedarwood Beach and put as much distance from me and Dad and this rotten town as possible, there was no meeting men in person.

  No dates.

  And definitely no falling in love.

  As if anyone was going to fall in love with me, anyway.

  Five

  Nathan

  You don’t have to go anywhere. You can sit next to me and study, I signed to Maya, but she shook her head.

  I can’t sit next to you. Imagine how awkward it’ll be for the guy, she replied.

  We don’t know if it’s a guy, I corrected her.

  Oh, please! What else could it be? All girls are smart, so it’s definitely a guy, she said, and I stuck my tongue out.

  Whatever. You can stay.

  And make him feel awkward like he’s in an interview? Jesus, Nathan, she said.

  I blew raspberries at her.

  It’s not like you can hear his mistakes anyway, I told her, and she gave me the middle finger.

  I chuckled, but she kept the middle finger in front of me, her left eyebrow perked all the way to the top of her hairline.

  Well, not literally.

  Obviously not, she signed back after a moment. But still. It’s weird. Besides, I’m meeting some girlfriends so we can group study.

  Fine, I put my hands up in surrender. I’ll meet you after the lesson, and we can have dinner.

  Maya shook my hand to close the deal before she sprinted out of the library while I waited for my new student.

  I still had some time before the guy showed up. Gee, I hadn’t even asked for his name.

  Well, too late now. I’d find out if they really were a he and their name soon enough.

  While I waited for them, I logged back on Cinderfella and scrolled through the endless stream of headless torsos and empty profile pics to find the ones with actual faces on.

  The date with Dom24 had been a bust. It turned out his name wasn’t Dominique or Dom, but he was, like, an actual dom, and the date went south real fast after that.

  Not that there was anything wrong with what he was into. I just wasn’t. Like, not even in the slightest.

  Most days, dating through the app—or even dating at all—felt like a pointless endeavor.

  I had probably gone on close to a couple dozen dates in the last six months, and either the guys looked nothing like their pictures—which was fine but a little skeevy, if you ask me—or were solely interested in sex. And I wasn’t driven by that.

  Or, most times, they literally didn’t tick a single box on my checklist, and that was that.

  I’d thought of giving up. Didn’t they say love found you when you stopped looking for it? But I couldn’t give up, right?

  If I gave up on the app, where would I meet eligible gay guys?

  It was hard enough finding someone to date through a freaking app. I couldn’t imagine the horror of meeting guys at a bar, or worse, the club.

  As usual, there was an array of messages waiting for me, and while most of them were dirty or inappropriate, especially to read in a public library, there were a couple of messages that looked somewhat normal.

  Unlike most guys on the app, I had taken the time to fill my profile with useful information along with my interests, not only to deter douchewaffles—unsuccessfully, mind you—but hoping someone would take the time to read it and figure out if we had things in common before contacting me.

  Obviously, it didn’t work. But sometimes, like once in a blue moon, it did.

  Kyle thought I was weird for having a list and never missed a chance to make fun of me for it, but what could a guy do?

  After everything I’d been through, I wanted to make sure that if I ever put my heart in someone else’s hands, it’d be safe.

  And yeah, that meant I’d been single most of my adult life. And it meant I went months without sex—not that big a deal—or even a kiss—which was a big deal. But I’d rather be abstinent than give my body and soul to someone who didn’t deserve it.

  Just as I was about to reply to NurseJonathan, I got a text message from my student.

  “Hey. At the library. Where are you? What are you wearing?”

  It took me a moment to register the message as a genuine question and not a very suggestive Cinderfella hookup request.

  Instead of answering the message, I scanned the library looking for any lost souls in need of guidance.

  And that was how I spotted Hudson. At the end of the corridor looking right at me, his phone in his hand.

  The way his blond hair shone under the natural sunlight seeping through the windows of the library gave him a hazy halo around the head, which only made his eyes more intense.

  Why did he have to look so gorgeous? Why couldn’t God make bad people ugly so at least people knew what they were getting? Why did he have to make some of them fucking stunning, just so I had to be confused as fuck.

  Nope, there was definitely something wrong with my head. There was no other explanation as to why I was finding Hudson anywhere near attractive after spending the better part of seven years not finding him the least bit likeable.

  Sure, he’d been a good-looking teen, but Jesus fucking Christ did adulthood suit him.

  I snapped out of it and scanned the rest of the room, but found no other lost souls.

  Just the one.

  Please, God no. Why are you being so cruel?

  Hudson waved at me hesitantly, and I shook my head in disbelief.

  “You gotta be kidding me,” I cursed and someone shushed me, but I shushed them back.

  Hudson made his way through the library—how was he even allowed in here? He didn’t go to this university—and came to stand a foot in front of me.

  “You must be the tutor,” he said.

  “No. No no no no. I’m not your tutor,” I said.

  Hudson showed me his phone, which was open on a text message screen.

  “Isn’t that you?” he asked.

  Sure enough, that was my number and the messages I’d sent my prospective student.

  “Nah, I’m not your tutor. If you want a tutor, you’ll have to find someone else, dude. I’m not teaching you anything,” I snarled at him.

  “Nathan, please—” he started, but I didn’t let him finish.

  “Please what? Did you do this on purpose? Did you see me put the ad up and thought ‘oh, let’s mess with Nathan again?’ Well, guess what. It’s not gonna happen,” I said and collected my stuff.

  God, it’d be easier to storm out if I hadn’t emptied my entire bag on the fucking table.

  “Nathan, please. I didn’
t know it was you. I swear. I’m not trying to mess with your feelings, dude. I was just tryna—”

  “Why would I believe anything you have to say to me? You were my best friend and turned your back on me the minute you found out the truth. You spent the better part of high school shouting abuse at me. You sat there and did nothing when Derek stole my lunch money, or my homework, or whatever the fuck he was in the mood for that day. Why should I believe anything my high school bully has to say?”

  “Nathan, I know. You have to believe me. I can explain,” he whispered, and for some reason, it infuriated me more.

  The fact that he was coming out the bigger man when I was shouting my guts out in the middle of the library was not cool. He had no right to come out bigger on anything. He was an asshole. He was a fucking douchewaffle, and he deserved no sympathy.

  I could feel the entire room stare at us and sweat beaded my hairline.

  It was like we were back at school again. Me, the center of attention for no good reason. Hudson, the perpetrator.

  “Why would I believe the arsonist?” I said, and finally I was able to walk away.

  Or more like, run away.

  I was an ass. I shouldn’t have said that. Hudson was a lot of things. He was an asshole, a traitor, a coward, and a bully.

  But he wasn’t an arsonist.

  The entire town might think he set fire to the gym, but I knew otherwise. I’d seen him drive off in his dad’s pickup in the opposite direction from the school gym. And despite everything, I’d tried to speak up and tell the truth, but no one would listen. Who cared about my opinion, anyway?

  But I wasn’t thinking clearly around him. Was it starting to become a theme? Me losing my cool every time he was in the same room as me?

  It used to be I’d lose my voice if him or Derek picked on me at school. I’d turn the other way and try to tune them out—most of the time unsuccessfully.

  I took a deep breath as soon as I walked out of the library. And another. The more distance I put between myself and him, the more I started to feel like myself again.