Page 14 of Bridesmaid By Chance
Hudson: Christ. Think I should tell him myself?
Hardy: Are you nuts? I’d talk to Sloane, feel her out. Does she seem up for the challenge?
Hudson: She seems like she wants to melt into the seat next to me.
Hardy: Could be worse, she could be making slicing motions across her neck with her finger while staring you down. You can work with melting into the seat.
Hudson: Yeah, maybe. Fuck, why did I have to be so goddamn desperate?
Hardy: Because you have daddy issues.
Hudson: Isn’t that the fucking truth?
Chapter Three
SLOANE
“Have a seat,” Hudson says as he sits on the couch in his office.
Instead of sitting at his desk like he always does when he addresses me, he’s in his sitting area that consists of a brown leather couch and two matching chairs with a wooden coffee table in between.
I’ve never sat in this lustrous area before, but I’ve seen him have meetings here. Guess it only takes him offering me up as a bridesmaid to a business contact for me to get a serious meeting with him.
My mind is still grappling with that, by the way. The entire drive back to the office, I was replaying the moment he said I could do it over and over in my head. Did he panic? Sure. That was obvious, but he hasn’t even looked in my direction. It’s kind of…shitty.
And it took everything in me to hold my tongue while we were sitting in the car.
I took deep breaths.
I stared out the window.
I even tried playingToy Blaston my phone to relieve the anxiety building in my chest.
And lucky for me, it worked, but now that I’m in his office…I have questions.
First:How dare you?
Second:Have you lost your mind? I know I’m looking for a new career path, but this is not it.
Poised, I sit across from him and hold my pen and paper to take notes because I don’t know what else to do with my hands.
He leans forward, resting his forearms on his thighs as he clasps his hands in front of him. He stares down at the carpet for a few seconds before meeting my gaze, and I’m struck with just how handsome he is. It’s rare when I get his undivided attention like this, when I get direct eye contact. Maybe I need to be grateful for the rarity because I could get lost in this man’s eyes.
But then he reminds me why we’re here. “Listen, Sloane, I need to apologize about what happened back there. It was extremely unprofessional, and I never should have put you in this kind of position.”
Well, we must give the man credit for owning up to his mistakes. Well done.
“Thank you,” I say, letting my professionalism guide me.
“And I know this is asking a lot, so I want to give you the option to back out because I’ll never force something upon you. And don’t worry about giving me an answer right now. I really want you to think about it. This would entail going to London for a couple of weeks, learning how to ballroom dance, and parading around to impress, which is a lot of pressure on someone, especially when they didn’t ask for it.”
“Seems like it,” I say.
“It is,” he says as he leans into the couch and blows out a heavy breath. He stretches his arms across the ledge of the couch and tilts his head back. “This is not how I envisioned the day going.” He pinches his brow. “Your brother’s going to murder me.”
I mean, murder seems like a pretty extreme response. I’m not sure Jude would even get mad over this. And why bring up Jude? I’m a grown woman. I can handle my own life, thank you very much.
“Why would he murder you?” I ask.
