Right As Rain (Complete)

Chapter 19

Maelee

I'm not sure if it's from anger, panic, or confusion, but my heart stops. Unable to identify the emotion responsible, I take a deep breath and soothe away my overwhelming angst. Ashley and I look at each other, both asking the other for an explanation.

"I have a surprise for you," the girl croons into her phone, twirling the ends of her hair. Her voice is nasally and annoying. Did no one teach her to speak like an adult? Proving my rhetoric theory, she stomps her foot like the average two-year-old. "Damn it, Hudson!"

At this point, her ill-tempered tantrum is a disturbance to my floor and I will not have it. This is likely an act to gain access to the two celebrities. It probably wasn't even Hudson who answered the phone. Hearing him right as she called was probably just a coincidence. He was talking to Noah, I'm sure. No way she is on the phone with him. He likes me. Just me.

He has been so persistent, so adamant, and so seemingly open. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. He can't be this person. He isn't this person. He doesn't have a girlfriend.

The girl continues her tantrum. "Oh my God!" she whines. "Will you just come out here and get me? I'm in the hallway and these people won't tell me where Noah's room is."

I chuckle to myself watching her pitiful attempt to get what she wants. Her eyes set on me devilishly and my stomach turns at her instant change in temperament. I maintain my stature and hold on to all hope this girl is full of shit; though her conniving smile is more than enough evidence of what's about to happen.

The familiar deepness of his voice comes from behind me. My body freezes. "Susan, what are you doing here?" he asks, chilling me to the bone.

Fuck me.

The brainless bimbo brushes past me, knocking my shoulder. "I missed you," she says, approaching him down the hall.

I pivot slowly towards the loathsome couple. Hudson's eyes lock on mine. He silently screams for understanding and pleads for forgiveness he will never receive. The dimwit lays both her hands flat against his chest and my hear sinks. Ashley's face is expressionless, unsure of what it is she is actually witnessing; I imagine my own countenance is an exact reflection.

"Why are you here?" the lying bastard asks his obvious girlfriend.

"I told you silly, I missed you." She reaches up to kiss his cheek and his hands fall comfortably around her waist. His panicked eyes divert quickly between the leggy brunette in her heels and me –the short blonde in a scrub cap.

My ears ring in response to my boiling blood. If I don't get out of here, I'm going to explode over them both. Hudson drops the girl from his hold and reaches towards me in a swift attempt to persuade me from the conclusion I've already made.

His game is over.

I have no interest in listening to his lie of an excuse or anything else he has to say. "If she's staying, Jack needs to get her a guest pass," I say before Hudson can even stutter my name. I turn on my toe away from him and continue towards my original path, Katie's room.

He cannot know he has an effect on me. He will never know. Selfish, piece of shit, prick. Everything has been a lie. I let down my guard for a fraction of a second and this is what happens. His girlfriend shows up and I'm made a fool.

A dick for brains asshole does not dictate me or my happiness. I'm here to do a job. That's it. Katie is going to be okay, and I'm going to make her that way. I take a breath and enter her room, cheering a gleeful hello to the young girl sitting happily in her bed. Ashley walks in silently behind me, still stunned from what just happened.