Right As Rain (Complete)

The End

Maelee

It feels weird being here. Everything is the same, but somehow entirely different. I guess that's how life goes. The more things change, the more normal it all feels.

"Okay, what the hell happened last night?" Jessica asks as join her at our table on the patio, the same one we sat at last time we were here.

"Oh, hey Maelee! How are you?" I say. "I'm good how are you?" I answer myself. "I'm great, thanks for asking."

"I don't give a shit about your day," Jess says. "Stop being a bitch and tell me how it went!"

"You really start right in don't you?"

"Well, I need to find out how your love story ends before another boy band walks in. Last time we were here you got swept off your feet before I could talk you in to paying."

"It went fine!" I tell her. "It was good. He was very sweet. Very over-the-top romantic. Everything you would expect Hudson to be."

"Really?" she asks, quirking her eyebrow.

"No." I laugh. "It was horrible. Probably the single worst date I've ever been on. The after date wasn't too bad, though."

Jessica looks at me with confusion before she develops her own date night ending. "Oh my God, you fucked!"

"No!" I laugh. I should have known this would be her assumption. I tell Jess about the beginnings of our date and how Hudson arrived at my door with flowers in hand.

"Okay, and...?" she asks.

"He tried to help put the flowers away and ended up dropping the vase and shattering it across my kitchen," I tell her. Jessica can't believe the story, but it only gets better. I smile at myself thinking of how embarrassed Hudson was when he lost his keys. We found them about thirty minutes later, but he proceeded to lock them in his car while we were at dinner, prompting a call to the locksmith.

Dinner itself was its own kind of disaster. Though Hudson apparently requested a private table, we were sat us across from each other on the floor of a family style table with twelve other strangers. Needless to say, our conversation was minimal. I did have a very nice man ask me about a few curious rashes that recently popped up in various locations on his body.

Jessica laughs hysterically at my retelling. "Maelee! Oh my God!"

"Then I got called in to the hospital."

"You didn't?" Jessica gasps. "Poor Hudson!"

At first, Hudson thought I was faking the phone call to get out of our disastrous first date, but I assured him that wasn't the case. I didn't think he believed me so when I finished stitching up Dr. Green's patient who had their mesh slip, I text him.

We met in the parking lot of the hospital and walked to a nearby taco truck. He apologized multiple times for the horrible date until I finally convinced him it really was fine. I liked the way his face lit up when he realized I genuinely didn't mind. Apparently, girls of his past would have been very disappointed in his lack of finesse.

"So it all worked out?" Jessica asks. "What now?"

Before I answer, a vaguely familiar bustle from the front of the patio catches our attention. When Noah and Hudson appear and walk towards our table, I question rather I'm hallucinating. I look at Jessica only quick enough to catch her smile. She must have invited them.

"Noah called last night after your date," she explains. "Hudson was pretty upset so we thought we would push you two together one more time. I guess he didn't tell Noah about your after date bang."

"Oh my God! We didn't bang!" I say quickly and under my breath.

Hudson walks straight to me and bends to kiss my cheek. "Hey baby," he says. "Sorry we're late." He waves across the table saying high to Jess then pulls his chair slightly closer to mine. Jessica rolls her eyes and waves her hand towards him.

Noah looks at her with a knowing smile and raises his hand for a high-five. "We did it!" he says. He may not have known about Hudson and my after date before he made this plan, but he does now.

Jessica slaps her palm against his. "I did it," she says.

"Pretty sure we did it," Hudson insists, reaching for my hand.

Jessica takes his comment the only way she knows how. "I knew you fucked!" she yells.

For the second time in two weeks, I hear gasps rise from this restaurant's patio. Multiple sets of eyes land on us, waiting for a reaction.

"Damn it, Jessica! We didn't fuck!" I yell back.

Noah laughs his rolling laugh and sticks up for his friend. "I think what Hudson is trying to say is they got themselves together."

Jessica side eyes him then flops back in her chair crossing her arms. "Well we helped."

"Fuck yeah we did!" Noah turns to face Hudson and me. "You two are a pain in my ass, you know that?" he asks.

"I'm a pain in your ass?" I ask. "Are you serious? You paged me in the middle of a surgery, twice!"

"You shouldn't have told me I could call you." Noah shrugs.

"I didn't. I told you to page me if you needed me."

"I did need you." He shrugs again. While I don't constitute Noah's post-operative boredom as needing me, I have a hard time being mad at him.

"So you guys are really doing this thing?" Jessica asks, motioning between Hudson and I. "For real?"

The smile that tugs on the corner of Hudson's mouth makes my heart pound. His green eyes stare back into mine, waiting for me to answer. If I've learned anything in the past few weeks, it's that he isn't going to push me.

Is anyone ever really ready to do anything? For some reason, I don't think so. He promised we would go at my pace and I believe him. I may not be ready to jump in front of the cameras and walk down Sunset Boulevard hand in hand, but I'm ready to see where it goes. I'm ready to spend time with him and learn more about the real man Hudson Steele is.

I don't know what kind of boyfriend he will be, or what the media's perception of me will be, or how this will affect my career. All I know is that I'm ready to find out.

Hudson lifts my hand to his lips and places a soft kiss across my knuckles. He already knows my answer; he's confident of it. Still, he's going to wait for me to say it and won't be mad if I don't. He's giving me control, just like he promised he would.

I squeeze Hudson's hand and turn to our best friends to give them my answer. "I guess we are."

"Right as rain?" Hudson asks, quirking his brow. Had I not heard him say it a few times to Noah while Noah was still in the hospital, I would probably be a little frazzled by his use of the phrase. I haven't told him about the little boy with the prosthetic leg and even now, after he's used the term again, I keep it to myself.

The little boy taught me something that day and Hudson is unintentionally reminding me of it now. In every storm there is rain and that's okay. Noah is okay. I'm okay. Everything is okay. Sometimes things don't work out according to plan, and that's okay too. It doesn't make them any less meant to be.

"Right as rain," I repeat. "We're right as rain."