Page 93 of Bria and the Tiger

“I told you so.”

He didn’t reply, and she glared at him. “It’s not an ‘I told you so’ situation anyway. We weren’t on a date. We’re just friends.”

“But he’s the lion shifter you want to fuck.”

She blushed. “I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to. I can smell it on you.”

She buried her face in her hands. “I have got to stop hanging out with shifters.”

“That guy’s a typical lion shifter. Full of nothing but bullshit.”

“Oh? You hang out with a lot of lion shifters, do you?”

“No,” he admitted.

“You don’t know anything about Lincoln, so it’s not fair of you to judge him.”

“I know it’s a shitty thing to dump your date for another woman.”

“It wasn’t a date!” She took a deep breath. “Look, can we just not talk about Lincoln right now?”

He didn’t reply, and she stared out the window, trying not to cry and wishing she was just home already. When he pulled into her complex, she directed him to her townhouse. He stopped in front of it and she unbuckled her seatbelt.

“Thank you for the ride home.”

“You want to hang out sometime?”

She paused in opening the door and gave Hudson a look of surprise. “What?”

“You want to hang out?” He cleared his throat. “Just as friends. I’m not looking for a girlfriend.”

“You don’t even like me.”

“You’re all right for a human.” He shrugged. “I like going to the movies. You like going to the movies, and you didn’t eat much of my popcorn.”

“Which are the requirements for being your friend?”

“Give me your cell number. The next time I go to the movies, I’ll text you. If you want to go, great. If not…whatever. I just thought you might like having a friend who doesn’t ditch you when you go to the movies.”

He pulled his cell phone out and gave her an expectant look. She hesitated and then recited her number. There was no harm in giving him her number. She went to a lot of movies by herself. Pathetically enough, she didn’t have a lot of friends. Her mother required a lot of attention and most of Rosalie’s evenings and weekends were spent with her. Her mother hated going to the theatre though. It would be nice to have someone to go with to the movies.

“Okay, bye.” The impatience was back in Hudson’s voice.

She realized she was still sitting in Hudson’s truck and he was giving her a very clear get-the-hell-out-of-my-truck look. She opened the door and jumped to the ground. “Bye, Hudson.”

She shut the door and walked to her townhouse. He waited until she was inside before driving away. She watched the tailights of his truck fade away before crouching and picking up the grey tabby that was weaving around her feet.

“Hey, Mr. Pibbles. My night sucked. How was yours?”

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