She looked shaky, but pretty good considering the ordeal she’d been through the past few hours. She gratefully accepted a water bottle from one of the rescuers, and then came over to give me a hug.
“Thanks for helping me and Marie, hon. I’d have been in there for the night ahead if it wasn’t for you.”
“It was nothing, really,” I replied.
She took me by the shoulder earnestly. “I meant what I said, you know. That guy’s nuts about you.” She gestured over at Hugh, who was busy piling wood into a pickup. “And that Ryan guy is, too...”
“Cameron,” I corrected her again.
She waved her hand in the air dismissively. “Whatever. I don’t care what his name is, but you do, and that’s the main thing. Go for it, Muriel; trust me.”
Zoe’s daughter was calling for her, so she gave me a final shoulder squeeze and headed over to see her, leaving me speechless.
“You okay?” Hugh sidled up beside me. Beads of sweat had formed on his brow, and streaks of mud and old paint were smeared all over him, making him appear more heroic than a local journalist had any right to.
“I’m fine,” I replied uncertainly. “Say, does Zoe know that you and Cameron dated Hannah?”
Hugh shrugged. “Dunno. Maybe. Why?”
“Just something she said, that’s all.”
“Oookay. Well, Jason gave me some sandwiches, and they look pretty damn good. How about we eat them, then drive around a bit more and call it a night?”
I agreed, and we headed back to the car.
Hugh wrapped his arm around me as we walked, and I did the same, leaning my head on his arm.
I wished that Cameron was walking on the other side of me, making us complete. It was quite an incredible thought that if he were here, snuggled up to me as close as Hugh was, someone like Zoe might not even bat an eyelid.
But not everyone was like Zoe, I reasoned, remembering the boys’ run-in with Elijah. And if I did the TV show, I was certain that the Elijahs of the world would outweigh the Zoes, probably fifty to one.
It was too much to think about, yet I really needed to decide urgently if I had a hope of catching a flight back to LA first thing the next morning. There was only one thing that could help me; a good old-fashioned pros and cons list.
Hugh grabbed the sandwiches from the trunk of the car, and we walked a few blocks until we were on the edge of the park. He lay his jacket on a park bench, which was quite pointless since the jacket was probably wetter and filthier than the bench, but I appreciated the gesture.
The scene in front of us was not idyllic, since fallen trees littered the park and there was even a collapsed electricity pylon directly in front of us, but with the sun low in the sky and a handsome man by my side it was kind of romantic, in a way.
“A dystopian romance,” Hugh commented as if reading my mind. I turned and kissed him, our lips melding into each other for a few moments before he gently pulled away.
“If we keep doing that, Cameron’ll get jealous.” He grinned.
“Do you think he really would?” It hadn’t occurred to me before, but now I wondered about the logistics of a three-way relationship. Would I have to make sure I gave each guy an equal half of my attention? Should we only get intimate if we were all together?
“Nah, I’m just kidding. If we do end up making this official, there’s going to be times one of us is with you more than the other; that’s life. He’ll be happy to know I’m with you when he can’t be.”
“Phew, I was starting to worry about having to do admin to keep things straight.”
Hugh laughed. “Like a sex ledger? That would take the fun out of things, wouldn’t it?”
“Just a bit. No one wants more paperwork.”
We finished our sandwiches as the last rays of sunshine fell below the horizon.
After a few minutes of silence, I turned to find Hugh slumped against the bench, fast asleep. I couldn’t blame him; it had been the longest, weirdest day of my life, and I hadn’t spent the last couple of hours doing essential construction work.
Determined to let him nap for a little while longer, I pulled out my phone. Bringing up the Notes app, I started to list out my options and their implications; there was nothing like seeing your problems in black and white to get your problem-solving juices flowing.
So, option one was becoming a throuple.
Pros: Hot sex, time in at home, hopefully get to see my parents more often.
Cons: Couldn’t do TV show, Hugh’s mom, judgments from people around town, just a bit weird?
Option two, flying back to LA in the morning to meet the producers.