Love Signals: An opposites-attract, forced proximity, only one bed, revenge romantic comedy (Love St

35. A Kick When You’re Already Down…

Allie

Why did I do it?I have so much going for me right now. Like SO much that I should have completely forgotten about Hudson by now. The team was able to verify Frank’s results yesterday, which means he’s ready to present to the world. I ran half a million snippets of data through overnight, and when I woke up, Frank had found three anomalies that can’t be explained by anything we know. Three! That means he might have already found proof of intelligent life. It’s too early to say, but even if they turn out to be something else, at least we’ll have found three more things that we can catalog and teach him to ignore.

Keenan’s so excited, he’s gone back to the conference coordinators with a copy of my report, and a request to find a way to squeeze me in. Because the conference is only a week away, it would definitely be a hard no if it weren’t for how huge this is. I have a very good feeling that they’re going to come back with a yes, which is why I should be working on my speech instead of doing the stupid thing I’m currently doing—Googling Hudson.

Why did I do it? Seriously, why?? I knew it would be a horrible idea. Even if it were just some pics of him surfing (which there were), it would hurt. But what I found is so much worse.

Some dirt-eating, mouth-breathing, son of a spider videoed us in the parking lot, and it’s been making the rounds on the Internet. There are dozens of edits of it, some with people reacting (and hating me with a passion), and even a couple with filters that make me resemble the devil, a cow, and one filter I looked up that’s called ‘disgust,’ that gives me a full-on scowl the whole time. And let’s face it, I look like a crazy person in that conversation while he looks all rational and kind and thoughtful. But no one knows what he did to me. Not even Gwen. Because I’m not telling her the whole truth. Telling her the whole truth would mean sharing his secret, and I won’t do that, no matter how hurt I am. I’ve given her a very vague explanation of what happened, in which I told her that it turns out his feelings for me were ‘less than sincere,’ and that I was going to have to leave it at that, even though I know normally we’d spend weeks dissecting every word spoken between Hudson and me until we beat the topic to death with a couple of spoons. Being the awesome best friend she is, she left it alone, thank God, because if she had pried, even just a tiny bit, I would have spilled the tea so fast, we would’ve both been scalded.

She walks into my office with two cans of Coke for us. “Oh no, you’re not watching more videos, are you?”

“I know I shouldn’t, but can you blame me?” I ask her, taking the Coke. “It’s just so hard knowing thousands of people hate you this much.”

“They don’t hate you. They’re just using the video to get attention for themselves.”

I point to my phone, on which an Instagram reel has the words ‘MOST HATEABLE WOMAN EVER’ across my face.

She tilts her head. “Okay, maybe they hate you, but the truth is, they don’t even know you, so it’s not really you they hate. Now, shut it off!”

I scroll all the way to the top, planning to close the app, when I see a new video has just been posted by that awful Ferris Biltmore. The title is: Hudson the Genius Makes Huge Science Breakthrough.

“What the fuck?” I mutter. “Gwen, come watch this.”

“Allie—” she starts, but stops when she reads the title. “What the actual fuck?”

“Ferris here, bitches! And I’ve got some big news straight from one of my sources at Galaxy Studios. I can’t even tell you how I know this source because she’s so high-level, even one tiny clue would give it away. Anywhoo, back to the huge news: turns out our Hudson is not only the most perfect specimen of man candy to walk the planet, he also is an actual genius who solved a problem those science nerds were struggling with for years before he got there. Now, I don’t understand all the details because quite frankly, they’re too fucking boring for me to listen to, but suffice it to say, those people at that alien hunting place never would have figured it out without him. Never ever. He just waltzed in there, immersed himself in their weird little world, and dominated. Within a few weeks, he managed to develop some sort of AI system for detecting little green men, which brings me to my first segment…”

Gwen shuts the video off while I sit, stunned, confused, and ready to lose it. I look up at her, and whisper, “He’s taking credit for Frank.”

“Well, you don’t know that yet. I mean, it definitely sounds like it, but maybe there’s some sort of mix up?”

My stomach rolls and my body feels numb. “There’s no other explanation, Gwen. He needs the world to think he’s smart. That’s the reason he came here in the first place. And now, he’s found a way to convince people. He’s taking credit for the most important thing I’ll ever do.”

“Come on, Allie, there must be some other explanation for this. Hudson’s not like that. He’s a good guy.”

I shake my head. “No, he’s not. He only plays one on TV.”

“What the hell happened between you too?”

Letting out a sigh, I say, “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that history is repeating itself, and I’m about to get fucked over again.”

Gwen shakes her head. “No, that is not going to happen. Maybe people who don’t know anything about astronomy will believe he had something to do with it, but the people who matter—the people in our field—are never going to buy that. I mean, come on, an actor created an AI system in six weeks? That’s crazy talk.”

“Yes, it is crazy talk,” I say, chewing my bottom lip. “You’re right. No one in SETI will believe that. It totally makes him a bigger shitbag than I thought he was, but at the end of the day, it changes nothing. I was never going to see him again anyway.”

My phone buzzes and I see an email from Keenan asking me to come up to his office for a minute. “Okay, that’s Keenan. He must have heard back about my speech.”

Gwen gives me a confident smile. “Perfect. That is just the thing you need to distract you from all of this nonsense.”

I get up and nod at her. “Yeah, exactly. The speech is what matters. Not this garbage.”

“Allie, have a seat.” Keenan stands and lifts a pile of papers off his desk and sets it on the floor to make a window for us to see each other through. “I’ve had a rather strange phone call this morning and, quite honestly, I don’t even know what to say about it.”

My heart pounds and my palms get clammy because I have a horrible feeling about what he’s about to say.

“Wait. I don’t understand. Hudson’s doing the speech?” Gwen asks, her head snapping back. “Hudson Finch, the actor?”

We’re in the ladies’ room on the third floor, where I immediately went when I left Keenan’s office. I’m sobbing into some one-ply toilet paper she grabbed off the roll for me. I blow my nose, then nod. “Yup. Keenan said I’ll be given time in a breakout room to talk about Frank and answer questions, but just not on the main stage. He said the attention will be good for all of SETI so we have to let him do it.” I sniffle, the injustice of it all pouring out of my eyes. “He’ll bring international attention and millions in donations.”

“Fuck the donations,” Gwen says. “Like seriously, fuck it. We don’t need it. No. You go back there and tell Keenan we’re going to fight this because there is no way we’re letting some smooth-talking, fake-ass man steal your thunder. Not on my watch!”

“We do need the donations, Gwen. Keenan made that very clear, and before you offer to ask Ty for more money, I would never want you to do that,” I tell her, wiping my cheeks with the palm of my hand. “It would be bad for your relationship.”

“No, it’ll be fine. He’s a billionaire, for God’s sake.”

“But you can’t treat him like an ATM or it’ll ruin everything.”

She stares at me for a second before she answers, and I know she knows I’m right. Letting out a big sigh, she says, “Allie, I’m not letting some asshole step in and take credit for your hard work, and you can’t just sit back and let it happen either. You’re the genius, not him. This is your discovery, and you’re the one who’s going to change the world. He’s nothing. And if he dares to show his face in Zurich, I’m going to tell him as much. In fact, I’ll tell every single person there that this is all a big bullshit lie.”

Shaking my head, I say, “Keenan said he understands how hard this is going to be for me, and he’s going to make sure the truth comes out, but only at the right time.”

“When? Like now? Because now feels like the right time to me!”

“Like after the donations stop coming in.”

“But that could be months from now.”

I blink, trying to hold back a fresh round of tears. “Could be, but I have to just trust that no one who matters will believe the story.”

“But … some of them will. In fact, a lot of them will. They’ll all be men, of course, and they’re going to be totally obnoxious about it.”

I nod, my gut aching. “Like Chad.”

“Oh my God, I didn’t even think about Chad. He’s going to be awful about it. Smug. Smarmy. Slimy. I’m going to punch him in his weaselly mouth if he dares to say one word to you.”

I chuckle a little, then start to cry again. Gwen pulls me in for a big hug. “Listen, we are not going to take this lying down. No ma’am. We’re going to find a way for the entire world to know the truth, including all those shitty trolls. We’ll expose Hudson for the fraud that he is. And it’s going to be glorious.”

“God, I hope so.”

“I know so. We’re fighters, Al. You’re a fighter. And there’s no way we’re going to let this happen.” She pulls back and puts her hand on my shoulders. “So get yourself cleaned up and get your game face on because we’re going to war.”

Email from [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Subject: Congratulations

Heard you got some help with your AI system. What a shame since I know you like to pretend to do everything yourself. See you in Zurich!

L

Email from [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Subject: Congratulations

Fuck off.

Hudson

Allie, I’ve been trying to reach you. I’m assuming you don’t want to pick up, which I totally understand. I swear I never told anyone I made Frank. Please call me back.

I know this looks bad, but I promise I can explain. Please call me.

If I don’t hear from you by tomorrow, I’m coming up there to see you. I need you to know the truth.

Me

Don’t bother. You wouldn’t know the truth if it was growing on your ass.