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“Come holla at me for a minute, Judah,” his friend Nico says from across the way.

Judah looks at me and says, “I’ma go over there for a minute. You good?”

“Yeah. I’m fine. I’ll just sit here and sip on my water.”

“Okay.”

He walks off and almost as soon as he leaves, Moriah comes walking over to me with two other women.

“Hey, again,” she says. “This is Luna and Tabitha.”

“Hey, ladies,” I say, greeting them with the same smile and demeanor they’re greeting me with.

“Hi. It’s nice to meet you,” Luna says.

“Nice to meet you as well.”

“I love your name. It’s so…so…earthen.”

“Um…thanks?” I say. I’ve never had anyone describe my name as earthen before. I actually have never used or heard anyone else use the word earthen. She’s a different one. That I can tell already.

They all sit around me. Luna sits on the ground in a criss-cross position.

Moriah and Tabitha are sitting on either side of me.

One thing I notice right away about these ladies and the other ones out here is that they’re all stunning in their own right.

Luna has this boho-chic thing going on with the long locs and loc jewelry.

Tabitha looks like she’s ready to hit the runway, and Moriah is a doll with her long, waist-length braids.

“Judah is amazing, isn’t he?” Luna asks. She looks and sounds like she’s under a spell.

“Yes, he is,” I respond, agreeing with her.

“So, tell us your story of how you met him,” Tabitha says.

“My story?” I ask, seeking clarification for how she asked the question.

“Yes,” Moriah says. “We all have a story. I met him one day at the store. I accidentally dropped some money and he was behind me. He picked it up and gave it back to me. We’ve been friends ever since. It’s been two years.”

Tabitha says, “I met him five years ago when my car broke down. He helped me push it off the road and then called a tow truck for me.”

“He saved me from drowning,” Luna says. “He and his family were staying at the same hotel as me and mine. We were actually going to the same wedding, but didn’t know each other.

Anyway, the night before, I decided to take a dip and, somehow, I passed out.

He pulled me out and held me until the paramedics arrived. That was seven years ago.”

“Wow,” I say at the realization of how long he’s known these women.

“What’s your story, Autumn?”

Okay, now we’re back to my story…

I say, “I was coming out of the ice cream shop and my ice cream hit the ground. He gave me his.”

Luna’s mouth opens. “Ah…he’s such an angel. Mmm…” she hums. “Have you ever seen an angel before, Autumn?”

“I believe angels are invisible.”

“Well, you know, in the figurative sense. Judah is one. I can feel his spirit. He’s high vibrational. He radiates positivity and a strong sense of inner self and calm.”

“Luna, shut the freak up with all that mess,” Tabitha tells her.

I’m so tickled, tears come to my eyes as I laugh.

“I will not shut the freak up . This man saved my life. I’m going to sing his praises every chance I get.”

Moriah says, “Look, Autumn. Luna’s trippin’. We came over here just to warn you. Do not make the mistake of falling for Judah. Trust me, we all did, but when Judah says you’re just a friend, that’s what he means. You’re just a friend. He doesn’t date.”

“And he’s firm on that,” Luna tacks on. “I tried.”

“Yep,” Tabitha adds.

“Oh, okay. Thanks for the warning, but I wasn’t looking for anything with Judah. He just asked me to come hang out with y’all.”

I lied to save face. Who wouldn’t want to be with a man like Judah?

He’s a pure gentleman. I would love to date a man like him – a man who gave me his ice cream without a second thought.

I’m bummed that this probably won’t be a love connection, but facing the facts, he passed on some beautiful women.

Who am I to think that I’ll be the exception?

“Why doesn’t he date?” I ask just to satisfy my curiosity.

“He won’t tell us,” Luna says.

Tabitha says, “I overheard him talking to Nico one day and I want to say I heard him say something about cancer. Don’t quote me. I don’t know for sure.”

My heart is beating ferociously in my chest at the thought of him having cancer. It can’t be. A beautiful man with a heart just as beautiful should have the world in his hands. This can’t be true. Perhaps she overheard him talking about somebody else.

“We think that’s why he doesn’t date,” Moriah says.

“He doesn’t want to burden anyone with everything that comes with all of that, you know.

But he’s a kind soul—a good person to be around.

It’s why we’re still here. Whenever you’re with him, it makes you want to be better because he’s just that phenomenal. ”

“Facts,” Tabitha adds.

I look across the firepit, my eyes searching for Judah.

His eyes connect with mine immediately. Now that I know what I know, or at least what the rumors are, I feel like his eyes are telling me that some of what they’re saying is true.

Has to be. However, I do not know to what extent and now, I’m not sure if I want to be entangled in his web.

For all I know, the women could be lying.

Maybe they’re all his and they don’t want me joining their weird situationship.

Perhaps that’s why they’re all sticking around.

Something just ain’t right about all of this.

Bummer .

Here I was thinking that Judah invited me here to get to know me. Like this could’ve been one of those meet-cutes that people brag about after they’d been married for twenty-some years and somebody asks how they met.

This ain’t that.

I’m one of the women he’s adding to his roster of friends . Of the good people he likes to surround himself with. He met us all in ways in which he reached out to show kindness. He’s a kind person. I’ll give him that much. However, I don’t know what this is.

Time flies like embers rising from the pile of wood.

For the last hour, I’ve been entertained by his female friends.

I noticed he stayed pretty distant from me which, after hearing what the rest of the women said about him, I’m not mad.

At the same time, I didn’t come here to be entertained by his friends, either.

I have friends already – one good best friend, which is really all a person needs. Yeah, I think I’ve had enough of this.

I stand up and say, “Well, ladies, I’m going to head home. I’ve smelled enough smoke for one night.”

Luna cackles like I made a joke, throwing her head up to the sky. She says, “Smoke going up to the heavens could be incense to the angels for all we know.”

“Luna, shut up,” Moriah says.

I grin a little, but my eyes are burning from the smoke and I’m tired after working all day, only to come out here to talk to people I don’t know.

That’s what you get for chasing after a man , I tell myself. This is all Riley’s fault. Yeah, I’ll blame it on her.

“Alright, Autumn. It was nice to meet you,” Tabitha says.”

“Nice to meet all of you as well.”

“Join us anytime, okay?” Moriah tells me.

“I will,” I answer.

But I won’t.

I don’t even know where Judah is. He walked off with Nico an hour ago, and I haven’t seen him since.

Yeah, it’s definitely time to go. I can’t get to my car fast enough.

I’m already thinking about everything I need to tell Riley, and I mean everything from Judah’s hippie friends down to the rumors.

I feel like I’ve been bamboozled. Scammed.

Roped into an esoteric community of people who think it’s cool to have campfires in the dead of summer.

“Ay, Autumn, wait up.”

It’s him. It’s his voice.

I turn around to see Judah jogging across the grass to get to me.

Darn it! I almost made it to my car. Almost got away unscathed under the cover of darkness.

As he jogs toward me, he asks, “Leaving already?”

I look at the time on my phone and say, “It’s a little after midnight.”

“Is it? I always seem to lose track of time these days.” He smiles, showing his perfect white teeth. Perfect lips. Perfect mouth. Perfect everything.

“How was it?”

“What?”

“Hanging out with all of us?”

How was it? That’s what you want to ask me?

How was it?? I’ll tell you how it was. I hated it.

Never doing it again. I came out here for you.

You abandoned me and went off with your friend somewhere.

The women circled me like sharks and basically told me I was wasting my time if I thought you were interested in me.

Of course I won’t say that. He was kind to me, after all.

I say, “It was okay, but this is not something I would voluntarily do. Don’t get me wrong, I love the outdoors, but sitting around smoke isn’t up there on my list of favorite things.”

“Ah. Okay. I’ll keep that in mind for next time.”

Next time? What next time?

If he thinks I’m going to be one of the crew, he’s sorely mistaken. I didn’t come here for them. I came here for him , but now I see that was a mistake because I thought he was feeling me.

He wasn’t.

I say, “Well, I’ll see you around.”

I watch him grimace. “You said see you around like you didn’t actually want to see me again.”

“Um, I was just—”

“I would like to see you again, Autumn.”

“Really?” I ask because from the looks of it, he has more than enough women he can see at any given time.

“Yes, really,” he confirms. “What would make you think otherwise?”

I can’t very well disclose everything his friends said to me, so I say, “Well, you invited me out here and then got up and walked away. I spent most of the time with your friends. I don’t even know where you’re coming from just now.”

“I apologize for abandoning you. I was catching up with Nico. I hadn’t seen him in a while. He used to live in Fletcher, but he moved to Gatlinburg for work. Tonight was the first time I’d seen him in nearly six months. We were just playing catch-up.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“I’m sorry,” he says, bringing his palms together in a quiet entreaty as he examines my eyes for forgiveness.