CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Oh God, no. No. No! No!” my cries grow louder with each new item the dragon sets on fire. I’m sitting in a house made from kindling, but I'm more worried about how upset Finn will be at the discovery our tree is gone. My thoughts are no longer rational.
“You mother f’er.” I shake my fist in frustration at the TV as the dragon flies off to torment other fictional game characters. It's official, I’ve gone crazy. I can never tell anyone I spent my Thursday night yelling at mythical dragons in a game where I’m dressed like Maid Marian.
“Aspen. Aspen!” My door handle jiggles, but the lock doesn’t give. “Aspen, are you okay?”
Finn’s voice is muffled, but I pick up the frantic element in it through the thick wooden door. Shit.
The handle jerks again. “Open the door.”
“I’m coming!” I try to appease Finn. I toss the controller toward the console and flick off the TV with the remote next to me.
I twist the deadbolt and throw open the door. “What’s wrong, Finn?” I’ve decided to play dumb on this one and hope he’ll go with it.
He grabs my shoulders and runs his eyes up and down my body. “I heard you yelling. Are you okay?” His eyes fly to the space behind me. “Is there someone here?"
Crap, with memories of the last time there was yelling in my apartment with Cody, Finn probably thought the worst. The guilt hits me hard, but I can’t admit to what I’ve been doing.
“Oh, that. No. I was watching TV.” I try to laugh as I finish speaking, but it comes off disjointed. I’ve never been a good liar. It's why in ninth grade my brother threatened to beat up Jeffery Royal even when I told him Jeff hadn’t kissed me. The kiss wasn’t good anyway, definitely not worth my brother, who at nineteen would have been charged as an adult.
Finn lowers his head and squints at me. “Uh-huh. What were you watching?” He lets go of my arms and takes a few more steps into the room. It would be impossible to miss the suspicion in his voice.
My tongue clicks on the roof of my mouth. It’s my tell and I’m thankful Ben isn’t here because it would be all the giveaway he'd need. Finn spins on his heel to look at me and his eyes squint with one eyebrow raised slightly. There is no way he knows about the tell, is there? Now, I’m worried exactly how much he and Ben bonded over Giants baseball.
“I was watching ‘Chopped’ and one of the contestants burned part of his entry. He was my favorite. I didn’t want to see him lose. I get passionate about my food TV.” I try my best to sound nonchalant, but my words are a little higher than they should be.
“Yeah, I bet you do.” Finn runs his eyes up and down me again, but slower this time. “Is that the show with Ted Allen?" Finn inches closer to the TV. It’s movement I wouldn’t normally notice, but I’m hyper aware of it tonight.
“Yeah.” I start to move toward him and we begin to circle one another like two wild animals in a standoff.
“You’re lying.” Finn throws the accusation at me and my mouth falls open with a gasp. “Chopped isn’t on Thursday nights.” His hand flies to my couch and I jump toward him but am too far behind to do any good.
The TV screen flickers to life and I grab for the remote again even though it’s pointless.
Finn’s eyes are fixed on the TV as he takes in all the burning bushes with a critical eye and then faces me. “Aspen, you let a dragon burn down our special tree?” He smiles at me and then grabs the extra controller and drops to my couch. “I knew you’d been playing, but I didn’t know you’d logged enough hours for a dragon attack.”
I’m stunned. I can’t close my mouth or make my limbs move. Finn has known I’ve been playing, but didn’t say anything? “You knew?”
Finn’s head turns back toward me as his own character loads. “Of course I did, babe. I have the game on my phone. I check in from time to time. The chairs are cute, but let’s make the bed out of maple wood. It has a nice coloring in the game.”
I thought for sure Finn would heckle me relentlessly if he found out I’d been playing on my own even though I told him the game was simply okay. Yet, he seems unfazed. Even happy.
“Well are you going to play with me or what?” he asks.
With little else to do, I grab the controller I tried to hastily discard earlier and sit next to him on the couch with my legs Indian style.
“I thought you were out with Trey tonight?” I question as I watch Finn’s character work to put out all the fires surrounding our house.
“I was, but I missed you. And coming home to find you playing this was totally worth it.”
He’s obviously excited I enjoy his little dragon game and I push him on his shoulder making him lean a little to the left. “Whatever, why didn’t you tell me you knew?"
“I thought it would be more fun to catch you in the act, and I wasn’t wrong. I wish you would have invited me over to play.”
“You were out with Trey. I didn’t want to interrupt guy night so you could sit around here doing a bunch of nothing.”
