Finn lowers his controller and turns to look at me. “I would love to spend any night at home with you doing a whole lot of nothing.” He leans over and places a quick, sweet kiss on my lips causing them to tingle.
I can’t decide if this is another sexual innuendo or if he’s serious. I’m pretty sure he’s serious. My brain has stopped, and before I get it working again, Finn fills the silence. “Plus, I showed up at the perfect time. We don’t have a healer nearby so if you had been injured in the dragon attack, who would have helped you? Dragons can inflict serious damage, Aspen. You need to be careful.”
Finn talking about the game as if he’s actually fearful for my character makes me giggle. When I get it under control, I give him a small kiss on the cheek. “How is it you can be so nerdy at times, but I still lo—” I stop mid-sentence as I figure out what I was about to say, “like you?” I hurry to fill in.
Finn doesn’t miss a beat. “It’s the glasses. They’re your kryptonite."
I turn back to the game as Finn puts out the last of the small fires. He starts explaining what I need to do to avoid future dragon attacks, but none of his words register.
I almost told Finn I loved him tonight. I don’t love him, do I? It was one of those moments when you automatically have to fill the gap so you say it. It popped out. Of course, I’ve never almost accidently told one of my previous boyfriends I loved him. I've never said it to anyone but Ben and my grandmother, I certainly wasn’t actually going to say it to Finn tonight. There is no way.
*
Light flashes behind my eyelids. A phone vibrates across a wooden surface. I open my eyes to the dark, and a small area of the room glows with the light of a phone on the coffee table to our side.
I try to stand up, but I am locked within Finn’s arms. I’m sideways on the floor in front of him, both of my legs thrown over his left one. I lift my head and notice I’ve left a small wet spot on Finn’s shirt at his shoulder. How sexy. I barely make out the microwave clock in the kitchen, the time display partially hidden. I can only guess it’s either twenty after midnight or two twenty a.m.
The phone screen lights up again and a square blue box pops up on the screen. A notification Finn has ten new text messages. I can’t see who they are from or what they say from the type of notification he has set up, but it must be important.
“Finn,” I quietly call his name into his ear and nudge him.
The room is still dark, so I feel rather than see Finn come alive with small flutters in his body.
“What time is it?” He rubs his neck and his hand passes the drool spot. “My neck is killing me.” I can’t see it, but I swear he smirks at me, and not over the hurt neck.
“You’re phone’s been going off.” I reach to the side of me and pass the device to him as the screen glows again. This time an image of Trey takes up the entire display.
“Yeah,” Finn answers with sleep still in his voice. He’s quiet for a few seconds listening as Trey speaks. Trey must be yelling because there are mumbled parts of his conversation coming from the phone. “I’ll be right there.” Finn ends the call.
“Everything okay?” Obviously it isn’t, but asking seems the polite action to take.
Finn sighs. “No, one of our servers went down. We’re pushing out a new game for extra betas this week and it overloaded the system.”
I stand and turn on the side table light. The unexpected brightness makes Finn flinch. “I have to go in and help patch some of the errors.”
Now with a full view of the clock, I see it’s after two. “It’s late and you’re exhausted. Do you want a soda to take with you?” It’s a lame offer, but it’s the one beverage I have in the apartment with caffeine.
“Sure.” I meet Finn at the door with two cans of soda. “I’m sorry we fell asleep on the floor. I shut off the game intending to wake you up in a few minutes, but I guess I passed out too.” He presses his forehead to mine and tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear running his hand down my neck to my collarbone.
A shiver from his caress has my words shaky. “It’s… okay.”
Stepping back, he places a quick kiss to my closed lips. “Thanks for this.” Finn takes one of the cans from me. “I’ll see you in the morning.” He kisses me on the forehead before leaving.
