“Use the green card,” he instructed and then let me go.
It took all of my grace and coordination not to stumble back after he released me from his intensity. I cleared my throat, ignoring the riot of butterflies in my stomach. Fin could do serious damage to my heart if I let him keep this up. And the worst part was he didn’t even know what he was doing.
I ordered the Thai food quickly, just getting two of whatever it was he liked. And I wasn’t even sure if I got that right. My Thai was not the most accurately pronounced.
After I finished the order there was a knock at the door. Without being asked I walked over and put my hand on the knob.
“Wait,” Fin called out, jumping up from his chair. “Let me check who it is first. I’ve been getting these weird-“ He stopped talking suddenly and cleared his throat.
Knowing he was referring to the three girls I sent his way over the last week I leaned up on my tip toes to look through the peephole. I couldn’t suppress my smile and I was seriously hoping it was another girl. I would die to watch Fin interact with one of them.
But alas, it was only Jameson.
“It’s alright, I think it’s for me,” I called over my shoulder.
Fin was halfway across the room and I felt more than heard his confusion at that. I opened the door and let Jameson in.
“Hey,” I said causally.
He smiled down at me, familiar and sweet. “Hey, Els.” We shared the smile and then he reluctantly greeted Fin. “Hey, man.”
Fin could not have sounded more suspicious when he said, “Hey,” back. “What are you doing here James?”
“Just stopped by to see, Ellie.” Jameson shot me a wink over his shoulder so I knew he was teasing Fin. Not that Fin didn’t totally deserve this; although I wasn’t sure why he would care to begin with.
“She’s working right now,” Fin bit out. He made his stance wide, intimidating and crossed his arms. His hair was across his forehead again and his dark eyes were more the color of cold black obsidian than warm chocolate.
“I can see that,” Jameson mumbled smugly.
That muscle started ticking in Fin’s jaw again and I had the strongest urge to smooth my hand over it so he would relax. I shook my head of that kind of thought and instead tugged on the crook of Jameson’s arm. “I just ordered some Thai. Are you going to stick around and eat with us?”
“He can’t, we’re working,” Fin growled, emphasizing his words loudly.
“I can’t anyway, I’ve got three miles left to work in this evening. Did you finish your work out track star?” Jameson asked tauntingly.
Fin didn’t reply, just bore holes with his eyes into Jameson’s head. “What do you need, J?”
Not wanting to cause any problems between Fin and his friend, especially since I was the removable piece here, I hurried over to my backpack lying on the floor. I grabbed the notes I borrowed and quickly shuffled them into a neat pile before handing them over to Jameson.
“Thanks again,” I smiled sweetly. “Those are probably going to save my grade.”
“Of course,” Jameson smiled back. “Anytime, Ellie, really. And if you need help studying for the midterm, just let me know. I’d love to help out.”
“That would be great, thank you!” I gushed. That really would be great; I wasn’t just being polite or nice. My grade was in so much trouble and I could not make sense of anything related to probability or trending inflations.
“Alright, well, I’ll call you later,” Fin interrupted as a way to kick his friend out.
He was being rude, and I was kind of embarrassed, but Jameson only laughed and gave us a wave on his way out the door.
Once the door was closed behind him, Fin locked it and then returned to his desk. “Since when are you and McKay such good friends?”
“Oh, I thought you knew we had Econ together. You know, since you made himspyon me and all,” I retorted with as much snark as I could muster.
But he just grunted.
Not feeling like sitting back down next to him, I wandered over to his huge windows that looked out over the street below and a section of grassy campus. There were three of these long windows that reached from my waist almost all the way to the vaulted ceiling were evenly spaced along his living room wall. The rough, red brick filled in the space between and the dark wood baseboard ran along the length of the floor.
The sun was shining today and the cold winter wind seemed to have receded for good. People were out and about this evening, enjoying the nice weather, taking their dogs for walks and holding hands in the park area. Couples dotted the grassy knoll all over, holding hands under budding trees, speaking closely and in one case making foreplay an outdoor sport.
