“You’re full of good points tonight,” she giggled.
“And yet you’re on your way to becoming a surgeon. Watch out medical world!”
“You sound less nervous.”
“Don’t sound so smug. Fine, you’re good at distracting me, is that what you want to hear?”
“Yep. Now go get ‘em tiger.”
“Love you, B.”
“Love you too, Els.”
As soon as I hung up with Britte there was a knock on my door. I gave myself a last minute, only slightly panicky once over, slipped my phone into my clutch, double checked that I had my brand new ID- declaring that I was in fact of legal drinking age- and then walked to the front door.
I opened the door to find Fin leaning on the door frame looking sexy as hell. He was wearing a simple black t-shirt advertising some band I didn’t recognize with a gray cardigan over the top. The cardigan was opened, hanging loose to his sides and the sleeves were pushed up to his forearms. He was in loose black jeans with classic Chucks. His hair was styled and his face cleanly shaven and everything about him was just delicious.
I tore my gaze from eye-raping him and forced myself to meet his hot stare. He was looking at me like he had never seen me before.
“Ellie,” he breathed and said nothing more.
But he didn’t need to. I felt to my bones how much he appreciated my low cut tank top and skin tight jeans. I saw the desire make his eyes practically glow. Just my name falling from his lips was enough to light a fire deep in my belly and make my fingers tingle with anticipation.
“Ready?” I asked, not able to keep the smile off my face.
“Ready,” he reached out for my hand and I gave it to him easily, like it was the most natural thing I’d ever done.
We started the night grabbing a quick bite at a cute little local burger place. It was impossible to look sexy while eating a burger, but it was way too good to be worried about how I looked. Besides, I reasoned with myself that Fin just watched me eat six pieces of pizza last week, but the argument fell flat.
Because if I was honest with myself, tonight felt different than any other time we’d spent time together. All day I promised myself this would be just like all the other nights, that the money would still be a heavy presence between us, and that Fin would behave no differently than before.
But I was wrong. This was not a casual night in Fin’s apartment, this was clearly a date, where he paid for everything and treated me perfectly. The seven thousand dollars was nothing but a whisper in the farthest recesses of my mind. And Fin. Fin had apparently been holding back before, because where his attentiveness and attraction had been hard to ignore before, they were now impossible.
After the burger place, Fin drove downtown and parked on Third so we could barhop with the rest of the weekend crowd. Most of the bars in this area catered to college kids so beer was always cheap and there was plenty to do.
Fin picked the first bar we went into, an old building with mostly high top tables all crammed together to fit in as many as they could. The stools were just inches apart, so when Fin found us a table in the back of the room we sat down basically on top of each other. And that was Ok with me.
Fin’s knees were spread wide, and I was basically tucked in between them. His arm went protectively around my back and his other hand landed soundly on my upper thigh. He looked down at me with staggering confidence and I had to wonder how he was imagining this night would go.
I looked around the bar, taking it all in. College students were everywhere, yelling at a game on TV, playing pool at the three different tables, darts that were near the bathrooms or ordering more drinks from the bar. I saw a couple waitresses making the rounds but doubted they would ever make it back here since their attention was constantly being pulled from table to table.
When I turned back to Fin he was just watching me. His eyes were on my lips, his mouth was twisted in an adorable smile. Slowly he lifted his gaze to my eyes but while his smile widened from embarrassment at getting caught staring at me, his eyes only heated.
I shook my head at him as if I were disappointed, but leaned toward him. I couldn’t help it. And I hadn’t even had a drink yet.
Fin leaned in so he could shout in my ear to be heard over the music and asked, “Do I have to wait until the end of the night to kiss you?”
“Of course,” I shouted back, feeling my cheeks heat from a blush.
“I don’t want to,” he yelled back, pulling back so he could look me in the eyes directly.
“What do you want to do then?” I was flirting with him, playing with fire, but I couldn’t help it. This was a date.
“Bad things,” he promised with a wicked expression and I felt my breath hitch in my throat. I must have looked a little scared because he turned playful and shouted, “I’ll get us some drinks. Don’t move.”
I watched him walk to the bar. He knew enough people to stop and talk to a few as he pushed his way to through the crowd. The bartender, a guy I recognized from campus but didn’t know his name, leaned across the bar and did the guy handshake thing with Fin. They talked for a minute before he handed Fin our pints of beer and then went back to tending to his insane bar.
“I should have asked if you liked beer,” he said as he set it down in front of me.
