“Okay, hospital shows are a no-no today. Hey, we should totally watch an action flick and a romantic comedy. I can listen to your sarcastic commentary, and you can listen to mine.”
I nodded. “Sounds good.”
Finn grinned, showing off his pointy canines, then turned and put on the TV. He navigated through various streaming services until he finally settled on a Christmas movie.
“This okay?”
“Sure.”
I didn’t plan on watching the movie anyway.
I was in Finn’s apartment, with him right next to me, his scent surrounding me. I was going to watch him. Bask in his presence. Try to take my fill of him.
Finn was right; he was constantly talking, waving his hands animatedly while criticizing the plot.
No, Rachel’s boyfriend wasn’t abusive just because he questioned whether upheaving her whole life and her career as a prosecutor to take over the small bakery her grandma had run was a good idea. Especially after suffering a tragic loss—a.k.a. her grandma.
No, telling her he wouldn’t abandon his own career as an architect to move to bumfuck nowhere was also not him trying to force or pressure her to stay.
Finn snorted a laugh, his face and posture relaxed in a way I hadn’t seen in months, maybe years. Back was a bit of the boyish charm that’d always drawn me in. The casual, open smiles. The way his passion could light up a whole room.
I was thrown back to freshman orientation, when I’d first gotten a glimpse of him. He’d been deep in discussion with someone, growing more and more agitated by the minute. His hands were waving, his eyes blazing, fury reddening his cheeks. They’d still been a bit round, his features softer than they werenow. He’d worn his hair differently too. Back then, he’d had the same haircut as everyone: short on the sides, longer on top.
Now his hair was more on trend, longer, a bit grungy, with something akin to curtain bangs framing his face. Hell, his hairstyle looked straight out of some magazine from the nineties.
“Oh, come on,” he complained, turning his head to look at me. “Of course she has to fall for the hardware store owner because he offered to help her change the lights in her store.” He snorted, shaking his head. “Hey, honey. Oh, by the way, I’m breaking up with you because I found someone better. He’s changing my lights for me because he says that way I don’t have to buy a ladder. Sorry, boo.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I mean, seriously,” Finn said again, pointing at the screen. “She owns an operational bakery… and they don’t have any stepladders? Or, you know, a fucking chair she could use?”
I grimaced. “Using a chair could be dangerous.”
Finn gave me a withering look. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t want her to put a chair on top of a table, climb up on both, and then try to reach the lamp. I mean a simple chair.”
“It still—”
“Eric. If you’re not steady enough on your feet to get up on a sturdy chair, you have no business attempting to climb up a ladder.” He smacked my arm. “She’s thirty-something, not eighty.”
My skin was burning up where he’d hit me. Not because it’d hurt—I’d barely felt it—but because every nerve in my body was coming back to life just to send a shock of electricity through me. I felt his touch tingling in my fingertips, in my fucking toes.
“Maybe you’d think differently if you spent a couple of weeks in the ER.”
Finn cocked his head. “Have you done, like, an internship or whatever, in the ER?”
“No.” I hadn’t gotten that far.
He must’ve seen something in my face or heard something in my answer, because he placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed lightly.
“Do you miss it? Med school, I mean?”
Good question.
“Yeah. I really, really do.” Which was something I’d never told anybody. Especially Bennie. “You know… my accident… I was on my way to help. I didn’t know what was going on, but there were gunshots, and like a complete and utter idiot, I ran toward it instead of away from it.”
