“Uh yeah, sure,” I answered before I thought about how bad an idea that was. Hopefully Mr. Blaine could keep everything on the down low.
“There was one other thing I wanted to ask you about. Oh, remember how I asked you to look over those reports?”
I had looked at them in any spare moment I had, but hadn’t come up with anything earth shattering. But, to be honest, I hadn’t looked all that hard. It had been low on my priority list.
“Yeah, I haven’t found anything that stuck out.”
“Hm. Okay. We’ll talk about it later. Listen, I have to get to a lunch, but I’ll see you later. Bye, sweetie.”
“Bye, Dad. Have fun.”
I hung up and I could feel that Mr. Blaine was back at his desk. I picked up the phone and dialed his extension. He looked across the hall at me and picked up the phone.
“Hello, Aurora Clarke’s office. How may I direct your call?”
“Hello, Mr. Blaine, this is Aurora Clarke. I just wanted to inform you that I have spoken with my father about your access issue and he is speaking to someone about it and will get back to me, and that he would also like to see you in his office this afternoon.” I could both see and hear him smiling.
“You know what this reminds me off? Did you ever use two soup cans and a rope and make a telephone? My brothers and I used to do that . . .” he trailed off and it was almost like he’d blurted something out that he really wished he could reel back.
“No, I never did that. But it sounds like fun.” Not that my childhood was un-fun, but that just wasn’t the kind of thing I did.
“It was.” Okay, totally weird moment. We locked eyes as we both held the phones to our ears.
He was the first to recover and clear his throat.
“Well, thank you Miss Clarke for keeping me apprised. I appreciate it very much, and I will be sure to see him later.”
“You’re welcome Mr. Blaine.” There was nothing else to say, but I didn’t seem to be able to hang the phone up.
“You hang up,” Lucas said, and that made me smile.
“No, you hang up.”
“I asked you first.”
“I’m your boss.”
“Fair point.” Click. We both grinned like idiots at each other until someone walked by and broke our eye contact.
11
I was nervous. I was nervous about meeting Fin for coffee. I mean, my palms weren’t sweating, but I was definitely nervous. I’d arrived twenty minutes early and I had already decided to order herbal tea because I was keyed up enough as it was.
I chose a table near the front with a good view of the street so I could see him before he could see me. Between scanning the street for him and checking my phone to make sure he hadn’t texted or called to cancel, I whiled away the time. And then it was five minutes until our meeting and I saw a man with dark wavy hair and a familiar nose stroll up the sidewalk and walk into the café.
Holy. Hell.
The scrawny guy with the greasy hair and the once-crooked teeth had undergone a transformation worthy of that television show that gives ridiculous makeovers. His blue eyes scanned the shop, and I pretended to be engrossed with my phone. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him see me and start to walk over.
“Rory?” I look up and it wasn’t hard to put on a shocked face. He was even more . . . wow, up close.
“Fin? Is that you?” Even back in the day, he’d towered over me. Now he was even more . . . formidable.
“It’s me,” he said, holding his arms out and then wrapping me in a hug. Whoa. I wasn’t much of a hugger when it came to people I didn’t know well, but I was forced to submit to it anyway until he let me go. He must have seen my hug reluctance.
“Oh, sorry. I’m kind of a hugger.”
“It’s fine. No big deal. Do you want to sit?”
“Have you gotten anything yet? What would you like?”
“Um, whatever they have for decaf tea is fine. And maybe a scone or something?” I started to rummage in my purse for some cash.
“It’s on me. Be right back.” He whisked away before I could stop him.
Hey, I tried.
I watched him as he ordered and flirted with the girl who wrote his name on our cups and waited for our orders. He definitely wasn’t clumsy anymore. He’d grown into his body and he clearly knew how to use it.
What had my parents gotten me into?
I had to look back at my phone again so he wouldn’t catch me watching him.
“Here you go, ma’am. Decaf peach tea and a cranberry scone.” I took the tea and sipped it, burning my tongue.
“Thanks, Fin.”
“My pleasure.”
Enter awkward silence.
We both just sort of sat there, neither of us knowing where to start.
“So. This is terribly awkward.” Thank you, Fin. We both laughed and I shook my head.
“So don’t feel any pressure for this at all. I’m not expecting anything, if you were worried.” Well, I wasn’t until now. Why hadn’t that occurred to me? He must have seen my look of horror.
“And I did that thing I do and made this already awkward situation even worse. I’m going for the record today.” He shook his head at himself.
“Well, how about we move onto less awkward ground. How’s your job going?”
He mimed shooting himself in the head.
“That good?’
“It’s not the job, exactly. I enjoy it, and I like traveling, but I feel like it’s time to stay in one place. I know that’s odd for a guy to say, but I just wish I could stop living out of a suitcase and getting an email with a plane ticket and an order to be here or there in two weeks. Most of the time I don’t even get to see anything, except from afar.” He kept going and it was like I’d unleashed something that had been pent up inside him for a long time and he just needed someone to talk to about it.
When he finally took a breath, I realized we’d been talking for almost a half hour.
“Wow, I am not normally this much of a talkaholic. I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to lay that on you.” He stuck his scone in his mouth as if to stop any more words from coming out of it.
“No, it’s fine. Really. Everyone needs to bitch every now and then. I feel honored that you chose me.”
“Anything you want to talk about? Lay it on me.” He finished the scone and sat back and I felt like this was some sort of date-slash-therapy session.
“Well, work is going well, I’m living with my best friend and I don’t have much to bitch about.” Something told me that he wouldn’t really want to hear all the sordid details of my relationship, or whatever it was, with Lucas. Mr. Blaine.