I’m confused and now horny beyond belief and it’s all down to Finn’s perfect-boyfriend persona and my now very weak promise to myself to stop dating. I need him to explain why he seems to find looking after me and teasing me to be his ideal combination, when all he really needs to do to sell our ruse is to plant a few kisses on me and slap my ass once or twice. But no, it’s perfectly timed touches, and whispered nothings in my ear that bring up involuntary laughs.
Wren and Gus are playing a game of pool, and I’m sitting to watch my best friend kick her fiancé’s ass.
“That’s my girl!” I yell, the other five beers I’ve had since we arrived hitting me.
Wren shakes her ass at me before giving it a slap and blowing me a kiss. I blow one right back.
“Not something one particularly wants to see his sister do, but cool.” Finn cringes as he waits for Bash to finish his turn on their table.
“You’ve witnessed a lot worse,” Gus notes.
“Don’t remind me.”
“I feel your pain, man.” Bash puts a reassuring hand on Finn’s shoulder.
“How the fuck do you feel his pain?” Gus asks.
“Oh, I’m sorry, are we forgetting about the time I found the two of you getting it on in the pumpkin patch?”
“Nice.” I give Wren a high five.
“Not when you unintentionally see your brother’s dick for the first time since you were five.”
“Next time, don’t look,” Gus says with an eye roll.
Bash sends Finn a “is he being serious” look, to which Finn just shrugs and plays his turn.
“How’s it going?” Sam asks as he takes the seat beside me.
“It’s going,” I reply as I unashamedly watch Finn bend over to take a shot. “Finn told me that youknow.”
“I know,” he confirms.
“Are you going to tell anyone?”
He genuinely looks shocked. “You think I’d do that to you?”
I don’t think he would. Not even a little bit. Sam is the last person to stir the pot, because he knows it would be shit to have his own pot stirred. Not only that, he’s just kind enough to do this favor for us.
“No,” I say eventually. “No, I don’t think you would.”
His smile returns and he gives me a side-hug. “I think that whatever it is the two of you are doing will be good for both of you. I think that whatever this is will become very real.”
“Real?”
He nods. “I’ve seen you together tonight. There’s no acting, no pretend. It’s just two people who genuinely want one another but are just too hurt by life to admit it yet. And that’s fine. There’s no rush.”
I stare at my friend, dumbfounded. “Everything that Gus and Bash say about you really is so confusing. You’re nothing like what they say.”
His smile falters. “Yeah, well…it’s not lies, what they’re saying. It’s just how I used to be.”
I assess Sam for a moment longer before he buckles under my gaze, leaving a kiss on my cheek before getting up and claiming that whoever loses between Wren and Gus, he will be taking their place.
When Finn and Bash’s game ends, my fake boyfriend returns to my side, his fingers tugging the ends of my hair.
“You okay?” he asks.
“I’m all good.”
