CHAPTER FIVE
A few evenings later, Adam met Finn for a drink in Woody's, a bar central to both their apartments. It was a bar that, although popular, Finn assured him they'd be able to easily get a table and catch up, without the whole bar listening in. Adam wondered why Finn had asked to meet up, without Marcus and Alex, but hadn't asked. He figured he'd soon find out.
As he was first to the bar, he ordered two bottles of the local beer and sat on one of the vacant stools to wait for Finn. He picked up his bottle and took a long pull of his drink. It had been a while since he'd last been in a bar. In fact, it had been a long time since he'd been anywhere he realized.
He made the decision then and there that he would make more of an effort to get out more. He turned to look at the entrance when he saw Finn stride into the bar with a grin as he noticed Adam was already there. "Hey bro! Am I late?" he asked, with a nod in greeting.
"No, I was early. Thought I'd grab us a couple of beers while I was waiting. You're just lucky I haven't drunk yours yet," he chuckled as he handed a bottle over to his brother.
"Yeah, no doubt," Finn replied. "Want to get a table?" He looked around to search for an empty table.
"Sure, lead the way," he said, picking up his drink to follow his brother.
Adam followed him to an empty booth at the back of the bar. It was the first time he'd been there, and he liked the homely feeling the decor, full of framed old album covers and photographs of bands. The music from the jukebox was a mixture of old and new rock and he hummed along to the track currently playing.
"So, are you settled into your new apartment yet?" Finn asked as he took the first sip of his beer.
"Yeah, all my new furniture was delivered not long after you guys left, and I'm almost done setting up my office," he replied. "It's finding the discipline to get back into working on my business that I'm struggling with, now I don't have schedules to keep, y'know?"
"Yeah, I get it. I was the same when I stepped back from gaming and started working with Willow. The early morning alarm was a killer to get used to," Finn chuckled.
"I bet! I remember often coming home from school and you were just up and eating breakfast," he grinned. He was envious of the carefree lifestyle Finn seemed to have back then, doing his own thing when he wanted, not caring about anyone else's opinion.
He noticed Finn was looking far into the distance with a glazed look in his eye, no doubt caught up in a memory. He shook himself out of it and looked directly at Adam, "I'm sorry we've not hung out more," he sighed. "Growing up we used to be really close and then I got into gaming and ..."
Adam knew where Finn was going with this. They'd been very close up until Finn was in his early teens when he found a love of gaming and no longer wanted to hang around with himself and Noah. Noah then started to hang around with friends from school and was never in, while Marcus and Alex, being the eldest, didn't want him around either, unless they were forced to by their mother. Finn cutting him off to spend his time with his new gaming friends was one of the reasons he'd picked up coding. Adam had always had his brothers to hang out with and he'd assumed it would always be that way, so he'd not made the effort to make his own friends at school. Back then, when Finn pulled away, so did he, into his bedroom and focused on learning as much as he could about coding. Initially he wanted to create a game that he and Finn could play together, but the more he got into it, the more he preferred creating games for mobile. He felt that whenever he did leave his room, at least one of his brothers would make a remark about what he should be doing with his time. It was easier to shut his bedroom door and shut them out too.
The last thing he wanted was for Finn to feel bad about it, all these years later. "Finn, I get it - well now I get it. Back then all I could see was my brothers doing their own thing and I was left to fill that void by myself. We were kids, and if you'd not done that I probably wouldn't have started coding and built my own business. I'd probably have ended up at Harrington Enterprises." He shuddered at the thought.
"Ha," Finn said, "one thing we were both determined about was to not join dad's company, so if it hadn't been your mobile apps, I'm sure it would have been something else."
"Exactly," he shuddered again. "There was no way I was going to start there and let Marcus and Alex boss me around for another forty years of my life. I had enough of that growing up. Besides, I like being the one in charge now," he chuckled.
"You've changed," said Finn, the left side of his mouth twitched. "My little brother is all grown up."
"Don't you dare pat my head, or ruffle my hair," he warned. "If I'd had a dollar for every time one of you'd done that, I'd be richer than Harrington Enterprises." He dropped his gaze, "I just want to be seen for me, y'know. Not as everyone's little brother."
"I totally get it. I should have known better because I got it from Marcus and Alex and hated it. I liked the idea that I could turn the tables on you and Noah. I'm sorry. From now on I'll treat you like an equal." He scoffed, "Well, not an equal. You could never be as awesome as me." He reached across the table to ruffle Adam hair, knowing what he was about to do, he managed to dodge out of the way.
Adam burst into a fit of laughter, "Only you think that. Well, and maybe Willow, and she has to, being your wife."
He enjoyed his time with Finn and after he got a few things off his chest he felt lighter. He'd spent his whole life thinking his brothers thought he was the weakest link, or maybe not weakest but the 'less than' brother that needed their protection and guidance when maybe all it took was to point out their behavior and ask them to change it.
He grinned, maybe it hadn't all been bad, because without it he would never have striven as hard as he did to make himself be a success in his own right. He'd certainly achieved that, and he was far from finished.