Chapter Twenty-Six
Finn
I groaned when I woke up, all hot and sticky. I tried to blink my eyes awake, but the sun coming in through the window was too damn bright. Apparently Aar’s blackout curtains had been pushed open. Ugh.
Aaron was plastered to my side. I had my arm up over my head, now covering my eyes, and he had somehow rolled into my armpit while holding me against him with one arm and one leg draped over me. He was like a pretzel twisted against me. I had no idea how he slept like that, but he ended up twisted around me nearly every night. And I loved it.
My heart skipped a beat at that. Every night. Aaron and I had been sleeping in the same bed every night since he came back into my life. And now he was going to leave.
He didn’t know it yet, but he was going to take that job. He deserved to be happy. And yes, I knew he was happy with me, but he also needed to be happy outside of us. Otherwise he’d end up being miserable in a few years’ time when the excitement and fanfare of our rekindled relationship wore off.
He had the chance to take the job he’d been dreaming of, and I’d be damned if I let him turn that opportunity down.
We would just need to make it work. And we would, because I’d also be damned if I was going to let him get away again. No fucking way. He was mine, and I sure as hell planned on keeping it that way.
It felt like Aaron’s arm was made of lead the way he was holding me down, and I really needed to get up. So I grabbed his arm and tried to peel it off me, but then he groaned and shoved his face farther into my armpit, causing me to squirm from the way his breath tickled me.
“Stay in bed,” he mumbled into my pit.
“I really need to pee.”
His only response was to groan again while pulling me tighter to him.
“Seriously, let me up.”
He groaned again and didn’t budge.
“Dude, I seriously need to pee. Let me up.”
He groaned, but then mumbled, “Only if you let me take you to breakfast.”
“I was just going to make us some breakfast here.”
Still talking to my armpit and making me squirm, he said, “Let me take you to breakfast. Please. I can’t cook, so this is the only thing I can do.”
I sighed. I knew he was just trying to be sweet, but I’d kinda wanted to stay in and have a lazy day lounging around the house with him. Though, since it was only Sunday—I’d taken the day off since I’d known we’d be drinking at the Christmas party—that meant we could be lazy tomorrow on our second day off. “Fine,” I murmured.
He blew out a breath right into my armpit, tickling me and making me wriggle. He chuckled for a full minute at my wiggling before he finally released me.
“You’re lucky I didn’t pee the bed,” I said once I was in the hallway. I could hear him snickering as I shut the bathroom door.
After showering together—one of my favorite things to do—and driving to the diner, we were seated at the same table we’d sat at that first morning we’d reunited. I could tell by Aaron’s smile that he recognized it too.
As we sat there waiting for our food, I looked around the restaurant. My eyes landed on a gorgeous guy with mocha-colored skin, brown hair and green eyes.
“What?” Aaron asked me when I’d accidentally fallen silent mid-sentence.
I nodded to the table across the room where Tad was sitting with some guy wearing a backwards hat and skinny jeans. I couldn’t see the guy’s face.
“Oh… should we go say hi?” Aaron asked me.
I shrugged and made a face because I didn’t know the protocol here. It looked like Tad was on a date… and I was on a date with Tad’s ex, not to mention we’d dated too. Would he want his ex and a guy he’d dated to bombard his current date? What the hell should we do? I had no freaking clue.
Before either of us had a chance to make a decision, Tad and his date got up from their table and started heading our way. Well, actually, I figured they were headed toward the door and we happened to be in the way.
When Tad made eye contact with me, he smiled a little and walked right over to our table, saying, “Hey. How are you?” He looked over at Aaron, not seeming surprised to see us together, and still with a smile on his face, he quietly said, “Hey, Aaron.”
Aaron said just as quietly, “Hey.”
When they both just looked around uncomfortably, I tried to make the awkwardness go away. “What are you guys up to for the rest of the day?”
Tad looked over at his date, then said, “Oh, sorry, this is Clint. Clint, Finn and Aaron.” He pointed to each of us.
“Nice to meet you,” Aaron and I said at the same time, holding our hands out to him. I looked at Aar and we both started snickering. Even Tad chuckled as Clint shook our hands.
“I think we’re going to head over to catch a movie,” Tad said with a small, but maybe uncomfortable, smile aimed at Clint.
Clint smiled back, making his brown eyes light up.
“Oh, Tad,” I said before it could get awkward again. “If you stop by the bakery this week, I can show you a few things I drew up for that fundraiser you’re putting together. I can email the stuff, but I know you usually like to see it in person.”
“That would be great. I can probably stop in on Tuesday.” He shot me a grin. After a silent thirty seconds, he said, “Okay, well, I’ll catch you guys later.”
Aaron and I said our goodbyes, and Tad and Clint left.
As soon as they were out the door, Aaron asked, “You’re working with Tad?”
I furrowed my brow. “Yeah, I told you that he hires us for the party planning stuff. I see him occasionally and sometimes talk on the phone and stuff. Though a lot of the time, he just calls in an order of a standard cake or cupcakes or whatever.”
“I know.” He had a lopsided grin on his unshaven face. “I meant, what fundraiser are you working on?”
“Oh, we’re donating the desserts for a fundraiser for some volunteer firefighters.” I shrugged.
“That’s nice of you.”
I waved him off. “Anyway, you wanna go out today or stay home and veg out?” Our food came, so Aaron didn’t answer because he got distracted by his appetite. I decided to use that in my favor. Once he had a mouthful of eggs, I said, “Let’s go home so we can draft up your acceptance letter.”
He started coughing, choking on his food, so he took a sip of his orange juice and pounded on his chest. Once he could breathe again, he croaked, “I’m not taking it.”
I took a deep breath. “Babe, you are taking that job and we are going to figure it out together.”
He stared at me for at least a minute with a sad expression on his face. Finally he asked, “Why do you want me to go so badly?”
I whispered, “I want you to be happy.” He opened his mouth to speak, but I held up my hand to stop him. “I know you’re happy right now. But in a few months or years or whatever, you’re going to look back and ask yourself what it would’ve been like if you’d taken that job. If you were doing what you loved. I don’t want that hanging over your head. And honestly, it would be hanging over our relationship, too.”
He set his fork on his plate and stared at me for another minute. “You really think I should take it?”
I swallowed thickly, trying to keep myself from reacting. I was simultaneously happy that he seemed to be considering it and equal parts heartbroken that he was. He was going to leave. Hiding as much of my emotion as I could, I responded with, “Yes, I think you should.”
He huffed out a breath. “What if we can’t take the distance?”
“Then we’ll figure it out.” I shrugged. “I don’t know, Aar. If we can’t handle it, then one of us will move. We’ll figure it out.”
His eyes looked shiny. He took a few deep breaths, looking down at the table, but when he looked back up at me, he had a new determination in his eyes. “The only way I’ll do this is if you make me a promise.”
I licked my lips and nodded. “What promise?”
“That no matter what, we’ll make it work. You and me, that’s more important than any job. If something isn’t working for you, you’ll tell me, and I’ll do the same. But no matter what, we do it together. We do whatever the fuck we can to make sure we stay together.”
I smiled at him. My heart was in my throat, filling with warmth from his words at the same time as it was breaking at the thought of him moving away. I reached across the table and held his hand. “That’s one promise I have no problem making.”
He blew out a breath, nodded, then suddenly stood up and came over to my side of the table. He sat beside me and pulled me into a hug.
I whispered against his neck, “Maybe you should just start sitting on this side of the table from now on.”
He laughed a little at that.
Aaron did, in fact, sit on my side of the table for the rest of the meal. And I loved it. He kept bumping my shoulder and smiling at me, he stole some of my hash browns, he picked up my hand and kissed the back of it. All around, it was kinda great.
After we finished eating, we decided to hit up the grocery store to stock up on some snacks and get ingredients for the dinners I wanted to make tonight and tomorrow night. Then we went back to Aaron’s house and after putting away the groceries, we ended up sitting at the table playing cards… 500 Rummy, to be exact. I was the Rummy king.
“What did you get?” I asked after writing down my score for the round. I was already beating him by two hundred points.
Aaron mumbled something, but I couldn’t make it out.
“What?”
He sighed. “Negative twenty-five.”
I bit down on my lips so I wouldn’t laugh, but I managed to squeak out, “You got negative points?”
I saw him glare at me from the corner of my eye, but I didn’t look at him or I really would’ve laughed in his face. Suddenly he reached across the table and lightly smacked my arm. I laughed and looked at him. “I have no idea how you’re so bad at this game.”
“I’m not bad! You just happen to be the luckiest person alive when it comes to cards.”
Now it was my turn to glare at him. “It has nothing to do with luck. I’m just that good.”
He snorted and flipped me off, making me laugh out loud.
I shuffled and dealt, then while he was thinking about his move, I asked, “So when do they want you to start?”
Aaron froze and looked up slowly. “The second week of January,” he stated flatly.
I nodded, pretending the knots in my stomach weren’t really there.
“I don’t have to take it, Finn.” Aaron’s voice was quiet, so soft I barely heard him.
I looked up and sent him what I figured was a sad smile. “Yes, you do. We’ll be okay.”
“Promise?”
I nodded. “Promise.”