Page 6 of A Hard Sell

Are you single?was the first thing that popped into Luka’s head. He didn’t see any rings. Then he admonished himself.Christ, Luka, have you learned nothing? Calm the fuck down.

When no one said anything, Thomas nodded once. “I appreciate your hard work. We’ll meet again soon.”

“Thanks, everyone.” Ilona dismissed them.

It took Morgan about two seconds to stand and saunter over to Thomas. Luka recognized that head toss, the predatory appraisal in his eyes. His insides rolled. He couldn’t stomach watching Morgan put the moves on Thomas. He scrambled out of the conference room as fast as he could.

Finn followed, providing distraction by yammering on about the latest numbers from analytics. Their new head of that department was Rory—tattooed, pierced, nonbinary and brilliant. And Finn had started talking about them alot. His current update was all “Rory thinks” this, and “Rory says” that. Luka listened, amused.

When Luka had arrived at Breakpoint four years ago, Finn had stood out as the only other openly queer man in the office, with shining red hair, a big voice and broad shoulders. They had gravitated toward each other instantly, and Luka asked him to go for a drink after work almost right away. It could have been considered a date, but of course, at the time, he didn’t realize how serious Breakpoint was about their dating policy—not that he was able to use that excuse three and a half years later.

Luka sat across from Finn at the bar, worrying that the butterflies weren’t there. Finn’s hair gleamed in the low lighting but it made Luka wonder what conditioner he used, not what it would look like spread out on a mattress.

“So, where did you go to school?” Luka asked before taking a sip of his cocktail.

“U State, you?”

“Bryerson.”

“Nice. I dated a couple from Bryerson once.”

“Like…at the same time?”

“Not exactly. I went out with her first a few times, and then him, but when he brought me home, she showed up.”

Luka grimaced. “Awkward.”

“It was at first, but then we had a threesome.”

Luka tried not to inhale his drink. “How did that go?”

Finn looked mighty pleased with himself. “It became a bit of a competition between the two of them to see who could get me off first, so…really, really good.” He grinned while Luka laughed.

In fact, Luka’s cheeks hurt from laughing at the end of the night. So it turned out to be okay that there was no romantic spark, no burning passion, because the warm glow of friendship was perfect. He got Finn’s complete hair care regime out of him, too. He ordered the whole product line when he got home.

Now Luka relied on Finn for his blunt takes on life and reminders not to take anything too seriously. And his hair had never been shinier. But this, the softness that emerged when he talked about Rory, who had joined the firm a few weeks earlier…this was new.

The first time they had met Rory, Finn hadn’t done much beyond mumble hello and shake Rory’s hand. Luka remembered looking sideways at Finn, shocked that he hadn’t cracked some joke about number-crunching nerds or commented on Rory’s tattoo sleeve.

Then when Rory had spilled coffee in the staffroom, Luka’s jaw had dropped when Finn had done nothing but scramble to help clean it up. The last time Luka had spilled something, Finn had asked if he was drunk and called him “Spilly Talker” for weeks. He had been at Finn’s house, and he had beendrunk, but that was beside the point. And he had definitely noticed Finn staring at Rory during team meetings. Finn was not subtle.

“Anyway, Rory said they weren’t too worried about it, so I figure it will be fine,” Finn summed up as they arrived in Luka’s office.

“Mmhmm. Are we going to talk about it?” Luka asked, leaning back in his chair with a teasing smile. It felt like the time to offer Finn a blunt take of his own.

Finn ran a hand through his curls as he leaned against the doorframe a little too casually. “Talk about what?”

Luka’s grin widened. “You want me to say it?”

“Don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

This man, for all his loud-mouthed bluster, was just fucking adorable. “Your undying love for Rory.”

Finn’s face turned as red as his hair. “I don’t… I—what…” he stammered.

“I’m sorry, what now?” Luka cupped a hand around his ear. “You don’t…?”

“Fuck off,” Finn mumbled, fighting off a bashful smile. He pushed himself off the frame and marched out, eyes on the ground.

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