Page 85 of A Hard Fit

“Yeah.” Rory grimaced. “I really wish he would do one. Seems like a no-brainer.”

Finn groaned. “I have a headache.”

“Poor baby,” Rory said. “How about I give you a backrub when we get home?”

“Yeah, okay,” Finn said, slightly mollified.

“At least we get to keep the boat ride, right?”

Oh, Rory. Ever optimistic.“Yeah, for now, until he changes his mind again.”

Rory gave Finn the promised backrub when they got home…but every time their phone made a noise, Rory jumped a mile. As the days passed, Finn could tell it was eating Rory alive.

Because Jackson never called.

* * * *

“Hey, stranger.”

Finn looked up from his desk. Luka. For some reason, seeing his friend’s bright blue eyes and soft smile in his doorway made Finn want to crumble. “Hey, bud.”

“It’sLuka.” Luka frowned and pointed at himself. “Remember me?”

“I know your name, smart-ass.”

“Good, good, just making sure you haven’t forgotten me. You free for a lunch date?”

“Sure.” Finn dropped his pen and shuffled some papers into a stack. “You don’t need to eat with Thomas today?”

Luka sniffed. “You don’t need to eat with Rory today?”

Finn studied Luka for a moment. “Thomas had a meeting, didn’t he?”

“No, he—Yeah, he did.”

* * * *

Luka moaned about his shoes getting wrecked through slushy piles of snow the whole way to Montagu’s, but as soon as they sat with their sandwiches, he turned his blue gaze onto Finn with an intensity that made the redhead squirm.

“So?” Luka cracked open his soda. “Talk. Something is bothering you.”

Not much got by him. “Oh, nothing. Only that Rory’s family hates me.”

Luka froze, can halfway to his mouth. He set it down again. “Finn. There’s no way that is true. Come on, being a drama queen is my thing.”

“I’m not being dramatic.” He told Luka the whole story—Jackson at Christmas, Lainey’s birthday disaster, the follow-up phone call and the deafening lack of a subsequent apology from Jackson. “Rory’s family is a mess,” he summarized, “and it’s all because of me.”

Luka put his sandwich down and wiped his mouth. “First of all, Jackson is a fucking prick, obviously. Second, every family’s a mess. They’d be fighting over something, whether you were there or not. My mom and sister fight over fruit snacks.”

“But this isn’t a fight, like I insulted Lainey’s china or something, or even that I swear too much. It’s that I don’t belong in that family.”

“Finn.” Luka rubbed his forehead. “Listen to me. Fuck Rory’s family. Fuck them. They don’t matter.”

“Yes, they do, they—”

Luka held up a hand. “Oh my God, are we going to do this again? Do you love Rory? Yes. Does Rory love you? Yes. Everything else is bullshit.”

Luka looked so certain. Finn wanted to believe him. “I hope you’re right.”

---