Page 103 of Finance Bros

So I start there. With Stanford, with why he decided on his major. He, in turn, asks me similar things about when I decided I wanted to be rich, what it was like to live in Portland, and did I have a lot of friends still in the area, to which I just laughed.

The conversation moves easily to the internship and the other interns. I tell him about Piper’s TikToks and our encounter in the elevator. He asks where I went to lunch with Miguel. I don’t tell him much about that because I’d found Miguel crying in the men’s room, and I doubt he’d appreciate my talking about it with Malcolm, so I circle back to Calyx’s ideas for Bailey’s TikTok’s to counter Piper’s.

The other thing I avoid mentioning is the fact that I want to ask Miguel to join our team. I’ll save that for when Mal and I are back on steadier footing. He’s never been the best about adapting to change.

He talks to me about what it’s like working with Isla, most of which I’d gathered from watching them together those first couple of weeks, and he asks why Charlie is in a wheelchair. It’s multiple sclerosis, and I tell him both what Charlie’s told me about his experience with it and what I’ve looked up.

My plate is clean, and I’m now talking about how Deacon and I ended up being roommates. He’s surprised how little I know about the guy I live with, and I tell him I’m terrible with people.

“Why would you say that?” he asks before draining the dregs of his second beer.

“Personal experience?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s like you said. Maybe I’m intimidating.”

“But you don’t think so,” he says.

I shake my head. “No. I think I’m shy. But I also think I’m smarter than most people.” I say this second part with a laugh.

“I think you’re shy, too. We were living together for a month before you could say a whole sentence to me with eye contact.”

“I mean… I was eight.”

“Did you feel different at school because you didn’t have a dad like the other kids did?”

I shrug, wincing slightly at how personal the question is. I don’t mind him asking, but it’s something I would have preferred to hear in a whisper. Up close. Or maybe I’ve now been properly seduced and want to get him home. Alone.

“I guess I did,” I answer him.

“I only asked because when my mom died, I felt like a freak. Like I’d grown a second nose and everyone noticed, but no one wanted to say anything about it—or look at me. I was glad to change schools. To have someone my age like you with something in common like that.”

I swallow on a lump of emotion. “Me too.”

He leans in, putting his face nearly over the candle. “I have more I want to talk to you about, but here doesn’t feel like the place to do it.”

“Are you ready to go?”

“To your place?” he asks.

“Yeah.”

His gaze slips to my mouth, and then he blinks, backing up.Another turn-on my dick definitely notices. “I’ll try to behave myself,” he says.

“Don’t try too hard,” I hear myself say.

“He’s gonna mess with me now,” Mal mumbles. “Awesome.”

“Not messing with you,” I assure him. Tonight was everything I needed. For the first time in a long time, I know where I stand with him. I feel like more than an experiment. I feelimportant.

The waiter stops by, and I hand him my debit card. “This was a good date.”

“You think?” Mal asks.

“Yes. Thank you for humoring me.”

“This isn’t me humoring you, Ryan. This is me fucking missing you after not talking to you for four days.”

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