Page 32 of Finance Bros

Ryan takes a breath I swear to God is a preface to I told you so, and I stop him. “Don’t say it.”

He bites his cheeks and gives me a look I’ll probably never understand except it’s shitty.

Bailey stands up like she’s going to direct me. “Lean on the wall and give the advice to the dog.”

“That’s gross,” I argue.

“It’s cute!” she says.

“I’m not sure,” Kaylin says, backing me up. “It could be kinda weird.”

Thank God.

“But I agree about leaning on the wall,” she adds.

“Lean how?” I ask her.

“For fuck’s sake.” Ryan sighs. “It’s like you’ve never seen a fucking TikTok video.”

“Give him a minute,” Bailey chides.

Ryan does not, in fact, give me a minute. Instead, he pushes his chair back from the table and walks past me. I watch as he lifts an arm, exposing his inked triceps, and presses his upper arm to the wall. Meanwhile, he shoves his other hand in his pocket and does something with his body that stretches him outlike an unwound snake. It’s?—

Something.

“Lean on a wall,” he says slowly like I’m new to English. “It’s not financial analysis.”

I could punch him. I really could. I could punch him in his pretty fucking face and break his stupid perfect nose and give him two black eyes. I get that he’s smarter than I am. I know I got into Stanford because my father went there and knows people. But now all I can think of is that financial statement I couldn’t make heads or tails of.

Glaring hotly at him, I fume, but because I also need to prove I’m not a fucking moron, I lean on the exact same wall, mirroring his position, hip out and everything, except while holding the dog. When I meet his eyes, his lips twitch as my arm flexes on the flat surface.

His gaze falls down my face, then my chest. As I warm all over, he pushes away from the wall. He nods to Kaylin. “Stand where I was,” he says to her.

What does that mean? Did he like what he saw? Should that be making me feel better? Because it is.

Thank God I don’t have time to think about it because a second later, I’m looking into the camera lens of Kaylin’s phone. She raises her eyebrows and smiles. “Mmm…much better. Now what was that you were saying about diversifying my portfolio?”

7

RYAN

Calyx stares down at my phone, watching the video Kaylin sent me of the disastrous audition Malcolm attempted last night. His eyes bug out at a certain point, and I lean over to see what he’s seeing. It’s when Malcolm leaned on the wall, copying me.

I can’t watch that part without sweating, so I sit back and wait. Calyx has the volume up loud enough that I can hear what he’s watching anyway. The lean effect is real, and now I know. Not the way I wanted to find out, though.

“Okay, being honest,” Calyx says, “It’s better with you both.”

“Okay, but let me be honest and say the dog is the point.”

“Ilovethe dog.”

“If I give you fifty bucks, can you come up with a handle for this and tell me what hashtags to use if we’re gonna post more of him doing this?”

“If you give me fifty-one dollars, I’ll even give you some advice to make it better.”

“Deal.”

“You should create a competition—like a rivalry. Like hegives a piece of advice, and then you stitch it to a better piece of advice, but you have to be just as sexy. Do you have a cat?”

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