Page 22 of Brad & Finn
Brad’s cheeks turned so red, they practically glowed, and he waved his hands in front of his chest. “Toe! Do you think it’s part of tic-tac-toe?”
Mariana threw her head back and groaned. “I didn’t even go here! Why did I get the hardest one?”
“If it makes you feel any better, Chloe’s really struggling with chocolate,” Finn said.
Naomi squinted at her. “Vanilla?”
“Strawberry?” Mariana offered.
“Wine?” Brad said, and Mariana tipped her glass of red wine at him.
“Oh! We met someone with wine!” Naomi said, and she turned around, dragging Mariana with her since her arm was still firmly around Mariana’s waist.
“She’s over there, cariño,” Mariana said, laughter in her voice as she wheeled Naomi around the other way and pointed to a group of women standing halfway between the cocktail bar and registration.
After last night, Finn had opted for sparkling water, and Chloe was still coming down from her caffeine high and was drinking Sprite like it was her job. Brad was nursing a beer, and as they both watched Chloe sprint across the gym, he drained the rest of his bottle.
“Should you go after her?” Mariana asked, her voice surprisingly fond after such a brief conversation.
“I can follow her this time if you want to grab us some more drinks?” Brad offered, gesturing at Finn’s empty glass.
He couldn’t tell if Brad had somehow picked up on his wariness to meet yet more of Chloe’s random friends, or if he was merely being his overly polite and helpful self. Either way, Finn would gladly take him up on the offer.
They bid the two women goodbye, and Finn was surprised to find that, for the first time that evening, he meant it when he said he hoped to see them again later.
Before he could get too far ahead, Brad slung a friendly arm around his shoulders. Finn tried not to melt into a puddle, but with the way all the tension in his body released at once, he had to struggle to remain upright.
“How are you doing?” Brad murmured.
Finn leaned a little heavier into his side than necessary. “I’m okay. It’s a lot of socializing, but…” He wasn’t sure how to end that sentence. But he loved spending time with Chloe, even with this relatively pointless fake dating scheme? But every minute he spent with Brad was one more than he thought he’d ever get to have again?
“I meant with Chloe getting asked about her ‘partner in crime’ by everyone who knew you back then,” Brad clarified.
Finn took a slow breath, and his shoulders lifted Brad’s arm. When he exhaled, that arm dropped down around Finn’s back. Brad’s hand gently closed around his bicep, and Finn had the ridiculous urge to flex. T had given him definition in places he’d never had before—and in ways Brad hadn’t seen on him in high school. As Brad traced his middle finger over the soft angle of Finn’s triceps, it sent prickling awareness up and down Finn’s arm. He wondered if maybe Chloe was right, and he did need to get out more often, possibly on weekend trips…to Chicago.
“I’m okay,” Finn said, stopping that thought dead in its tracks. “Truly, it hasn’t been that bad. Only one person asked about me with my dead name, and Chloe’s been handling it flawlessly. In a way, it’s been nice seeing how everyone is doing without having to make the whole conversation about me.”
As they got closer to the point where Brad would have to break off to follow Chloe, he pressed his thumb into a surprisingly tender spot on the side of Finn’s arm. He let out a soft groan and leaned all his weight into Brad.
Brad pulled them to a stop and rubbed his arm for another few blissful seconds. “I sometimes hold tension in my upper arms, as well as my shoulders and back,” Brad explained as he dragged his hand up and rubbed two of his fingers into the corner of Finn’s delts.
He and Chloe had been rather abysmal at bio, but Finn had been a wiz at anatomy. He enjoyed learning about how his body worked, even if it would take him years to fully come to terms with it.
“God, you are tense,” Brad said as he put his hand back on Finn’s shoulder.
Before Finn could say that, in fact, this was the best he’d felt in months, and would Brad perhaps be willing to rub his other arm—and then his entire body—Brad reached across Finn’s chest to grab his cup.
“Why don’t you take a breather? I’ll grab drinks for me and Chloe and hang with her for a bit. You can come find us when you’re ready?”
Brad took off for the bar before Finn could object.
Finn wandered around, almost as if on autopilot, eavesdropping on a few conversations, before his legs carried him towards the exit on the opposite side of the gym. Maybe he could use a little fresh air. He hadn’t been lying to Brad when he said he wasn’t doing too badly, but with every step he took away from Brad’s side, tension crawled back into his shoulders and chest.
As if doomed to repeat everything that happened all those years ago, a blur of color nearly slammed into him as he approached the exit.
“Oh! So sorry,” the person said.
Finn reached out and grabbed their arm, noting the “he/they” name tag clipped on their purse. The rest of their name tag, of course, said “Atlas.”
