Page 45 of Brad & Finn
Brad leaned back into the leather seats, enjoying the staccato cadence of their bickering voices. Even though the drive was less than five minutes, he dozed off, waking up with a start when Finn closed the passenger side door.
Finn was already inside before Brad could get his seatbelt undone. By the time he and Chloe entered the coffee shop, theyfound Finn standing off to the side of the bar holding a receipt. Brad walked up to his side, stopping a little closer than strictly necessary.
“I ordered three large coffees with room for milk and sugar,” Finn said. “If you want anything else, they have some, admittedly, sad looking cinnamon rolls and pastries, but Chloe’s mom usually has treats for us.”
Chloe wandered over to the display case as they waited, and her grimace was enough to deter Brad from grabbing anything to eat. When they all had caffeine in hand, Brad took a tentative sip and then a much deeper drink when the brew didn’t immediately turn his stomach.
“Wow, this is like an entirely different beverage from what The Roll serves,” Chloe said, placing the lid of her cup back on after dumping what looked like around five tablespoons' worth of sugar into her cup.
Finn had added a fair amount of milk to his, and Brad could have sworn he caught the scent of maple. He chose not to say anything since Finn was clearly still undercaffeinated.
The drive to Chloe’s house was quick and familiar. He’d been to her house a handful of times to collect her on the way out to a hike or attend one of her backyard parties.
Her mom met them at the door with cookies in hand, and this time, Brad was positive he smelled maple.
“Only the best for one of my two favorite men,” Chloe’s mom said, patting Finn’s chubby cheeks, since he’d just stuffed two cookies in his mouth.
When her mom caught sight of Brad, she held an arm out, giving him a rib-crushing side hug. Brad cast Chloe a knowing look, finally understanding where she got her impressive arm strength from.
“It’s wonderful to see you, Brad,” Mrs. Abernathy said. “I’ve heard you’ve been keeping Chloe and Finn company.”
“Yes, ma’am. It’s good to see you, too, and amazing to see Chloe and Finn again.”
They chatted for a few minutes in the entry hall before Chloe announced it was time to get to work.
“Today, we’re going to be packing boxes in the second guest room. Almost everything has been sorted and now needs to be wrapped, taped, and packed,” Chloe said as she led them upstairs.
Finn was distinctly more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, having finished his coffee and eaten half a dozen cookies. Brad had eaten four. If anyone asked, he would staunchly deny it, but mostly it was because of the way both Finn and Chloe’s mom grinned each time he reached for another.
They got to work with Chloe in one corner, Brad in another, and Finn sitting on the floor of the closet. There were stacks of all different kinds of media, ranging from VHS tapes and cassettes to Blu-rays and flash drives.
“My dad was a bit of a digital hoarder,” Chloe explained. “Thankfully, it didn’t take up a huge amount of space, especially as time went on and he could put all of his extended editions and complete series on flash drives.”
There were also a few boxes of records and an old record player that Brad thought he recognized as having formerly been in the living room.
About an hour into their work, Chloe sighed and banged the back of her head against the wall. “I have no idea where we’re going to put all of Mom’s craft stuff.”
She slapped packing tape on a third box labeled “crafts” and pointed to two more boxes.
Brad hadn’t said anything about it for almost two days now, but he finally lost hold of his tongue. “When you say ‘we,’ do you mean you and Finn? Is he moving in with you to help with your mom?”
Finn was currently bent in half, his head shoved into the back of the closet. He didn’t respond to Brad’s question, so Brad turned to face Chloe. However, she was also looking over at Finn.
“Oh, I sort of thought he’d already told you,” she said.
Brad’s stomach sank, and he leaned against a sturdy stack of boxes.
“Why would I share something that isn’t mine to tell?” Finn called from inside the closet.
Chloe tucked her hair behind her ear and shrugged one shoulder. “It’s not some big secret.”
Finn popped his head out of the closet and scowled at her. “It is literally the reason we’re doing this fake dating scheme!”
“No,” Chloe said, stalking across the room towards him.
Finn stood up to face her. “You said you didn’t want to bother explaining your relationship dynamics, but you also didn’t want to tell everyone you were single, so this was a win-win,” Finn said.
“It is a win-win because you got to go to the reunion, reunite with Brad, and I didn’t have to delve into all the queer details about my life to our hetero-stupid classmates.” She cocked her hip and planted a hand on it. “Although I have to say, we have a lot more queer classmates than I would’ve guessed. I actually might have been able to say I’m in a QPR, and they’d have been totally understanding.”
