Page 57 of Filtration Play
“Maybe something’s changed with her?”
Fin shook their head. “I doubt it.” Last time they got lunch with their mom, she was same old. Still avoiding any mention of Fin’s father and keeping the conversation as superficial as possible. Why they even bothered anymore was beyond them. Neither of them got anything out of the visits apart from fear and split-open scars.
“But you’re scared of letting her go,” Ollie said, his voice quiet, thoughtful. He offered a half smile. “Sometimes the good memories are the mostdangerous things.”
Well, damn.
Most folks told them to drop their mom, to stop with this nonsense, and they weren’t wrong. Fin knew what they should do. Yet Ollie’s words, Ollie’sunderstanding, struck right into the center of their heart.
“Yeah, they fucking suck,” Fin muttered. Because they could remember a time when they’d gone on family picnics to Ocean Beach, when Mom had sung brightly and loudly to her eighties ballads while driving the car, when Dad had laughed and told them old fairy tales and fables at bedtime.
When that shattered, those broken pieces hadn’t been reparable.
And some days, they were terrified their broken pieces weren’t either.
But those memories weren’t the current reality—on either front.
Ollie shrugged. “I’m not going to pressure you. Only you can make that choice, and letting go is hard.”
“You’re a rarity, Oliver Hale.” Fin reached across the table and grabbed his hand. The motion was automatic, the feel of his warm hand in theirs magnetic. Fuck, they were being all PDA in a bar. They were that couple.
Fin blinked.
Fuck. Not a couple. Just…something. Something that didn’t make their mind scream.
“Either way, I’ll be stuck meeting up with her soon. Want to plan a fun scene for afterward?” Fin needed to reroute into less dangerous territory. Because Ollie’s warm, callused hands in theirs, the understanding in his gaze, and the way he slid from teasing to serious and back again would be their undoing.
“Hit me with your ideas,” he said. “I’m game. Hell, if you’d told me a few months ago I would’ve loved having my cock caged up for a week, I would’ve called you crazy. But that was hot as hell.”
“The reward’s worth it, right?” They didn’t pull their hand back yet.
Ollie lifted a shoulder in a light shrug. “Even without the reward, the idea of you deciding when I got to come or not, how you cranked me up during the whole stint—all of it worked for me.”
“God, the things I could do with you.” The blood pumped hot through them. Ollie’s heated look amped them up a hundred degrees. If he wasn’t wiped from the play they’d done earlier and hadn’t needed to get a meal in him, they’d be tempted to slip into the bathroom and toy with him some more.
The server approached with their plates of wings, the rich aroma tickling their nostrils, and their stomach rumbled. Nothing got them hungry like a good fuck, and they were ready to tear in.
Once the server left, Ollie lifted a brow. “So, best wings in San Francisco?”
“Yep. Will brook no arguments. The other wings in this city are bone dust and bird shit.”
Ollie’s laugh exploded out of him. “Yeah, I highly doubt that. But we’ll see.” He didn’t waste time, grabbing one of the wings and taking a bite. He chewed on it and mused for a moment, then licked his lips. “Eh.” His eyes crinkled with his response, and Fin’s heart thumped harder.
“Eh? You little shit.” Giddiness bubbled inside them.
They’d never met anyone like him. Anyone who understood their sense of humor, who played with them on their level.
And each moment they spent with Ollie, the more they sailed into dangerous territory.
Because Fin had never fallen in love before. But with him, it might be far too easy.
Chapter Nineteen
Now that Ollie didn’t have standing photoshoot days with Fin, he’d half expected communication and plans would’ve dried up.
He’d braced himself for it.
However, not only had Fin continued to talk to him daily, but they’d also set up time to hang out tonight. The plan wasn’t anything fancy—just dinner at their place and a light scene they’d had in mind. Some shit about him eating his vegetables. He hadn’t questioned. He liked being surprised by them way too much.
