Page 29 of Never Too Late

“Stay here then.” Finn’s eyes flashed a challenge.

“You know I can’t.”

He tipped his chin up, his eyes glittering. “I assume you always had it in mind to fly back after the weekend?”

Had I?Maybe subconsciously, but I’d done my best not to think about it. Every conversation I’d had with Amrita, though, had added another thing to the list that needed doing, every other sentence from her seeming to end in “when you get back.”

Finn started walking again, his pace brisk like he had somewhere to be, and the quicker he got there, the better. I hurried to catch up with him. I bet he just couldn’t wait to puta few inches of wood between us when he closed the door in my face. “I shouldn’t have said anything today.”

Finn’s laugh was bitter. “Let’s be honest here. It’s not you, it’s—”

I seized hold of him and dragged him to a stop before he could complete his thought. “Don’t you dare trot out that tired old line. It’s not you. You’re perfect.”

Finn snorted. “Hardly.”

Spotting a cafe still open, I tugged him inside, Finn’s protest weak at best. While he went to sit at a table at the back, I ordered, keeping one eye on him in case he made a run for it. Since he hadn’t told me what he wanted, it was left to me to decide. Given the lateness of the hour, I went for hot chocolate for both of us.

Finns muttered “thank you” as I deposited it in front of him, nearly had me smiling. Only Finn could remain so polite while being pissed at me.

For a moment, we sat in silence, neither of us looking at the other. I broke first. “I’m sorry. It’s not like I deliberately kept anything from you, but I admit I could have handled it better.”

Finn leaned forward to wrap his hands around his mug. “I know. There was a moment out there when I thought it might be some sort of twisted revenge, but now I’ve thought about it properly, I know it’s not.”

I frowned. “Revenge?”

“For leaving the way I did,” Finn explained. “You follow me to Paris. You wine and dine me. You stir up old emotions, and then as soon as you’ve got me feeling things I don’t want to be feeling, you leave. You know, tit for tat.”

“I would never—”

“I know,” he said. “It was a passing thought and then I dismissed it.”

At least that explained how quickly he’d gone from angry to disappointed. “I would have slept with you,” I pointed out, “had that been the case.”

Finn locked his gaze onto mine. “Why didn’t you?”

“Because… we jumped into bed at the drop of a hat when we first met, and I wanted to do things differently this time.”

Finn’s nod was slow and considering. “I would have slept with you, you know. Maybe not the first night, but definitely the second.” He smiled, but it was tinged with sadness. “Apparently, it doesn’t take much to get me into bed.”

“I’d like to think that’s more about how sexually compatible we are than you having loose morals.”

Finn dropped his gaze, his fringe falling over his eyes. “It’s probably a bit of both, if I’m honest.”

I waited for him to lift his head back up. “This doesn’t have to be the end. It’s just a…” I cast around for the right words. “It’s an obstacle.”

Finn’s eyebrow arched. “It’s a pretty big one.”

“Only if we let it be. We can talk. Every night. We can video call.”

Finn tapped a rhythm I didn’t recognize on his untouched mug of hot chocolate. “Right.”

“You don’t believe me?”

He heaved out a sigh. “You have a very poor history of communication. And that was when we were in the same city. I believe youthinkyou’ll keep in contact. I even believe that you’ll manage it in the short-term… a few days… Maybe even a week if you try really hard. But it’ll tail off.”

I shook my head vehemently. “It won’t.”

Finn sat back in his chair. “So… just to be clear… You’re suggesting we have a long distance relationship?”

---