Page 11 of October
“And your stuff. I have your stuff. I put it in a box.”
“You put my stuff in a box? Finley, I have more than a box worth of stuff there.”
“There are a couple of boxes, but I left the clothes in my closet hanging up for now so that they don’t wrinkle and stuff. I know you hate that. They’re in that garment bag you left there, so you can just grab that, too.”
“Slow down,” India said. “Will you sit?”
“I’m good.”
“Finley, I’m not going to jump your bones, if that’s what you’re worried about. We’re at work. Just sit down, please.”
Finley looked out the glass and noticed Molly looking at them. Molly quickly turned, pretending to tie her shoe, which made Finley laugh. She pulled out the chair and sat.
“Can we talk about this later?” India suggested. “Like, this weekend. I can come over and we can talk.”
“We just talked the other day. What is left to talk about? I think we dissected our entire relationship.”
“I can cook. I’ll make you that pasta dish you love that I can’t stand,” India said, laughing a little. “The one where you add extra butter even though the sauce has butter in it.”
“My mom makes it like that,” Finley said.
“I know, babe,” India said, smiling at her. “I know that because I knowyou. I know your family and how your mom used to cook for you after really long days at work. She’d add extra butter, ketchup, cheese, and everything else to whatever you wanted to try to make up for not being home all the time because she worked odd shifts.”
Finley swallowed as she thought back to her childhood. Raised by a single mother and being the older sister hadn’t been easy on her, but she never complained. Her mom did the best she could, and while she missed a lot of stuff, she did what she could to make it up to them. Sometimes, there were cheap stuffed animals that she would pick up at a gas station on the way home, or a candy bar that she’d grab for them to share. Other times, she would cook them dinner and let them have whatever they wanted in it, like extra butter, because she couldn’t afford dessert or much else.
“Can you come over to get your stuff?” Finley said when her thoughts returned to the present. “You can let yourself in and just leave your key when you go. You can lock the door without it.”
“You’re not going to be there?” India asked.
“Probably better that I’m not,” she said.
“If you think that, then I’ll leave my stuff there, Fin.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Babe, it means that it’s not over, then. You’re worried that we’ll end up in bed again if we’re alone. You’re worried that we’ll have sex because it’s not over with us, like it never really is.”
“We ended up in bed the other night and didn’t sleep together,” Finley noted.
“You opened the door to the bathroom topless, and I saw you looking at my boobs when I took off my shirt, Fin.”
“They’re boobs,” Finley argued. “I always look at boobs when I can.”
“Yes.” India laughed. “You’re definitely a boob girl.”
Finley smiled because that was true, and India knew that about her better than anyone.
“This weekend, let’s talk, Finley. We can go to a restaurant or just take a walk or something, if you want us to be in public.”
“What do we still have to talk about, India?”
“There’s always something to talk about with us.”
“But there’s not because we’re not together, India. It’s over. I think it’s best if we finally go our separate ways.”
“Fin, we never go our separate ways. We always get back together.” India leaned forward toward her. “I haven’t dated anyone else in years, even when you and I were broken up, because I knew it was just a break and we would end up back together. I know you haven’t dated anyone else, either.”
That wasn’t entirely true. Finley hadn’t officiallydatedanyone, but she had slept with two different women during a couple of their longer breaks. She had met a woman at a bar one night, and they’d had a few hours together before she’d gone home. The other woman, she had been with a few times before calling it quits just before she got back with India. She wasn’t sure if India was referring to sex or just dating someone, but she wasn’t going to bring that up. She didn’t want to hurt India. She did want this conversation to be over, though.
