Page 63 of October
CHAPTER 17
Finley regretted making this plan, but she’d done it before the hot make-out session with Molly in the server room. She’d always suspected that Molly would be a good kisser. Even before she knew that she liked Molly and wanted her to be the woman she kissed, she had often thought about that. She’d thought about it with Juliet, too, though, and Stacey, who was in HR, as well as Molly, and Stacey wasn’t even gay. It was just something Finley did. She’d thought about how India would kiss before their first date, and she’d done that over the years for women she wasn’t even remotely interested in. There was the barista at the place by her house when she had been in high school, and the girl who worked at the local movie theater, who used to sneak Finley extra popcorn when her boss wasn’t looking. Now that she thought about that, though, Finley wondered if that had been her way of flirting. Had she missed out on the cute movie theater girl because she’d been oblivious? Well, it didn’t matter now.
When she’d gotten to work that morning, she had been hoping to talk to Molly about their corner-of-the-mouth kiss, but not finding Molly there yet, she’d dropped her stuff off at her desk and headed downstairs to check on her team in the meantime. Then, on the way there, she’d gotten stuck in theelevator with India, who had managed to catch the thing right when the doors had been about to close.
“Hey, sorry,” India had said.
“No problem,” Finley had replied.
“You’re here early.”
“Remodel,” she’d said.
“Is that why you haven’t called me back? You’ve been busy with work?”
Finley had stared at the buttons in front of her as they had lit up, indicating the floors they had been on or passed, and she’d wished for the thing to speed up.
“Not the only reason,” she’d answered honestly.
“Finley, can we just do the stuff exchange, then? I have a dress at your place that I’d like to get back, and I feel weird being at your place without you.”
“You’ve been at my place before when I wasn’t there.”
“Not after we’ve broken up. Can I just come over tonight?”
“Just to get your stuff, India. I don’t want to talk again. We’ve done so much of that already.”
“Okay. Fine. Deal. I’ll be there around seven. I have a late meeting, so I can’t get out of here until after that. Want me to grab us food on the–”
“No,” Finley had interrupted. “I don’t need you to grab us anything for dinner because you’re just getting your stuff and leaving.”
“Right,” India had said with a nod. “Sorry. Habit.”
“We have a lot of those, don’t we?” she’d offered.
“Yeah, I suppose we do,” India had said.
Finally, the doors had opened as they’d arrived at their floor. Not long after that, Molly had arrived, and Finley had pulled her into the server room because she hadn’t been able to wait any longer. She had needed to kiss her, but she’d also hated the idea of Molly feeling embarrassed about the previous night.It had been careless, but she hadn’t expected India to appear right as they’d left the room, probably looking like they had been doing exactly what they’d been doing.
Finley didn’t want to hurt her ex, but shedidwant to move on, and she felt ready to do that. Unfortunately, they all worked at the same company, which meant that there was a good possibility India would figure out that it was Molly who Finley had talked to her about the other day in the coffee shop, and the fact that they’d walked right out of the server room talking and laughing together made it even clearer.
Once at home, Finley hadn’t known what to do with her time until India’s arrival. She had been almost frozen, ready for India to get there so that they could finally be done, but when the knock on the door came right at seven, Finley took a deep breath because nothing with India had ever been easy. She knew it was India because India was always on time, and she always knocked the same way: three short knocks, followed by a gap and a fourth one. Finley had heard it so many times when they had first started dating, before the keys had been exchanged, that she still heard it in her mind sometimes. She stood up and walked to the door with a beer in hand. She’d already finished half of it, needing the alcohol to help her get through whatever was coming next. No matter what India had promised, Finley knew they weren’t about to get through the night without a conversation about their relationship.
“Hey,” she said when she opened the door, trying to show no emotion and hoping against hope that India would just walk in, take her stuff, and go.
“Hi,” India replied. “I wasn’t sure we were still on for this, but I thought I’d come over just in case. It’s on the way home, anyway.”
In no way was Finley’s place on the way home from work for India, but Finley decided to let that go.
“Why wouldn’t we still be on for this?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you’d have new plans since we made ours.”
“If I did, I would’ve canceled on you or told you to just come in and grab whatever.”
“Can I come innow?” India asked.
“Yeah,” Finley said and stood aside, letting India walk into the apartment. “No boxes?”
