Page 3 of Pumpkin
Petra
Iclimb the stairs toward Fin’s apartment slowly, listening to Claire babble about some issue she’s having with her boyfriend, Dave. I can barely hear her over the sound of my beating heart. I’m going to be around Fin for three whole days. Even growing up in the same town, I never spent that much time around him. Claire and I spent most of our time at my house, Fin worked a lot, and on the odd occasion when I was fortunate enough to be in the same room as him, I found myself so flustered I could barely speak to him. He probably thinks I’m weird and awkward. He must be dreading my being here.
“I really am fine spending the holiday in the dorm,” I say, trying one last time to get out of this.
Claire pauses in the middle of what she’s saying and frowns. “Are you even listening to me?”
“What? Yes. Of course! Dave is being passive aggressive again.” It was a pretty safe bet since Dave wasalwayspassive aggressive when he didn’t get his way.
She stops on the third floor and pulls her keys from her purse. “Wrong. He wants me to meet his parents and I think things are moving a little too fast for me. I mean, I’m only nineteen.”
“Almost twenty,” I correct.
“Still, I’m too young to know what I want, let alone be confident enough to choose the man I want to spend the rest of my life with.”
“I don’t know. I always thought that when you know, you know. That’s how my parents said it was supposed to be.”
“Not everyone gets to be crazy in love like your parents. I don’t remember heaps about our parents, but I remember the fighting. I have zero interest in being like that.”
“Do you think that’s how life with a Dave would be?”
She shrugs and slides her key in the door. “Maybe. It’s just too soon.” She pushes the door open, and I quit breathing. I’ve only been to this apartment twice since moving here for school, and each time Fin was so busy in his home office I barely saw him. From Claire’s description of their typical Thanksgiving, he wouldn’t be working much. How am I supposed to cope when the man of my dreams is within my reach yet so far from my grasp? My heart certainly chose the most unobtainable person to fixate on. Even without the whole little sister’s best friend thing, Fin would never choose a girl like me. The women he’s dated have been super model thin and I, well, I’m not thin at all.
Not that I’m down on myself. Being curvy has its perks. I can eat all the fries I want when I go on a date (not that I go on dates) and I can wear yoga pants as clothingandpjs without being called out on it. And I never feel like men are trying to hit on me. I can be in a room full of guys and feel completely safe. To most, I’m just a friend. And that’s OK because I accept what and who I am. And I also accept that the object of my affection will be forever out of my reach. I figure I’ll either get over him one day and find someone more in my league, or I’ll pine forever and just get really great at talking to cats. I think I’d make a great crazy cat lady.
“Fin!” Claire yells into the deathly quiet apartment once we’re inside.
“I’m working,” he yells back, and I breathe a sigh of relief.
“My god. Healwaysdoes this,” she mutters stomping down the hall. I hear something about her thinking he’s rude and that they have a guest. Then he says something about not being prepared for a guest which makes me want to run the opposite way while Claire tells him he’s rude and selfish. “It’s the holidays. Work can wait,” she says as she heads back my way and finds me with my hand on the door.
“Quit trying to leave,” she says, her tone exasperated as she pulls my bag from my grip. “My God. You two are as bad as each other. So antisocial.” She walks down the hall and opens the door to her room, dropping both of our bags inside.
“I just don’t want to be in the way,” I say as I stand in her doorway.
“You aren’t in the way,” a rich timbre says from behind me, tingling up my spine and sending my nipples into hardened peaks. I want to moan, but I resist, instead forcing myself to turn around and face my obsession. Tall and broad shouldered, his muscular frame seems too big for the hall. Every inch of my skin feels alive at his nearness, my fingers desperate to touch the silk of his dark hair.
“Hi Fin,” I force out, practically whispering as I struggle to meet his golden eyes. “Thanks for ah, letting me join you and Claire.”
He eyes Claire over my shoulder as he folds his big arms across his chest. “Claire says you make a mean pumpkin pie?”
“It’s my mom’s recipe.”
“Great. Well, feel free to check the cupboards for the ingredients you need. We’ve got about an hour before the store closes.”
“Sure. I’ll, uh, I’ll do that right now.”
