“Fine.” He snatched my phone from my fingers and shoved it into my pocket. “Then, please get in the car.”
The only thing missing from this guy was a white horse and a sword. I smiled, crawling in.
“That’s for you,” he said, pointing at the brown paper sack with a grin.
I peeked in: toaster waffles, syrup, and sparkling water. My stomach groaned in anticipation.
“Best gift ever,” I cheered, patting him on the shoulder as he climbed in next to me.
“Just don’t tell all the chia seed eaters, or they’ll revoke my subscription to Midwifery Plus,” he teased.
“Have you ever actually eaten them?” I questioned, gagging. “Fucking nasty.”
Finn laughed, putting the car into motion.
“Everything okay?” he wondered, turning on the heat that wrapped me in a hug.
“Maybe. I don’t know,” I admitted. “Some things are happening at home,” I mumbled, leaning my head against the windowpane.
“Look, I feel I owe you an explanation for this morning,” he stated, folding his lip slightly under.
Wow, I always wondered what this looked like in real life, emotional obligation without all the edges and implosions.
Spectacular.
“You don’t owe me anything!” I yawned, longing for sleep.
One reason I loved childbirth was the way the world stopped, and for a single moment, nothing else mattered.
“We barely know each other, Finn, and whatever past you and Xaden clearly have is none of my business.”
“Still,” he said, turning onto the road down the main street. “You might as well find out from me.”
My head slumped forward at the idea of carrying one more person’s demons inside my brain. I knew this was broken thinking, a reflex designed to protect me from emotional burnout, but it didn’t excuse it. Sometimes I had to work extra hard not to be a shitty person, especially in moments like this, when someone was bleeding in front of me, needing to be seen.
“You see, Xaden and I were best friends for most of our lives,” he began. “Until the night of graduation, when I ended up stupid drunk, slept with his sister, and then got her pregnant.”
A laugh punched into my throat, but I swallowed it down. Not because it wasn’t fucked up, but because this was the kind of thing you watched on Showflix at dawn, after a hundred hours of doom-scrolling.
A weird feeling lodged low in my stomach.
“Anyway,” he continued, clamping his molars down tight. “When his sister lost the baby, she didn’t take it well. And by not well, I mean she downed half a bottle of Xanax she found in her mother’s drawer and went to sleep.”
My fingers curled into my thighs. Nathem had always warned me against the use of that particular drug.
“They saved her,” he choked out through a crackled breath. “But she never really bounced back. Tess was on a fast track to do big things. Brown University. All that shit.” He exhaled. “Now she works at the recovery center she was sent to.”
The road hummed beneath us.
“And of course,” he added, quieter than before, “her family blames me for everything.”
A heartbeat passed while I searched for what to say next. Sometimes the best thing to do was to listen and remain quiet.
“Even Xaden falling back into drug dealing,” he continued when I said nothing. “Because it turns out rehabilitation centers are expensive.”
“They are aware it takes two people to have sex?” I asked, rolling down my window. I was still cold, but the space needed to be aired out. “And choose not to use a condom?”
“They don’t care, Daphne. They just need someone to blame. And honestly, Tess and I danced around it for years. While I had preferred not to get her pregnant, it is not like I regret sleeping with her.”