Would You Rather

52 - WYR: be shirtless and awkward or meet the family

FIDAN

Okay. Alright. I get that periods suck and that Finley clearly doesn't want to screw around while all that's going on, and that's fine, that's great, but I'm keyed up like Carrie Underwood's ex's car and. Well. We're snowed into my tiny apartment and she's studying and I have nothing to do. At all. So I might, like, spend twenty good minutes working on said problem alone in my bedroom while she's in the living area wearing, like, reading glasses and my hoodie and being hot and in my house and... Finley. I...

I mean, yikes. What the hell was I supposed to do?

Maybe I should've checked my reflection before wandering back out into the living room to make a late lunch.

She drops her headphones over her neck and clicks her pen, making me glance over my shoulder.

"Why do you look sweaty?"

Shit.

I shrug. "Um."

"Were you doing, like, pushups or something?"

Honestly. Might be less embarrassing.

"If you were, I thought you were on a whole probationary thing about external exercise."

She watches my expression shift again.

"...you were jerking off."

"Yep." I spin around to the fridge, pulling it open.

"You were in there for, like, an hour. What the hell did you even do? Make it a three-act Shakespearean tragedy?"

"The only three-act Shakespearean tragedy in this house today is the lack of deli ham and also that my dick that thinks it's fifteen again." She snorts at that, a small win for my humiliation, so I elaborate. "Nah. Just took my time."

"Good... to know?" She's smiling, just a little bit to humor me. "Well. Two things that aren't related to your dick. Since we now talk about stuff like that."

"Two things?" I lean over my shoulder out of the fridge. "That might be pushing it."

I get an eye roll, but I can see her fighting that smile. "You're such a dork."

"So much so that you forget that I'm hot, I remember this conversation." I set the eggs out on the counter, the bread and cheese next to them. I decide maybe I should tease her, so I also reach over my head and pull my t-shirt up and off, throwing it to the side of the counter. "On second thought, maybe I am a bit sweaty."

"Fidan."

"Hm?" I glance over, feigning innocence. "You were saying something about two things?"

"Right, yeah." She pinches the bridge of her nose. "When are we leaving for Ivans, and also, um. The twins... my brothers' birthday is not this weekend but next, and they were wondering if, well, okay. I told my parents we made up and I sort of... have a boyfriend? So they wanted to know, and the..."

I'm trying my hardest not to smile. She's nervous about asking me to come home with her to re-meet her family and she's also flustered because I'm standing here shirtless. I'm winning. Winning at Finley is apparently something I can do. I have experimentally discovered the off switch to that big sassy brain of hers.

"You don't have games that weekend so my parents and brothers were wondering if you wanted to come home for their birthday weekend. With me."

"Right, I was assuming it wasn't going to just be me and your family."

She groans, setting her head in her hands. "Dork."

"Yes, I'll come home with you." I give her a good honest smile, trying to convey that I'm not fucking around or being funny. I know this is a big deal, and I know this is probably going to involve meeting her sister. "Maybe not for the whole weekend, though, I might only be able to make it for Saturday and maybe that night. I think I have to get on a plane Sunday afternoon."