What We Lost | Fillie

Chapter Five: The Meeting

Millie shakes hands with Luc, then looks to her sister to introduce her to the director. But Paige's focus is a bit past the tall, angular jawed man, and Millie follows her glare to the boy, standing toward the back of the room, staring intently at the floor. The shock of seeing him in person momentarily stuns her, like a gust of frigid wind blew through the office, taking her breath in the process. Then, as if she isn't already wanting to vanish into thin air, the hunch-shouldered boy looks up and, for the first time in over a year, Millie's eyes lock with Finn's.

After what feels like an eternity, her icy body begins to thaw with an anxious heat prickling all over her skin. Her heart feels like a motor in her chest, revving over and over again with panic. Her eyes widening with no direction from her brain to do so.

Finn seems frozen in place too. Apparently neither of them really know what comes next. Are they supposed to shake hands? Are they supposed to hug? Millie sure hopes not. Should they act like nothing happened? Her stomach is suddenly in thousands of knots but she breathes slowly in an effort to loosen them. 

She watches the expression on Finn's face fall into a look of confusion and then pain. She senses something more there too but she can't put her finger on what it is. Millie is the first to look away, remembering that she is in the process of introducing her sister to Luc.

She clears her throat and returns her attention to the director, "Th-this is Paige, my um, my sister."

Paige smiles as she shakes hands with Luc who doesn't seem to notice the awkward eye contact that just took place between the young exes.

"Pleasure to meet you Paige, I assume no introductions are needed for the young man behind me here?"

Paige's expression sours with her eyes flicking back to Finn, "No, that won't be necessary."

Finn is still cowering a bit but Millie decides it is best to try and be friendly, even though the pit of her stomach feels like it is dropping endlessly. She ignores the sickening feeling and walks up to greet the guy that she vowed never to let into her life again. Her palms sweating profusely. She nonchalantly wipes her right hand on her pant leg before holding it out to Finn who visibly tenses.

He looks to her hand and just stares like he's never shaken anyone's hand before. His expression changing as time ticks on. He looks confused at first but then his eyebrows quiver and a sad shadow falls over his dark brown eyes. His lips press together before he finally shakes whatever was in his mind, out, and reaches his hand for hers. 

When his skin meets hers, Millie feels the slightest tingle in the lining of her stomach. She clenches her jaw, forcing the feeling in her gut from her mind.

"Good to see you again." she says coolly.

Finn clears his throat, "Y-yeah. . .yeah same." He shakes her hand a couple times then she pulls back abruptly, leaving his hand hanging in the air awkwardly for a few milliseconds, long enough to make Finn's face turn slightly pink.

"Alrighty then, everyone grab a seat, let's get started." Luc says, clapping his hands to bring their meeting to order.

The four of them find chairs and sit at the oblong wooden conference table.  Millie pulls a notebook and pen from her bag, and looks to the director, who is getting his notes out of a folder. She sees Finn eyeing her notebook and pen and recognizes the look on his face as embarrassment. As he should be, she thinks. She's prepared and he isn't. Luc will probably notice and Finn must feel like a complete idiot because of it. She sees him look away, toward the director and she looks up like she had been looking at her paper the whole time. Luc is still straightening out his papers, which is creating a painfully awkward silence which the director is oblivious to.