Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Finn
“So how is this all supposed to work?” Bennett asks, handing me a beer. “Are we all pretending to be shocked to see you and Sophie together? Or has this been taking place and we all knew?”
“Dude, I have no idea.” I chuckle. “Sophie is too sweet to get trapped in a mess with a guy like Ryan. That asshole pisses me off, did when they were together, and still does now. She deserves better.”
“And you’re the better?”
“I’m the friend that is going to prove to her she deserves better,” I correct him and all he does is laugh as he pats my shoulder.
“Friends.” He nods, with a smirk.
“Yes friends.” I frown wondering what he’s referring to. That’s when I notice him staring across the bar toward the door and I look in the same direction.
One by one the ladies file in but the only one I truly see is Sophie. She’s wearing a dark blue dress, hitting mid-thigh, and a pair of boots. The dress has straps over her shoulders, her hair is down, and there is a timid look on her face.
“Friends.” Bennett chuckles and I swing my hand out, hitting him in the gut.
“Shut the fuck up,” I tell him wondering what in the hell I’d gotten myself in to.
Pushing past the uneasy feeling I walk in their direction and the moment she sees me coming she takes a step back.
Bumping into Kendall, I see her nudge her forward once again and I remind myself to thank her for that move later.
“Finn,” Sophie says in a high-pitched nervous laugh and I can’t help but smile.
“Sophie.” I reach out, take her hand in mine and pull her forward, spinning her around before me. The dress fans out, spinning around her thighs. When she stops she is facing me and before she can register my next move I pull her against me and pin her hand with mine behind her back.
Her eyes widen and she bites her lip.
“You look amazing,” I tell her and as I move in she gasps, just as I press a kiss to her cheek. “This surprised reaction may work for right now, but if we want this to be believable you are going to have to relax around me.”
“Never had a problem relaxing around you before tonight,” she says as I move back and our eyes lock once again.
“Then you shouldn’t find it difficult now.” She arches her brow and the corner of my mouth tips up in a smile. “Two friends, hanging out, we are still those two friends. Only know we are a little more touchy.”
“It’s the touchy part that makes this harder.”
“Are you saying you don’t want me to touch you?” I instantly notice the way she swallows hard.
“Girl, if you say no I’m going to kick you,” Kendall says from just over Sophie’s shoulder. “Finn boy, if she says no, she’s lying.”
“Butt out, Kendall,” Sophie says through gritted teeth. “Or I will spill all your secrets, right here, and right now.”
“Bitch,” Kendall says before slipping passed her and walking toward the bar. When I look back at Sophie she shrugs me off.
“Should I ask?”
“You can, but I won’t tell,” she assures me with the first smile I’ve seen since she walked in the bar. “So how do we do this?”
“We don’t put pressure on it.” I turn and start leading her in the same direction all the others have gone in. “We hang out, we forget that this is for show and we enjoy each other’s company.”
“So just two friends hanging out in a group of other friends?”
“With the occasional hand holding and touching,” I add and she nods. “But again you need to focus on not cringing every time I lay a hand on you.”
“It isn’t a cringe Finn, not even close.” She moves ahead of me and I find myself wondering what the hell her words are supposed to mean.
“Look who just walked in,” Aaron says with a chuckle and everyone near enough to hear looks over to see not Ryan, but one of his close friends enter with a blonde on his arm. “Isn’t that guy married to a brunette?”
“As far as I remember,” Bennett answers him. “She was much shorter too.”
“All makes sense now, as to why the two of them are best friends.”
“Lark.” Redirecting my attention I see Sophie and Jillian join us, as she stares at the guy with her nostrils flaring. “His wife just had a baby too.”
I lift my phone and snap a picture, and they all offer me looks of confusion. “Insurance.”
“For what?”
“You never know,” I say with a shrug and instantly pull Sophie in closer. She practically falls into me, and I hold her between my parted legs, as I remain perched on the barstool. With her back to my chest, I wrap one arm around her waist and hold my beer in the other.
“Don’t look now,” Jillian sneers. “But the piece of shit has just clocked the two of you.”
I feel Sophie’s body stiffen.
“I’ll figure out a way to break that hesitance in you if it kills me,” I assure her and she twists around to look me in the eye. Me, I see it as the perfect reaction, allowing me to flirt a little. “You want this to work?”
“This was all your idea,” she reminds me and I wait for her to make her point. “There is a reason that I’m not in California on the big screen Finn, I can’t act for shit. I am not this person.”
“What person?”
She opens her mouth to reply only to close it quickly once again.
“Someone that allows a man to treat you right?”
“Someone that allows a man that is only playing a game to use me as his pawn,” she bites back and I smile.
“I’m not playing a game, Soph,” I tell her. “I’m being a good friend.”
“Is that what you call this?” I hold her stare, and keep my hand on her hip, offering a little squeeze. “Because the last time I checked none of my other ‘guy friends’ hold onto me the way you are right now.”
“Do you want me to let go?” I can see out of my peripheral vision that the douchebag friend is getting closer.
“Because I will if that’s what you want.
You may not realize it yet Sophie, but you are the one that holds the control in this situation.
If there is ever a time you want to back out and end this, you say the word.
If there is ever a point where I cross some imaginary line you’ve drawn, you tell me. ”
The way she is looking at me right now, her eyes locked with mine, her lips slightly parted, and her chest rising with every deep breath she takes is intriguing. It’s in this moment that I notice just how beautifully green her eyes truly are. Almost emerald, with tiny flecks of brown.
“Do you want to stop?” I ask, never once taking my eyes from hers. “Even though we’ve only just begun, we can call it quits. I think it would be a shame really, but like I said, the ball is in your court.”