Chapter Sixteen #3
“You… you’re here.”
“I am.”
“Any particular reason why?” she asked.
Her chest was rising and falling like she’d run a 10K.
“Well, I heard that the baobab trees are going extinct, so I thought I’d come by and take a look.”
Flora was silent.
No Patagonia vest, dress shoes, or tailored trousers. He was dirty, had a shadow of a beard, carrying an even dirtier backpack.
“Finn…” she whispered. “What in the world?”
“Yes, what in the world. Or, more like, where in the world am I?” he asked, looking around. “You had to be here. Not Paris, not London. Here. In the jungle. In Western Madagascar.”
“Did you come all this way to give me a hard time?” Flora asked, arms crossing.
“No, I came all this way to tell you something.”
“You came all the way across the globe to tell me something? You do realize I have a phone. You could called, emailed, texted…”
“I know. But that would have been a cop out.”
Flora fell silent.
“After how we left things and after what I did, a text wouldn’t do, would it?”
“I suppose not.”
“So I flew across the globe and then trekked here with my new best friend Chris to tell you something.”
“Chris? Who’s Chris?”
“Flora, I’m so sorry for what I did and for how I handled everything. It was terrible.”
Flora eyed him.
Had he done all this just to apologize again?
“But I’m not sorry for where it led.”
Oh, never mind. This wasn’t even an apology. Great! Even better.
“Did you just say you aren’t sorry?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Finn, that’s not exactly—”
“Let me finish. Even though I don’t deserve to.”
Flora bit her tongue and rolled her eyes.
“I am sorry for what I did and the pretenses, but I’m not sorry because at the end of the day, I fell in love with you and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I don’t deserve it, but here we are.”
In all the ways she imagined Finn confessing or asking for forgiveness, this hadn’t made the list.
“I love you,” he said simply.
Flora’s breath left her.
“I love you. I have loved you. I think since the minute I began all this, and I think even before that I was looking for an excuse to love you. I—”
He paused.
“Flora, I have strange memories of you all throughout my life and I sometimes wonder if I haven’t loved you for much longer than I knew. You don’t know how sorry I am for the pretenses that this all began on—”
“Finn, being sorry would be you telling Tyson what you did. Coming clean to everyone who matters.”
“I did.”
“You can’t expect me—you did?” Flora asked, stopping short.
“I did.”
He didn’t look away as he said it.
“I wanted to prove that I am willing to risk things for this. I’m not asking for a pass, Flora. I’m just asking for a chance. A chance to prove to you that really none of what happened was fake. I’d ride business class for the rest of my life to just hear you say I’ve got a fighting chance.”
“Business class, Finn? Really? You realize that business class is one of the nicer ways to ride a plane. Economy would have been the thing to say in that moment. Economy. Or the baggage hold,” Flora growled.
“Do I have a chance, Flora?” he repeated.
Flora looked to the left where the sun was going down, sending gorgeous rays of orange and red in every direction. She’d spent the last three weeks studying species that were going extinct.
“You don’t get to just show up and fix everything in five minutes, Finn.”
“I know. I’m just trying to fix a little. Enough to where you give me a chance.”
“You’ll need to prove a lot, Finn.”
“I know. Whatever you want.”
Flora bit her lip and shook her head. “You really told Tyson?”
“I did.”
“Finn, the merger! What did he say?”
“He took it… better than I expected.”
“I can’t believe this.”
“No one would.”
A beat of silence passed.
“You really do love me?” she asked.
“I do. I love the way you think and how you treat others. I love your hair and your eyes. Your woods-wandering. Your freedom. I want to be more like you. I love you more than… more than Aragorn.”
Flora was silent for a moment.
“Your childhood rabbit…” she said, biting her lip.
“Yes.”
Flora eyed him. Any other person telling her they loved her more than their childhood rabbit would have been a nonstarter, but coming from Finn…
“He was the last piece of my innocence,” he added. “Or so I thought, until you. You’ve brought back things I thought were long dead.”
Flora huffed a breath out and scuffed her feet on the ground, kicking up swirls of dust as she did so, glancing at the baobab trees.
“What a day.” She sighed. “What a day.”
She then glared at him.
“You are so aggravating!” she exclaimed now, heaving a breath. “You were conning me the entire time, then there was Holly, the merger, the wedding, the truck we sank, all the stupid things we did. And here you are in Madagascar. I told you to stay away.”
“I know.”
“And you didn’t listen at all.”
“I know.”
“And despite all this,” Flora said, shaking her head back and forth at herself, “despite all this, I love you still.”
Flora could see Finn processing this.
He looked like he’d been slapped.
“So,” Flora continued slowly, “considering we still like each other, and the fact that I assume you’re no longer with Holly, and since you’ve promised to be better behaved and plan no more ineffective con jobs, and I’ve elected to forgive you…”
Finn stood there, silent still.
“… and we’re both here,” she added now. “I’d say that’s the end of it.”
“End of it?”
“Yes. We love each other. What else is there to do about it?”
“Are you saying you don’t want to be together?” Finn asked, eyes wide, heart visibly pumping through his t-shirt.
Flora laughed a little. “No. I just meant the only thing left to do is be together.”
“Oh…” Finn said quietly.
“Holly is gone, right?”
“Praise God, yes… comes with an interesting story too.”
“I’m sure,” Flora said, a faint smile appeared.
A beat passed.
“No more cons, okay?” she added.
“Believe me, I’ve learned my lesson.”
Flora smiled. She was still in shock, but she was happier than she ever could have imagined being that day.
Finn Woodhouse was hers.
“Well,” Finn said, blinking, “well…”
He took a few steps closer.
“I guess…”
Flora closed the gap.
He tugged her in for a kiss.
Though she found herself smiling so much she could barely kiss back, but Finn was smiling too.
A whooping noise followed, and Flora snapped her head to see some of her colleagues (and who she assumed was Chris), cheering.
She laughed, slightly embarrassed, and Finn shook his head.
“I told you it’d work out!” Chris shouted.
“Who is that, Flora?!” Ryan called, concerned.
“Oh, this guy?” she called back. “Just some con artist.”