Not A Temporary Love | Finley & Harlyn #1

Chapter 4

Harlyn

"He's late," Elly says, tapping the toe of her boot against the statue of Geoffrey Chaucer.

"Since when do you care about punctuality, El?" I ask, raising an eyebrow at her.

"I'm cold," she whines. I pull her into a hug and rub my hands up and down her arms.

"I'm sure he'll be here soon," Max says, checking his phone for the fifteenth time. "He's not usually late."

"I'm here. So sorry." We all turn to find Finley jogging toward us, hair whipping around his face in the wind. "Was on the phone with my parents. They, uh, called as I was heading out and I hadn't talked to them on the phone since I got in, so..." He shrugs, a puff of steam escaping his mouth.

Max's shoulders tense a little. "Everything ok?" he asks slowly.

Finley shakes his head slightly. "Yeah. Just the normal. Making sure I'm being...perfect." He practically spits the last word, and Max mutters something softly, stepping closer to him. This conversation feels way too personal for me to be eavesdropping, so I look at Elly, who's annoyance has shifted to concern.

I don't notice that Finley's pulled Max closer to us until he's talking. "Anyway, sorry again. What's the plan, Stan?"

His face is still tight, but he's forcing a smile, so I decide not to comment. Instead, I spread my arms dramatically.

"Well, where do you want to go first in our grand city?" I ask.

Elly rolls her eyes. "You're so dramatic, Harley," she says, adjusting her scarf.

"I know. I also know that you've already seen the cathedral, and I assume that most of the big touristy things you'll see with that...one class you were talking about yesterday," I say. "What did they show you on the tour they took you on?"

"Um, well, not a whole lot," Max says, shoving his hands in his coat pockets. His glasses slide halfway down his nose. "The cathedral. The theater - the Marlowe? We walked down High Street." He looks at Finley. "And then we got a tour of the library and campus."

"Perfect!" I exclaim. "We'll start here."

I point out the Chaucer statue behind Elly, launching into tour guide mode. We follow High Street toward the Westgate Towers.

"You've been to Nando's, right?" Elly asks, stopping in front of Nando's as if she intends to take them right now if they say no. But Finley's face lights up.

"Yes! We went the other day. So good," he says. Max nods enthusiastically.

Elly smiles. "Good. Just checking."

We continue on. I tell them about the Westgate Towers, about the Victorian jail at the top that's now an escape room.

"We should totally do it!" Max says, shaking Finley's shoulders from behind. Finley looks doubtful, but Elly claps her hands and agrees enthusiastically, linking her hands through the crook of Max's elbow. I feel a pang of jealousy hits my chest, but I brush it away. Max is cool. It's fine. Innocent until proven guilty.

I try to keep Finley's attention as we walk down part of the riverside path and then cut back into town to get to Rheims Way. Every time I stop talking, his face goes a little slack and his gaze wanders into the distance. So, I keep talking. So does Elly, answering their questions about her accounting major and telling them stories from our time at school. I cringe every time she mentions a girlfriend. She likes to rub in the fact that I've had four girlfriends and an "innumerable amount of dates."

"Yeah, Harley was quite a playboy when we were in school. All the girls loved him," Elly says, hand still through Max's elbow. Max gives me an appraising look. I've mentioned my exes to Max. Well, Mum did when she told me that she saw Marie working at Sainsbury's. But I didn't exactly use the word playboy - neither did Mum. I want to argue that that wasn't true. I certainly didn't see myself that way. I just...thought having a girlfriend was what you were supposed to do.