I return his smile, wondering where the hell he’s going with this. It occurs to me that even if he feels the same way as I do and is going to talk about us maybe making a go of this… I don’t want that. It will be too complicated with everything else going on between us.
“We said we don’t need rules, but it looks like maybe we do. Obviously, it wasn’t enough to say we won’t have sex again,” he adds.
“Wait,” I interrupt him. “Did you ask me to have dinner with you just to dump me?”
“I… um… no,” he falters staring at me in disbelief.
His expression is priceless and I can’t keep the laugh in any longer. It bursts out of me in a rush.
Finn looks confused for a moment and then he laughs too. “You totally got me there,” he admits. “But seriously, I do think we need some ground rules.”
I nod for him to go on. He’s probably right and I’m interested to know where he’s going with this.
“I also think saying we’ll never ever have sex just makes us want it more. So here’s what I propose,” he goes on. “We make a no sex rule just for one night. For tonight only, we can’t have sex with each other. We can talk and get to know each other a little better, but sex is off the table. And we can revisit the rule in the morning.”
“I like it.” I nod. “Saying never is a lot of pressure. But we’re not animals. We can make it through one night without anything happening between us.”
“Exactly,” Finn agrees.
“Ok, deal.” I raise my glass.
Finn clinks his glass against mine.
“To one night of platonic bonding.” I grin like a Cheshire cat.
“Oh, I love it when you talk dirty,” Finn teases with a laugh.
We each swallow a mouthful and seal the deal.
I feel better now, more relaxed. I don’t know if it’s because there’s suddenly no pressure for tonight, or if it’s because Finn didn’t take sex entirely off the table, but whatever it is, I like this relaxed feeling.
There is no tension between us and we begin to chat about our days, about Finn’s business and my charity. We move onto talking about the most random things. When the food arrives, we’re deep into a debate about whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not. It clearly isn’t, but Finn is convinced it is.
We spread the food out across the table and eat it straight out of the boxes, still chattering away the whole time. By the time we finish eating, and Finn puts some music on, I realize I am more than halfway down my bottle of rose wine. I know I should ease up on it a little bit, but I’m having a good time and I decide to cut myself a break. It’s not like I’m falling over drunk. I’m just happy and relaxed.
I jump to my feet, run to Finn’s side and grab his hands. “Dance with me.”
“Dance with you?”
I nod, pulling him into the open space between the living room and the dining table. “Yeah. You know that thing people do to music where they move around and have fun? Come on, show me some of your moves. I want to see what you’ll be like at our wedding.” I laugh at his expression. I think he is going to say no, but he spins me away from him so swiftly, pulls me back to him, and dips me down so fast I get dizzy.
“That’s pretty much my only move,” he jokes with a grin.
“It’s a good one though,” I say, grabbing him tightly. I am still dipped and I’m acutely conscious of Finn’s arm around my back, my hand in his. It’s as though my realization is infectious because Finn pulls me back up and steps away from me. I curse myself inside for taking a good night like this and making it awkward.
Finn turns back to me and rather than looking like he feels uncomfortable, he’s grinning. “Right I humored you and did your dance thing. Now it’s your turn to humor me.”
Just like that, the awkward moment passes.
I laugh and shake my head. “Ok, I’ll humor you,” I slur, wondering where the hell he’s going with this. “What exactly are you suggesting?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” he asks rolling his eyes. He moves away from me and begins to shove one of the couches around in a half circle, moving it towards the back of the other one. He looks back over his shoulder at me and grins again. “Blanket fort.”
“You want us to make a blanket fort?” I ask, sure I must have misunderstood.
Finn pushes the couch into position so it sits back to back with the other one, a gap of a couple of feet between them. He begins to pull the cushions off the couch and lay them down in the gap. “For God’s sake, don’t stand there pretending like you don’t want to do this,” Finn taunts.