Beah pulled Finn’s shirt over her head and dropped it to the floor, stepping into the glass shower enclosure. She sighed as the hot water hit her shoulders, her neck, releasing the tension in her lower back. She loved her apartment in Notting Hill, but the water pressure was terrible and her showers were more like soft drizzles than hard, warm summer storms. She might not leave his shower, not ever.
Hearing the door open, Beah looked over her shoulder to see Finn leaning against the bathroom counter, staring down at the expensive phone in his hand.
“Hey,” Beah protested, keeping her back to him.
Finn glanced up, looking distracted. “Bee, I saw every inch of you last night. That horse has bolted.”
True. Beah turned, looked at him and noticed his preoccupation, the worried frown pulling his thick eyebrows together. “What’s the matter, Finn?”
Finn waved his phone at her. “Do you remember Ben?”
Of course she did. Ben was Finn’s oldest friend. Ben and his girlfriend, Piper, had been the only people invited to Finn and Beah’s spur-of-the-moment wedding. Then Ben and Piper split up and, after the divorce, Beah lost touch with both of them. A pity, because she’d liked them both.
“I lost contact with them. I’m glad you didn’t,” Beah said, pouring a healthy amount of the body wash into her hand.
“Ben and I talk every couple of months,” Finn replied. “He’s still in Hong Kong, working as an investment banker.”
Beah waited for him to continue, knowing it wouldn’t help to tell Finn to hurry up with the explanations. He’d do it in his own time, or not at all.
“He wants a favor,” Finn said, rubbing the back of his neck.
Finn wasn’t the most social of men but once he made a friend, he rarely lost them. It didn’t escape her notice that Finn held on to his friends, but he’d let her go easily.
Go away, hurt and disappointment. There’s no place for you in my head.
“He and Piper are getting married. In six weeks.”
Well, there was some lovely news. Beah grinned. “That’s awesome. When did they get back together again? Is she in Hong Kong?”
“They reconnected about a year ago and Piper moved to Hong Kong to be with Ben.”
All good news, so why was Finn in the bathroom with her? “Well, what does the message say?”
Finn glanced down at the screen. “‘We’re getting married. Need a hell of a favor,’” he read. “That’s weird, because Ben isn’t the type to ask for anything.”
Beah frowned as she rinsed the soap off her body. “What sort of favor?” she asked. “And do you have a spare toothbrush?”
Finn reached for the handle to the drawer next to his hip, looked down and grabbed a toothbrush, still in its plastic cover. He put his phone on the counter and stared down at it as he wrangled the toothbrush out of its cover. Reaching for the paste, he squeezed some onto the head of her brush before yanking open the shower door and handing her the brush.
It was all very normal, so domestic, like it was a routine they had down pat. But nothing about this situation was normal...
Beah popped the brush into her mouth and shut off the water. She took the towel Finn held out and wrapped it around her torso, tucking the ends into the material under her arms. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Finn’s fingers tap out a message and within a minute, he had a reply.
Beah nodded at his phone. “So?”
“He wants me to call him,” Finn replied.
Beah finished brushing her teeth. Her hair was a mess, so she pulled it out of its knot to allow it to spill down her back. Some of the curls brushed Finn’s wrist, his shoulder, and he immediately picked up a curl and wrapped it around his index finger. “It’s much longer than it was,” he murmured.
“I need to cut it. It’s too long,” Beah replied, finger-combing it back from her forehead. She quickly started pulling the strands into a tight braid, another way to control the curls.
“When you get my clothes, can you also find my bag?” she asked. “There’s a band in the side pocket.”
Finn nodded, his eyes darting from her hair to her mouth. For a brief moment, Beah thought he might kiss her again, her mouth, the ball of her shoulder, the tiny patch of skin where her neck met her ear. She couldn’t allow that to happen. If she did, both their towels would come off and they’d be back on his bed, or in the shower...
Either way, they’d end up naked, intertwined and late.
The night was over; this was a new day, and they had to move on.