“You are an awful influence,” Alex replied, shaking her head with a soft laugh. She had planned to enjoy herself, it was true, but the thought of being hungover the next day while tending to Ella who, while a happy baby, had her moments, was too much to think about. “But if I’m here for the ‘long haul’ and then I have to change dirty diapers tomorrow… I don’t think the world is ready for that side of me, just yet.” No, she thought, it was better she stick to wine. Damage limitation at it’s finest.
“Ouch,” she winced, hearing his explanation. It wasn’t quite the same as burning your hand on a boiling coffee machine, but she’d dropped more than her fair share of heated hair tools on her hands and legs over the years and that had hurt bad enough. “You’ve got to take care of burns, you know? They can get infected real easy and…” Wrinkling her nose again, she pulled a face. “No one’s going to want to buy cake and coffee if your hand is a weird shade of green and oozing puss.”
Hearing the mention of Ella, Alex’s eyes lit up and she shook her head. “Not tonight - she’s with mom. Although she’s more of a gremlin than a munchkin, right now. Screaming the house down over what I assume was a dislike of socks.” It was nice, though, hearing even Finn, who probably only saw her and her daughter a couple times a week, ask after her little mini-me. When the bartender brought back her wine, the brunette held it up towards Finn. “Cheers.”
“Believe it or not, that ain’t the first time somebody’s told me that,” he chuckles. “I don’t envy you the diapers though, not even sober.” In fact, Finn finds himself wondering what he would be doing, in Alex’s position. He’s resigned himself to the fact he’s probably never going to do the marriage-and-kids thing, his deep-rooted and largely unaddressed fears of turning into either of his own parents holding him back from it, but even without those fears he isn’t sure he’d have the guts to permanently put somebody else’s needs above his own. That’s real bravery.
Draining the last of his beer, Finn acknowledges what Alexandria says with a nod. He’s had burns before, and ones way worse than this, so he’s seen first-hand what can happen if you don’t treat them properly. “Work gave me a bandaid, but those things never stick,” he tells her, “and to be fair, I think most of the students up at the college would still buy coffee from me even if I was dyin’ of leprosy. Addicts, the lot of ‘em.”
When Alex’s drink has been delivered, Finn takes the opportunity to snag the bartender and order another for himself - just coke this time, though. “Well, socks are a nightmare,” he says, unable to keep the amusement from his tone.
“Cheers,” Finn echoes, tilting his new glass in his companion’s direction as it is delivered to him. “To havin’ the evenin’ off, I guess?”
