Hey, I'm Finn. I'm a web developer that lives in Brooklyn. I have a 9-year-old daughter, and when I'm not coding, I'm usually hiking, camping, fishing, or playing video games with my girl. I'd love to talk to you. So hit me up.
A Hudrose 1x1 spun off of Wildhearts RP
Since joining the dating app, Finn had had varied successes. He'd been on a few dates, but nothing that really warranted more than a second date. And honestly, tonight, he wasn't sure it would get past the first. Marley was a little younger than he liked to date, and she had two kids. But she seemed really chill and fun, and he thought she was super pretty. So he figured he'd take a chance. Their neighbor had invited Chuck to sleep over with her daughter, and Finn found himself suddenly free. So asking Marley out for a drink was kind of a last minute thing, but in a way, he almost liked that because it would be way less formal than a real date-date that had been planned for a week.
He walked into Skinny Dennis, and was relieved that it wasn't too crowded. There were two seats available at the bar, and he quickly grabbed them, looking around to see she walked in. He really hoped that she looked like her pictures or he'd be really disappointed.
Marley was fairly nervous about this date.She really hasn’t gone on many dates since Derek left, she was busy with the boys, and honestly she wasn’t ready to date, but Finn was a nice guy, and she figured why not. Who knows, maybe something would come of it? Finn was a bit older than her, but his age didn’t really bother her, and she figured she might as well see where it goes. It was pretty funny they were both free at the same time.
Arriving at the bar, Marley ran her hand through her blondish brown hair, glancing around the bar looking for him. There was a part of her that worried he might stand her up, but she spotted him at the bar, and grinned as she made her way over to him. “Finn?” She asked, tucking her hair behind her ear nervously. “Hi.”
Finn looked up as she said his name, a smile tugging at his lips that made his dimples more pronounced. “Hi, Marley? I feel like that’s obvious, but I have to make sure, right?” he joked, trying to quell some of his own nerves. She looked younger in person, but not too young, thank god. “Nice to meet you.”
When he smiled, she may, or may not have melted a bit. He was just as adorable as his picture. Nodding her head, she grinned. “In the flesh.” She said taking a seat beside him. He seemed nice. She was glad she got that impression. Marley hated to admit but first impressions were everything, and he passed. “Likewise. You look like your picture… I mean duh, but you know..” She blushed.
“I know. I’ve met a few people that definitely were using like way old pics,” he agreed with a little nod. “But you look just like your picture, maybe even younger. I’d card you if I didn’t know you were old enough to be in here.” He laughed a little and waved the bartender over. “What would you like?”
“Oh yeah, it’s always weird, you know? Why do that?” Marley shrugged her shoulders, her legs crossing, Giggling, Marley leaned back a bit. “I get that all the time. I’m old enough, I promise.: Her smile widened as the bartender came over, and she tilted her head to the side. “I’ll have whatevers on tap. I’m not picky.”
“I guess to get more people to message them, but I think it’s dumb because people are gonna meet you at some point, right? So, like they’re going to see you obviously don’t look like that anymore. You might as well just be honest, right?” Finn ordered himself a Blue Moon and then turned to look back at her. “So…” he started as he rubbed his hands over his jeans. “What were your plans before I asked you out?”
“Yeah, it doesn’t make sense. One of the first people who messaged me looked old enough to be my dad.” She wrinkled her nose, because while age didn’t bother her, that did. “But I agree with that. Honesty is the best policy.” Their beers arrived, and she took hers, taking a sip. “I was going to probably take a bath, and read a book.” Her nose wrinkled, a smile on her face. “Gosh that sounds so lame.”
Finn took a long pull from his glass and then shook his head. “No, no it doesn’t. It sounds nice. My mom is a single mom. She was my whole life, and she said taking baths was like the ultimate mom-treat.” He smiled at her and took another drink. “Where are your boys tonight?”
“Yeah, it is really nice. I never get to take a bath alone. I usually have the boys in the bathroom, or somewhere with me..” She was a bit surprised that he was raised by a single parent. “I was too. It was always just me, and my mom.” Marley was really fortunate to have her mom. “They’re with my mom. When I had Augustus, she moved to the city to be closer to us.”
“Chuck was like that with me until she was old enough to know that girls and boys were different. It’s so different with boys and their moms, but I’m a dad. I didn’t want it to be weird. So I just tried to cover up and stuff. So I didn’t a lot of baths. I was lucky because my mom helped me a lot. She’s like the mom Chuck never had, but now she lives far away. We’ll probably either try to have her move out here or we’ll go back to Ohio. Where did your mom move from?” He liked that conversation was flowing so easily between them because he’d been worried about that.
“Yeah, the boys are still small, so they don’t really notice much, and breasts really don’t phase them at that point. I’m sure as they get older that would change, but Dashiell just turned two, so it isn’t a big deal right now.” She admitted. “But I get it. It can be a challenge parenting children of the opposite sex at times. Your mom sounds really great.” She took another sip of her beer. “Colorado. I’m from there.. I considered moving home, but I didn’t want to give up at that point, so my mom moved here..” Sometimes she wondered if she should have moved home, but that is something she can think about later.
Finn nodded. It was nice to meet someone else that kind of got it. He was eighteen when Chuck turned two. He’d had no idea of how to handle the whole opposite gender thing. “Yeah they’re still really young. My mom’s really awesome. We’re really close. It sounds like you’re close to your mom too.” He liked that. It wasn’t something that happened often, that someone was super close to their mom like he was to his. “What made you move from Colorado to New York?”
It seemed like they had a lot in common. Marley didn’t really expect it, but she wasn’t going to complain. “Yeah, I don’t have to worry about that just yet, thankfully.” She brushed her blond hair out of her face, and smiled as he talked about his mom. It was sweet. It was rare to see sons talk about their moms, so it was nice. “Yeah, we are.” She agreed. “She means the world to me.” When he asked why she came to New York, she snorted. “I was stupid, and thought I was in love…. I mean I don’t regret it, I love New York, but it’s different from home, that is for sure.”
Finn hadn't been stupidly in love since Chuck’s mom. He felt like he hadn't even come close. He'd dated girls a lot, but none had ever felt quite right as a fit for him and his daughter. So he usually stopped seeing them after a month or two, the longest being six months when Chuck was about four. He'd liked Kitty a lot, but she was a little too strict with Chuck, and he hadn't cared for that. “It happens. How long have you lived here?”
Marley kind of missed the naivety of her situation when she first moved to New York. Things seemed so fresh, and she thought she and Jake were meant to be. She should have known he would have screwed her over. She knew her pregnancy with Dashiell took him by surprise, and he never took to fatherhood. Every little thing scared him, and it was too much. He left, and soon after she found out she was pregnant with Augustus. It wasn’t easy, that’s for sure. “It does.. About three and a half years now. What about you?”
“Actually the same. We moved here the summer after Chuck turned six. She wasn't too crazy about the city, but she's a great kid and makes friends easily. It just took some getting used to going from a small town to a big city, but now she's a pro. She knows how to take the subway. She goes to Broadway shows. She's studied with some awesome chefs. I think moving here was really good for is, not just financially.” He was proud of what he'd been able to accomplish moving there on his own. It was the first time he and Chuck had even ever truly been alone on their own. He liked to think he was doing his mom proud.
“Really? That’s awesome. It’s funny we haven’t run into each other, though not really, since it is New York. Where do you live?” Marley asked, grinning as he spoke about himself, and Chuck. From what she’s heard she sounded amazing. “She sounds like my kind of girl. I love Broadway. I did musicals in high school.” But she was never good enough to star in an actual real production. “Oh I completely agree…. It is really expensive living here.”
“We live in a brownstone in Park Slope,” he replied, not sure of that would imply how well he was paid or not. He didn't like to talk about money, but usually a woman made assumptions whenever he said he lived in Park Slope in a brownstone. “Really? Do you sing?”
Marley was kind of impressed when he mentioned where he lived. She lived nowhere near Park Slope. “That’s a really nice area. Dash likes the playgrounds in that area.” She admitted, not sure what else to say. “Yeah, I did musical theatre in High School…”
“We just moved there a year ago after I got a promotion. Chuck was already going to school around there. We liked it.” He wanted to downplay things and not back a big deal. “If you're ever in the neighborhood and want company at the park, I'm usually working from home,” he said casually as he drank more of his beer. “I don't know much about musicals.”
“That’s awesome. It’s a really nice area.” Marley agreed. “I live in Kensington.” Which was a nice area. Marley loved their place. It was small, and honestly the boys slept with her most nights, but she liked their apartment. It was homey. “Yeah? I’d like that. I’m sure they would too!” She wondered what he did for a living. Might as well ask, right? “What do you do for a living?” She asked, giggling. “Most guys don’t. It was fun. I use to want to be on Broadway, but now I need to be more realistic.”
“That’s like ten minutes from me. We lived close to there when we moved to New York.” The world was smaller than he would've thought possible in such a large city. “I'm a senior web developer,” he said with a little shrug. “I do a lot of designing and editing for websites. What about you? What do you do?”
“Yeah it is. Small world, huh?” She fiddled with her drink, looking a bit impressed by his career. She didn’t know much about it, but she knew it was a high position job. “I work at a school, and I go to school. I’m studying Speech Pathology.”
“What's speech pathology?” he asked curiously. It sounded cool, and he'd heard of it before, but he wasn't completely sure what it was. “Which school do you go to? How long until you're done?”
“Basically let’s say your daughter is having issues talking, forming words, or pronouncing it correctly. You take her to a speech pathologist, who helps her with her speech. It’s basically Speech Therapy.” Marley explained. She knew it wasn’t a common field, but she had issues as a kid, and it helped her a lot. “I just finished my AA, but I want Masters, so I have a while to go. Having children slows it down a bit.”
“Ohhhh, that's really cool.” He was impressed. It sounded like a really great job. Plus you got to help out kids and stuff. He nodded in sympathy about the struggles of being a young single parent. “I get it. When I was in coding classes, it was super hard to juggle doing classes and working full time. I get it.”
“Yeah, I really like it.” Marley said, running her tongue across her lip nervously. “Yeah I am looking forward to having a career, opposed to what I have right now.” Especially since it was a way to support her children. “Yeah, I wish it was easier.”
Finn nodded again. “Are there a lot of speech path...whatever jobs here in New York? I mean I know there’s a lot of people here, but I guess I don’t hear a lot about the medical field around here. My mom’s a retired nurse now. So I know a lot about those jobs.”
She shrugged. “I mean you can get it. You can work at a school if worse comes to worse, so it just depends on which path you want to go down.” Marley commented, leaning towards him, and smiling. “Tell me about your job. That sounds fascinating.”
That didn’t really sound like it was very promising, but maybe she just didn’t want to talk about it, and Finn was respectful of that. “I’m a senior web developer. I went to a 12-week developer bootcamp because it promised to get me a job that would pay well and it paid okay in Ohio, but it paid a lot better in New York. I basically design websites for clients and do some contract work freelance. The best part is I get to work from home two to three times a week. It’s not that exciting, but it gives me more time with Chuck. So I love it.”
While she was certain she’d get a job once she gets her degree, she wasn’t sure if she was staying in New York long term, so schools would be a better option elsewhere. She could also open her own practice, or join a practice, it’s just a matter of getting started. “Oh wow. That is kind of incredible. I heard it’s pretty competitive in New York, so the fact you succeeded, is really incredible. Working at home would be nice too. I do my schooling online after the boys are sleeping. That’s easier.”
“I got really lucky when I moved here.” He wasn’t afraid to say that. He worked hard at everything he did, but there was just a fair bit of knowing the right people and being there at the right time. He was blessed. “I’ve thought of going to get a degree, but it’s just Chuck and me here. So I don’t even know if I’d ever have the time.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” She wasn’t as lucky, but this was neither here, nor there. She wasn’t going to comment on her situation. Plus, it wasn’t that bad, she was healthy, her boys were happy, and healthy. She really had no complaints. “Oh yeah? I mean you could do it on the side.. If we got to know each other more, I wouldn’t mind having Chuck over. I mean the boys are younger, but having a girl around is always fun.”
Finn wasn’t sure he wanted to go back to school because he didn’t really need to, but it might be something he did after Chuck was grown up or something. “Yeah, maybe. But thanks for the offer! That’s really cool of you. I think she’d just like being around another girl in general. So maybe if we get to know each other better, it would be nice to just have someone else for her to hang out with.”
Brushing her hair out of her face, Marley smiled. She liked Finn. She got this general vibe from him, she could tell he was a good person. “Thanks, I know how it is with kids, but realistically, if we do end up dating, which may be too soon for saying, but I think of things like that; you’ll be around my boys, and I’ll be around Chuck, so.. I don’t know. I just think the kids are important. A big part of the process, you know?” She picked at the coaster, and shrugged. “Sorry, I may have been overthinking it, but I couldn’t be with someone who didn’t want to be around my children, you know?”
Finn smiled at that. He didn't feel pressured by her words even though he usually took things really slow. He just also had never dated another single parent. So it wasn't too crazy to think he'd probably ask her out again because he knew she knew how he felt about stuff. Plus he liked her a lot. “No, I totally get it. I think if we ended up dating then it would work out perfect.”
Marley really hoped it didn’t come off as if she were rushing things, she just wanted to make her intentions clear. This was just her first relationship outside of her ex since having her boys, so she wanted to make it clear where she stood. “Good. I hope you don’t think I’m rushing things. I’ve just never done the whole single parent, and dating thing.”
“No, I didn't think that. I get it. A lot of people our ages get to just date around and have fun. We don't get that because we have to make sure whoever we date is gonna be good for our kids.” He'd been lucky enough to have a good example of a single parent from his mother. She never made anyone more important than Finn, and she made sure he understood what kinds of sacrifices went with being a single parent when he decided he wanted to raise Chuck on his own.
Marley was glad he understood what she was talking about. “It's hard.” Marley admitted.”Because you want someone who loves your kids as much as you do. You put a lot of truth in that.” She sighed, finishing her beer, and brushing back her hair. “I mean it's easier because my boys are small, but it's still kind of different than dating without kids.”
“I get all of that. I haven’t had a girlfriend since high school, not really. I’ve dated a few girls, but I just didn’t want Chuck to have to worry about an ‘evil stepmother’ that would care about themselves more than her. She’s my whole world. There’s no one I would put above her,” he said sincerely. “But I know you get that and that means you would probably love someone else’s kid like your own.”
“Yeah, Jake was the only guy I’ve really been with, so it’s a whole new world for me….” It still hurt talking about Jake, but he left them, and she was happy he was no longer in their life. It’s just dating as an adult, with kids was weird. “But yeah, I worry about that too... “ She liked that he understood that. “Yeah, I know that, and I am okay with that… I mean if you date a guy with kids, you get a full package, and I’m okay with that.”
Finn was surprised by the fact that Marley had only ever been with one person. She was just so pretty. He couldn’t imagine that, at least not in this day and age. “Well, this is just drinks. We’re not getting married tomorrow or anything,” he joked. “It wasn’t even technically a date. I mean it can be a date if you want it to be, but I just wanted to hang too.”
Marley knew it seemed weird that she was only with Jake, but she got with him when she was so young, that she never really had a chance to be with anyone else. “Yeah I know. I get ahead of myself, you have no idea.” She blushed, biting down on her lip. “No, of course not.. It can be a hang out, though I think you’re really nice.”
Finn chuckled again and drank more of his beer. “I think you’re nice too. So maybe we can just hang some more and see how we feel at the end of the night,” he suggested, not at all disappointed that she hadn’t wanted it to be a date.
Yeah, I don’t think it’s that weird considering. I have a friend whose mom was pregnant around the time she was.. her mom had her young, and she got pregnant young.
I hope that she waits until she’s 40 to have a kid.
Your mom’s sisters kids would be her second cousin.. or first cousin twice removed. I always get those confused. You might have more one day. You’re young.
Oh I don’t anything about that. Cousins are just cousins to me. Yeah maybe, but Chuck’s almost 10. It would be weird to have a kid that’s 20 and a kid that’s 10, right?
I love the cuddling tbh. It is probably my favorite thing to do. I really hope they never outgrow this, because they’re like my best friends, which is really sad… but yeah. They really are! Chuck sounds awesome. It sounds like you’re doing a good job! Super Dash is great, though he tends to call his brother Evil Auggie, so hopefully that doesn’t stick. Super Finn does make me think of a shark!
Chuck’s my best friend. I get it. Thanks! Your boys sound awesome too. Evil Auggie made me laugh, but hopefully he’ll see his little bro as an awesome sidekick and not a villain someday.
Another young parent. I had my first daughter when I was sixteen but she was given up for adoption after her birth. I learned of her whereabouts a few years ago and am happy she’s well taken care of.
What is Chuck’s favorite dish?
Thank you, Finn. Yes. It is a nice Saturday. I hope this weather holds up tomorrow.
You had a daughter at 16 too? That’s cool! Well not cool because I bet that was tough, but I just never meet anyone who had a baby in their teens. So that’s the cool part. It’s good she has a good life.
Any kind of pasta because she likes to make it from scratch. I got her a pasta maker for her birthday a month ago.
Sorry I was MIA just when I thought I was out of the music game, they pulled me back in for a few different things. Anyways, how has everyone been? Hope good!!
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