Unknown

by Kelly, Hazel

  I watched the dad at the register get bullied into buying a dozen after explicitly telling his offspring they could each choose two donuts. Not that that surprised me. Kids could be highly persuasive, employing advanced negotiation techniques most adults couldn’t see coming.

  Then there was the whole issue of homework. Who wanted the stress of realizing their second grader was better at basic multiplication tables? Brian’s daughter knew what a rhombus was before she graduated kindergarten. No thanks. I felt uneducated enough without having a child beat me at Jeopardy in my own home.

  I could see why Maeve would take on the challenge, though. She was smart in all the ways I wasn’t. Sure, I liked to think I was fairly well read, and yes, I could draw and play music better than your average bear. But when we went to the zoo last week, I felt like a sorry excuse for an adult. She knew where Borneo was without having to Google it, knew that gibbons weren’t monkeys. She even knew the oldest zoo in the world was in Vienna.

  I wasn’t going to beat myself up about it, but I had to assume she liked me more for my brawn than my brains. To add insult to injury, the more donor profiles she showed me, the more I realized she probably wouldn’t be interested in my sperm even if I offered it to her at a discount.

  After all, my imagined profile couldn’t compete with the one belonging to Rob the Lawyer, who was a distant relation of Thomas Jefferson, or Nathan the Chess Champion, who had a pharmaceutical engineering degree and a parrot who’d memorized eleven Shakespearean sonnets.

  Hi, my name’s Finn, and my dog eats underpants.

  Not that I wanted her to pick me. I just wanted her to make a decision she’d be happy with. Nothing else mattered.

  She walked in wearing a bright red coat that made her candy apple lips pop, and the muted tones of the donut shop’s interior faded into the background. Even Cubs-Dad did a double take when he glanced towards the sound of the door chime.

  I stood to greet her and pressed my cheek to hers, her fuzzy red earmuffs tickling my nose as I considered commenting on the fact that she’d worn her hair down. It was a first as far as I knew. In public anyway. “Can I get you a coffee?”

  “No,” she said. “I’m still shaking from the double espresso I had earlier.”

  “Maybe a donut, then?” I gestured towards the brown bag on the table and checked my watch. “We’ve got some time to kill before the main event.”

  “I’m not much of a donut person.”

  I laughed and slid into the booth again.

  “What?” she asked, sitting down across from me.

  “I don’t think there are donut people and not donut people.” I slid the closed paper bag towards me. “I think there are only regular donut enthusiasts and disciplined donut deniers.”

  She raised her palms. “Guilty.”

  “Well, I have good news for you,” I said, peeking in the bag to build suspense. “There are two donuts in here, and they’re both mine.”

  She cocked her head. “How is that good news?”

  “Because other people’s donuts don’t have any calories.”

  Her chin crept forward. “Is that so?”

  I nodded. “It is. Did you not know that?”

  “What kind did you get?”

  “The two best kinds, obviously.”

  “Blueberry and double chocolate glazed?”

  “Blueberry?!” I leaned back. “That’s blasphemy. Blueberry is no one’s favorite.”

  “Don’t tell me you picked something horrible.”

  “Dunkin is the king of donuts and horrible isn’t on the menu.” I slid the bag over to her. “But you’re welcome to the double chocolate.”

  She opened the bag and peeked inside, her face twisting with disgust. “Vanilla Long John?! What a waste!”

  “How dare you,” I joked. “It’s the perfect complement to the double chocolate glazed.”

  She pulled the chocolate one out and laid it on a napkin. “You know what goes really well with the double chocolate glazed?”

  I raised my brows.

  “Another double chocolate glazed.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Thanks,” she said, snapping it in two. “I’ll enjoy this even more knowing it’s calorie free.”

  “And three of your five a day.”

  She smiled. “Speaking of bullshit…”

  I grabbed the superior donut from the bag and took a bite.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were a twin?”

  I swallowed.

  “Much less one half of the band Gemini?”

  “Did I not?” I asked, feigning ignorance.

  “No,” she said. “You didn’t.”

  “I suppose I didn’t tell you because it’s not important.”

  “You seemed to think it was important during your MTV interview.” Her curious eyes searched mine.

  “I’m flattered that you scoured the internet for embarrassing clips of me, but I think you’re confusing me with my brother, who thought that was the most important moment of our lives.”

  “I’m not confusing you with your brother,” she said. “You’re by far the better-looking twin.”

  “I love you for that,” I said, my chest seizing when I realized what I’d blurted. Fortunately, she laughed right away, perfectly defusing the awkwardness only I seemed to feel. Still, a whiff of nausea niggled at me. Like I’d said too much too casually. As if I were the one who’d let my hair down.

  “I don’t know why you’re embarrassed. Most people would sell their soul to have one hit record, much less two platinum albums.”

  A sly smile tugged at my lips. “You did your research.”

  “I wish you’d told me.”

  “Why?” I asked. “It doesn’t change anything.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” she said. “Knowing would’ve only made me feel insecure.”

  “Insecure?”

  She shrugged. “It’s not every day a girl gets to sleep with a rock star.”

  “I can do every day,” I said. “All you have to do is ask.”

  She blushed and glanced down at her donut. “You know what I mean.”

  “All I know is that the only music I want to hear anymore is the sound of my name on your breathless lips.”

  She turned as red as her coat and looked over her shoulder. “Finn,” she hissed. “This is Dunkin Donuts.”

  “Where all great foreplay begins,” I joked, my heart swelling with her bright laughter.

  And as she popped the last chocolate bite in her mouth, I wished things were different. Wished she were mine.

  Wished I’d know what to do with her if she was.

  T H I R T Y O N E

  - Maeve -

  When Finn turned down the sidewalk towards the YMCA, I froze in my tracks. “This is as far as I go,” I said, unwilling to embarrass myself. Sex was one thing, but sports? Finn did not need to know how deeply uncoordinated I was. “If you want to see what I look like bent over in yoga pants, just ask. But I don’t do sweaty.”

  His eyes sparkled with amusement.

  “Whatever you’re planning, I’m not dressed for it,” I said. Nor do I have the hand-eye coordination required. Had he not noticed I wore my freaking hair down today? Did he know how many times I regretted that on the ride over? The only reason I even risked it was because it seemed like a low stakes time to give it a try. That, and the fact that my new earmuffs made me look pinheaded with my hair pulled back.

  “Would you relax?” he asked. “I didn’t come here to get your heart rate up.”

  “It’s the Y,” I said. “Why else would we be here?”

  He groaned. “God, you’re stubborn. You really think I’d take you for donuts and then make you exercise?”

  “I don’t know. It wouldn’t be your first twisted idea.”

  “Name one other twisted thing I’ve done.”

  “You attacked me with the whipped cream,” I said,
trying not to smile. “And you handed me that falcon at the zoo last weekend like it was an unassuming breadbasket.”

  “He was harmless.”

  “He could’ve pecked my eyes out!”

  “He was wearing blinders.”

  I wracked my brain. “You pretended you were a working musician instead of a celebrity.”

  “I’m not a celebrity. That’s a gross exaggeration. And you said you were glad you held the falcon.”

  “I don’t do sports, Finn.”

  “I didn’t bring you here to make you do sports.”

  “Then why did you bring me here.”

  “Can’t it be a surprise?”

  “I’m surprised enough.”

  He sighed. “I want you to meet my kids.”

  I felt like I’d been sucker-punched.

  “A few of them, anyway. Namely the ones who like me best.”

  My mind was going haywire like it did when someone sprung a math problem on me. “I’m confused.”

  “They’re not really my kids.”

  “If I found out you were hiding children on top of the rock star thing, I’d be really pissed.”

  “Are you coming or not?” he asked, leaning towards the door. “Because I’m not going to disappoint my star students just because you don’t trust me.”

  “I do trust you.”

  “Hi Finn!” a little boy shouted as he hopped out of a black car that pulled up to the curb.

  Finn raised a hand towards the kid. “Hey, Lukas. Good to see you, man.”

  I didn’t know what was going on, but it was too cold to stay outside. Plus, I was kind of curious what we were doing at the gym on a Saturday afternoon…until Lukas opened the backdoor of his mom’s car and pulled a guitar case out with both hands.

  “Do you need help?” I asked, my heart melting at the way his little blue beanie flattened his blonde bangs against his forehead.

  “No, thank you,” he said, his puffy Spiderman boots rooting him to the sidewalk. “Finn says musicians should carry their own instruments.”

  “Does he?” I asked, my eyes straying back to him.

  “How’s the songwriting going?” Finn asked, opening the door as Lukas approached and giving me a you coming? look.

  “Good,” Lukas said, ducking under Finn’s arm to get inside. “The one I’m writing for Carly needs work, but I wrote one about the time my dog had diarrhea, and my dad thought it was great.”

  The shallow wrinkles around Finn’s eyes deepened with his laughter. “Sounds like you’re making good progress.”

  “I think I might write one for my mom, too,” Lukas said as we entered the main hall.

  “I bet she’d like that,” Finn said, pausing at reception to sign us in while Lukas waited patiently beside him, looking on with obvious admiration.

  “Is that your girlfriend?” he whispered loudly, sidling up to Finn when we started down the hall.

  “No, that’s Maeve.”

  “Hi,” I said, raising a hand when he glanced over his shoulder to inspect me.

  He stopped and stuck his hand out. “I’m Lukas.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I said, impressed by his confidence.

  “You’re pretty,” he said.

  I smiled. “Thank you.”

  “I think so, too,” Finn added, his warm gaze finding mine before he patted Lukas on the back. “Come on. Let’s not keep the other’s waiting.”

  “How many others are there?” I asked.

  “Half a dozen usually,” he said, heading for a cracked door at the end of the hall. “It’s a bigger group after school on Wednesdays, but I do a Saturday session twice a month for the more advanced kids.”

  Lukas beamed like Finn had draped a medal over his head.

  “You are full of surprises,” I mumbled as we entered the small room, which was empty apart from a row of stacked chairs, four little kids strumming away on their guitars, and a full-bodied black woman who stood from her seat to greet us.

  “There he is,” she said, making her way over in a swishy green skirt that floated over the floor.

  “Mary, this is Maeve,” Finn said. “She’s going to sit in today, if that’s alright.”

  “A friend of yours, I take it?” Mary asked, reaching for my hand as she gave Finn a teasing look.

  “Pleasure to meet you,” I said, her warm hand a comfort after being out in the cold.

  “The pleasure’s all mine, I assure you,” she said, elbowing Finn with her eyes again.

  “She’s not his girlfriend,” Lukas interjected, confirming that I hadn’t imagined her cheeky expression. “I already asked.”

  Mary patted him on the head. “Sure, she’s not, hon. Why don’t you go get set up? Your usual seat’s there for you at the front.” Mary’s friendly eyes twinkled at me one last time as she took me in like I was the celebrity guest. “You kids have fun.”

  “Thanks for being so cool about this,” Finn added sarcastically as he pulled a keychain from his pocket.

  When I looked up, all the kids who’d been fumbling with their instruments were staring at me.

  “This is my friend, Maeve,” Finn announced casually as he wandered towards a door with a “Staff Only” plaque on it. “She’s thinking about taking up the guitar, so I brought her along so you guys can show her how it’s done.”

  I raised my hand in a polite wave while the kids stared at me and whispered amongst themselves.

  “Pull up a chair,” Finn said over his shoulder as he unlocked the closet, disappearing for a moment before emerging with a guitar.

  I made a beeline for the back of the room, unstacked a chair, and set it near the group, but not too close. That way, I’d be able to see the kids while they played, but I wouldn’t make anyone feel awkward.

  Meanwhile, Finn threw his coat over the back of the chair at the front of the room and took a seat. Then he strummed a few times before tweaking the tuning pegs at the top of the fretboard so effortlessly I was instantly mesmerized. It was almost as interesting as watching him play, and I wondered what it would be like to hear music like that, to know an instrument like that.

  Seconds later, he was ready to warm up, and as he led the group in an impassioned rendition of “Smelly Cat,” I had to laugh. It wasn’t the only time, either. I also got a chuckle when everyone adopted exaggerated Southern twangs for “Oh my Darlin’ Clementine.”

  But not all the songs they played were easy. In fact, they became increasingly advanced. From “Eleanor Rigby” to “Three Little Birds” to “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” I couldn’t help but be seriously impressed. And once everyone was warmed up, they practiced the latest addition to their repertoire: “All of me” by John Legend.

  Finn instructed that they would play it really slow, so everyone could practice as much as they’d learned. But by the end, even Lukas had dropped out, leaving Finn on his own to sing “All of Me” to…all of me, and my body burned from the emotion in his voice as the kids focused on his strumming.

  But I wasn’t looking at his hands.

  I was looking at his eyes, thirsty for the brief moments when he let them meet mine.

  And as chills spread through my body, I blinked to keep my eyes from watering. Because I thought I loved that song before I heard him sing it. But after, it was Everything, and I’d never wanted to give someone all of me so bad.

  T H I R T Y T W O

  - Finn -

  “You’re awfully quiet,” I said as Maeve and I headed back to my Jeep.

  She slipped her arm through mine. “I’m speechless.”

  “Was it that bad? I knew it was a gamble subjecting you to all that talent at once.”

  She stopped and turned towards me, tugging my leather jacket to pull me close. “Finn.”

  I searched her eyes in the moment before she kissed me, our warm breath mingling as it escaped our gently parted lips. And when I expected her to pull away, she didn’t. She jus
t kept kissing me like it was all she wanted to do. She didn’t even stop when some guy had to step off the sidewalk to get around us, his dog trotting behind him through the dirty snow. She just smiled against my mouth before resting her forehead against mine.

  “I take it you enjoyed the class.”

  Her long lashes fluttered above her bright eyes. “You were incredible.”

  “I don’t know about that.”

  “I do,” she said, her voice warm and certain.

  I slipped a hand around her lower back and spun her towards my Jeep, which was parallel parked only a few cars down the curb. “What was your favorite part of the lesson?”

  “Hard to say,” she said, moving at a leisurely pace. “I think it’s going to be what comes next.”

  I leaned away from where she was clutching my arm to ask what she meant, but she spoke first.

  “Get in the back seat.”

  “Maeve—”

  “You want me bossy?” she asked. “Get in the back.”

  I eyed her suspiciously, intrigued by the mischievous sparkle in her almond eyes.

  “After you,” she said when I opened the back door.

  I had to swing by the bar before five, but something told me it was in my best interest to go with the flow.

  She crawled in after me, and no sooner had she closed us inside the frost-covered chariot than she was kissing me again, her deft fingers unfastening the buttons on my jeans like she, too, was in a hurry.

  “Maeve,” I said, my body responding readily to the enthusiasm with which she undressed me. I wanted to tell her to slow down, but her touch made me weak, and before I knew it, her fragrant hair was falling around our faces and then down my body. By the time I realized what was happening, she was stroking me with her hands and mouth and… Oh God.

  The feel of her soft lips was intoxicating, and I relaxed against the door, letting my head fall back against the frosty window. When I remembered to breathe again, I gathered her hair in my hands as best I could and watched her pleasure me, her dark lashes fanned across her cheeks as her sensual moans invited my surrender.