Previously…
– Rosie’s brother, Sebastian, returned home to support her in the wake of her and Travis relinquishing custody of Gabrielle.
– Molly approached Travis for help, asking if he and Rosie might come over to ease Gabrielle’s transition to living with her and Brent.- After being ousted from Objection Designs along with Gia, Finn spitefully revealed to Alex that he and Trevor had kissed.

With a nasty rainstorm raging all around him, Trevor Brooks stands on the covered front porch of the house in which he grew up. Finn Campbell, dressed in designer joggers and a cashmere sweater, stares back at him.

“We need to talk,” Trevor tells him.

Finn regards him with some silent, inscrutable reaction for a length of time that feels endless to Trevor – even more so because he hears the driving rain pounding the house and pavement, and he feels its chill wrapping around him. Finally Finn steps out of the way. Trevor does not waste another moment darting inside the house.

“What is wrong with you?” Trevor asks as Finn closes the front door.

Spinning around, Finn glares at him. “What’s wrong with me?”

“It wasn’t an accident that you told Alex that we kissed – months ago – when you know damn well that I cut that off right away.”

“I wouldn’t say right away…”

“Finn.” Trevor exhales heavily. “What is this, revenge? You’re trying to screw with my marriage because you’re angry at me?”

“You think I don’t have a right to be angry at you?” The dark circles beneath Finn’s deep-set eyes look darker than usual, and his normally well coiffed, dark brown hair is unkempt; it looks to Trevor as if he hardly slept last night. “I know it was you.”

“What do you mean, it was me?”

“Molly told me. You’re the one who let her know about the board vote. You did this!”

“Did what? Helped my friend save her job? Molly has been really good to me, Finn. And she’s a friend. I don’t have anything close to that kind of loyalty to Gia–”

“What about me?” Finn demands, fury ripping out of him like fire out of a dragon. “This is my life, too! And you ruined everything!”

“I’m sorry that you lost your job because of Gia being fired,” Trevor says. “That sucks. I’m genuinely sorry. I’m sure I can make some calls to help you find another assistant position. And if you need a break on the rent–”

“It’s not about the rent! Or about being a damn assistant! This is everything I worked for, Trevor. And you ruined it.”

“You’ll find another job.”

“I said it’s not about the fucking job!”

Trevor reaches his hands out, unsure what he even intends to do, but Finn seems wild with rage now, and Trevor hopes to calm him. But as soon as his hands make contact, Finn shoves him back, sending Trevor staggering back into the wall.

“You’re just like everyone else,” Finn spits. “You throw me away when you have no more use for me. It’s what everyone does!”

“I didn’t throw you away, Finn,” Trevor says in as calming a tone as he can manage.

“Yes, you did!” Finn’s hands grasp the sides of his head. “And now I’m right back where I started: with nothing. The way my mother left me.”

“Your mother? What does your mom have to do with this?” Trevor asks.

Eyes widened, Finn looks up at him. Outside, a crack of thunder booms.

—–

“Whew! I needed that!”

Elly Vanderbilt lies in the queen-sized bed in her studio apartment, which sits above the bar that her father and his wife own. Her long hair, dyed to enhance its natural redness, spills over the pillow as she catches her breath.

“You’re not the only one,” Sebastian Jimenez replies, as he props himself up on his right elbow to look at her. He lies naked on his side, save for the thin white bedsheet covering him from the hip down.

Elly grins. “I’m glad you let me know you were in town.”

“I felt a little guilty sneaking out for a booty call,” Sebastian says, “but Travis and Rosie went out to do errands, and it’s not like supporting her means never leaving the house…”

As he speaks, Elly falls quiet, a solemn expression overtaking her face. She still feels awful about how the custody hearing played out, when she put a former associate of Rosie’s ex on the stand to play up Rosie’s culpability in her own father’s murder. But Sebastian doesn’t need to know any of that – especially not in light of this mind-blowing encore performance to their one-night-stand a few years ago.

“What are you thinking?” he asks, eyeing her curiously.

Elly brightens immediately. “Nothing. Spacing out, that’s all. How about we go get some breakfast?”

Sebastian turns over, locating his iPhone on the nightstand, and checks the time. “I guess it’s technically still breakfast time.”

“Call it brunch if you want,” she says. “I’m starving. And I’m going to guess you just worked up an appetite, too.”

“Damn right I did,” he says with a laugh, before rolling out of bed to find his clothes. Elly admires his naked backside as he does so, as the aftershocks of satisfaction continue to pulsate through her body.

—–

Trevor startles at the sound of thunder outside. Its force seems to match Finn’s mood, although the younger man is now quiet, like his body is catching up to his verbal outburst. Trevor’s mind spins as he tries to make sense of how Finn’s mother fits into any of this or why Finn is so devastated over an administrative job.

“I don’t follow,” Trevor says at last.

Finn sighs, then looks Trevor up and down, as if evaluating him. Finally, he says, “I guess it doesn’t even matter now.”

“What doesn’t matter?”

“That company – it’s where I’m supposed to be.”

“Objection? It’s a great company, but–”

“There’s more to it than that,” Finn explains. “In another reality, that place is my… my birthright.”

“Your birthright? Finn, I’m sorry, but this is like… nuts. I’m not getting what you mean here.”

After a deep breath, Finn blurts it out: “My mother was the founder of Objection.”

“Your mother?” Trevor asks, baffled. “Objection was founded by Camille Lemieux–”

“Exactly,” Finn cuts him off. “Camille Lemieux was my birth mother.”

Raindrops assault the windshield as Travis Fisher parks his Honda outside Cassie’s Coffee House. 

“I can’t believe it’s not even noon yet,” he says as he turns off the engine.

In the passenger seat, Rosie undoes her seatbelt. “Seriously. Although this rain is making it feel like the apocalypse.”

He stares out the windshield and becomes lost in thought. His aunt’s request that he and Rosie come over to help ease Gabrielle’s transition has been at the front of his mind, and he has been working up the nerve to broach the subject with Rosie all morning. 

“Why don’t we get our coffees and hang out here for a little?” he suggests. “We’re in no rush.”

“That sounds fine to me,” Rosie says. “As long as there isn’t one of those Open Mic events going on.”

Travis laughs, and she cracks a smile in response. It warms his heart to share even the most fleeting moment of humor with his wife; the past several months have been so intense, so heavy, and he misses that dimension of their relationship. It makes him reluctant to throw their day off-course by raising Molly’s request, but he also knows that the longer he waits, the more complicated this will get. Maybe a quiet, rainy morning at the coffee shop will be conducive to a productive conversation and some kind of agreement.

“Ready?” he asks, pulling the hood of his rain jacket over his head before throwing open the door. Rosie does the same, and – heads down, hoods up – they rush to the entrance of the coffee house. When they reach it, Travis shakes off the excess water from his jacket and pulls open the door for Rosie.

“Thanks,” she says before passing him and entering the shop. Travis follows, but as soon as he removes his hood, he sees something that causes him to freeze in his tracks. The sight barely makes sense, and he becomes aware too late that his mouth is hanging open in shock.

“What’s wrong?” Rosie asks.

“Uh, nothing.” He shakes his head as if that might erase his weird reaction from memory. “Maybe we should go to Thaw, though.”

“What? Travis, we’re already here. And–”

But then she sees it, too. Travis watches as her reaction morphs from confusion to astonishment to anger.

“What the hell?” Rosie mutters as the two of them watch her brother and Elly, sitting together at a table by the window, smiling and laughing.

—–

Trevor gawps at Finn.

“What are you even talking about?” he asks after a long beat. “Camille Lemieux?”

“Was my mother,” Finn says. “I didn’t know until a few years ago.”

Trevor does a double-take, still processing this news. “How?”

Finn swallows hard, inhales through his nostrils, and finally says, “I’d been trying to find my roots for years. And when I did, it made so much sense. I’ve always loved fashion–”

“This is crazy,” Trevor says, taking a step back. “Camille didn’t have any children. She left Objection to Molly.”

“Because she gave me up!” 

That does give Trevor pause.

“She gave me up and went on with her life,” Finn says.”My adoptive parents were nice, but they adopted me later on, and I never felt… I don’t know…”

“Like you had family?”

“Yeah. After all the foster placements, it was hard, and I wasn’t super-close to them.”

“But you were visiting your adoptive grandma – right? – at the cemetery that time I was visiting my parents’ graves. So you must’ve been close to the family.”

“I lied,” Finn admits, his face twisted with agony. “I didn’t want you to think I was weird. I was visiting Camille’s grave. I never knew her. But when I found out I was hers, my life made sense for the first time. My interest in fashion, the way I never knew where I belonged…”

Finn trails off as he begins to cry.

“I’m sorry,” Trevor says, and not knowing what to do, he wraps his arms around Finn. “I didn’t know.”

“Everything is ruined,” Finn wails as he presses himself against Trevor. “It’s so stupid, but I felt like I had a home at Objection. And now I’m out, and– and–”

“It’s okay.” Trevor pulls him in tighter. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“I’m so stupid,” Finn says through sobs. “I ruined everything. And now you hate me, too–”

“I don’t hate you.”

“But I told Alex–”

“I know.” Trevor feels his heart thumping hard inside his chest. “He has every right to be angry. But I should’ve told him.”

Finn pulls back just enough to look up at the taller man. “I wanted to hurt you.”

“Well, you did. Alex won’t even speak to me. I’m worried my marriage is…” Trevor can’t complete the statement.

“I’m sorry,” Finn says. “I am. But…”

Without saying anything further, he stretches up on his toes and kisses Trevor. And this time, Trevor hesitates for only a second before kissing him back. Their bodies press together as passion ignites, and Finn reaches up, pushing his fingers through Trevor’s hair as they kiss even harder.

END OF EPISODE 1217

Will Finn regret revealing the truth to Trevor?
How will Rosie and Travis react to what they saw?
Talk about it all in the comments below!

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