I spin around and slow-walk through the haphazard maze of booths. My well of patience is tapped dry for nonsense like this.
“Hey, wait! Nikki!”
When I turn around, Finn’s brow is wrinkled to hell. He wears the worry on his face like a blemish. It just looks unnatural on his boyish face. “I’m sorry. Truly. I didn’t mean to make light of things.”
He shakes his head, glancing off into the distance before looking back at me, concern radiating in his eyes. Now that we’re standing up close, I notice that his eyes are a touch greener than his brother’s. I wonder if he’s worried about someone filming our little scene and uploading it online. That’s exactly what I’m thinking.
Thankfully, no one seems to have noticed us. Everyone is milling around the booths, chatting and perusing.
A heavy sigh moves through his chest. “You’re right. Callum is an absolute knob sometimes, but he really does mean well.”
I scoff. “So being rude and disrespectful is perfectly fine if he ‘means well’?”
The frenzied way he shakes his head catches the attention of a nearby arts and crafts booth operator, who squints at him in confusion before looking away.
“No, that’s not . . . Here, I’ll try to explain. I was having a hell of a time getting my business off the ground here. I love food, I love cooking, I love feeding people. I’ve done it my whole life, and my dream has been to have my own restaurant in Hawaii. But I was clueless when it came to the business side of things.”
He holds the boba tea up to me, but I shake my head. He takes a sip. “Long story short, I tried to do everything on my own at first—I wrote a business plan, applied for a loan, bought equipment. I drained my savings. I had no idea what I was doing, and before I knew it I was in debt to my eyeballs. When Callum got word, he dropped everything—his finance job, his flat in Chicago—to move out here and help me. I probably would have lost everything if he hadn’t done that.”
A crack forms in my steely hate for Callum. The knotted muscles in my shoulders loosen. What an incredibly kind thing to do for his little brother.
“He’s completely turned things around for me. Did loads of research on the food truck industry, Maui’s economy, the most popular tourist spots. Pretty much everything I should have done in the first place, but never even thought about. He was the one person who reached out to me when no one else cared.”
“Not even your parents?” I say before I can catch myself.
He shakes his head. “No. It’s just . . . our parents are good people. They loved us, took us on fun vacations, paid for our schooling. They had the money to do all the things that most parents want to do for their kids. But they had expectations too.”
Finn pauses, possibly hesitating. “They’re both in finance and thought working in food service was beneath me. They were thrilled when Callum followed in their footsteps—and the exact opposite when I told them that my career goal was to open my own food truck in Maui. But I didn’t care. It was what I loved to do. So when my business here crashed and burned, they expected me to finally give up, to get a ‘sensible’ job, as they call it. But I wouldn’t do it. And when I told them that, they made it very clear how disappointed they were by refusing to acknowledge that part of my life.”
I keep from speaking even though I’m curious. My parents were always so supportive of whatever I wanted to do. When I said I wanted to go to culinary school after high school, they cheered me on. When I said I wanted to go to school online at night and earn my business degree while working in restaurants all day, they were just as supportive. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have parents who disapproved of what you did for a living.
“Shit. That sucks, Finn.”
The small smile he flashes holds a tinge of sadness. “It did. I honestly didn’t expect money or for them to swoop in and save me or anything like that. All I wanted was their support. But they didn’t have that to give.” He clears his throat. “Callum did though. He always did.”