The question is blunt and it takes Charlie a few moments to realise that the question has been asked aloud, that it's not just his mind projecting the thought.
"I – I – do I what?" Charlie appears to be reduced to a stammering mess more often than he would like.
"Do you like Finn?" Eliza repeats.
She doesn't make it sound like she thinks Charlie is stupid, like he hasn't understood the question. She says it with patience, as if she already knows the answer and is just waiting for Charlie to admit it aloud.
"Of course not," Charlie imagines that if he was Pinocchio he would have impaled most of the world's population by now, "why would you think that?"
"Maybe because you're constantly looking at him like you want to jump his bones, and I don't know, the two of you act like something has happened between the two of you and I figured you might still be hung up on it or something."
"N – No," Charlie stammers once again, "that's not – it's not like that."
"What is it like then?"
"He was my brother's best friend back home; we hung out a couple of times back then."
"And there were no drunken accidental kisses?"
For a moment Charlie considers the idea that Finn might have told Eliza. Then he realises that there is a teasing lilt to Eliza's voice and that there's a small smile tugging at her features. She thinks she's proposing something entirely impossible; Charlie is going to let her carry on thinking that way.
"No drunken accidental kisses," Charlie repeats mirroring Eliza's easy smile.
"You know," she says, "I still think there's something going on between the two of you."
"And why's that?"
"You know Finn's outgoing and flirty and sociable, but he generally just flirts or just is friends with someone. He rarely does both, he's not that stupid."
Charlie is caught between denying that Finn is his friend and denying that Finn flirts with him. Deep down he knows that both statements are true, that Finn is his friend – he wouldn't be hanging out with them this evening else wise – and that Finn does flirt with him.
"Finn flirts with everyone," Charlie points out, "he thinks it's harmless."
"And it usually is, you know, as long as the other person doesn't have feelings for him."
"Are you suggesting that I have feelings for Finn?"
"You said that, not me."
"My feelings for Finn are purely platonic," Charlie says.
"Fine," Eliza replies, her tone calm, "but you should know that yes, Finn flirts with everyone but Finn also doesn't tend to walk people to classes, or to give them tours of campus or to look at them with heart eyes every time they say something."
"He doesn't look at me with heart eyes."
"He so does, you just don't notice. You're too busy blushing and staring at your shoes like a twelve year old."
"Hey!"
"The truth hurts Charlie."
"It's not true," Charlie tries to make it clear that he means every word, "we're just friends."
"And I'm just fucking Finn every other weekend."
"You are?" Charlie can't help the hurt that leaks into his tone, hell, he doesn't even know why it's there.
