Finch gently set Wendy down, carefully holding her hand as they boarded the cable car.
To better take care of her, Finch sat right beside Wendy.
The proximity made Wendy tense up all over again.
They rode down in silence.
Finch assumed she was quiet because of the pain in her foot.
The cable car ride was quick, less than ten minutes to the bottom of the mountain.
The hotel was at the foot of the mountain, but it was still a few hundred meters away.
Finch bent down. "Let me carry you on my back."
"Ah!"
She wanted to say she could walk, but she was genuinely afraid of worsening the injury. Refusing now would just seem overly dramatic.
He'd already carried her in his arms; letting him give her a piggyback ride wasn't that big of a deal.
Her earlier shyness stemmed from being so close to a man for the first time. It was genuinely embarrassing.
She recalled her friends' words: "If you like him, why not give it a try?"
"I'm so sorry to trouble you again," Wendy said as she climbed onto his back, trying to act calm while her heart was doing somersaults.
What a day.
First a bridal carry, now a piggyback ride.
Happiness had come so suddenly.
This time, it wasn't shyness she felt, but a deep sense of gratitude.
For someone who had rarely felt warmth growing up, when someone suddenly showed you such kindness, you couldn't help but see them as an angel.
She couldn't even remember what it felt like to be held by her parents.
Maybe they had carried her like this once. But she couldn't remember.
For some reason, on Finch's back she felt oddly safe, grounded in a way she wasn't used to.
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