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“I am sorry, Jack.” Mateo reached forward and squeezed my arm. “I am sorry to you too, Liam. I never intended to feel this way about a woman you both have feelings for.”
I twisted around to smirk at him. “Hearts, right? Dumb, useless organs. Except for the whole blood-pumping thing. They’re good for that.”
Jack laughed and stared at the road. “I warned you. I warned both of you the moment she came back into my life. And now you’re both in the same weird place I was in throughout my childhood.”
“You warned us,” I agreed. “I’ll never ignore your advice again, Jack. Starting now, I mean.”
“So,” Jack said. “You both have feelings for Alyssa, to some degree. What are you going to do?”
I had already been confused before, but now my world really felt like it was upside-down. I hated the idea of competing with Mateo. That would drive a wedge through even the best of friendships. Heck, it would drive an oil tanker through our friendship, then light the tanker on fire.
The threesome was good. Great, even. But sex was one thing, and relationships were something else.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“I also do not know,” Mateo said gently.
“That sucks for both of you. Regardless of what happens, I appreciate you telling me. You’re good friends.”
“Even though we shared your high school crush-slash-enemy in an extremely hot threesome?”
Jack held up a hand. “Seriously, I don’t need details.” There was a long pause. “But she liked it? Really?”
“Really,” Mateo said.
“Like is an understatement,” I chimed in. “She loved it. More than loved it. The sounds she made…”
“All right, all right, forget I asked,” Jack said with a laugh. But I saw the look in his eye as we continued driving home. He was thinking about it. Wondering.
“What do we do?” Mateo asked. “Should we tell her how we feel?”
“What do you hope to accomplish by doing that?” Jack asked. “Do you want her to stay? And not go back to New York?”
“I do not know what I want,” Mateo admitted. “But I feel very strongly that she should know.”
“Yeah, I sort of feel the same,” I admitted.
Jack sighed. “I’m the poster child for what goes wrong when you don’t tell someone how you feel. Or if you wait too long.”
“She will probably reject us,” Mateo said miserably.
“Probably,” I said, more chipper than I felt. “But at least she’ll know. If the roles were reversed, I’d want someone to tell me how they felt.”
“You are certain you are okay with this?” Mateo asked Jack. “You have no feelings for Alyssa?”
Jack tongued the inside of his cheek. “I still feel something for her. Anger, and frustration. And some other things. But I figure I missed my chance. We’re both different people, now. Older, and maybe wiser. Nah, she’s all yours. Besides, it probably doesn’t matter. Like I said, she’s going back to New York in a week or two.”
“Perhaps sooner. I was able to access the files on her mother’s hard drive, and there were a lot of financial records that may help them.”
“There you go,” Jack said.
I thought about that. Alyssa was leaving, and probably sooner than expected. Would we have a chance to hang out again? Would I even get a chance to tell her how I felt?
Was it all just pointless? A quick little Florida fling that was nearing its expiration date? That realization made me feel profoundly sad.
The radio squawked. “Engine five, this is dispatch. Call just came in from downtown. Fire alarms going off at an apartment complex.”
Jack glanced at me, then picked up the radio. “Engine five en route.”
