“It’s always the same fucking story with me, isn’t it?” he bit out. “I guess the conversation I had with Cole on Thursday just got this idea in my head, and then I thought she was giving me signals when we were working—”
“What conversation with Cole?” I interrupted.
“He didn’t tell you? He came over before his flight, and we talked about how we all seem to be into her, and maybe that was something we could carefully explore.”
I leaned back, my eyes fluttering closed. This really was a mess.
“If this is your understanding of the word ‘carefully’, you need to pick up a dictionary. Let’s rewind. Am I understanding you correctly? You’re proposing weallpursue Adeline? At the same time?”
“Yes. But, I may have blown whatever chance I had with her.”
“I’m sorry, I’m still not quite there.You’reinterested in this idea? I didn’t take you for a guy who shares.”
He sniffed. “Cole explained it to me, and… Well, it kind of makes sense. Specifically, with us and Adeline. I don’t know, man. She’s different.”
It’s funny how after knowing someone for over a decade they still had the capacity to surprise you.
“Do you disagree?” he asked when I didn’t say anything.
“Oh, she’s definitely different, I’m just shocked you’re considering what Cole is suggesting. He reallycantalk someone into anything.”
“We’re all attracted to her. Why fight amongst ourselves when we can join forces?”
That was a really simple way of looking at it, but sometimes it was the simplest argument that was the most illuminating.
“And anyway, I thought she may feel the same…until she ran out of my apartment. She kissed me back initially, for just a second.”
My eyes flicked open. “Wait, she kissed you back?”
“Yeah, I was trying to take it really slow…”
That, I found hard to believe.
“But she pressed right up to me, took me by surprise, before literally running away. She was upset, and I feel awful. I apologized, but I was so fucking agitated and confused that I don’t think it came off as very sincere.”
I sighed into the phone. “Okay, I’ll handle it.”
“I’m not sure if you should bring it up directly. It might just make it worse,” Silas said. “Fuck. I can’t believe I misread her so badly. I’m usually good at picking up signals.”
I mulled this over. Did she push Silas away because she wasn’t interested? Because she was worried about complicating their working relationship? Or because of something else? I wondered if she was drawn to us the way we were drawn to her…and if that confused her. The arrangement Cole and Silas had discussed was so far out of the ordinary… There was no way Adeline could be thinking about it in the same way.
“I won’t bring it up, but I’ll tell her you’re an idiot if she mentions it first,” I said to Silas.
“Okay. Thanks man. I really do feel like a piece of shit.” He paused for a long moment. “So what do you think about the idea?”
“It’s…” I trailed off, trying to find the right word.
“Cole used the word ‘intriguing.’”
I scoffed lightly. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”
“We’re all affected by her. It’s weird. Something dislodged inside of me the moment I saw her on that stage, and it’s only grown.”
“You’re still an idiot for acting on your feelings,” I quipped, not wanting to let him off the hook. “It’s pretty fucking unprofessional. But, yeah, I know what you mean. There’s something special about her, and I’d be more than willing to experiment if she showed any interest. That said, this stops now. We’re not making any more blatant moves unless she does. You think you can keep yourself in check for once?”
Silas sniffed. “Yes.”
“Good. All right, I’m going to try to check in with her tomorrow. Please don’t do anything insane like showing up at her house in the middle of the night.”
