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“You’re a nice surprise,” I say.
“You as well, cookie.”
Cookie. He turns me around and I see Logan at the other end of the bar opening a bottle of champagne. The cork pops off and some spills out, but he catches most of it in a glass. Then AJ turns me, and I lose sight of him.
“This dance is better than the one we had yesterday,” AJ says.
“How come?” I ask.
“Because I know you now. And I really like what I see.”
Logan comes closer to us. Leans against the bar. “What song do you want, AJ? I’ll put it in for you.”
AJ thinks as we dance, his eyes closed. And I doubt many people get to see him like this. So easy-going. So calm. So comfortable.
I’m lucky, I realize. That I’m one of them.
“Give Me Love,” AJ finally says. “Sheeran for the win. I saw that in there yesterday and thought, Well, shit. I could use me some love.”
“Me too,” I say.
Logan puts money in for the song. I guess he didn’t want to ask me for the code and break my moment with AJ.
Which is… very mature of him. They don’t seem to have a problem sharing. Which gets me curious. “When did you guys start doing this? You know. Having sex together with the same girl. Or—” I realize maybe I assumed wrong. Maybe they have sex without a girl. “Or do you have sex a lot? Together. Alone, I mean.”
AJ laughs. “We don’t. Have sex alone together. But we started this maybe… what? Fuckin’ more than ten years ago, right?”
Logan has returned to his place by the champagne. He’s leaning against the bar again, all casual. “Yeah, I think the first time we were just really fucked up and on drugs.”
I laugh. “So you didn’t plan it?”
“No,” AJ says.
“You didn’t like… make up rules, or anything?”
“It was just one night,” Logan explains. “Nothing more than that.”
“Hmmm,” I say. “Have you ever shared a girl long-term before?”
“No,” Logan says.
AJ is just swaying me to the music. Maybe ignoring this conversation.
“So how do you know it’s going to work?” I ask.
“How do you ever know something’s gonna work?” Logan replies. “Everything’s a risk, Yvette. How did you know leaving Damon would work?”
“I just didn’t care,” I say. “I had no choice. I just needed to get out of there or I was going to kill myself.”
“Well,” Logan says. “We’re kinda in the same situation, right, AJ?”
“Pretty much,” AJ says.
I look up at AJ. Because this is code talk again. I don’t know how I know, I just do. They’re discussing something between the lines. “What are you guys not telling me?”
“Nothing,” AJ says. “I think we’ve been pretty honest with you. Damon wants you dead. We don’t. So what else can we do but make a go of it?”
“Right,” I say. “I see that part. But the part I’m confused about is… how do you guys know you’ll still want to do this in say… a week?”
“Jesus, Yvette.” AJ laughs. “Give us a little more credit than that.”
“But—” I stammer. “But don’t you think we should have rules? Or come to some sort of agreement?”
“About you?” AJ says, sincerely surprised about this new line of questioning. “Are you asking me if one day I might wake up and be like… ‘I’m done sharing and now I have kill Logan?’”
“Um… no. No. That wasn’t quite what I was thinking.”
“Let me explain,” Logan says.
AJ and I both turn to face him. He’s holding two champagne flutes in his hand. AJ and I take one each, automatically. Then Logan goes back to get his glass, comes back to us and takes a seat at the table nearby.
“First,” he says, “Cheers. To our new beginning. May it be filled with everything we ever dreamed of.”
“Cheers to that,” AJ says, downing his drink.
I do the same, but only drink half, then walk over to the table and take a seat next to Logan.
“We’re not done dancing,” AJ says.
“I think this is important,” I say. “I don’t want to come between you two. And I don’t want to get to that island and figure out that one of you can’t live with our decision.”
Logan sighs as AJ comes over and sits down next to him. “I can live with it. Can you, Aje?”
AJ nods. “I can too.”
“Listen carefully, OK?” Logan says, directing his words to me. “You can’t come between us. Understand? It simply cannot happen.”
“So you two don’t have normal feelings like jealousy or greed?”
AJ laughs. “Oh, fuck, yeah, we do. But…” He stops to look at Logan. “But we’re loyal to each other. Maybe we’re not loyal to anyone else. Fine. That’s probably true. But we’re loyal to each other.”
I look at Logan because he doesn’t say anything. They’re locked in a heated stare that makes me uncomfortable and I’m not even participating in this exchange.
