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It's been like this for years with us. We were tight in the Corps but even after retirement, after each of us decided to pursue a different career path, we’ve stayed close. We spend a lot of time together, particularly when we’re vacationing in various parts of the world. We party together, we break bread together, and more often than not, we share the women who come into our lives. But never has someone like Selina come along to rattle us to the core the way she has.
We’re at the airport waiting for Selina. I had a car sent over to pick her up.
All three of us are still reeling from the night before.
“I like that sound she makes when she comes,” Sully chuckles softly, pretending to read something on his phone as we chill in the airport’s business lounge area. “I wanna hear more of that in Colorado.”
“Chill out man,” I tell him. “We need to be careful and ease her in.”
“At least she’s more than willing,” Jason says, equally enthralled as he leans back in his chair. “She was totally into it the other night.”
I nod slowly. “Honestly I was elated when she first let it slip that she’d broken up with her guy.”
That moment lingers in the back of my head. A couple of weeks ago, I’d stopped by The Sartorialist for a suit fitting, and Selina was there to assist me, as usual. The guys and I had been eyeing her for a long time, but we never make a move on women who are involved with other men. Selina was the forbidden fruit until I noticed her scowling while she checked her phone—it had been pinging incessantly during the whole fitting process.
When she mentioned that she’d dumped Kieran, I distinctly remember my heart damn near jumping out of my chest with excitement. Selina had become single, making the three of us downright giddy with the prospect of wooing her. It’s been a while since we last shared a woman, and she’s the kind of girl we’d absolutely enjoy together. With her unruly, curly red hair that flows down her back like a furious waterfall, her piercing, hazel-green eyes and delicious curves in all the right places on top of a feisty and bubbly personality… well, what’s not to like about her?
“But I had no idea she was so down on her luck,” I add, my gaze wandering across the lounge area. It’s a spacious room with frosted glass walls and plasma screens hanging down from the ceiling, giving us live information about the upcoming flights and boarding gates. There are about a dozen other people here, most of them huddled around the bar while others tap away on their business laptops before getting on their flights. Frankly, I’m not a fan of the business lounge but it’s better than the rowdy chaos beyond these glass walls.
“Selina is clearly a proud and self-sufficient woman who’s used to doing things on her own,” Jason says. “I can’t really blame her for walking out the way she did. I probably would’ve done the same.”
“I would’ve punched Kieran’s lights out just for good measure,” Sully adds while crossing his arms. “What an idiot that guy’s gotta be.”
“Lucky for us now she’s free to do what she wants, with who she wants,” I say.
Jason can’t help but smile, occasionally picking at imaginary specks of lint on his plaid blue shirt. He’s already switched to mountain-man mode—wearing a flannel shirt and jeans. “I can’t wait to spend Christmas with her,” he says.
“What did I just say?” I remind him. “We need to keep it strictly physical with her.”
“Yeah, we got that part,” Jason rolls his eyes. “It doesn’t mean we can’t treat her right. Selina deserves a frickin’ break.”
Sully agrees. “At least she’ll have some time with us in Aspen to gather her thoughts and find a new place. I doubt she’d ever accept financial help from any of us.”
“She’s too independent for that,” I tell him. “I’m surprised she even agreed to spending two months of winter with us in the first place.”
“Well, she may be independent, but she is also desperate. How exhausting it must’ve been to hide out in the store like that,” Jason sighs, genuinely affected by her plight.
Among the three of us, Jason is the softie. I try to keep things level-headed as much as I can, while Sully tends to be more detached with the occasional touch of primal. But Jason is the bleeding heart among us. He’s the one who reminds us of our own humanity in moments when we’re inclined to be overly cynical and even cold. It’s a good thing, though. He keeps us balanced. He’s a kind and decent man, despite the horrendous things he had to do while we were in the Marine Corps. There are vulnerable moments when I know he is still haunted by the past.
“Let’s give her time and space,” I conclude after some thought. “I think at this point Selina knows what we want to see happen between us. She should be the one to come to us, willingly. All we can do is give her plenty of opportunities. We can’t chase her.”
“We can’t chase her like we chased Cynthia, you mean,” Sully scoffs.
“Hey, we agreed to never speak of her again,” Jason reminds him, his brow slightly furrowed.
It’s a delicate subject for all of us. It almost destroyed Jason. He almost fell off the wagon because of Cynthia, because of how things turned out. We meant well. We still do. But the truth is that we’re not an easy bunch to handle, especially for a woman who is genuinely willing to take the three of us at once. That’s rare.
“We can’t expect Selina to just accept all three of us in one go,” I say. “As I said before, we have to ease her in.”
“She seemed pretty open at the hotel,” Jason quips, switching to mild amusement. At least he still expertly regulates his own emotions when it comes to unpleasant topics from our past. He does the same with any Mogadishu-related conversations. Somalia was definitely his worst military experience. “I think we’ve got a winner here.”
“I do like how Kieran backed off,” I allow myself a dry grin as I revisit that specific moment. “I never liked how he made her feel.”
We knew he wasn’t right for Selina. I could tell from the shadows that constantly lingered over her beautiful eyes whenever she mentioned him—that mixture of sadness and insufficiency are impossible to confuse with anything else. I’ve seen it in other people, in other couples where one gave everything and the other took everything without giving anything back in return. Kieran wore her out. He made her feel hopeless at times. At least she’s free of him now and we have her for Christmas. Here I am, getting as excited as Jason and Sully after I specifically told them not to get too excited about her.
It's kind of hard not to. Selina was so responsive back at the hotel. Even when I first kissed her to get Kieran to back off, I felt her opening up to me like a rose in the morning bloom. And her dew is the sweetest I’ve ever tasted. Damn, that woman is hot honey and is just begging to be taken every which way until she’s worn out and fully sated.
“She deserves better,” Sully muses.
