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“So we’ll need to ration these,” he surmised. “If we do two in this room, one in the bedroom, one or two in the bathroom, and maybe one on the landing of the stairs, we should be okay and keep one as an extra.”
“That works,” Aaron agreed. “And because there are six flashlights, we should pair off. Each set of buddies gets one, so no one has to fumble around in the dark.”
“Bed partners?” Oliver asked.
We all agreed, and a few of the guys did another sweep of the house to check for leaks or storm shutters that weren’t doing their jobs.
Aaron and I settled on the couch in the living room, our little pink flashlight pointed up at the ceiling to give the room a bit more light. Though it was barely seven o’clock and the days were longer in the summer months, with the dark clouds blocking the sun, it felt closer to midnight.
With the power now gone, I wondered if the cameras were also out of commission. I looked at the one beside the couch, and before the storm, they’d moved, following us with sensors. But now, it was stationary.
Aaron kicked his feet up on the coffee table, almost knocking the flashlight over, and reclined on the sofa. “This is actually kind of nice, you know?”
“The darkness? The lack of emergency vehicle access? The storm raging outside?” I asked, letting some of the fear bleed into my voice. We were trapped here like rats. Completely alone. What if the storm got worse? What if this show turned into fuckingSurvivor? It was irrational, sure. But that was how my mind worked.
“The darkness and the storm, yes,” Aaron agreed. “Plus, I doubt they’ll send us on a challenge tomorrow, so that means we get to just hang out.”
“Hey, guys,” Diego said cheerfully as he entered the room, plopping down on the couch next to me. Oliver joined us a second later, taking up the armchair beside Diego.
They’d both stopped avoiding me this week. It was strange. Not unwelcomed, but with every simple “Good morning,” or “Could you pass the salt?” I felt my heart cracking.
I threw my hands in the air and finally spoke up. “Okay, I have to ask. What’s been going on with you two recently? You’ve been attached at the hip for days now.”
The two stooges exchanged glances, and Oliver nodded. “It’s time.”
“Time for what?” I asked.
Aaron reached over and put his hand on my knee. “Let them get it out, Sophie girl. Can’t you see they’re nervous?”
He was right. Diego was twisting his fingers in his lap, and Oliver’s leg was bouncing.
“We want in,” Oliver said. “We both want to date you. And we know that you’re involved with Aaron, and we don’t care. We had something good, Sophie, and I think part of that is because we work well together as a team.”
Words failed me as I dared to hope, and Oliver laid it all on the line. I turned toward Diego, clearing my throat and removing the block that had taken up residence. “You agree with all of that?”
His fathomless dark eyes were wide and imploring. “Yes, Soph.”
He reached out and took one of my hands in his. “You’re not just a list like you implied when you ended things. I want to be with you because you’reyou. Sweet and smart and unapologetically you.”
“This is a lot to digest.” I looked between the two of them, searching for an answer about how this could possibly work. Aaron had joked about it last week, and it was easy to brush off when it was a hypothetical. Dating and getting to know them, sure. But this sounded like a hell of a lot more than just getting to know one another. And it no longer sounded hypothetical at all.
“What do you propose? How do you plan to get around the producers’ limitations?” Aaron asked, getting to the question before I could form the words. “And that plan better include me because I’m not going anywhere unless Sophie says so.”
“It includes you,” Oliver said quietly. “We all want to date you, Sophie. Diego and I both see a future with you, but it is your decision. It’s a lot to ask someone to handle not only one relationship, but three. And I know from the outset, you were concerned about how much time you could really dedicate to a relationship. This makes it infinitely more complicated, but we want to give it a go, knowing it will be complicated and messy, and we will undoubtedly fuck it up along the way. If you’ll have us, that is.”
Oliver adjusted his glasses as he finished his speech and watched my face as I processed.
“And no one is going to pressure me to choose?” The words sounded disbelieving as they left my tongue.
“We promise. No pressure to pick one of us over the others,” Diego agreed, surprising me. From the start, he was the one who had viewed it as something of a competition. Hell, when I told Oliver I needed space, Diego thought he had just clinched his victory.
Aaron’s hand felt like a weight on my thigh, and I turned toward him to gauge his feelings.
“It’s about time the two of you pulled your heads out of your asses.” He chuckled and shook his head, muttering about how his mom would demand a harem next.
“How would this even work?” I asked.
“As for the logistics, I am sure we could come up with a plan of attack if we just talk it through. We all have obligations and work. We can be there for one another better than a couple could. Regarding the show, Julie has been telling me about the social media campaign she saw before they cut them all off from the internet. She said an overwhelming number of people favor you not choosing and that people love the dynamic. The producers would be idiots to squash that kind of free marketing.” Oliver seemed so sure of his analysis, and part of me agreed. The other part was worried about the faction that didn’t like what I was doing. “I would be genuinely surprised if the producers tried to kick us off when we’re driving the most traffic to their streaming site. But it’s unlikely that we would win.”
