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Rowan
“The boys are on their way over.” I look away from my phone and up at Jamie, who has her lips around the edge of the wine glass, about to take a drink. She lowers the glass without drinking and frowns.
“All of them?”
“Apparently.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Dereck just said they need to talk to me.”
“Hmmm.” Jamie raises the glass again and takes a sip, pondering this. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“You’re telling me.” I reach for the bottle of wine to refill my glass, then take a healthy drink. The booze stings my throat, but I ignore it and take another drink, until I can’t taste it anymore.
“What do you think they’re going to say?”
“After today with Matt? Nothing good, I suppose. He probably stabbed me in the back again and now maybe they’re all done with me. I burned my bridges and they’re going to say goodbye.”
“It seems to me like they forgave you the first time this happened,” Jamie reminds me. “I don’t think they’re capable of cutting you off, Row. Not anymore.”
“What if they do?”
The doorbell rings. Jamie and I look over, then she glances back at me and scoops up her wine glass to take it with her upstairs.
“Then it will suck,” she says, wrapping one arm around me for a side-hug. “But you’ll survive it. I’ll be upstairs if you need me, okay? Don’t let those boys push you around. You’ll always be my badass best friend.”
I nod my head, fill up my glass again, and then go to the door to let the boys in. As I swing it open, I don’t expect the little pitter patter my heart makes when I find all three of them standing on the porch, looking sheepish and almost as nervous as I feel.
“Hi,” I say.
“Hi,” Matt says back, and the other two nod.
“Thanks for having us over,” Bryce says, that charming, boyish smile at once setting me at ease as they step inside and follow me to the living room. I take a seat in one of recliners and the boys spread out until we’re all sitting facing each other. Dereck looks the most unsure, but he doesn’t get up and leave. Bryce is still smiling, and Matt is staring at me intently. Seeing Matt so soon makes heat rise to my cheeks, and I’m having a hard time looking him in the eye. In fact, I can’t look at any of them anymore without thinking of the most intimate moments I’ve had with them.
Between my legs, a tingling sensation overcomes me, and I adjust in the chair, praying they don’t notice how turned on I am right now. Fuck, this is ridiculous.
“We have a proposal,” Bryce says finally. I avert my gaze to him, once again put at ease. Bryce, wonderful, artistic, sexy Bryce. How can I do this? How can I choose? I can feel the panic welling up inside of me, but I clear my throat and push it down, trying to ignore it.
“Okay,” I say instead. “Hit me with it.”
When nobody answers right away, a ball of dread forms in the pit of my stomach. I take another drink from my glass, wishing I had something stronger than sweet wine to soothe my nerves. Vodka, maybe. Or tequila. Tequila would work, too. Anything, really, that could help set my mind and nerves at ease.
Finally, after what seems like far too long, Dereck leans forward, clasping his hands in front of him.
“We can’t be with you,” he says, and for a second I think I might lose all sense of reality and have a breakdown. Somehow I knew this was coming and yet it didn’t make it any easier.
“You can’t …” I start to repeat, but words fail me, and I take another drink instead. “Well, fuck.”
“What my douchebag best friend means, is that none of us alone can be with you,” Matt says, his eyes meeting mine creating a moment of clarity. “All of us get you, or none of us do.”
“I don’t understand.” I finish off the rest of my wine and then start to get up for a refill, but Dereck takes the glass from me and goes to the kitchen to pour me some more. He comes back and hands it to me, and I promptly chug it down.
“How would you feel if, well, we all dated you?” Bryce asks. For a moment I’m not sure I understand what they’re talking about, but then it dawns on me.
“All of you?” I repeat. “Dating me?”
“It’s called a harem, or something,” Matt mutters.
