The Arrangement

A three-on-one relationship agreement.

It was the craziest thing in the world! Totally unlike anything I’d ever heard of. It wasn’t exactly polygamy, or whatever the term for the reverse of it was. And yet…

Yet for some reason, it seemed logical, too. Like it might be something that could actually work for them.

Oh please! The little voice in the back of my head was bitingly sarcastic. How the hell do you know that? You barely even know them.

That was true, I supposed. I knew Chase pretty well, and I knew Nathan a little bit too. They were both great guys, but the main details of their lives were for the most part unknown to me.

And Burke… well, he was little more than a dark, brooding mystery.

I glanced down, to where Beast was practically humping my leg. His food bowl was empty again. I’d forgotten to pick something up for him.

“Sorry little man,” I apologized. “You’ll have to eat with me.”

It turned out Beast had no interest in my arugula and strawberry salad, but I split half of my honey-basil chicken strips with him. He rolled over contently as I flipped on the television, happy to just put my feet up and veg out for a while. Now if only he’d bring me my furry Ugg slippers…

BWOOP!

My phone was clear on the other side of the room when it sounded off. Doesn’t it always work like that?

Grrrrr...

I wanted to ignore it, but the text-message could be important. I guess I was getting those slippers after all.

Half a minute and one pair of slippers later I was back in comfy-land. I pulled the couch blanket over me and punched a few buttons to see what was up.

The message was from Chase… and he’d included the others, too. The guys normally used the long-running group text between the four of us to let me know when they’d run out of something, or even to make dinner or recipe suggestions.

Hey! Just wanted to make sure

you weren’t too shell-shocked

after what happened today.

And that you’re cool with it.

Aww… it was kinda cute they were checking in on me! It wasn’t something they normally did. Then again, the guys had never sprung anything this big on me before. So…

It’s all good in the hood.

No harm, no foul.

I cringed a little at my own cheesiness, but I wanted to keep it lighthearted. I was never any good at texting, especially not as much as other people. I found it easy to misinterpret things and hard to convey mood. Besides, face to face was so much better.

A minute of silence went by, with nothing else. Was that really it? Was that all they had?

Amateurs.

As an afterthought, I hammered out another cute little message and hit the SEND button.

I guess I’m just a little offended

none of you asked me. ;)

I grinned at my own flirty cleverness. Maybe I could text. The little smiley face at the end made it sassy.

This time the little message-bubble started blinking immediately, indicating a response. A few seconds later, it came through: